Privacy Policy

Contents

1. Who we are
2. What this policy covers
3. The law we follow
4. What personal information we collect
5. Sensitive information
6. How we collect it
7. Dealing with us anonymously
8. Why we collect and use it
9. What happens when you send an enquiry
10. Website analytics and advertising
11. Cookies and similar technologies
12. Who we share it with
13. Information stored or sent overseas
14. Marketing messages
15. Reviews, testimonials and photos of our work
16. How we protect it
17. How long we keep it
18. Seeing and correcting your information
19. If something goes wrong
20. Children
21. Other websites
22. Questions and complaints
23. Changes to this policy
24. Contact us

1. Who we are

Arden Projects is a Brisbane building, roofing, restoration and maintenance business. The business is operated by Arden Projects Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 59 686 933 540), 290 Boundary Street, Spring Hill QLD 4000. In this policy, "Arden Projects", "we", "us" and "our" mean Arden Projects Australia Pty Ltd.

We are responsible for the personal information we collect. If you have a question about this policy, or about information we hold about you, contact us using the details in section 24.

2. What this policy covers

"Personal information" means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. Your name, phone number, email address and home address are all personal information. A photo of your house together with its street address can be too.

This policy applies to personal information about:

• people who visit this website or contact us through it;
• customers and potential customers, including homeowners, landlords, tenants and occupants;
• people we deal with on insurance, strata and body corporate work, such as policyholders, insurers, loss adjusters, assessors, strata managers and committee members;
• property managers, real estate agents, builders and other businesses that refer work to us or work with us;
• subcontractors, suppliers and trade partners; and
• people who apply to work with us or become a partner.

It does not cover how our employees' records are handled. Those are managed separately under the employee records rules in Australian privacy law.

3. The law we follow

We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles it contains. We send electronic marketing in line with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), and we follow the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme if a data breach is likely to cause serious harm. Where Queensland building, consumer or record-keeping laws require us to collect or keep information, we do that too.

4. What personal information we collect

We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our business. What we collect depends on how you deal with us.

4.1 When you send an enquiry or quote request through this website

Our website forms ask for:

• your first and last name;
• your email address;
• your phone number;
• the property address or suburb; and
• a message describing the job, plus anything else you choose to tell us.

With your enquiry we also record the page you sent it from, the date and time, and the type of browser and device you used. We do not keep your IP address itself. We store a scrambled, one-way version of it (a "hash") that helps us spot repeated spam without revealing where you are. The forms also contain a hidden field that people cannot see but automated spam bots fill in. Anything entered in that field is discarded and never stored.

4.2 When you call, email, text or message us

We keep a record of what you tell us: your contact details, the property, the problem, and any photos or documents you send. When you call us, our phone system may log your number and the time of the call. If we record a call, for example for training or quality purposes, we will tell you at the start of the call.

4.3 When we quote, inspect or carry out work

To quote, inspect and do the job properly, we may collect:

• the property address and access details, such as gate codes, key arrangements, parking, pets and the best times to attend;
• the names and contact details of owners, occupants, tenants or property managers who need to be contacted about access;
• photos, videos, drone images, measurements, inspection notes and reports about the property and the work;
• quotes, variations, contracts, invoices, payment records and correspondence;
• billing details, such as the name and address for invoices. We do not store full credit card numbers. Card payments are handled by the payment provider or bank that processes them; and
• warranty, defect and after-care information about the completed work.

4.4 Insurance, strata and body corporate work

Much of our restoration and roofing work comes through insurance claims and strata schemes. On that work we may collect, or be given:

• the policyholder's name and contact details, the insurer's name and the claim number;
• the details of the loss or damage, the date of the event and what caused it;
• scope-of-works documents, assessor and loss adjuster reports, and the insurer's instructions;
• strata plan or body corporate details, the names and contact details of strata managers, committee members and lot owners, and access arrangements for individual lots; and
• communications with the insurer, assessor, strata manager or property manager about the job.

We use this information only to assess, quote, carry out and report on the work, and to deal with the insurer or strata scheme about it.

4.5 When you visit this website

Like almost every website, ours automatically receives some technical information when you visit: your IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, the pages you view, how long you stay, and the website that referred you. Section 10 explains how we and Google use this, and section 11 explains the cookies involved.

4.6 Businesses and people we work with

For subcontractors, suppliers, referrers and trade partners we collect business contact details, ABN, licence and insurance details, qualifications, and payment details for the work they do for us.

4.7 If you apply to work with us or become a partner

We collect the information in your application, such as your résumé, work history, licences, tickets and qualifications, referees, and our notes from any interview. We use it only to assess your application.

5. Sensitive information

The law treats some personal information as "sensitive", including health information. We do not ask for it as a matter of course. Sometimes it is relevant to the job. For example, someone in the home may have a health condition affected by mould or asbestos, or an occupant may need extra help with access or relocation during the work.

We only collect sensitive information with your consent, or where the law allows it, and only where it is needed to carry out the work safely. We restrict it to the people who need it and never use it for marketing.

6. How we collect it

Wherever we can, we collect personal information directly from you: through our website forms, by phone, by email or text, in person on site, and through the documents you give us.

Sometimes we receive it from someone else, for example:

• an insurer, loss adjuster or assessor who appoints us to a claim;
• a strata manager, property manager or real estate agent who arranges work on a property;
• a family member, tenant or neighbour who contacts us on your behalf;
• another builder or trade who refers the job to us; or
• public sources, such as the QBCC licence register or information you have published in a review.

When we receive your information from someone else and it isn't obvious that we have it, we take reasonable steps to let you know.

If we receive personal information we did not ask for and do not need, we destroy or de-identify it as soon as practical, where the law allows.

7. Dealing with us anonymously

You can browse this website without telling us who you are, and you can ask general questions without giving your name. To quote, book an inspection or carry out work, we do need your name, contact details and the property address. We cannot do the job without them.

8. Why we collect and use it

We collect, hold and use personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and contact you about it;
• arrange and carry out inspections, prepare quotes, and do the work;
• manage the job, including scheduling, access, materials, subcontractors, safety and quality checks;
• deal with insurers, assessors, strata managers and property managers about work they have arranged;
• send invoices, receive payments and keep business records;
• handle warranty claims, defects, complaints and disputes;
• meet our legal obligations, including building, workplace health and safety, tax and licensing obligations;
• protect our website and forms from spam, fraud and misuse;
• understand how people use our website and which advertising works, so we can improve both;
• ask for feedback and reviews after a job; and
• send you information about our services, where you have agreed to it or the law allows it (see section 14).

We do not use your personal information for any other purpose unless you would reasonably expect it and it is related to the reason we collected it, you consent, or the law requires or allows it.

9. What happens when you send an enquiry

This is exactly what happens to the details you type into one of our website forms:

1. Spam check. Before anything is saved, the form is checked by Cloudflare Turnstile, the "confirm you are human" check. It works out whether the visitor is a person or a bot. Section 10.4 has more detail.
2. Secure storage. Your enquiry is saved to our enquiry database, hosted by Hostinger.
3. Alert to our team. An email with your details is sent to our enquiries mailbox so the team can call you back.
4. Confirmation to you. We email you a copy of what you sent, so you know it arrived and have our number if it is urgent.
5. Our customer system. Your enquiry is added to F.I.L, the construction management software we use to track enquiries, quotes and jobs. Its database is hosted in Sydney.
6. Staff notification. Team members who have turned on alerts get a short notification on their phone or computer with your name, number and suburb. It is encrypted on its way through the browser's push service.

Only authorised Arden Projects staff can see your enquiry. Each has their own login protected by a password and an emailed sign-in code.

10. Website analytics and advertising

10.1 Our own visit counter

Our website counts page views and form use itself, without cookies. To tell one visit from the next, it uses a scrambled code built from your IP address and browser that changes every day. It cannot be reversed to reveal your IP address, and it cannot follow you from one day to the next. We see only totals, such as how many people viewed a page or started a form.

10.2 Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google LLC, to understand how visitors find and use our website, for example which pages are read, which searches and adverts bring people in, and whether enquiries are sent. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect information such as the pages you visit, time on the site, the kind of device and browser you use, your approximate location (city level, worked out from your IP address) and how you arrived.

We use this information in aggregate to improve the website. We do not use it to identify you, and we do not send Google your name, email address or phone number. Google processes this information under its own privacy policy. You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

10.3 Google Ads

We advertise on Google. When you arrive at our website from one of our Google adverts, Google Ads cookies record that visit. If you then send an enquiry or tap our phone number, Google counts it as a result for that advert. This tells us which adverts are worth running. Google may also use cookies to show our adverts to people who have visited our website before, on Google search and on other websites (known as remarketing).

You can control the adverts Google shows you, and turn off personalised advertising, at myadcenter.google.com.

10.4 Google Tag Manager and Cloudflare Turnstile

Google Tag Manager is a tool that loads the Google tags above. It does not collect personal information of its own.

Cloudflare Turnstile protects our forms from spam and automated abuse. To decide whether a visitor is a person, it looks at signals from your browser and device, and it receives your IP address. Cloudflare says Turnstile does not use this information for advertising. Its privacy policy is at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

10.5 Social media tracking

We do not currently use the Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pixel or similar social media tracking on this website. If we add it, we will update this policy first.

10.6 Tracking on our test website

None of the Google Analytics, Google Ads or Tag Manager tags load on test or preview versions of our website. They run only on ardenprojects.com.au.

11. Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file a website saves in your browser. Our own website does not set cookies for visitors. The cookies you may see come from the Google services described above, and appear only on ardenprojects.com.au.

Google can change the names and lifetimes of its cookies. Its current list is at business.safety.google/adscookies.

Your choices

• Block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The website and its forms still work without them.
• Opt out of Google Analytics on every website with Google's browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Turn off personalised Google ads at myadcenter.google.com.
• Use private browsing, which clears cookies when you close the window.

12. Who we share it with

We share personal information only as needed for the purposes in section 8. We never sell personal information. Depending on the job, we may share it with:

• Our team, including employees and, where needed, subcontractors and trade partners who carry out part of the work. They receive only what they need for their part, such as the address and access details.
• Insurers, loss adjusters and assessors on insurance work, including photos, reports and progress updates.
• Strata managers, body corporate committees, property managers and real estate agents on work they have arranged.
• Suppliers and manufacturers where needed to order materials or register a product warranty in your name.
• Engineers, certifiers, surveyors, asbestos and mould specialists and other consultants we engage for the job.
• Our service providers, which store or process information for us:
  • Hostinger, which hosts our website, enquiry database and email;
  • F.I.L (First In Line), our construction management and customer software, hosted with Fly.io and Supabase in Sydney;
  • Cloudflare, for spam protection on our forms;
  • Google, for analytics, advertising measurement and our Google Business Profile; and
  • our accountants, bookkeepers, bank, payment processors, IT support, insurers and lawyers.
• Government bodies and regulators, such as the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC), Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, local councils and the Australian Taxation Office, where the law requires it.
• Anyone else you authorise, or anyone we are required or permitted to share with by law, a court or tribunal.
• A buyer of our business, if all or part of Arden Projects is sold. They would have to handle your information in line with this policy.

We require our service providers to protect personal information and to use it only to provide their services to us.

13. Information stored or sent overseas

Some of the providers we use store or process personal information outside Australia:

Before information goes overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure the recipient handles it consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. We use established providers that publish their security and privacy practices. By sending us an enquiry or engaging us, you acknowledge that your information may be stored and processed in these places.

14. Marketing messages

We may occasionally send customers and people who have enquired information about our services, seasonal maintenance reminders (for example, before storm season), or a request for feedback after a job. We send marketing by email or text only with your consent or where the Spam Act 2003 allows it, and every marketing message identifies us and includes an easy way to unsubscribe.

You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link, replying "STOP" if we have sent you a text, or emailing admin@ardenprojects.com.au. We act on opt-outs within five working days. Opting out of marketing does not stop messages about a job we are doing for you, such as appointment confirmations, quotes and invoices.

We never give or sell your details to other businesses for their marketing.

15. Reviews, testimonials and photos of our work

• Google reviews. Reviews you leave on our Google Business Profile are public, and Google publishes them under its own terms. We may show them on this website with the name as it appears on Google. If you would like a review of yours removed from our website, email us and we will take it down.
• Testimonials. We only publish a testimonial you give us directly with your permission, and we identify you only as you agree (for example, first name and suburb).
• Photos and videos of our work. We photograph our work for records, quality, insurance and warranty purposes. We may use photos of completed work in our marketing and on this website, but we do not publish your street address, people's faces, vehicle number plates or anything else that identifies you or your home without your permission. If a published photo shows your property and you would like it removed, contact us.

16. How we protect it

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, change or disclosure. These include:

• encrypting the connection between your browser and our website, forms and systems (HTTPS);
• limiting access to authorised staff, each with their own login, and requiring an emailed sign-in code as well as a password;
• storing passwords only in scrambled form, and storing visitors' IP addresses only as a one-way hash;
• spam protection, rate limits and automated checks on our forms;
• using established hosting and software providers with their own security controls, and keeping systems up to date;
• keeping paper records, such as printed plans and signed contracts, secure; and
• destroying or de-identifying information we no longer need (see section 17).

No system is completely secure. Please don't send bank details, passwords or government identification numbers through our website forms or by ordinary email.

17. How long we keep it

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as long as the law requires. As a guide:

When we no longer need the information, we securely delete, destroy or de-identify it, unless the law requires us to keep it for longer, or a claim or dispute is under way.

18. Seeing and correcting your information

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. You can also ask us to delete information we no longer need to keep.

• Email admin@ardenprojects.com.au or write to us at the address in section 24.
• We may need to confirm your identity before we release or change anything, to protect your information from someone pretending to be you.
• We aim to respond within 30 days. Access and correction are free. If a request for access takes a lot of work, we may charge a reasonable fee for retrieving the information, and we will tell you before we do.
• If we cannot give you access or make a correction, for example because it would affect someone else's privacy or the law prevents it, we will explain why in writing and tell you how to complain. If we don't agree to a correction, you can ask us to attach a statement to the record saying you believe it is wrong.

19. If something goes wrong

If we become aware of a data breach involving personal information we hold, we act quickly to contain it and assess the risk. If a breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires. We will tell you what happened, what information was involved, and what you can do to protect yourself.

20. Children

Our services are for adults, and this website is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 except where it comes up in the course of a job (for example, a parent tells us a child lives at the property for safety or access reasons). If you think a child has sent us their details, contact us and we will delete them.

21. Other websites

This website links to other sites, including Google, social media, suppliers and industry bodies. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please read their privacy policies before giving them your information.

22. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to fix it:

1. Email admin@ardenprojects.com.au, with "Privacy" in the subject line, or write to us at the address below. Tell us what happened and what you would like us to do.
2. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days, look into it, and give you a written response within 30 days.
3. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):
   • Website: www.oaic.gov.au
   • Phone: 1300 363 992
   • Post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001

23. Changes to this policy

We review this policy from time to time and update it when our services, the providers we use, or the law change. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top. If we make a significant change to how we use personal information, we will make it clear on this website.

24. Contact us

Arden Projects Australia Pty Ltd
ABN 59 686 933 540
290 Boundary Street, Spring Hill QLD 4000
Phone: 0478 729 262
Email: admin@ardenprojects.com.au