Last Updated: July 17, 2025
Your privacy is critically important to us. This Privacy Policy outlines how Australian Property Network™ (https://australianproperty.network/) collects, uses, maintains, and discloses information collected from users (each, a “User”) of the https://australianproperty.network/ website (“Site”). This policy applies to the Site and all products and services offered by Australian Property Network™.
1. Who We Are
Our website address is: https://australianproperty.network/. Australian Property Network™ is dedicated to providing valuable insights and resources within the property sector.
2. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information for different purposes to provide and improve our services to you.
2.1. Information You Voluntarily Provide:
- Comments: When visitors leave comments on the Site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to assist with spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service (https://automattic.com/privacy/) to check if you are using it. After approval of your comment, your profile picture will be visible to the public in the context of your comment.
- User Accounts/Registration: For users who register on our website, we collect and store the personal information they provide in their user profile, such as username and email address. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except that they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
- Contact Forms & Submissions: Information submitted through our contact forms (powered by WPForms and Flamingo), including your name, email address, and message, is collected to respond to your inquiries and requests.
- Newsletter Subscriptions: If you subscribe to our newsletter (managed by MailPoet), we collect your email address and any other information you provide (e.g., name) to send you updates and marketing communications.
- E-commerce Transactions (WooCommerce): If you make a purchase or transaction through our Site (powered by WooCommerce), we collect necessary personal and financial information, including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, and payment details. We do not store full credit card details on our servers.
- User Feedback & Surveys: Data provided through user feedback and survey tools (such as wp_userfeedback_surveys) is collected to understand user needs and improve our services.
2.2. Information Collected Automatically:
- Cookies: Our Site uses cookies to enhance user experience. If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies for convenience, lasting one year. Temporary cookies are set on our login page to determine if your browser accepts cookies. Login cookies last two days, and screen options cookies last a year. If “Remember Me” is selected, login persists for two weeks. An additional cookie, containing no personal data, is saved when you edit or publish an article, expiring after 1 day.
- Additionally, cookies are used by various plugins for functionality, analytics, and personalisation (e.g., wp_rank_math_, wp_woocommerce_sessions, wp_cky_banners). Your cookie consent management system allows you to manage your preferences for these non-essential cookies.
- Embedded Content: Articles on this Site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles from YouTube, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
- Log Data & Analytics: Like most websites, we automatically collect certain information when you visit our Site. This includes your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and the dates/times of your visits. This data is used for website analytics (potentially via Rank Math analytics features) and to monitor Site performance.
- Security Information: A Security plugin collects data such as IP addresses and user activity logs to detect and prevent malicious activity and enhance the security of the Site.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:
- To provide and maintain our Site and services.
- To personalise your experience and deliver content and product offerings relevant to your interests (if applicable, through integration with the APN Codex and potential future AI features).
- To process transactions and manage purchases or subscriptions.
- To send periodic emails regarding your orders, inquiries, or our newsletter if you have opted in.
- To improve our Site and services based on your feedback and usage patterns.
- To monitor and analyse Site usage and trends.
- To enhance security and protect against fraudulent or unauthorised activity.
- To comply with legal obligations and respond to legal requests.
4. Disclosure of Your Information
We do not sell, trade, or rent Users’ personal identification information to others. We may share your information with third parties in the following limited circumstances:
- Service Providers: We may share data with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our Site, conducting our business, or providing services to you (e.g., web hosting providers, email delivery services like WP Mail SMTP, payment processors, analytics providers, spam detection services, and potentially AI services if user input is sent for processing via wp_mwai_ or wp_automatic). These third parties are obligated to keep your information confidential.
- Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or a government agency). For example, if you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
- Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your personal information may be transferred.
- With Your Consent: We may share your information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.
5. How Long Do We Retain Your Data
We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
- Comments: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
- Registered Users: For users who register on our website, we store the personal information they provide in their user profile indefinitely, unless requested otherwise.
- E-commerce Data: Order data and related personal information collected via WooCommerce are retained for business, legal, and tax purposes for a period necessary to comply with regulations.
- Form Submissions & Newsletter Data: Data submitted through forms and for newsletter subscriptions is retained as long as it is relevant to our business relationship or until you request its removal.
- Security Logs: Data collected by security plugins (if active) may be retained for a period necessary for security analysis and incident response.
6. Your Rights Over Your Data
If you have an account on this Site or have left comments, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to Access: You can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us.
- Right to Erasure: You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Object/Restriction: You may have the right to object to or request the restriction of processing your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in the “Contact Us” section below.
7. Where Your Data Is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Data processed by some of our third-party service providers (e.g., analytics services, AI services, email providers, payment gateways) may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside of Australia. By using our Site, you acknowledge that your information may be transferred to these third parties located in countries with different data protection laws from your jurisdiction.
8. Security of Your Data
We adopt appropriate data collection, storage, and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal information, username, password, transaction information, and data stored on our Site.
9. Changes to This Privacy Policy
Australian Property Network™ has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage Users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.
10. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us at:
Australian Property Network™
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://australianproperty.network/
