Privacy Policy

This document describes how Business Switch Pty Ltd ABN 83 134 235 304 (we or us or our) complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and any other applicable privacy laws in Australia in respect of the website www.businessname.com.au and all related individual websites linked from business-switch.com.au (Websites).

This Privacy Policy sets out how we handle personal information to comply with our obligations.

Collection of personal information

What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?

The kinds of personal information that we collect and hold include names, contact details, date of birth, place of birth (such as country, state or city), government related identifiers such as Tax File Numbers (TFNs) and other information that is relevant to our functions and activities. We do not collect sensitive information.

We do not use government related identifiers as our own identifiers.

While we do not collect sensitive information as such, your country of birth (which, when combined with other personal information could amount to sensitive information) is required for the purposes of Australian Business Number (ABN) registration or business name registration and is collected by us. Such information is collected with your consent when you submit an application to register a business name or ABN.

How do we collect personal information?

We usually collect personal information directly from individuals.

In some instances, we may collect personal information about individuals from third parties such as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) or publicly available resources, such as Government websites, to check ABNs or other information.

We may also collect your personal information from your authorised agent who submits an application for an ABN, business name, trademark, domain name, bank account or for GST registration or for any of our other services with us on your behalf, such as, your partner in your business or your lawyer or accountant.

When you provide us with personal information about other individuals, you should make them aware of this Privacy Policy and obtain their consent to you providing their details to us.

We may collect your personal information when you communicate with us, such as when:

1. you make inquiries about us or our services or contact us for any other reason so that we can process, deal with and respond to your queries or other issues including any complaints; or
2. you submit an application for an ABN, business name, domain name, trademark application, bank account or for GST registration, or avail of any of our other services, including but not limited to our invoicing, cloud storage and virtual address services and our website design and hosting services; or
3. you use our Websites; or
4. you subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or survey, enter or participate in any promotions; or
5. you call our call centre. Calls may be recorded by us for quality review purposes; or
6. personal information is contained in any documents that we store on behalf of our clients or in documents processed using our invoicing system.

Any personal information collected on our Websites will state to the user that personal information is being collected.

What happens if you do not provide your personal information to us?

If you do not provide personal information that we request in connection with our activities, we may not be able to provide our products or services to you.

If we ask for your TFN and you do not provide it, your ABN application may be delayed.

Why do we collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information?

We collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information as necessary for purposes directly related to our functions and activities, including:

1. names and contact details, place of birth and TFNs, to provide our services to you and information about our services;
2. to manage our relationship with you; and
3. names, contact details, transaction and experience information such as information on your transactions and our communications with you, for direct marketing including promotions and newsletters.

Do we use cookies or other web tracking systems?

We track traffic patterns throughout the URLs registered to us.

We use "cookies" on our Websites. A "cookie" is a small amount of information which is transferred to the hard drive of your computer and which can identify your web browser, but not you. If you want, you can disable your web browser from accepting cookies. If you do so, you can still access our Websites, but not all services may be available.

We may automatically collect general statistical information on our Websites about visitors to our Websites, such as IP addresses, browsers used, dates visited, pages visited and number of visitors. We also collect similar general statistical information in respect of our client's websites (on behalf of the relevant clients) which are hosted by us (Hosted Websites).

However, such information does not refer to individuals by name or their contact details. We use this data in aggregate to improve our Websites. We may provide such aggregated data to third parties, but in so doing, we do not provide personal information without the individual's consent.

We use third party providers to provide us with web analytics services. These providers collect information on how individuals use our Websites and, if relevant, Hosted Websites. These providers may use cookies and other technology such as clear gifs or web beacons to obtain such information. This allows us to improve our Websites and our services.

For example, we share data (including personal information) with Google Ads Data Hub to improve tracking on our Websites. After this data is encrypted or hashed, Google combines the data with Google ad campaign data. We then run reports which contain aggregated de-identified data which assist us to, for example, improve advertising efficiency or obtain marketing insights. These reports do not contain any personal information which could be used to re-identify individuals.

Will we disclose personal information to anyone else?

We may disclose personal information to:

1. our related companies;
2. payment processors such as PayPal or Stripe;
3. nominated representatives authorised to act on our behalf in processing your application;
4. nominated third party partners used to provide services, including the services provided through the Websites such as opening bank accounts, applying for and prosecuting trademarks, registering domain names, invoicing services, cloud storage providers, web design services, AI services and virtual phone services;
5. when acting as your agent, the ATO, ASIC and/or a domain name registrar;
6. the provider of the software we use to distribute our newsletter; and
7. professional service firms providing services to us, such as legal, accountancy or marketing services as well as data hosting and technology firms.

We may also provide your information to others, if required or permitted to do so by law, in accordance with the APPs.

We will only disclose your personal information:

1. with your consent; or
2. for a purpose which you would reasonably expect; or
3. as required or permitted by law; or
4. in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Do we disclose personal information overseas?

We may disclose your personal information overseas to our contracted service providers in the Philippines.

If you subscribe to an email service(s) through the Websites, which are provided by Google and Microsoft, personal information contained in such emails will be disclosed overseas in accordance with Google's and Microsoft’s terms and conditions of use and their privacy policies.

If you use the AI services which are provided by OpenAI, your information will be processed and stored by OpenAI in the USA and held in accordance with OpenAI’s privacy policy.

If you use the virtual phone services, which are provided by Twilio, your personal information will be disclosed to Twilio in the USA and held in accordance with Twilio’s privacy policy.

The provider of the software we use to distribute our newsletter is located in the USA.

Unsubscribing from our marketing materials

1. Unsubscribing from email lists

At any stage, should you wish to stop receiving any of our emails that we send to you for marketing or promotional purposes, simply click on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email.

1. Unsubscribing from hard copy promotional materials

When we send you hard copy promotional materials, such materials will include instructions on how you may unsubscribe from receiving such materials.

Dealing with us anonymously or using a pseudonym

You may deal with us on an anonymous basis or by using a pseudonym when making inquiries through our Websites, or when you make general inquiries by telephone and do not require a further response from us. However, we may need certain contact details from you to respond to inquiries.

Generally, we will require your personal information in order to transact with you.

Security

We use industry-standard methods and take such steps as are reasonable to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and from misuse, interference and loss.

Among other techniques, we usually:

1. store such information on a computer behind our "firewall" in a secure location;
2. restrict the number of employees internally who can access such data; and
3. keep hard copies of documents in lockable cabinets in a secure location.

Once personal information is no longer required by us for the purposes for which it was collected or held or otherwise in accordance with the APPs, we will take all steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that it is either destroyed or de-identified.

Access, Correction and Removal of your Personal Information

You may seek to access or correct your personal information at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer by email to privacy@honcho.com.au or by mail to the 'Privacy Officer, Suite 703, Level 7, The Trust Building, 155 King Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

If we do not agree to provide you with access to your personal information or to amend or annotate the information we hold about you, we will provide you with written reasons for our decision and you may seek a review of our decision.

If we do not agree to make the requested changes to your personal information, you may make a statement about the requested changes and we will attach it to your record.

Complaints

You can send written complaints about a breach of the APPs in relation to your personal information by email to privacy@honcho.com.au or by mail to 'Privacy Officer', Suite 703, Level 7, The Trust Building, 155 King Street, Sydney NSW 2000.

Complaints will be reviewed by our Privacy Officer and a response will usually be provided within 30 days of receipt of the complaint.

If you believe that your complaint has not been satisfactorily addressed by us, after following the procedure set out above, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC's contact details are here.

For more information about making a complaint, contact us at privacy@honcho.com.au.

Amendments

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Amendments to this Privacy Policy will be posted on our Websites. Where we make material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will provide reasonable notice of the changes before the changes take effect. Please check our Privacy Policy regularly for updates and amendments.