Lexus Connected Services Privacy Policy
Last updated: 1 July 2024
- What are Lexus Connected Services?
- How does this Privacy Policy apply to Connected Services?
- What is personal information?
- What kinds of Connected Services information do we collect and for what purpose?
- How can you opt out of Connected Services?
- Why does Lexus collect this information?
- To which other parties does Lexus usually disclose this information?
- Disclosing your information overseas
- Direct marketing
- Protecting your personal information
- Data Retention
- Accessing and correcting your information
- Your Responsibilities
- Resolving concerns
- Contacting us
1. What are Lexus Connected Services?
Connected Services are a suite of services provided by Lexus Australia in relation to certain Lexus vehicles that are fitted with a Data Communication Module (DCM). A DCM is a modem with a built-in SIM fitted to the vehicle. Connected Services use information collected from the vehicle and transmitted through the DCM to provide services to enhance the safety and security of the vehicle and provide additional convenience and a better driving experience (Connected Services). To confirm if your vehicle is fitted with Connected Services functionality, please refer to your Owners’ Manual or view a list of compatible vehicles at lexus.com.au/connectivity.
If your vehicle is fitted with Connected Services functionality (and an owner of the vehicle has not previously opted out of Connected Services) your vehicle will collect and transmit vehicle data for Connected Services via the DCM fitted to your vehicle.
Connected Services are powered by data collected from your vehicle and transmitted through the DCM (if fitted to your vehicle) or through the multimedia head unit. All Connected Services fall within one of the following categories:
A. Safety and Security ServicesThe only Connected Services that are activated automatically at the date you take delivery of a new connected vehicle are the vehicle Safety and Security Services, comprising:
(a) SOS Emergency Assistance (SOS);
(b) Automatic Collision Notification (ACN); and
(c) Stolen Vehicle Tracking (SVT).
In the event of a serious collision or emergency we may collect certain information, including your vehicle location data, to assist you in obtaining assistance from us and emergency services. In the event of vehicle theft, the SVT services can collect your vehicle location data. We only use this information for the purpose of providing the SOS Emergency Assistance, Automatic Collision Notification or Stolen Vehicle Tracking services to you.
You can read more about these services on our website at lexus.com.au/connectivity.
The Safety and Security Services can be deactivated at the vehicle owner’s request (see section 5 “How can you opt out of Connected Services?” below).
B. Additional Connected Services opted in to through the Lexus Connected AppYou may also elect to receive additional Connected Services, available via the Lexus Connected App, including:
- services available in the Lexus Connected App (for example Recent Trips, Vehicle Locator, odometer & fuel readings, Drive Pulse, Guest Driver Settings); and
- services available via the multimedia head unit (for example Connected Navigation, Connected Voice Assistant)
Connected Services available via Lexus Connected App are only activated where the vehicle owner has subscribed to these Connected Services. You can opt out of these services at any time (see section 5 “How can you opt out of Connected Services?” below).
See section 4 “What kinds of Connected Services information do we collect and for what purpose?” below for further information about the types of information that are collected when you use Connected Services and the purposes for which that information is collected.
2. How does this Privacy Policy apply to Connected Services?
We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”) and its Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”). We understand that your personal information is important to you, and we value your trust. This policy sets out how Lexus handles your personal information which is collected when you use the Connected Services. In this policy “Lexus” (or “we” or “us”) is Lexus Australia, a division of Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited ABN 64 009 686 097.
This policy applies in addition to the general Lexus Group Privacy Policy available at lexus.com.au/privacy. We recommend you review and consider the specific scenarios outlined in the Lexus Group Privacy Policy to consider whether they apply to you.
When you create an account on the Lexus Connected App (e.g. to activate additional Connected Services) we will collect certain personal information about you, such as your name and email address. Please see our general Lexus Group Privacy Policy and the Lexus Connected Services Terms of Use for further information on how we collect, use and disclose your information when you use the Lexus Connected App.
Please contact our privacy team using the contact details at the end of this policy if you, or a person you assist, would like:
- further information about our handling of personal information; or
- the information in this Privacy Policy explained to you or in a different format.
This Connected Services Privacy Policy is current as of the date noted above. We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, in which case we will notify you of the change by displaying an updated version on our website and on the Lexus Connected App.
3. What is personal information?
When we use the term “personal information” in this policy, we are using the term as it is defined in the Privacy Act. Under the Privacy Act, “personal information” means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
(a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
(b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.
4. What kinds of Connected Services information do we collect and for what purpose?
When you use Connected Services the kinds of information (including in some cases personal information) which we collect either from you or your vehicle include the following:
Category of information | Examples | For what purpose do we collect this information | Other parties to which this information is usually disclosed |
Profile information in the Lexus Connected App | Name and email. | When you sign up for the Lexus Connected App we collect the information you provide during the sign-up process to set up your account, identify your vehicle and facilitate our communications with you. | To our related companies and service providers for the purpose of providing Connected Services to you and as described in section 7. |
Vehicle identification information | Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). | When you sign up to the Lexus
Connected App we also collect
your VIN. This is a serial number
which is unique to your vehicle.
When you use the Lexus
Connected App we use this
information to:
|
To our related companies and service providers for the purpose of providing Connected Services to you and as described in section 7. |
Vehicle maintenance information | Diagnostic trouble codes, dashboard warning indicators, fuel and fluid levels, odometer reading and engine temperature. | If you have opted in to receive additional Connected Services through the Lexus Connected App, Lexus collects vehicle maintenance information to provide you with these services and to provide further customer assistance and support (e.g. diagnostic investigations). | To our related companies and service providers for the purpose of providing Connected Services to you and as described in section 7. |
Vehicle driving and status information | Vehicle acceleration, speed, braking, door open/close, engine start/stop and cornering forces. | If you have opted in to receive additional Connected Services through the Lexus Connected App (for example, Drive Pulse), Lexus collects your vehicle driving and status information to provide you with these services. Unless you have opted out of the Safety and Security Services, the vehicle speed, ignition status and direction of travel is also used to provide the ACN services (where the vehicle detects a serious collision) and SOS services (where a vehicle occupant presses the SOS button inside the vehicle). | To our related companies and service providers for the purpose of providing Connected Services to you and as described in section 7. |
Vehicle location data | Latitude and longitude of your vehicle. | We will only collect location data
from your vehicle:
|
As part of the Safety and
Security Services (unless you
opt out):
|
Voice recordings of the calls to the Lexus Emergency Call Centre | Voice recordings of the calls to the Lexus Emergency Call Centre | The Safety and Security Suite does not record conversations or other sounds from inside the vehicle without a call to the Lexus Emergency Call Centre being initiated as a result of ACN or SOS activation. The Lexus Group Privacy Policy provides further information on how we collect, use and disclose your information when you call our call centres in other circumstances. | We may disclose records of calls made from your vehicle to the Lexus Emergency Call Centre to our provider of the Lexus Emergency Call Centre services to assist us in providing emergency assistance to you. |
Voice captures through voice recognition commands to the vehicle | Voice captures made when you use voice activate commands | Where you opt-in to using voice- activated commands via your vehicle’s multimedia head unit (if equipped in your vehicle), we collect captures of the voice commands you provide your vehicle to assist us in providing navigation or voice-activated vehicle command services to you. Captures of your voice are collected by us in order to process the relevant commands, but are not collected to identify a user or their voice. | We may disclose captures of your voice commands to the vehicle to our related companies and service providers for the purpose of providing Connected Services to you and as described in section 7. |
Connection and software information | Vehicle connection status and current software version and version update history. | We collect connection and software information to ensure that your vehicle can receive Connected Services (including Over the Air updates) and to ensure your software is up to date. | To allow us to confirm that your vehicle can receive Connected Services and your software is up to date we may disclose this information to our third party service providers as described in section 7 for support and diagnostic purposes. |
Collection of Sensitive information
We will only collect sensitive information about you as identified above and with your consent (unless we are otherwise permitted, required or authorised by law to collect that information). Sensitive information has the meaning given in the Privacy Act and includes information about your health, race, ethnic origin and religious beliefs.
Providing someone else’s personal informationIf you provide us with personal information about another person (such as a joint vehicle owner or authorised driver or contact person), you need to tell the other person about this policy so they are aware that you have provided their information to us and that they can read this policy to understand how their information will be handled. You must obtain all necessary consents from the other person before supplying their personal information to us (including a parent or legal guardian’s permission for minors).
5. How can you opt out of Connected Services?
If you want to stop using any or all Connected Services applicable to your vehicle, you may opt out through the following mechanisms:
- For additional Connected Services you have opted in to through the Lexus Connected App, please go to “MyGarage” or click your vehicle’s nickname, then “Subscriptions”, then click on the relevant package and cancel Subscription. Please note some additional Connected Services are currently co- dependant (as they rely on the collection of the same vehicle data), and it is not possible to unsubscribe from these additional Connected Services without affecting other subscriptions (for example, it is not possible to unsubscribe from Drive Pulse without also unsubscribing from Recent Trips). You will be notified through the Lexus Connected App of any other additional Connected Services that will be affected by your proposed opt-out.
- For SOS Emergency Assistance (SOS) and Automatic Collision Notification (ACN) services please contact your Lexus dealer for further assistance or Lexus Connected Account Enquiries on 1300 064 789.
- For Stolen Vehicle Tracking (SVT):
- if you have registered for the Lexus Connected App, please go to “MyGarage” or click your vehicle’s nickname, then “Subscriptions”, then click on the relevant package and cancel Subscription
- if you have not registered for the Lexus Connected App, please contact Lexus Connected Account Enquiries on 1300 064 789.
6. Why does Lexus collect this information?
Lexus collects, holds, uses and discloses information about your use of Connected Services (including in some cases personal information) for the purposes specified in the table in section 4 “What kinds of Connected Services information do we collect and for what purpose?” above.
We only use your personal information collected in connection with your use of Connected Services for the purpose of providing the Connected Services to you or as otherwise permitted, required or authorised by law (including by the Privacy Act).
If you want to use Connected Services, but do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with all Connected Services or may only be able to provide those Connected Services to you with limited functionality.
We may also use and disclose the information collected about your vehicle from your use of Connected Services to assist us to develop our products and services, but we will only use deidentified information for this purpose.
7. To which other parties does Lexus usually disclose this information?
When you use Connected Services, we may disclose information about your use of Connected Services (which may in some cases include personal information) to other parties for the purposes described in sections 4 and 6 above, including to:
- Lexus Dealers, but only where you ask a Dealer to provide you with products or services (e.g. where you ask a Dealer to service your vehicle, the Dealer may access vehicle maintenance information about your vehicle);
- emergency service providers, but only as part of the Safety and Security Services as described in section 4;
- our related companies and service providers who help us to provide and support Connected
Services, including for example:
- our related bodies corporate overseas including our parent company Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, Toyota Motors North America and Toyota Connected North America;
- customer support providers (e.g. Lexus Emergency Call Centre operators);
- information technology service providers (e.g. KDDI, Aisin and TomTom); and
- lawyers and other professional advisors.
In certain circumstances we may be permitted, required or authorised by law (including under an order of a court or tribunal, and including to law enforcement bodies) to disclose information about you or your vehicle which has been collected by us in the course of providing the Connected Services (including in some cases personal information). Any such disclosures will be handled by us in accordance with applicable laws.
Other than identified above, we do not disclose information about your use of Connected Services to anyone else unless you ask us to do so.
8. Disclosing your information overseas
We may disclose your information (including in some cases personal information) to organisations located overseas to support the purposes described in this policy. These include:
- our parent company Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan and other Toyota entities overseas including in the USA; and
- our service providers that are located in, or hold data overseas including in Japan and the USA.
9. Direct marketing
We do not use personal information we have collected from the Safety and Security Services for direct marketing purposes.
With your consent, we may use the contact information we collect via the Lexus Connected App to enable the OneLexus Network (or any of the entities which make up the OneLexus Network including their agents and contractors if any acting on their behalf) to send you direct marketing to inform you about products or services, special offers, programs, promotions and events that may be of interest to you. These marketing communications may include joint promotions with Lexus dealers or other promotion partners and may be sent to you using any contact details provided by you, such as post, telephone, email or SMS.
The OneLexus Network is comprised of authorised Lexus dealers in Australia, Lexus Australia, Lexus Financial Services (a division of Toyota Finance Australia Limited ABN 48 002 435 181) and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company Australia Pty Ltd trading as Lexus Insurance. The organisations comprising the OneLexus Network are separate organisations. If you do not wish to receive marketing communications and surveys from a member of the Network, you can let that organisation know at any time using the contact details in their respective privacy policies or utilising the “unsubscribe” or other opt-out function offered by the organisation in each marketing communication.
If you do not wish to receive any marketing communications from us, you can let us know using the contact details provided in section 15 "Contacting us” below, or by utilising the “unsubscribe” function in electronic communications from us. In some circumstances we may need to contact you to obtain additional information, verify your identity or to clarify your request, to action it.
If the law requires us to provide you with information about our products or services (for example, product recalls), we will provide that information even if you have elected not to receive marketing information about our products and services generally.
10. Protecting your personal information
We may hold your personal information in digital and paper forms. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, interference, and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Some of the ways we protect your personal information include:
- external and internal premises security;
- utilising secure servers;
- restricting access to your information only to personnel who need it to perform their role;
- utilising and maintaining information security applications to prevent unauthorised access or damage to electronically stored information, such as requiring identifiers and passwords, firewalls, encryption and anti-virus software as appropriate; and
- limiting the functionality of Connected Services to only those features you have chosen to receive.
11. Data Retention
We store, process, and retain your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. When we no longer need your personal information, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it, unless we are required or authorised by law to retain your information for a longer period.
12. Accessing and correcting your information
You can see what information is collected by Lexus as part of the Connected Services available via the “Data Consents and Terms” section of the Lexus Connected App at any time.
You can request access to and correction of personal information we hold about you by contacting us in any of the ways set out at the bottom of this policy.
Where you request access to personal information we hold about you, we may charge an access fee to recover the reasonable costs incurred in providing this access. This charge is only designed to help us reasonably recover the costs associated with providing you with access and does not apply to the making of the request. Before we act on a request, we will provide an estimate of any applicable access fee and ask you to agree to it.
Access to your personal information may be refused in a number of circumstances prescribed in the Privacy Act. If we deny or restrict your access, we will write to you to let you know why. You may make a complaint about a refusal to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (website: www.oaic.gov.au, telephone: 1300 363 992).
We rely on the personal information that we hold about you to provide our products and services to you, and to perform our business functions more efficiently. Therefore, it is very important that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant. This means that, from time to time, we may ask you if your information is still accurate and up to date. If you find that any personal information that we hold about you is incorrect, you should contact us immediately and we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
13. Your Responsibilities
To ensure the personal information we hold is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant, we require that you:
- notify us of the sale or transfer of your Lexus vehicle;
- notify us if you have purchased or acquired your Lexus vehicle outside of the Lexus Dealer network; and
- inform passengers and drivers of your connected vehicle that vehicle data is collected and used by us to provide the Connected Services.
If you do not notify us of a sale, purchase, acquisition or transfer of a vehicle, we may continue to send communications in relation to that vehicle to the last known registered owner in our records.
To protect your and others’ privacy, we recommend that you:
- never share your Lexus Connected App password; and
- remove your vehicle from myGarage on the Lexus Connected App if you sell the vehicle or return a rented vehicle.
14. Resolving concerns
If you believe that we have breached the Privacy Act, you are entitled to make a complaint. Complaints can be made by contacting the person or department you were dealing with, or by contacting us using our contact details set out at the bottom of this policy.
We aim to respond in writing to your complaint within 30 calendar days. When this is not possible, we will contact you and let you know how long it will take for us to respond to your complaint.
If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, you can contact us to discuss your concerns or lodge a complaint with Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by visiting oaic.gov.au, calling 1300 363 992 or emailing [email protected].
15. Contacting us
You can contact us by:
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 1300 064 789.
- Post: Lexus Customer Assistance Centre, PO Box 1676, North Sydney NSW 2059
You can contact us without identifying yourself or by using a pseudonym. However, if you do not identify yourself or provide your contact details, we may not be able to respond to your query. If you contact us on behalf of another person, we will require evidence of your authority to act on behalf of that other person.