Privacy Policy

TopAUDeals (topaudeals.com) is a community site where people in Australia share and vote on deals, coupons and shopping discussions. This policy explains how we handle personal information under the Privacy Act 1988(Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. "We" and "us" means TopAUDeals.

When you create an account

• Your name, email address and a username we generate (you can change it).
• A password, which we store only as a one-way hash. We never see it.
• If you sign in with Google or Facebook: your name, email address and profile picture from that account. We don't get your password or your contacts.
• Anything you add to your profile: a picture, a cover image, a bio.

When you use the site

• What you post: deals, coupons, discussions, comments and the photos or image links you attach. These are public.
• What you do: votes, saves, follows, deal alerts, reports you make, and your search history while signed in.
• Your settings: notification and email preferences, and push notification subscriptions if you turn those on.

Automatically

• Your IP address and browser details, stored with your login sessions and used to keep the site secure (for example, to slow down spam and password guessing).
• Usage and error data through Google Analytics and Sentry, so we can see which pages are used and fix bugs.

• To run your account and show your posts, profile, rank and achievements.
• To send the notifications and emails you've asked for: replies, deal alerts, account verification and password resets.
• To rank feeds (such as "For you") using what you follow and interact with.
• To stop spam, abuse and fraud, and to moderate reported content.
• To understand how the site is used and to fix problems.

Your username, name, profile picture, bio, rank, achievements and everything you post, vote counts on your posts, and who you follow are public. Your email address, password, saved deals, alerts, reports and search history are not.

Please don't put personal details (yours or anyone else's) in posts or comments.

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only with the services that help us run the site:

• Cloudflare (image storage and delivery)
• Resend (sending emails)
• Google (sign-in if you use it, and Google Analytics)
• Facebook (sign-in, only if you use it)
• Sentry (error reports)
• Your browser's push service (Google, Apple or Mozilla), if you turn on push notifications
• Our hosting provider, where our servers and database run

Some of these companies store data outside Australia, mainly in the United States. We choose providers that protect data to a standard similar to the Australian Privacy Principles.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect people from harm.

Deals link to stores, and some deal photos are loaded straight from the store's own website. When you open a link or a page shows one of those photos, that site can see your IP address and browser like any site you visit. When you paste a link into the post form, our server visits that page to fill in the details for you.

• A login cookie keeps you signed in. The site can't work without it.
• Your browser also keeps a few preferences (like list or grid view and your theme) and your unfinished post drafts. These stay on your device.
• Google Analytics sets its own cookies to count visits.

We keep your information while your account is open.

If you delete your account (Settings → Delete account), it's hidden straight away and you're signed out everywhere. For 30 days you can sign in again to restore it. After 30 days we remove your name, email, pictures, bio, sign-in details, follows and alerts for good. Your posts and comments stay up so threads still make sense, but they show as "Deleted user".

Photos that nothing uses any more are deleted from our storage automatically.

• Change your profile and email preferences any time in Settings.
• Turn off emails with the unsubscribe link in any email, or in Settings.
• Delete your account in Settings.
• Ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by emailing privacy@topaudeals.com. We'll reply within 30 days.

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords and access controls, and we limit how fast accounts can sign in and post. No system is perfectly secure, though. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the law requires.

TopAUDeals isn't meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their information.

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll also let you know on the site or by email.

Email privacy@topaudeals.com. If you're not happy with how we handle a privacy complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.