About this policy
This policy explains how Home Whispers handles personal information when you visit the website, create an account, submit a property, post community content, send messages, report content or contact us. We aim to handle personal information transparently and consistently with applicable Australian privacy law.
Information we collect
- Account information, including your name, email address, handle, password hash, role, profile image, biography, agency details and verification status.
- Google account information, such as your name, email address and profile image, when you choose Google sign-in.
- Content and activity, including property submissions, uploaded media, comments, whispers, polls, predictions, watchlists, follows, reports, rewards and moderation history.
- Private communications sent through Home Whispers, including messages between users and communications with reviewers or support.
- Property and location information you submit or select, which may relate to your home or another identifiable person.
- Technical and security information that may be recorded by our application and infrastructure, such as IP address, device or browser information, timestamps, request logs and session identifiers.
How we collect information
We collect information directly from you, from your activity on the service, from Google when you use Google sign-in, from other users who submit or report content, and from public property, mapping or government data sources. Please do not give us personal information about another person unless you have a lawful reason and any permission required to do so.
How we use information
- Create and secure accounts, authenticate users and provide requested features.
- Publish profiles, listings and community contributions according to the visibility of the relevant feature.
- Review submissions, investigate reports, enforce platform rules and protect users, properties and the service.
- Personalise property and suburb information, maintain watchlists and calculate participation or reward information.
- Respond to support, privacy, safety and legal requests.
- Diagnose faults, measure service operation, prevent fraud and improve accessibility, performance and reliability.
- Comply with law and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
What other users can see
Your handle, display name, profile information, role and public contributions may be visible to anyone, including people without an account. Property submissions and uploaded images may identify a location. Do not include private contact details, personal documents, security information or content you do not want made public.
Private messages are intended for their participants, but may be accessed where reasonably necessary to respond to a report, protect safety, enforce the rules or comply with law.
When information is disclosed
- To infrastructure, hosting, security, authentication and technical service providers that process information for us, including DigitalOcean, Cloudflare and Google where those services are used.
- To other users and the public when you use a public feature.
- To advisers, insurers, auditors or prospective business transaction parties under appropriate confidentiality controls.
- To law enforcement, regulators, courts, eSafety or other authorities when required by law or reasonably necessary to address serious safety, fraud or security concerns.
- With your direction or consent.
Home Whispers does not sell your personal information.
Storage, security and overseas processing
Production application data is hosted in Australia where configured, but providers such as Google and Cloudflare operate global infrastructure and may process information in other countries. Privacy protections and legal rules may differ in those locations.
We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including access controls, encrypted connections and restricted production credentials. No online service can guarantee absolute security. Contact us promptly if you believe your account or personal information has been compromised.
Retention and deletion
We retain personal information for as long as it is reasonably needed to operate the service, maintain security and moderation records, resolve disputes and meet legal obligations. Deleted information may remain for a limited period in protected backups or records required for fraud, safety, legal or evidentiary purposes.
Access, correction and your choices
You can update certain profile information in your account settings. You may ask to access or correct personal information we hold, close your account or raise a privacy concern by contacting [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request and may retain information where the law permits or requires it.
You may use a public handle rather than your legal name where a legal or safety requirement does not require identification. If you disconnect Google sign-in, you may also need to manage that connection in your Google Account.
Privacy complaints and updates
Send a privacy complaint to [email protected] with enough detail for us to investigate. We will acknowledge and respond within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied, you may be able to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
We may update this policy as our practices, providers or legal obligations change. The current version and effective date will remain available on this page.