Privacy notice

This notice explains how ActionRef handles personal information about visitors to actionref.com. We follow the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) made under it.

1. Who is responsible

ActionRef operates this site as an independent editorial project based in Australia and is the entity responsible for the personal information described here. Questions, access requests and complaints reach the desk at office@actionref.com.

2. What we collect

We keep the collection deliberately small. Depending on how you use the site, the following may be collected:

• Technical data recorded by the server: your IP address, browser user-agent string, the pages requested, referring address, date and time of the request, and response codes. These appear in standard web server logs.
• Cookies and similar storage: small files and browser storage entries set when you visit, including the record of your choice in the cookie banner. Categories and durations are listed in our cookie notice.
• Details you type into the desk list form: your email address, and your name if you choose to give one. The name field is optional. The form has no telephone field and we do not ask for one.
• Notification identifiers: if you allow browser notifications, the push service creates a subscription identifier for your browser and links it to the address you supplied. This is handled by OneSignal on our behalf.
• Messages you send us: anything you include in an email to the desk, kept with the correspondence.

We do not ask for identity documents, government identifiers or location beyond the country-level indication that an IP address gives.

3. Why we collect it, and on what basis

Purpose and basis for each type of information

Information	Purpose	Basis
Server logs	Keeping the site available, diagnosing faults, protecting against abusive traffic	Necessary for our functions and activities (APP 3)
Necessary cookies	Remembering your cookie choice and keeping the page working	Necessary for our functions and activities (APP 3)
Analytics and advertising cookies	Understanding which entries are read, and supporting advertising placements	Your consent, given through the cookie banner
Email address and name	Sending a short note when a new entry joins the board	Your consent, given when you submit the form
Notification identifier	Delivering those notes as browser notifications	Your consent, given in the browser permission prompt

4. How long we keep it

• Server logs: up to twelve months, then deleted or aggregated into figures that identify nobody.
• Cookie choice: up to twelve months, after which the banner asks again.
• Desk list details: until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove them, and for a short period afterwards in our suppression record so that we do not add you back by mistake.
• Correspondence: up to twenty-four months from the last message, unless it relates to an unresolved matter.

5. Who we disclose it to

We do not sell personal information and we do not disclose it for anyone else to sell. Information is shared only with the service providers that make the site work:

• Hosting and content delivery providers — they process requests and hold server logs on our behalf.
• OneSignal — the provider that delivers browser notifications and list emails. It processes the address you supply, your notification identifier, and basic technical data about the browser you subscribed with.
• Advertising networks — where an advertising placement appears, the network involved may receive technical data such as IP address and user-agent in order to serve and measure it. This happens only where you have accepted advertising cookies.
• Australian authorities or courts — where disclosure is required by law.

Some of these providers store data on servers outside Australia, including in the United States and the European Union. Where information is disclosed overseas we take reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that the recipient handles it in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP 8).

6. Cookies

The cookie banner appears on your first visit and records whether you accept or decline the optional categories. Your choice is stored in your browser and can be changed at any time by clearing site data and choosing again. The full list of categories, purposes and durations is in the cookie notice.

7. Notifications and how to stop them

Browser notifications are only sent after you allow them in the browser prompt. You can stop them at any time in your browser settings for this site, or by using the unsubscribe link in any list email. Cancelling your consent does not affect anything sent before you cancelled it.

8. Your rights under the Privacy Act 1988

• Access (APP 12): you may ask what personal information we hold about you and receive a copy.
• Correction (APP 13): you may ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading.
• Deletion: you may ask us to delete your desk list details, which we will do unless a law requires us to keep them.
• Cancelling consent: you may cancel your consent to notifications, list emails or optional cookies at any time.
• Anonymity (APP 2): you can read every entry on this site without giving us any personal information at all.

Write to office@actionref.com and we will respond within thirty days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), the regulator responsible for privacy in Australia, through oaic.gov.au or by telephone on 1300 363 992.

9. How we protect the information

The site is served over an encrypted connection. Access to the desk list and to correspondence is limited to the people who run the desk, and our providers are chosen on the basis of their published security practices. We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure (APP 11). No online service can promise perfect protection, so we keep the amount of information we hold as small as possible.

10. Children

This site is written for a general adult audience and we do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, write to the desk and we will delete it.

11. Changes to this notice

If our handling of personal information changes, this notice is updated and the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will also be noted on the home page for a period after they take effect.