Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

AusBuildCircle ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at ausbuildcircle.com — a platform connecting homeowners undertaking knock-down-rebuild or renovation projects with qualified trade professionals across Australia. We are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• Account information: email address, name, and any details you provide when signing up or logging in via Google OAuth.
• Professional profile data: business name, contact name, phone number, website, WeChat ID, service description, and suburb — provided when registering as a trade professional.
• Enquiry data: name, email address, and phone number when you submit a contact request to a professional.
• Payment information: billing details processed securely via Stripe. We do not store your card number.
• Forum content: posts, replies, and images you voluntarily submit to our community forum.
• Usage data: IP address, browser type, pages visited, and interaction logs collected automatically via server logs and analytics.
• Feedback and reports: any messages you submit via our feedback widget or content report feature.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To provide, operate, and improve the AusBuildCircle platform.
• To verify and display trade professional profiles.
• To facilitate enquiries between homeowners and professionals.
• To process subscription payments for professional listings.
• To send transactional emails (login links, enquiry notifications, subscription receipts).
• To send our newsletter to subscribers who have opted in (you may unsubscribe at any time).
• To detect and prevent fraud or abuse.
• To comply with our legal obligations.

4. Disclosure to Third Parties

We share personal information only with the following service providers, each bound by their own privacy policies:

• Supabase — database and authentication hosting (servers in Singapore/US regions).
• Stripe — payment processing.
• Resend — transactional and newsletter email delivery.
• Google — OAuth sign-in.
• Anthropic (Claude API) — AI-generated feasibility analysis (your address data is sent to generate the report; it is not stored by Anthropic for training).
• Vercel — website hosting infrastructure.

We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. If you request deletion of your account, we will remove or anonymise your data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal, tax, or fraud-prevention purposes.

6. Your Rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal obligations).
• Opt out of marketing communications at any time.
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au if you believe we have mishandled your information.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the address below.

7. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to maintain your session, remember your language preference, and analyse site usage. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, though this may affect functionality.

8. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), row-level security on our database, and access controls. However, no internet transmission is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified via email or a notice on our website. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance.

10. Contact Us

For privacy-related enquiries or to exercise your rights, please contact: