Privacy Policy

Who We Are

This Privacy Policy applies to HEARDco (ABN 18 293 580 798), an Australian business providing Google review responses, Reputation Ops Core, and scoped reputation/enquiry workflow support for local businesses.

This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

What We Collect

When you use HEARDco, we may collect the following types of information:

• Business details — your business name, address, and industry
• Contact details — name of the business owner or primary contact, email address where you provide it
• Google Business Profile details — public profile information and review content for free samples; Manager-access review data only after you choose to continue and grant access
• Brand voice preferences — information you provide about how your business communicates, tone, and style preferences
• Billing details — payment is processed via Stripe. We do not store your credit card number or full payment details — these are handled securely by Stripe
• Service communications — emails, sample requests, escalation records, opt-out/suppression records, and any correspondence between you and HEARDco

We only collect information that is reasonably necessary to deliver our service and communicate with you.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Deliver HEARDco services — preparing sample responses from public reviews, managing agreed review response workflows, and posting responses only where access and scope have been confirmed
• Build and refine your brand voice profile so responses sound like you
• Send service updates, escalations, summaries, and prepared responses via email
• Send monthly proof/trust reports (on applicable plans) summarising review activity, audit findings, recommendations, and completed work
• Process billing and manage your subscription through Stripe only after sample handoff and package confirmation
• Communicate with you about samples, your account, escalations, opt-outs, changes to the service, or these terms/policies
• Improve our service over time

We will not use your information for any purpose beyond what is described here without your explicit consent.

Who We Share It With

To deliver our service, we work with the following trusted third-party providers:

• Anthropic AI processing — review content and brand voice data may be processed through approved AI APIs to generate responses, audit notes, or reports.
• Stripe Billing — your subscription payments are processed securely by Stripe. We do not store your card details.
• AgentMail Email delivery — service updates, escalations, prepared responses, and reports are delivered via AgentMail.
• Google Profile/review access — responses may be posted to your Google Business Profile only after you grant Manager access and agree to the posting rules. Free samples use public information only.

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as needed to deliver samples, manage opt-outs/suppression, or operate your account. After you cancel your subscription, we keep service records for 12 months to enable account reactivation, resolve outstanding matters, and maintain suppression history unless law requires otherwise.

After that 12-month period, your data is permanently deleted from our systems. You can also request immediate deletion at any time — see Section 6 for details.

Your Rights

Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Correction — request that we correct any inaccurate or outdated information
• Deletion — request that we delete all personal information we hold about you

We may need to retain certain information where required by law (e.g. financial records) even after a deletion request.

Cookies

The HEARDco website may use basic analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our site (e.g. pages visited, time on site). This helps us improve the experience.

We do not use cookies for advertising or behavioural tracking. We do not share cookie data with advertising networks or data brokers.

Security

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

• Encrypted data transmission (HTTPS)
• Secure third-party infrastructure for data storage
• Restricted access to client data — only those who need it to deliver the service

No internet transmission or electronic storage method is 100% secure. While we take every reasonable precaution, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have concerns, contact us at heardco@agentmail.to.

Contact & Complaints

For any privacy questions, access requests, or complaints, please contact us:

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

www.oaic.gov.au