Privacy policy

How we collect, use and protect personal information, including when the website helps understand what you need, shows relevant next steps or checks whether local onsite support may be available.

Last updated: 10 September 2026

1. Who we are

Your IT and Tech Mates is operated by Chatsifieds.com Pty Ltd (ABN 51 620 592 403). We handle personal information in accordance with Australian privacy laws that apply to our activities and the information involved, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) where applicable and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) for relevant health information.

2. Information we may collect

Your name, email address, mobile number, suburb and other contact details you choose to provide.
Secure sign-in information needed to recognise your customer or business account, including the sign-in provider and account identifier. We do not receive your Google or Apple password.
Request and service details, including problem descriptions, business-IT category choices, device information, preferred support method, preferred or confirmed booking times, messages, photos and files you choose to provide.
Business Workspace records such as organisation membership, Communication Room messages, order versions, approval actions, approved spending ceilings, technician time records, invoices and payment status.
Quotes, invoices, payment status and transaction references. We do not need your online banking password, card PIN or banking approval code.
Technical information such as browser, device, security and website-use information reasonably needed to operate and protect the site.

3. How we collect information

We collect information directly from you when you use Start request, the homepage request box, QuoteMe, My Tech Help, a Business Workspace or Communication Room, an online form, a payment or service process, or communicate with us about a service. If you describe a problem in your own words, our Intent Engine or other website assistance may use that wording to prepare a short summary, service category or follow-up questions for you to review. We may also collect booking preferences and approval records when you choose a clearly labelled action.

4. Why we use information

To understand, quote, schedule, deliver and support technology services.
To securely recognise you and connect the right request, business workspace and Communication Room to the right authorised user.
To record bookings, work approvals, approved spending limits, order versions, technician time and invoices.
To communicate service updates and provide secure access to support history.
To protect customers, prevent fraud and investigate security concerns.
To meet legal, accounting, insurance, safety and regulatory obligations.
To improve our services using information appropriate for that purpose.

5. Data minimisation and sensitive information

Please only provide information reasonably needed for the technology service. Avoid sending passwords, financial secrets, identity documents or health information unless it is genuinely necessary for the agreed task.

If disability, health or NDIS information is relevant, we limit its use to the service, accessibility, safety, payment or legal purpose for which it is reasonably needed.

6. My Tech Help and request matching

My Tech Help may match current and earlier requests using verified account details, the request reference and contact details already connected with the request. If information does not safely match, we do not guess. We may ask you to confirm the original request details before linking or showing private information.

7. Website assistance

The website may help understand what you are asking for, suggest a help category, prepare a short summary, notice when an important detail is missing and show a relevant next step. For business IT, it may carry your chosen service category into QuoteMe, suggest a support method, and help prepare booking or approval information. Automated assistance does not itself authorise paid work, payment or an increase to an approved spending ceiling.

You can review or correct a prepared summary before sending a request. Important service, pricing, complaint, warranty and legal decisions remain subject to the relevant human review and service terms.

7A. Free-tool answers and result analytics

A free tool may process the controlled answers you choose to display its result. Depending on the tool, those answers may remain in your browser for up to 30 minutes or be used in the current temporary review journey.

We may record limited tool-flow events such as the tool ID, step reached, price-load status, result status and whether the journey continued. These events are designed not to contain selected answer values, displayed price, free text, contact details, request reference, IP address or browser fingerprint.

Using a free tool does not create a request or cause us to contact you.

7B. Keeping the website relevant during your visit

During your current visit, the website may remember a broad help topic and recent steps so you do not have to repeat yourself on every page. This can be used to keep guidance consistent, show an Understanding percentage or bring a relevant existing option to your attention.

This short-lived website context is designed not to contain your raw problem wording, contact details, request reference, IP address or a browser fingerprint, and it expires after about 30 minutes of inactivity.

For ordinary service enquiries, the website may also use broad actions such as viewing pricing, reading a relevant case study, opening request review or starting contact to decide which general next step may be most useful. These signals do not create a request or trigger contact from us by themselves. They are not used to add sales pressure to safety, scam, senior-support, NDIS/disability or other sensitive help journeys.

7C. Making returning visits less repetitive

The website may use first-party browser storage to remember one broad help topic and a safe return path for up to 24 hours. This can help offer a simple Continue where you left off option. It does not contain your raw problem wording, contact details or request reference and it cannot reopen a private request by itself.

Your browser may also remember up to three broad help topics for up to seven days so related public content can be ordered more usefully on a later visit. This information stays in that browser, gradually becomes less influential and is not uploaded to us as a personal profile. It is not linked across devices and does not use an advertising ID, IP address or browser fingerprint.

Security, scam, senior-support and other sensitive safety states are not remembered for this purpose. Where the feature is available, you can use Forget previous visit signals or Start over, or clear website storage through your browser.

7D. Learning from corrections and service-quality patterns

If you correct a suggested help category or prepared summary, we may keep a limited record showing that the suggestion changed and whether the correction improved the result. This quality record does not include the sentence you typed, your edited free text, contact details, request reference, IP address or browser fingerprint.

We may also review combined, non-identifying quality patterns from public journeys. These can include whether a suggested category was later confirmed or corrected, whether a follow-up question helped resolve uncertainty, whether a suggested next step was selected, whether a journey reached a useful outcome, and whether a proposed improvement would have performed better in behind-the-scenes comparison testing.

Where language patterns are reviewed, we use controlled or aggregated feature groups where available rather than creating a new store of raw customer sentences for improvement analysis.

These limited quality records may be kept for up to 90 days so staff can review patterns and improve the website. Quality analysis does not automatically retrain a live system, change prices, alter booking rules, change safety controls, publish content or promote an experimental rule into customer-facing use. Material changes are reviewed and released through our normal controlled update process.

We may also review combined, non-identifying counts such as which broad help topics are common, where visitors stop in a request journey, or which public guides are useful. We use these patterns to improve services and information, not to identify individual visitors.

7E. Optional service-area check

If location matters for onsite support, you can type a suburb or postcode, or choose Use my location. The location button uses your browser's location permission. We do not ask for precise browser location in the background.

When you choose to use browser location, the coordinates are used temporarily in your browser to estimate a broad service area. The precise coordinates are not saved in browser storage, are not added to your request and are not sent to our website analytics. If a nearby suburb is suggested, you choose whether to confirm and use it.

The website may keep only a broad service-area result for the current journey, such as local onsite area, availability review or remote/travel review. You can always enter a suburb or postcode instead of sharing browser location.

7EA. Pickup, senior support and family-assisted requests

If you ask for device pickup, we may collect the suburb, postcode, pickup address, preferred day or time window, contact details, device details and the name of an authorised handover or return contact where reasonably needed to arrange the service.

If you select senior support or a senior pickup rate, we record only the minimum information needed to apply that service option. We do not require a date of birth, pension-card number or identity-document upload through QuoteMe for the senior pickup option.

Age is personal information. Health, disability or mobility information can be sensitive information. Please do not provide health or mobility details unless they are genuinely needed for safe service delivery. Where sensitive information is needed, we handle it only for the relevant service purpose and in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.

If a family member, carer or other person arranges help for someone else, we may record who is arranging the service, who is receiving it and who is authorised to discuss, hand over or receive the device. We may confirm authority before disclosing private service information or releasing a device.

7F. Optional screenshot and device-photo assistance

Some Guided Tools may let you choose to upload a screenshot or device photo before creating a service request. The image may be processed temporarily to identify visible information that can help organise the current support journey, such as an error message, device type, brand or model label, or visible external damage. Image assistance is an observation aid only: it does not confirm the cause of a fault, decide whether a repair is required, set a price or approve paid work.

Please crop or hide passwords, verification codes, banking or payment information, private messages, identity documents and unrelated sensitive information before uploading. Images used for this pre-request assistance are handled through private temporary processing and are not placed into the Guided Tools browser-state record. If you later deliberately include an image in a service request, that request copy is handled as part of the service record under this policy.

Where an approved cloud or AI processing provider is used to analyse an optional image, only information reasonably needed for that function is provided. Such processing may occur outside Australia as described under Overseas processing below.

7G. Cross-tool continuity and technician handover

After you confirm the website's understanding, a governed summary may be carried server-side between compatible Guided Tools, pricing and request review so you do not need to repeat the same information. The website does not place your raw problem wording into public cross-page URLs for this purpose.

If you choose Copy technician handover, the website prepares a concise summary for you to copy. Copying it does not send the information to us or create a request. A request is received only when you deliberately submit it and a request reference is confirmed.

8. Who we may share information with

We may disclose the minimum information reasonably needed to service providers that help us operate secure sign-in, website hosting, email delivery, payments, accounting, security, software, cloud services or technical support. We may also disclose information where required or authorised by law, or with your consent.

We do not sell customer personal information.

9. Overseas processing

Some service providers may process or store information outside Australia. Depending on the provider and service, overseas locations may include the United States and other countries used by global technology providers. Where Australian privacy law requires us to take steps before an overseas disclosure, we will do so.

10. Service messages and marketing

We may send service messages by email or SMS about a request, secure access link, Communication Room update, booking, approval request, invoice, payment or service follow-up. These operational messages are separate from marketing.

Where the Spam Act 2003 applies to commercial electronic marketing, we use the applicable consent basis, identify the sender and provide a functional unsubscribe method. Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent service messages reasonably necessary to perform or administer an existing request or transaction.

11. Security and data breaches

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the information we hold. No online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, so keep your email account and secure access links protected.

Where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme or another law requires notification of an eligible data breach, we will notify the relevant regulator and affected individuals as required.

12. Retention

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably needed for service, warranty, complaint, accounting, insurance, security or legal purposes. Retention periods can differ depending on the type of record and any law that applies.

For the website features described above, short-lived visit context expires after about 30 minutes of inactivity; the simple return-to-where-you-left-off record expires within 24 hours; broad topics remembered in your browser expire within seven days; and limited records used to review correction patterns may be kept for up to 90 days. Browser-stored information can be cleared earlier using the website controls described above or your browser settings.

13. Access, correction and complaints

You may ask for access to personal information we hold about you or ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We may need to verify your identity before providing access.

If you have a privacy concern, contact us using the details below. We will review the concern and respond within a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied and the Privacy Act applies, you may also be able to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Victorian health-information complaints may also fall within the jurisdiction of the Health Complaints Commissioner.

Organisation profiles and public business information

If you ask us to set up or recognise an organisation, we may use the organisation name, suburb, ABN or other information you provide to look for matching information in public Australian business registers or similar authoritative public sources. We use this to reduce repeated form filling and to help you confirm the correct organisation.

We do not treat a suggested public-register match as confirmed merely because the name looks similar. You may be asked to choose or confirm the correct organisation before it is connected with your service information.

An organisation profile may include public business details you confirm, service and accounts contacts, billing preferences, purchase-order requirements, service locations, job history, invoices, payment status and information reasonably needed to manage the relationship. We only collect contact and billing information that is reasonably needed for the relevant service or account purpose.

Where one organisation arranges help for another person, we may keep the organisation relationship and the individual customer relationship separate. This helps us avoid treating a referring or coordinating organisation as the payer unless that has been agreed.

Business Workspace and approval records

For business customers, we may retain records showing who accessed a workspace, who submitted a support request, who approved or declined an order version, the amount or ceiling displayed at approval, booking details, and technician time associated with an hourly job. We use these records to administer the service, resolve billing questions, maintain security and evidence what was agreed.

Where the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principles apply to our activities, we follow those obligations. We also apply our stated privacy and security commitments to information handled through the Business Workspace, subject to lawful retention needs.

Contact us

For new help, use Start request. For an existing request, service question, complaint or warranty issue, use My Tech Help.

For privacy, legal or accessibility requests, email [email protected] or write to Chatsifieds.com Pty Ltd (ABN 51 620 592 403), 15 Evenglow Drive, Wollert VIC 3750.