Privacy Policy

Who We Are

AroundSchools is operated by Laputan Pty Ltd. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Laputan Pty Ltd.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) it contains, and this policy is written to those principles.

This policy covers www.aroundschools.com.au, our business portal at business.aroundschools.com.au, our marketing site, and the embeddable widgets we provide. GalaDay (galaday.com.au) publishes its own separate privacy policy.

Information We Collect

Information You Give Us

We collect personal information that you provide to us when you:

• Register for an account
• Register your interest in an activity, class or event
• Subscribe to our mailing list
• Submit school reviews or ratings
• Contact us through our support channels
• Browse or enquire about real estate listings
• Create or manage a business listing as a provider

This information may include:

• Your name and contact details (email address, phone number)
• Account credentials (username, and a password held by AWS Cognito which we never see)
• Location information (suburb, postcode) when searching for schools, activities or properties
• Content you create (reviews, comments, ratings)
• Communication preferences
• Property search preferences and enquiry details
• Business information if you are a provider (business name, ABN, address, opening hours, photographs)

Information We Collect Automatically

When you use our website, we automatically collect certain information, including:

• Browser type and version, and operating system
• The user-agent string your device sends
• The referring web address that brought you to us
• The pages you view and when you viewed them
• IP address (handled by our hosting and content delivery providers)

Browsing Profiles

When you first visit, we store a randomly generated visitor identifier in your browser. We use it to build a profile of the kinds of things you look at — suburbs, school sectors, activity categories and similar — so we can improve search results and understand what parents find useful.

If you later sign in or submit a form containing your email address, that profile becomes linked to your account — including browsing recorded before you signed in. This means the profile becomes personal information about you, and it carries the full protection of this policy.

You can reset this identifier by clearing your browser storage, or email privacy@aroundschools.com.au and ask us to delete the profile associated with you. Raw browsing records are deleted automatically after 24 months.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and maintain our services
• Forward your interest registration to the relevant provider or organiser so they can respond to you
• Forward your property enquiry to the relevant real estate agent
• Communicate with you about your account or a request you have made
• Personalise your experience and show you relevant content
• Send newsletters and marketing where you have consented
• Improve our website functionality and user experience
• Analyse usage patterns and trends
• Detect, prevent and address technical problems and misuse
• Comply with our legal obligations

Automatically Generated Page Content

Some sections of our pages are generated automatically, using artificial intelligence, from listings in our directory and public sources, and are labelled on the page. These sections describe places, schools and activity providers. They are not about individuals, they are not generated using your personal information, and they do not involve any automated decision about you. We do not publish the names of principals, teachers or other individuals in them.

Who We Share Your Information With

We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

We share your information only in the following circumstances:

• Activity providers and event organisers: When you register interest in an activity, class or event, we send your name, email address, phone number and the details of any children you added (their name and date of birth) to the business running it, so they can respond to you. That provider can also record notes about your enquiry in their portal.
• Real estate agents: When you submit a property enquiry, your contact details and enquiry are shared with the agent or agency responsible for that listing so they can respond to you.
• Service providers: Trusted third parties who help us operate the platform — hosting and content delivery (Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare), authentication (AWS Cognito), email delivery (Amazon SES, Mailchimp Transactional), payment processing (Stripe) and analytics (Google Analytics). These providers may only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Legal requirements: Where required by law, or to establish, exercise or defend legal rights, or to protect the safety of any person.
• Business transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. If that happens we will require the recipient to handle your information in accordance with this policy.
• With your consent: Where you have explicitly asked or authorised us to share your information.

The providers, organisers and agents who receive your information are independent businesses. They carry their own obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and are responsible for how they handle your information after they receive it.

Overseas Disclosure

Some of our service providers handle personal information outside Australia. Your information may be handled in the United States and, through globally distributed content delivery networks, other countries in which those networks operate.

Specifically: our application servers and authentication are located in Australia (Sydney). Our transactional email delivery is currently processed in the United States. Our content delivery network and edge storage are globally distributed. Google Analytics, Stripe and Mailchimp process data overseas.

Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps under APP 8 to ensure that the recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to that information.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate the site and understand how it is used. Cookies are small data files sent from a website to your browser and stored on your device.

Types of Cookies We Use

• Necessary cookies: Maintain your sign-in session, your favourites and your preferences. The site cannot work without these.
• Analytics cookies: Google Analytics, to understand how visitors use the site. These are on by default and you can turn them off at any time using "Cookie settings" in the footer.
• Advertising cookies: Disabled by default. We do not set advertising or personalisation cookies unless you consent.

Managing Cookies

Australian law does not require a website to obtain your consent before setting analytics cookies, so we have analytics on by default. You can turn it off at any time using "Cookie settings" in the footer — once you do, we stop setting analytics cookies for you. Advertising cookies are always off by default. You can also manage or delete cookies through your browser settings, though refusing necessary cookies will stop parts of the site working.

Email and Marketing

We send two kinds of email. Transactional email about your account, your interest registrations or a request you have made is part of the service. Marketing email is only ever sent if you have explicitly opted in.

Our marketing emails may contain tracking pixels that record opens and link clicks so we can understand what is useful.

You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing email. We action unsubscribe requests within five working days. Even after you unsubscribe from marketing, we will still send necessary transactional email about your account or a request you have made.

Data Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our security measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit and at rest
• Authentication through AWS Cognito, so we never store your password
• Role-based access controls limiting who can view personal information
• Audit logging when an administrator acts on behalf of a provider
• Regular security updates

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we work to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Data Breach Notification

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We maintain a written response plan and will complete our assessment of a suspected breach within 30 days of becoming aware of it.

How Long We Keep Your Information

We do not keep personal information for longer than we need it. Specifically:

• Account information: Kept while your account is active, and deleted when you close it.
• Children's details: Kept while your account is active, or until you remove them.
• Interest registrations: Kept for up to 24 months from submission so providers can follow up and any dispute can be resolved.
• Raw browsing records: Deleted automatically after 24 months.
• Mailing list subscriptions: Kept until you unsubscribe, after which we retain only the record of your unsubscribe so we do not email you again.
• Financial and transaction records: Kept for 7 years as required by tax and corporations law.

When we no longer need personal information and we are not required by law to keep it, we securely delete or de-identify it.

Access, Correction and Deletion

Under APP 12 and APP 13, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you:

• Access: You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: You can ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading.
• Deletion: You can ask us to delete your account and the personal information associated with it. We will do so, except for records we are required by law to keep (financial records, for example).
• Opt out of marketing: You can ask us to stop sending you marketing at any time.
• Opt out of analytics: You can refuse analytics cookies and ask us to delete the browsing profile associated with you.

How to Make a Request

Email privacy@aroundschools.com.au. We will respond within 30 days. We do not charge you for making a request, though we may charge a reasonable cost-based fee if you ask for a copy of a large volume of information.

We may ask you to verify your identity before we action a request, so that we do not disclose your information to someone else.

If we refuse access or refuse to make a correction, we will tell you why in writing and how you can complain about that decision.

Children and Young People

Our services are designed for parents and carers. We do not market our services to children, and accounts should be created by an adult.

Australian law does not set a fixed age for privacy consent. Instead we assess whether an individual has the capacity to understand what they are consenting to. In practice we treat a person aged 15 or over as generally having that capacity, and for anyone younger we expect a parent or guardian to act on their behalf.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us personal information without your involvement, email privacy@aroundschools.com.au and we will remove it. For information about children you add when registering interest, see "Information About Your Children" above.

Complaints

If you think we have handled your personal information in a way that breaches the Australian Privacy Principles, please tell us by emailing privacy@aroundschools.com.au. Describe what happened and how you would like us to put it right.

We will acknowledge and respond to your complaint within 30 days. If we need longer, we will tell you why.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

https://www.oaic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 363 992

Third-Party Links

Our website contains links to third-party websites, including school websites, provider websites and educational resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third-party site you visit.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy on this page and change the "Last updated" date at the top.

If we make a significant change — such as collecting a new type of information or sharing it with a new category of recipient — we will tell registered users by email or by a prominent notice on the site before the change takes effect.