Privacy Policy

0. About this policy and who we are

OnTheTools is operated by ONTHETOOLS PTY LTD (ACN 702 914 172), a company registered in South Australia. In this policy "we", "us" and "OnTheTools" mean that company, and it is the entity responsible for the personal information described here.

This policy is written to meet the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). It tells you what personal information we collect, why, who we give it to (including anyone outside Australia), how long we keep it, how to get at it or correct it, and how to complain if you think we have got it wrong.

You can reach us at support@onthetoolsapp.com.au or through the support link in the app.

1. What we collect

Account details you provide (name, email, phone, suburb, avatar), trade details for tradie accounts (trade, ABN, bio, and any licence, registration, accreditation, certificate, insurance certificate or White Card you add - see below and 3b), job details you post (description, address, category, budget, timing, photos), messages, files and photos you send in chat, reels and work photos you publish, location - both the approximate coordinates of your suburb and, while you navigate to a job or share that drive with a client, your precise position (see below), device push tokens so we can notify you, a key that identifies this installation of the app if you enter a giveaway (see below), job/payment status information (invoice amounts, fees, payment and completion status), what you search for (see 3e), which tradies' profiles you open (see 3i), and a report when the app hits an error (see 3f). If you use them, we also collect the expense records and receipt photos you add, your comments, likes, saves, follows and mentions, the people you block, the reports and appeals you make, the email address of anyone you invite to your team, and the details you give to enter a giveaway. If you turn on "Tell me when OnTheTools opens", we record that you did and when.

Licences and other credentials. For each licence, registration, accreditation, certificate or insurance certificate you add, we collect what you enter - who issued it, its type, class and number, the name on it, whether it is held by you or your business, any conditions and expiry date, and, for a certificate, the qualification, college and date, or, for insurance, the insurer, policy number, amount and cover dates - and any photo or file you add. When we check it, we record what we looked at, when, who checked it and the result, what the register showed, a copy of the register's result for your licence, with what the register shows publicly, such as your name, licence number, suburb and status, and whether we have confirmed you are the person named on a licence, registration or accreditation (see 3b). We never ask for your date of birth for a credential. If a card you photograph shows one, it is only in that photo, which stays private and is kept only as long as section 5 says (for a licence, a licence card or a White Card that shows one, 30 days after we check it).

Where we get it. Mostly from you. Some of it comes from others: your name and email address, any profile photo they send, and an ID for your account with them, from Apple, Google or Facebook if you sign in with them; the name and type of the business behind an ABN, from the Australian Business Register; whether you can be paid, from Stripe; if you add a licence, registration or accreditation, the details the register shows for it, from the register that issued it; reviews, ratings and reports about you, from other users; and your email address, from a tradie who invites you to their team.

If you are a tradie taking payment, our payment processor also collects what it needs to pay you and to meet its own legal obligations - your bank account details, date of birth, address, and sometimes an identity document. That goes to Stripe directly. We see that your account is set up and whether it can receive payouts; we do not see or store your bank account number or your ID document.

We never see or store your card number. Card payments are processed by Stripe, and subscriptions bought on iPhone are processed by Apple; we receive only a reference to the transaction and its status. When you book, our payment processor may place a reservation on your card and records when it is taken or released; we keep those records with the job.

If you tap Continue with Facebook, Meta's software, which is built into the app, also sends some information to Meta directly - see 3j.

2. How we use it

To operate the marketplace: matching clients with tradies, displaying job listings and profiles, enabling messaging and quoting, tracking payment holds and releases, computing ratings from reviews, and improving the app. We may also use it to prevent fraud and abuse, to meet our legal obligations, and to communicate with you about your account.

If you add a licence or other credential, we use it to check it, to confirm you are the person named on a licence, registration or accreditation, to show the result on your profile and quotes, to remind you before it expires, to re-check it, and to act on a document that looks false, which can include telling the body that issued it. We don't use it for marketing.

If you turn on "Tell me when OnTheTools opens", we use your device's notification token to send you one notification on opening day. We send it by notification only, not by email.

2a. Decisions the app makes automatically

Some things in the app are decided by software rather than by a person. These are the ones that can affect you.

What you are shown. Which jobs a tradie is alerted about and which tradies a client sees first are worked out automatically, from distance, your trade, your plan, your rating, how recently you were active, what you have searched for and watched, and which tradies' profiles you have opened. A paid plan ranks above a free one in client searches, and we say so in the app.

Your record on the platform. When a tradie cancels a job a client had paid for, or is found not to have turned up, that is recorded against the account automatically and counts against how often the account is shown to clients. A no-show can be worked out from the chat and from whether a location share happened, which means it can be wrong - you might have rung the client instead. If a mark on your account is wrong, tell us and we will look at it and correct it.

Your ABN. If you are a tradie, whether you can quote, message clients about a job, post reels and appear in clients' searches depends on an automatic check of your ABN with the Australian Business Register.

Your badges. If you are a tradie, a licence, registration, accreditation, licence card, White Card or insurance badge with an expiry date comes off your profile automatically on the expiry date we recorded. A licence with no expiry date comes off automatically if its 12-month re-check isn't done in time. If you change a credential's number, expiry or photo, its badge comes off until we check it again. Every check itself is done by a person.

Money, messages and jobs. These happen automatically when a set thing happens, and the app tells you first wherever it can:

- A card reservation is taken on the date shown when you book (terms 5). If it cannot be taken and the booking is not paid another way in time, the booking is released.
- A held payment is released to the tradie 7 days after they mark the work done if the client does not respond (2 days for a site visit).
- If you cancel a booking, what you get back is worked out from the cancellation policy (terms 5c). If a tradie cancels a job you paid for, the money is held as a credit on the job, and goes back to your card after 7 days if you have not chosen what to do with it (terms 5a).
- A dispute about a site visit closes if the person who raised it writes nothing in the chat for 3 days, and the visit fee is then released.
- Money a tradie owes us under terms 5d is taken out of their payouts, oldest debt first. A chargeback takes back the tradie's payment for that job as soon as it is raised (terms 5e).
- If a plan's payment is still failing when the grace period ends, the Free fee rate applies from then on (terms 9a).
- A chat message that contains contact details, such as a phone number or an email address, is stopped before it is sent. A reel, photo or comment can be hidden as soon as three different people report it, until a person reviews it.
- Words that look like swearing or abuse are stopped before they go out - in a job, a quote, a message, a caption, a comment or a review.
- A quote that has not been accepted expires 30 days after it was given, if the job is still open.
- A job that is still open 14 days after its date is archived, after we warn you.

These use the job, payment, plan, chat and report records involved. A person makes every other decision about a dispute, a refund or a suspension. If you think an automatic decision was wrong, tell us and a person will look at it.

3. Who can see what

Your name, profile photo and suburb can be seen by anyone, whether or not they use the app. A tradie's public profile can also be seen by anyone, including people who are not signed in. It shows the tradie's name, business name, trade, ABN and the name it is registered to, rating, reviews, jobs completed, plan, member number, reels and posts, completion photos the client agreed to show, and whether a White Card is on file and has been sighted. Once we turn credential badges on for everyone, it also shows badges for the tradie's licences and other credentials, and a "Licence checked" line can show on the tradie's quotes. Before then, only the tradie, our team and the accounts we use for testing and for Apple's review see them. A badge shows its label (such as "Licence checked"), the type and class of the credential and who issued it (for a certificate, the qualification, its code and the college; for insurance, the insurer, the amount and the cover-to date), who holds it, if that isn't the business behind the ABN, any expiry, whether the register shows conditions, and the date and way we checked it. It doesn't show the licence number, and clients never see the photos or files a tradie adds, or anything we couldn't check. Reviews show the name of the person who wrote them. Job posting photos are public to any tradie browsing jobs.

A job's street address is not public. Tradies browsing or searching jobs see the suburb and an approximate distance, worked out from a coarse point rather than your front door. The full address is shared with a tradie only once you have booked them for that job.

Job completion photos are only shown publicly if the client gives consent; otherwise they're visible only to the client and tradie on that job. Messages in a chat can be read by the people in it. The OnTheTools team can read them too, and does so to deal with a dispute or a chargeback, a message that was reported or stopped by our contact-details filter, or a request for help, or when the law requires it. If you ask your bank to reverse a payment, we may give it the chat on that job (terms 5k). We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

3a. Location

If you allow it, we use your device location to work out how far away a job is, so tradies only get alerted about work within the distance they have chosen. We store the approximate coordinates of your suburb against your account for that matching.

While you are driving to a job, the app collects your position in the background - that is, with the screen off and the app not in front of you - so that a live share keeps moving and so the app can tell when you have arrived. That is why it asks for the "Always" location permission. It only does this during a drive you started, and it stops when you arrive, when you stop sharing, or when the share expires. It does not collect your location at any other time.

You can withdraw location access at any time in your device settings. If you do, distance-based job alerts and live sharing stop working.

3a-i. Navigating to a job, and what we keep

If a tradie uses the in-app navigation to drive to a job, the job's street address and the tradie's current position are sent to Mapbox, which returns the route. That request is what makes turn-by-turn directions possible and Mapbox handles it under its own terms and privacy policy. Mapbox is in the United States - see "Where it goes" below.

While navigating, a tradie can choose to share the drive with the client. If they do, the client sees their live position, the road ahead and an arrival time until they arrive or stop sharing. If they choose not to, the client is told only that they are on their way - no position is shared at all.

What we keep, and for how long. We hold one record per job, not a trail - it is overwritten as you move rather than added to, so there is no history of the route you took. When the share ends, the road ahead is erased immediately; the database does that itself, so it happens however the share ended. The record itself, including the last position, is deleted 7 days after the share ends. We keep it that week so that a question about whether someone turned up can still be answered.

3b. Licences, certificates, insurance and White Cards

If you add a licence, registration, accreditation, certificate, insurance certificate or White Card, we store the details you enter and any photo or file. The photos and files are held in private storage, are not public, and are reachable only through links that expire within minutes. Within OnTheTools, only you and the people who check credentials can open them, and checkers can only do so after a second sign-in step with an authenticator app. Our storage provider can reach them only to run the service, and we disclose a document only as section 4a says (for example, to the body that issued one that looks false, or where the law requires it). Checkers look at your files in the app and don't save copies to their own phones. Clients never see your photos or files; they see the badge and the details listed in section 3.

To check a licence, a checker looks it up on the register that issued it and saves a copy of the register's result straight into private storage that only checkers can open. A register's result can show other people's details too, such as a company's directors or nominee, or, if the number added belongs to someone else, that person's name and licence. Where we can, we crop the saved copy to the entry for the licence being checked, and we keep it only as section 5 says.

Before clients see a licence, registration or accreditation badge, we confirm you are the person named on it (for a licence held by a company, a person the register lists as a director or its nominee). When we do, we'll explain how and ask your permission first.

We delete the photo or file of a licence, registration or accreditation within 30 days of checking it, because the register is the record. We do the same for a licence card we only looked at, and for a White Card that shows a date of birth, because a card can show your date of birth; our record of the check keeps only the name, class and expiry we read from it, never the date of birth. We keep the photo or file of a certificate or an insurance certificate while its badge shows, and for 12 months after we take the badge off (for example when it expires). If you remove it yourself in Settings, we delete its photo or file within a day. We delete a document we couldn't check, or one you withdraw before we check it, within 30 days. We keep a record of each check - what we looked at, when, who checked it and the result, including the copy of the register's result, which shows your name and licence number - for seven years after the badge comes off (or after the check, if no badge ever showed; two years for a check that didn't pass), so we can show what a badge was based on, or why one didn't show (for example, if a document looked false). We keep that record even if you delete your account, and it is not anonymised.

You can remove a licence, registration, accreditation, certificate or insurance certificate at any time in Settings, under Your cards & payments, Licences & qualifications, and its badge comes off straight away. We delete its photo or file within a day. To remove a White Card, email support@onthetoolsapp.com.au and we will delete the details and the image. If you don't remove a White Card, we keep its details while your account is open, and its image too unless the card shows a date of birth. We delete both when the account is deleted.

We never ask for your date of birth for a credential, and we don't do police checks.

3c. Subscriptions

If you subscribe to a paid plan we record which plan you are on, its status, when it renews, and whether it is billed through Apple or Stripe, so the app can apply the right fee rate and show the right state. Apple does not share your payment details with us.

3d. What you watch in the feed

When you watch reels we record which one, whether you stayed past the first couple of seconds, and how long you were on it, along with taps on a poster's profile or Quote button. It is used for one thing: ordering the feed, so you see work that holds people's attention and work near you rather than whatever was posted most recently. It is tied to your account so the feed can avoid showing you the same clip twice.

We do not use it to build an advertising profile, we do not sell it, and it is not shared with the tradie whose reel it was - a poster sees counts, never who watched or for how long. We keep it for 12 months.

3e. What you search for

We record what you type into a search box once you have stopped typing, and the trades you tap in a filter list, against your account. We keep the finished word rather than every keystroke, and which search it was - jobs, tradies or reels.

It is used for one thing: ordering the reels feed. We match your recent searches against trade names, so you see more of the kind of work you have been looking for. Searches stop counting towards that after about two months, and we delete them after 12 months.

Only you can see your own searches in the app. They are not shown to tradies, not used for advertising, and not sold.

3f. Crash and error reports

When something goes wrong in the app we record what broke: the error message, the technical stack trace, which screen you were on, your platform and which build you were running. Your account goes with it, so we can tell whether a fix actually worked for the person who hit the fault.

We use these to find and fix faults, and for nothing else. We do not send the contents of your messages, photos or job details. We do not use an outside crash-reporting service - the reports go into our own database like everything else, and only the OnTheTools team can read them. On the website we also record the page address and your browser. We keep them for 12 months.

3g. Your app installation key

If you enter a giveaway, we record a key that identifies this installation of the app on this device. It is created by the app, stored in your device's keychain, and is not your device's serial number or advertising identifier - it tells us nothing about you or your device beyond "this is the same install as before".

We use it for one thing: making sure a single person cannot enter a giveaway repeatedly by deleting and reinstalling the app. It deliberately survives a reinstall, which is the whole point of it. We do not use it for advertising, we do not combine it with anything from other apps, and nobody outside OnTheTools receives it.

3h. Tidying a message with AI

You can have AI tidy the wording of a quote message or a job description - one you say into the microphone, or one you type and then tap "Clean up". If you speak it, your phone turns your speech into text, and your voice itself never leaves your phone.

The app asks you first, and nothing is sent unless you say yes. If you do, we send the text of that message to Anthropic, whose Claude AI tidies the wording - full stops, filler words, sentences that run on - and sends it back. We send it when you finish speaking, or when you tap "Clean up". We send only the words of the message itself, never your account details. The greeting and sign-off the app writes stay on your phone, and so do ones you type that it recognises. Anything else you say or type is sent, names included. You see the result, and can change it, before your quote or job goes out.

Anthropic is in the United States and may process the text in other countries. Its terms with us do not let it train its models on what we send, and it deletes it within 30 days unless it needs it longer to deal with misuse or the law requires it.

We do not keep the text we send or what comes back, apart from the message you choose to use. We keep your yes or no, and a record of when you used it - never the words - so we can limit how often it is used.

If you say no, nothing is sent: words you say are tidied on your phone instead, and words you type stay as you wrote them. You can change your answer at any time in Settings, under Writing: "Tidy messages with AI".

3i. When you look at a tradie's profile

When you are signed in and open a tradie's profile, we record that you did and when. The tradie can see how many times their profile was viewed, and may be told when someone keeps coming back, but not who it was.

We also use the profiles you open to order your reels feed (see 2a). We delete these records after 180 days.

3j. Signing in with Facebook

Continue with Facebook uses Meta's Facebook Login software, which is built into the app. Here, Meta means Meta Platforms, Inc., in the United States. Its software stays switched off, and sends Meta nothing, until you tap Continue with Facebook and then Agree and continue on the notice that follows.

The notice at the button. Before Meta's software starts, the app shows a short notice, "Signing in with Facebook". It says what Meta receives and that, if you agree, Australian Privacy Principle 8.1 won't apply to what Meta receives (see 4a). If you tap Use another way, Meta's software doesn't start and Meta receives nothing. Once you agree, the app remembers it on that phone, so later Facebook sign-ins go straight to Facebook. It asks you again after you log out, tap "Not you? Use a different account" or delete your account, and whenever we change the notice.

Apple's question. The first time you agree to the notice, iPhone asks whether to allow OnTheTools to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. We ask only because of Facebook sign-in, and only at that moment. Whatever you answer, Facebook sign-in still works, and so does everything else in OnTheTools. Apart from how Meta's own sign-in opens (below), nothing in OnTheTools changes with your answer, and we add nothing for allowing tracking.

- If you tap Allow, Meta may link your use of OnTheTools with what it knows about you from other apps and websites, and use it under its own privacy policy, including for advertising. The app then asks Meta's software for its "classic" Facebook Login, which can open the Facebook app to sign you in if it is on your phone (otherwise, or if Meta doesn't offer it, a Facebook web page opens).
- If you tap Ask App Not to Track, the app asks Meta's software for what Meta calls Limited Login, which signs you in with Facebook, usually in a web page (if Meta offers it, the Facebook app can open instead). Meta says it won't use the fact that you signed in this way to personalise or measure advertising.

The app picks the sign-in from your answer, whichever version of iOS you have. If Meta's software can't sign you in, the app opens Facebook's own sign-in in a private web page instead.

If you have turned off "Allow Apps to Request to Track" on your iPhone, it won't ask, and the answer is no. You can change your answer at any time in iPhone Settings, under Privacy & Security, Tracking. Without your Allow, iPhone doesn't give Meta's software your device's advertising identifier.

What Meta receives. Nothing until you agree to the notice at the button and, the first time, answer Apple's question. Then Meta's software starts, fetches its settings from Meta and sends it technical details about your device and the app, such as the device model, iOS version, our app's version and your IP address, even if you then cancel. While you sign in, it also tells Meta how the sign-in is going, such as when it starts and whether it finishes or is cancelled. When you sign in, Meta also receives that you are signing in to OnTheTools with your Facebook account.

What we have switched off. We have turned off three things in Meta's software: its automatic logging of what you do in our app (Meta calls these automatic app events, and from 31 October 2026 its newer software adds the titles of the screens you open and the links that open the app to them), its collection of your device's advertising identifier, and its reports for measuring Meta ads (through Apple's SKAdNetwork). Our own code sends Meta nothing about what you do in OnTheTools. Even so, Meta's own privacy declaration for its software says it can collect a device ID, a user ID and how you interact with an app, and use them for tracking, including for third-party advertising. That is why our App Store page lists those under "Data Used to Track You". The same declaration lists crash data, and other data used for analytics, which Meta says are not linked to you.

What we get from Facebook. Your name, your email address and profile photo if you share them with us, and an ID for your Facebook account that links it to your OnTheTools account. We don't get your Facebook password, friends or posts, and we never post to Facebook for you.

Turning it off. To stop, don't use Continue with Facebook again: log out, and next time sign in with Apple, Google or your email address. If Facebook is the only way you sign in, email support@onthetoolsapp.com.au and we'll help you switch. You can also remove OnTheTools from your Facebook account in Facebook's settings, under Apps and websites. What Meta has already received stays with Meta, under its own privacy policy. If you'd rather not use Facebook at all, you can sign up with Apple, Google or your email address instead. To delete what we hold, see section 6.

Meta handles what it receives as an independent company, under its own privacy policy (https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy) and terms, which explain what it does with it. We don't control that (see 4a).

4. Where it's stored

Data is stored using Supabase (a third-party database and storage provider), in their Sydney region - so it is held in Australia. See "Where it goes" below for everyone else who receives it. Access is governed by row-level controls so users can generally only read and write data relevant to their own account and jobs. No system is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security, but we apply reasonable technical safeguards (access policies enforced at the database level, private storage for unconsented photos and credential images with time-limited access links, and coarse coordinates rather than exact addresses wherever the exact address is not needed).

4a. Where it goes, including outside Australia

We use third parties to run the app, and some of them store or process information outside Australia. Before we disclose anything to someone overseas we take reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that they handle it to a standard comparable to the Australian Privacy Principles. Meta is the exception, as its line below says. They are:

- Supabase - the database, file storage and authentication behind the app, including your messages, job photos and White Card image. This project runs in Supabase's Sydney region, so that information is stored in Australia. Supabase is a United States company, and its staff may reach it from outside Australia to support and maintain the service.
- Stripe - card payments, tradie payouts and subscription billing. United States and Ireland. Stripe receives payment and identity details directly; we never see or store your card number.
- Apple - Sign in with Apple if you choose it, Apple Pay if you pay with it, subscriptions bought on iPhone, push notifications (which can show the start of a message), the maps on iPhone, and an Apple Wallet card if you add one. United States.
- Google - sign-in with Google if you choose it, a Google Wallet card if you add one (your name, trade, plan, member number and whether your ABN is verified), map tiles on Android, and our support email, which runs on Google Workspace. United States.
- Meta (Meta Platforms, Inc.) - Facebook sign-in, if you use it. Meta's software is built into the app, but it stays switched off, and sends Meta nothing, until you tap Continue with Facebook and agree to the notice that follows. Then Meta receives what 3j lists, and may use it for advertising if you allow tracking (see 3j). Meta handles what it receives as an independent company, under its own privacy policy and terms, which explain what it does with it and how you can manage or delete it. We can't make Meta meet the Australian Privacy Principles, so the app tells you this, and asks you to agree, at the Continue with Facebook button. If you agree, Australian Privacy Principle 8.1 - the Privacy Act's rule that we take reasonable steps to make sure an overseas recipient protects your information - won't apply to what Meta receives. We won't be responsible under the Privacy Act for how Meta handles it, and you won't be able to complain about us, or get a remedy from us, for that under the Privacy Act. Any rights you have against Meta itself don't change. Meta may not have to follow rules like the Australian Privacy Principles, you may not be able to get a remedy in another country, and a foreign law may make Meta hand your information to someone there, such as a government body. United States, and it may process information in other countries.
- Cloudflare - the check that runs when you sign up or sign in to tell a person from a bot. It receives signals about your device and browser, and does not use them to profile you or to show you advertising - see the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Addendum (https://www.cloudflare.com/turnstile-privacy-policy/). United States.
- Resend - sends our emails: sign-in and password emails, invoices and booking agreements, team invites and reward emails. It receives your name, email address and what the email says. United States.
- OpenStreetMap Foundation (Nominatim) - looks up suburbs and street addresses you type or have saved, and turns map positions into place names, including your own position when the app uses your location. United Kingdom, with servers in Europe.
- Zippopotam.us - looks up the suburbs that share a postcode you type. United States.
- Mapbox - directions when a tradie navigates to a job (see 3a-i). United States.
- Anthropic - only if you say yes to AI tidying: the words of a quote message or job description you choose to tidy, said or typed, so its Claude AI can tidy the wording (see 3h). United States, and it may process them in other countries.
- Open-Meteo - weather for a job's area, from the job's coordinates. Germany.
- Vercel - hosting for our website. United States.

In Australia, we also send:

- The Australian Business Register - a tradie's ABN, to check it is real and active. We store what it returns.
- The register or body that issued a licence, registration or accreditation you add - the licence number, and the name if its search needs it, which we enter in its public search when we check it. For SA building, plumbing, gas, electrical and security licences, that is Consumer and Business Services (CBS). Depending on the licence, it can also be the Australian Refrigeration Council, a cabling registrar (ACRS, ASIAL, FPA Australia, TITAB or BRCA), Solar Accreditation Australia, SafeWork SA or the Environment Protection Authority (EPA). We save a copy of what the register shows (see 3b).
- The Australian Taxation Office - if you are a tradie, the transactions you made through the platform, your name, contact details, ABN and bank account details as held by our payment processor. Australian law requires online platforms to report this twice a year under the Sharing Economy Reporting Regime, and we have to keep the records for five years. This is a legal obligation and neither of us can opt out of it.

We also disclose personal information where the law requires it or allows it - for example to a card scheme or bank answering a chargeback (see terms 5k), to the body that issued a document you added that looks false (see terms 9b), to a regulator, or to a court.

We do not sell personal information to anyone, and we do not disclose it to anyone other than the recipients described above.

5. How long we keep it

The short version: while your account is open, and after that only for as long as we have a reason.

- Your account and profile: while the account is open. Removed when you delete the account, except as below.
- Messages: kept in the chat they belong to. Deleting your account does not delete the messages you sent (see below).
- Job and payment records: seven years from the end of the job. We are required to keep records that support what we reported for tax, and a bank can reverse a card payment months after a job, so these have to outlast the account.
- White Card details and image: while the account is open, or until you ask us to remove the card. If the card shows a date of birth, its image is deleted within 30 days of our check.
- The photo or file of a licence, registration or accreditation: deleted within 30 days of our check, because the register is the record.
- The photo of a licence card we looked at: deleted within 30 days of our check, because a card can show your date of birth.
- The photo or file of a certificate or insurance certificate we looked at: while its badge shows, and 12 months after we take the badge off; within a day if you remove it yourself.
- A credential document we couldn't check, or that you withdrew before we checked it: deleted within 30 days.
- Our record of each credential check, including the copy of the register's result: seven years after the badge comes off (or after the check, if no badge ever showed; two years for a check that didn't pass), even if you delete your account (see 3b).
- Live location records: 7 days after a share ends (see 3a-i).
- Which tradies' profiles you opened: 180 days (see 3i).
- Reel watch data, searches, and crash and error reports: 12 months.
- Notification tokens for your device: until you sign out on that device or delete your account.
- Your yes or no to AI tidying: while the account is open.
- Your answer to "Tell me when OnTheTools opens": while the account is open.
- Support conversations: two years.

When you delete your account, your login is deleted, and your name, business name, photo, phone, suburb, bio, ABN and White Card are removed, along with the licences, certificates and insurance certificates you added and their photos and files, the photos and videos on your profile, the photos you added to your jobs, and the photos you sent in a job's chat. Some things stay, because the other person on a job or the law needs them, or so we can show what a badge was based on:

- Messages you sent stay in their chat, shown as from "Deleted account", and so do the photos and files you sent outside a job's chat.
- Jobs you posted or worked on, including the address, and their payment records are kept for seven years from the end of the job.
- Reviews you wrote, and their photos, stay up under "Deleted account".
- Expense records you added stay, without their receipt photos, and so do any Wallet cards we made for you.
- Our record of each credential check, including the copy of the register's result showing your name and licence number, stays for seven years after the badge came off (or after the check, if no badge ever showed; two years for a check that didn't pass). It is not anonymised.

What is left on your account is an anonymised marker: it no longer holds your name, email or phone number, and it cannot be used to sign in. The credential check records are the exception: they keep your name and licence number. Someone who already knows you could still recognise you from a job or a message, so we keep protecting these records as personal information.

6. Your choices and rights

You can review and update most of your profile information directly in the app. In Settings (tap your photo, then the gear), under Account, Export my data gives you a copy of your account's data, including the credentials you added and the results of our checks, and Delete my account deletes your account. That is the quickest route and we would rather you used it than waited on us.

You can turn "Tell me when OnTheTools opens" off in the app's notification settings, and change your answer to Apple's tracking question in iPhone Settings, under Privacy & Security, Tracking (see 3j).

You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing support@onthetoolsapp.com.au. We will not charge you for asking, and we will answer within 30 days. If we can't do what you asked, we will tell you why in writing.

Deleting your account deletes your login, takes your name, photos and details off your profile, and stops it showing in searches. Some job records, the messages on those jobs, reviews and payment records are kept as described in section 5, attached to an anonymised marker rather than to your name. Our credential check records are kept too, and they keep your name and licence number (see 3b). We may also refuse a deletion while money is in flight on one of your jobs - money we are holding, a payout in transit, or an open dispute - because deleting the account would strand it. We will tell you what is outstanding, and you can delete once it is resolved.

6a. If you think we have got it wrong

Tell us first: email support@onthetoolsapp.com.au with what happened and what you would like done. We will acknowledge it within a few days and aim to give you an answer within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle it, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992. You do not need our permission to do that.

6b. If there is a data breach

If personal information we hold is lost or accessed without authorisation, and that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the people affected and the OAIC as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. We will tell you what happened, what information was involved, and what you can do about it.

7. Children

OnTheTools is not intended for use by anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we find out an account belongs to someone under 18 we will close it and delete the personal information we hold, apart from anything we are required to keep.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy as the platform evolves. We'll update the "last updated" date when we do, and where a change is significant we will tell you in the app and ask you to read it before you carry on.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request to access, correct or delete your data, can be sent to support@onthetoolsapp.com.au, or through the support link in the app.