Privacy policy

1. Who we are

AskAround (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a platform that helps people find trusted service providers through their personal and professional networks. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information. It is guided by the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. What personal information we collect

We collect the following types of personal information:

• Account information — your name, email address, username, and password (encrypted)
• Phone number — if you choose to provide one (optional at signup)
• Profile information — profile photo, bio, and whether you are a service provider
• Location information — suburb and postcode (if provided for service listings)
• Connection data — who you are connected to on the platform, relationships between users and providers, and network-based discovery signals
• Messages — content of messages you send and receive through the platform
• Endorsements and reviews — endorsements you write about service providers
• Service listings — if you are a provider, details about your services including service type, tags, and business information
• Community-added business information — if you add a business on someone else’s behalf, the business name, phone, email, suburb, and service type you provide
• Usage data — authentication session data and cookies necessary to keep you logged in

3. How we collect your information

• Directly from you — when you sign up, fill in your profile, send messages, write endorsements, or update your settings
• From Google — if you sign up using Google OAuth, we receive your name and email from Google
• Automatically — authentication cookies and session tokens necessary to operate the service

4. Why we collect your information

We collect and use your personal information to:

• Create and manage your account
• Connect you with service providers through your network
• Display your profile and endorsements to other users
• Enable messaging between users
• Verify your phone number via SMS (if provided)
• Send you notifications about connection requests, messages, and endorsements
• Detect fraud, abuse, or misuse of the platform
• Prevent abuse and enforce our Terms of Service
• Improve the platform based on usage patterns

5. Who we share your information with

Other users: People in your network may see your name, username, profile photo, and whether you offer a service. Your full personal profile is available to your accepted direct connections. Business listing visibility depends on its discovery and publication settings. Endorsements are shared according to their visibility settings. Messages are visible to the sender and intended recipient.

Access to messages: Messages are not currently end-to-end encrypted. AskAround stores message content, and authorised administrators may access it when reasonably necessary to provide support, investigate safety or abuse concerns, comply with legal obligations, or maintain and secure the platform. We limit administrative access to people who need it for these purposes.

Third-party service providers: We use the following services to operate the platform:

• Supabase (database hosting and authentication) — your data is stored on Supabase servers in Sydney, Australia
• Twilio (SMS verification) — if you verify your phone number, your phone number is sent to Twilio (US-based) to deliver the verification code
• Vercel (website hosting) — the platform is hosted on Vercel (US-based), which processes web requests
• Resend (transactional email) — your email address and notification content are processed to deliver account and activity emails
• Web push services (push notifications) — a device subscription identifier and notification content are processed by your browser vendor’s push service
• Upstash (rate limiting) — request identifiers are processed for rate limiting to prevent abuse
• Google (authentication) — if you sign in with Google, authentication data is exchanged with Google
• Google Places (business search) — when you search for a business, your search text and approximate location derived from your IP address may be sent to Google to find nearby results.

These providers only receive the information necessary to perform their services.

Legal requirements: We may disclose information when required to comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests from authorities, or protect the safety, rights, or security of users or the platform.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your information with advertisers or data brokers.

6. Community-added business listings

Users may add businesses to AskAround on behalf of the business owner. These listings may include the business name, contact details, service type, and location. This information is treated as community-contributed content.

If your business has been listed on AskAround and you wish to have the listing corrected, updated, or removed, please contact us and we will action your request.

7. Where your data is stored

Your primary data (account, profiles, messages, endorsements) is stored on Supabase servers in Sydney, Australia. Some data is processed by services based in the United States (Twilio for SMS, Vercel for hosting, Upstash for rate limiting). By using AskAround, you consent to this data processing.

8. How we protect your information

• All connections to AskAround use HTTPS encryption
• Passwords are never stored in plain text — authentication is handled by Supabase using industry-standard hashing
• Database access controls are in place to help protect your information
• API rate limiting prevents automated abuse
• Administrative database operations require separate credentials

No system is 100% secure. While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your rights

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

• Access your data — you can view most of your information through the Settings page
• Correct your data — you can update your profile, phone number, and other details in Settings
• Request deletion — email support@AskAround.com to permanently delete your account and all associated data
• Withdraw consent — you can remove your phone number or deactivate your provider listing at any time

Deactivating is not the same as deleting. Deactivating your account in Settings hides your profile and listings from other people, but we keep your data so you can reactivate by simply signing back in. If you want your information permanently removed, use the deletion request above.

10. Data retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active. If you wish to delete your account, email support@AskAround.com and we will remove your data. Some information may remain in system backups for a limited period after deletion.

11. Cookies

AskAround uses only essential cookies required for authentication and session management. We do not use tracking cookies, analytics cookies, or advertising cookies.

12. Children

AskAround is not intended for users under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Your continued use of AskAround after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au.

15. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your rights, contact us at: support@AskAround.com