Privacy Policy

01 Who We Are

The entity responsible for handling your personal information is:

• Legal name: Essendon Premium Residential Painting (sole trader)
• ABN: 34 353 773 353
• Trading names: Essendon Residential Premium Painting; Melbourne Paint Pros
• Country of operation: Australia (Victoria)
• Contact email: info@essendonpainting.com.au

For the purposes of this policy, "we", "us", and "our" refer to the entity above. "You" refers to anyone whose personal information we collect.

02 Information We Collect

Information you provide

When you fill out a contact or quote form on either of our websites, we collect:

• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your email address
• Your suburb or address (where the painting work would take place)
• Details about the project you want quoted (service type, scope, budget range, timing)
• Any additional information you choose to share in a free-text message

Information collected automatically

When you visit our websites, our hosting and analytics tools may automatically log technical data, including:

• Your IP address
• Browser type and device information
• Pages visited, time spent, referring website
• Cookie identifiers (see Section 09)

We do not collect sensitive information (such as health, racial, religious, or political information) and we do not ask for financial information through our forms.

03 How and Why We Use Your Information

We use your personal information only for the purposes you provided it for, or for closely related purposes you would reasonably expect. Specifically:

If you submit through Essendon Residential Premium Painting

• To contact you about your quote request
• To prepare and send you a written quote for our painting services
• To schedule and carry out the work, if you accept the quote
• To follow up after completion (warranty, feedback)

If you submit through Melbourne Paint Pros

• To assess your project and match you with a suitable painter from our vetted network
• To pass your enquiry to a matched painter so they can contact you with a quote
• To follow up to ensure the matched painter contacted you and the service met your expectations

Across both brands

• To respond to enquiries, complaints, or questions you raise
• To meet our legal and tax obligations
• To improve our services and websites

04 Who We Share Your Information With

Vetted partner painters (Melbourne Paint Pros only)

If you submit an enquiry through Melbourne Paint Pros, we share your contact details and project information with one matched painter from our vetted partner network so they can contact you with a quote. Each painter in our network has signed a written agreement requiring them to:

• Use your information only to contact you about your specific enquiry
• Not pass your information to any other party
• Stop contacting you immediately if you ask them to
• Comply with the Australian Privacy Principles and the Spam Act 2003

Service providers

We use trusted third-party service providers to run our websites and process enquiries. These currently include:

• Google LLC (Firebase): for storing and processing lead data submitted through Melbourne Paint Pros (see Section 05 for location)
• Anthropic PBC (Claude API): for automated initial assessment of Melbourne Paint Pros enquiries — your form submission is processed by an AI model to determine whether the enquiry is genuine, the type of work involved, and which painter in our network is best suited to respond
• Netlify Inc.: for website hosting and form processing
• Hostinger International Ltd.: for email hosting (the inbox that receives your enquiries and from which we reply)
• Tidio: if you start a chat conversation on our website
• SMS and notification providers: to send you communications about your enquiry, where applicable

These providers may only use your information to provide their services to us, not for their own purposes.

When required by law

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or to a government authority exercising legal powers (for example, the Australian Taxation Office or law enforcement).

What we do not do

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers or marketing list brokers. We do not use it for marketing unrelated to the service you requested.

05 International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers store or process data on servers located outside Australia. Specifically:

• Firebase Realtime Database (Google LLC) stores Melbourne Paint Pros lead data on servers located in Singapore
• Anthropic PBC (Claude API) processes lead data for automated assessment on servers located in the United States
• Netlify hosts our websites and form submissions on servers that may be located in the United States or other countries
• Hostinger provides email hosting on servers that may be located in Europe, Asia, or the United States, depending on the data centre assigned to our account

Before sharing your information with overseas providers, we take reasonable steps to ensure they handle your information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. Specifically, we rely on the contractual terms these providers commit to, including their compliance with privacy frameworks comparable to APP standards (such as Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act 2012, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and the US Anthropic Trust & Safety standards).

By submitting your information through our forms, you consent to your information being transferred to and stored in these overseas locations for the purposes described in this policy.

06 How We Protect Your Information

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. These steps include:

• Encryption in transit: all data submitted through our websites travels over HTTPS (TLS-encrypted connections)
• Encryption at rest: data stored in Firebase and Netlify is encrypted on the providers' servers
• Access controls: only authorised personnel can access lead data, using authenticated credentials
• Minimum collection: we only collect the information we need to provide our services
• Secure deletion: when information is no longer needed, we delete or de-identify it (see Section 07)

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

07 How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law:

• Quote enquiries that did not proceed: up to 24 months from your last contact, then deleted or de-identified
• Completed work records: up to 7 years after the work was completed, to meet Australian tax and business record-keeping requirements
• Website analytics data: retained according to the relevant provider's standard retention periods

You can request earlier deletion at any time (see Section 08), subject to our legal retention obligations.

08 Your Rights

Under Australian privacy law, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete
• Request deletion of your information (subject to our legal retention obligations under Section 07)
• Withdraw consent for us to use your information at any time
• Opt out of marketing communications at any time
• Make a complaint if you believe we have mishandled your information (see Section 10)

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@essendonpainting.com.au. We will respond within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. There is no fee for accessing or correcting your information.

09 Cookies and Analytics

Our websites use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Make the website work properly (essential cookies)
• Remember your preferences during a session
• Help us understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it

If we use a chat widget (Tidio), it may also set cookies to maintain your conversation. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but parts of the website may not function correctly if you do.

We do not use cookies for cross-site advertising or behavioural targeting.

10 Direct Marketing

We may contact you about your specific enquiry (for example, sending your quote, following up on a job, or letting you know about a matched painter). This is not marketing — it is the service you requested.

We will not send you unrelated marketing emails or SMS without your consent. If we ever do send marketing material with your permission, every message will include a clear way to unsubscribe, in compliance with the Spam Act 2003.

11 How to Make a Complaint

If you believe we have breached your privacy or mishandled your personal information, please contact us first:

• Email: info@essendonpainting.com.au
• Use the subject line: "Privacy Complaint"

We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 30 days. We may ask for additional information to investigate.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can escalate the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

• Website: www.oaic.gov.au
• Phone: 1300 363 992
• Post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001

12 Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the services we provide, or applicable law. The "Effective" and "Last updated" dates at the top of this page show when the current version came into effect.

If we make material changes that significantly affect how we handle your information, we will take reasonable steps to notify you — for example, by email if we have your address, or by a prominent notice on our website. Continuing to use our services after a change means you accept the updated policy.