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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: 7 November 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

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 Messages & updates area, 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 automated enquiry assistant 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

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. Where law requires consent to collect sensitive information, we seek that consent; a suggested service category or general agreement to these policies is not blanket consent. Unsolicited sensitive information is assessed and restricted, destroyed or de-identified where required by law.

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 which online tool was used, the step reached, whether pricing or a result was displayed and whether you continued. These records are designed not to include your answers, displayed price, typed message, contact details, request reference, IP address or a way to recognise your device.

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 broad-topic context is designed not to contain your raw problem wording, contact details, request reference, IP address or a other details used to recognise your device, 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 other details used to recognise your device.

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 other details used to recognise your device.

We may use combined information that does not identify you to check whether our questions, suggestions and next steps are useful. This may include whether you corrected a suggested category or continued to another step. We review improvements before using them.

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.

Records used to review corrections may be kept for up to 90 days. Separate receptionist feedback records cover the most recent seven days. These periods do not apply to submitted service records. Your feedback or correction does not automatically change prices, bookings, safety decisions or your agreed service.

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 Tech Support or a senior pickup option, we record only the minimum information needed to apply that service choice. We do not require a date of birth, pension-card number or identity-document upload through QuoteMe just to request the senior rate or senior pickup assistance.

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.

Virtual receptionist enquiry continuity

When enabled, the virtual receptionist can maintain a redacted public enquiry draft and limited conversation details in a temporary saved conversation so you can continue while browsing pages on the same website. This is separate from broad-topic browsing context: it contains the enquiry wording needed to avoid repeat typing, rather than a browsing history. We remove recognised passwords, codes, email addresses, phone numbers and request references from the saved draft, but you should still avoid entering sensitive details.

The draft is available for up to 30 minutes after the last saved public enquiry turn, subject to session availability; expired entries are removed when next accessed and server session files follow server cleanup settings. Choose Continue enquiry to reveal it, or Clear conversation or Start something else to remove it. Private account replies, repair cards and invoices are not saved or restored through this feature. Browser storage keeps only a minimised preference, and this feature does not identify you between different websites or devices. Clearing the receptionist does not delete an enquiry you have already submitted.

If safety guidance is active, this visit record can instead retain only a fixed safety category for up to 30 minutes after the last saved turn. It replaces the ordinary saved draft; the reported incident wording and account details are not saved in that safety-only record. Choose Continue enquiry to return to the safety guidance, or Start over or Start something else to begin a separate conversation. The category is a routing precaution, not a diagnosis or confirmation that anything is safe.

7F. Optional screenshot and device-photo assistance

Some online help 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 temporary processing with restricted access and are not placed into the online help 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. Carrying your details forward

After you confirm the website's understanding, a summary may be carried securely between compatible online help 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 page addresses 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/SMS or optional push 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.

Website Care and information on customer websites

When we build, maintain or troubleshoot a customer website, we may temporarily access information stored in the website, hosting account, forms, logs, backups or connected services to the extent reasonably needed to provide the agreed service. This can include personal information submitted by the customer’s own website visitors.

For information collected by a customer through its own website, the customer remains responsible for deciding why that information is collected and for providing any privacy notices, consents or other legal arrangements required for its business. We use or access that information only for the agreed service, support, security, troubleshooting or other authorised purpose unless law requires otherwise.

Customers should not give us access to more personal or sensitive information than is reasonably needed for the task. Where practical, test data, redacted information or limited-access accounts should be used for development and troubleshooting.

9. Overseas processing and access

Our service delivery may involve team members or authorised contractors located in Australia and Vietnam. Where a person in Vietnam needs access to personal information to perform assigned development, maintenance, testing or support work, we limit that access to what is reasonably needed and apply relevant confidentiality, security and privacy controls.

Some independent cloud, software, email, hosting, payment, monitoring or AI providers may also process or store information outside Australia. Depending on the provider and service, likely locations may include the United States and other countries used by those global providers. Provider locations can change over time.

Where Australian privacy law requires us to take reasonable steps before an overseas disclosure, we will do so. Where practicable, this policy identifies countries in which overseas recipients are likely to be located. If overseas access or data residency is restricted by your organisation's legal, contractual, funding or industry requirements, tell us before work starts so we can assess whether the requested service can be delivered within those restrictions.

10. Service messages and marketing

We may use email, SMS and, where offered and permitted, device/browser notifications for secure access, an active service, a team message, booking, approval, invoice or payment administration. Contact preferences, optional reply-reminder consent and marketing choices are separate. An unfinished draft, feedback vote, missed call or secure-link visit does not subscribe you to marketing.

When optional reply reminders are offered and enabled, we record the separate choice and relevant version/time with the enquiry, and any withdrawal. A reminder points back to the existing conversation rather than copying the private team question into the message. You can turn reminders off in that conversation or contact us for help without signing in; SMS recipients can also use STOP where offered. Opting out does not cancel the service or waive a complaint or consumer right. It may affect which optional channel can be used.

We do not assume that calling a message a service update makes it exempt from spam law. Where the Spam Act applies, we use the required consent basis, sender identification and a functional unsubscribe method. Marketing opt-out does not require account creation or sign-in, extra personal information or a fee from us. Necessary service, security or legal communications may still be sent where lawful. See the service alerts and reminder policy.

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, public visit drafts are normally available for up to 30 minutes after a saved turn; a separate temporary handover copy is usable for up to 30 minutes from creation. Expiry of access is not a guarantee of immediate deletion from every stored copy or backup. The simple return record expires within 24 hours; broad topics in your browser expire within seven days; receptionist feedback records cover the most recent seven days; and the older correction-pattern quality records may be kept for up to 90 days. Submitted enquiry, approval, estimate, invoice, consent and suppression records follow the service/legal retention purposes above rather than the temporary-draft window. Browser controls can clear browser-held choices earlier.

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.

Refurbished laptop enquiries and purchases

If you ask about or reserve a refurbished laptop, we may record the package you selected, the customer type you chose, optional setup requests, the starting price shown, the confirmed unit and specification, and purchase or warranty records reasonably needed to fulfil the order and support you afterwards.

If a family member or support person helps a senior customer choose or buy a laptop, we may record who is assisting and any authority needed to discuss the order. We do not treat family involvement as automatic permission to access the senior customer’s accounts, files, messages or other private information.

Team members, contractors, service providers and overseas access

Your IT and Tech Mates may use team members and authorised contractors located in Australia and Vietnam to deliver website development, maintenance, testing, support and related digital services. We may also use specialist service providers for hosting, monitoring, security, communications, payments, cloud services and other functions needed to operate our services.

We limit access to personal information to what is reasonably needed for the assigned work and use reasonable access, confidentiality and security controls appropriate to the circumstances. A Vietnam-based team member or contractor may therefore be an overseas recipient of personal information where access to that information is necessary for the work.

Independent cloud, software, AI, monitoring or support providers may store or process information in additional countries, which can include the United States and other locations disclosed by those providers. Where Australian privacy law requires it, we take reasonable steps in relation to cross-border handling.

If the location of overseas processing or access is important to your organisation or restricted by legal, contractual, funding, government, health, education, NDIS or industry obligations, tell us before we select or enable the service. We may need to change the technical approach, restrict access, use different providers or provide a separate quote, and in some cases we may be unable to provide the requested service under those restrictions.

Enquiry versions, private handover copies and feedback

To avoid repeated questions, the receptionist may keep your original message, current description, a limited history of corrections, device details, suburb, timing and update choices. Automatic removal of sensitive details may miss information. A draft can still be personal information even if a name has been removed.

When you choose to continue to QuoteMe, we may keep a private temporary copy of the enquiry so you do not need to repeat it. This copy does not sign you in or give access to an existing private request. It is available for up to 30 minutes. Start over clears your current conversation, but does not delete submitted requests or every earlier temporary copy. Earlier copies cannot be used after they expire; stored copies and backups are cleaned separately.

Where saved drafts are supported, the current enquiry and correction history can be saved with your QuoteMe session and copied into the submitted service record. Earlier estimate versions can include amounts or ranges, assumptions, source/review dates and the time guidance was offered. Authorised staff may review that request’s guidance alongside its completed work and issued invoice. Corrected history can remain as evidence of what changed without being the active instruction.

We keep limited information about the help topic, whether an answer or next step was offered, your feedback, the time and a reference used to recognise that feedback. These feedback records do not include your question text, contact details, request reference or customer identity. They cover the most recent seven days; older entries are removed when those records are next used. This does not mean that all security, provider or submitted-service records are anonymous or deleted after seven days. Feedback alone does not confirm that your problem was resolved.

AI processing and your choices

Some typed enquiries and optional images may be sent to a cloud or AI service provider to help understand your task and find relevant information. For the receptionist, this can include your current message and a general help topic. That topic does not give the provider access to your private repair records or authority to act on your account. Other agreed tasks may need different information. We limit the information shared to what is reasonably needed.

Providers and authorised service personnel may process information outside Australia as described under Overseas processing and access. The applicable provider, retention, location and contractual arrangements can differ by service; this policy does not promise Australian-only processing, zero provider retention or instantaneous deletion from every provider. Contact us before providing information subject to a location, confidentiality or funding restriction so we can assess an alternative.

Requesting help is not blanket permission for unrelated model training, marketing or disclosure. We do not treat an enquiry or feedback vote as consent to those unrelated purposes. If a new use requires a separate notice or consent, we will provide or obtain it before that use. A person can be contacted through the ordinary service channels if automated help is unsuitable; some service functions may require another agreed method or may be unavailable.

We may retain limited consent/withdrawal, suppression and delivery-attempt records to honour your choices, prevent duplicates, investigate a complaint and meet lawful obligations. A provider accepting or queuing a message is not proof that you received or read it. Access or deletion requests are assessed against lawful retention and other people’s privacy; we may verify identity before disclosing private records. Privacy requests and complaints can also be made using the contact details below without an online account.

Missed-call connectors and optional notifications

Where a missed-call text-back connector is enabled, we may process the caller’s number, the call-event time, a limited connector/device identifier and message-attempt or suppression status to return an enquiry link and operate the service. This event processing is not permission to record call audio, subscribe the caller to marketing or infer agreement to optional reply reminders. Business customers supplying contact information for an integration must have appropriate authority; we remain responsible for our own handling obligations.

If you enable browser or device notifications, we use delivery details supplied by your browser or device and your notification choices to send them. These details are not your account password. Notification permission is separate from email or SMS marketing consent and approval of paid work. You can turn notifications off in your browser settings; contact us if you also need to change your request preferences. Notifications depend on other delivery services and may be delayed or fail.

NDIS matching, enquiry signatures and catalogue records

When you ask us to find possible NDIS support items, we use your task description, plan-management choice, type of help and device details to check the reviewed catalogue. This happens before you submit an enquiry. Contact details are not needed to read the guidance. Please describe the practical task and access needs rather than sending diagnoses, full plans, participant numbers or unrelated health information. Automatic removal of sensitive details may miss information, so check what you share.

If you send an enquiry, we may keep your answers, any selected support code, the catalogue version and your enquiry agreement. This may include your typed name, the time, wording, reviewed enquiry and the terms shown to you. These are personal service records, not anonymous statistics. Sharing them with a coordinator, plan manager or family member requires appropriate authority and a lawful purpose. Choosing a role on a form does not give that person access to private records.

We may keep your approval records and earlier catalogue information where reasonably needed to explain a suggestion, resolve a dispute or meet service or legal obligations. Removing an unused catalogue file does not delete your enquiry, consent records or other records we still need to retain. We do not keep personal information indefinitely without a valid reason. You can ask us about access, correction or deletion using the contact details below; we assess requests under applicable law and 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.

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