Privacy Policy

1. About This Policy and Our Services

This Privacy Policy explains how ChildSupport Direct (trading as Australian Child Support Calculator) collects, uses, discloses, stores, and protects your personal information across all of our services:

• Free Calculator Tool — an online child support estimator that does not require you to create an account or submit personal information.
• Legal Referral Service (Lead Generation) — a service that, with your explicit consent, connects you with Australian family law firms. Lawyers pay a $50 fee to receive your contact details.
• Premium AI Video Products — AI-generated video products available for purchase through our website, processed via Stripe for payment and delivered electronically.

We are committed to handling personal information with transparency and integrity, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. How Our Lead Generation Service Works

When you submit an inquiry for legal assistance, the following steps occur:

Multiple lawyers: Your information is disclosed to one lawyer at a time. If that lawyer declines or does not contact you within a reasonable period, we may re-process your inquiry only with your renewed consent.

3. Information We Collect

We collect personal information directly from you when you use the calculator, submit a referral form, purchase a product, or contact us. We only collect information that is reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy (APP 3).

3.1 Legal Referral Service

3.2 Premium AI Video Products

3.3 Technical and Usage Data

3.4 Administrator Accounts (Law Firm Users)

If you register as a law firm user of our platform, we collect your name, work email address, and a hashed (irreversibly encrypted) password. We do not store passwords in plain text. This information is used solely to authenticate your account and manage your access to leads.

3.5 Sensitive Information

3.6 Calculator-Only Use — Anonymity

You may use the child support calculator without providing any personal information. Calculator inputs and results are used only to display your estimate in-browser and are NOT stored or retained after your session ends. If you choose not to request a legal referral, no personal information is collected.

3.7 Unsolicited Information

If we receive personal information we did not request (for example, if someone emails us unsolicited sensitive details), we will assess whether we could have collected it under APP 3. If not, we will destroy or de-identify it as soon as practicable, unless we are required by law to retain it.

4. Why We Collect This Information

We collect personal information only where it is reasonably necessary for one or more of the following purposes (APP 3.3):

• Providing child support estimate calculations.
• Matching users with suitable Australian family law firms (with explicit consent).
• Delivering purchased AI video products.
• Processing and verifying payments via Stripe.
• Communicating with you about your inquiry or purchase.
• Meeting legal, regulatory, tax, and reporting obligations.
• Improving calculator accuracy and website performance using aggregated, de-identified data only.

What happens if I don’t provide information? Use of the calculator requires no personal information. However, if you wish to be referred to a lawyer, we cannot provide that service without your name, email address, and phone number.

5. How We Use and Disclose Your Information

5.1 Consent for Legal Referral

We will NOT share your personal information with any lawyer without your explicit, informed consent. Consent is obtained as follows:

• After using the calculator, you may be offered the option to request a legal consultation.
• A consent form will be displayed, clearly explaining what information will be shared, with whom, and for what purpose.
• You must tick a consent checkbox with language such as: “I consent to ChildSupport Direct sharing my name, contact details, and case summary with Australian family law firms for the purpose of arranging a legal consultation.”
• Pre-ticked checkboxes are not used. Consent must be an affirmative act.
• Your consent timestamp and IP address are recorded as an audit trail.
• You may withdraw consent at any time before your information is shared with a lawyer by emailing privacy@auschildsupport.com.au.

5.2 What Lawyers Receive

5.3 Lawyer Obligations — Data Sharing Agreement

Before any lawyer can receive a lead, they must execute our binding Data Sharing Agreement. Under this agreement, lawyers are legally required to:

• Handle your information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
• Use your information only for the purpose of arranging a consultation with you.
• Not use your information for unrelated marketing without your separate consent.
• Delete your information if you do not proceed to engage their services.

5.4 Use of Information for Service Improvement

We may use aggregated, de-identified data to improve our calculator and services. This data cannot be linked back to any individual. We do not use identifiable personal information for service improvement purposes.

5.5 AI Video Products

Personal information provided in connection with a video product purchase is used solely to generate and deliver your video. It is NOT shared with law firms, used in the lead generation process, or retained beyond 14 days after delivery. Payment processing is handled exclusively by Stripe — we do not store card numbers, CVV codes, or full card details.

6. Third-Party Service Providers

We disclose personal information to the following categories of third parties where necessary to deliver our services:

• Family law firms and legal practitioners (with your consent — see Section 5).
• Technology and infrastructure providers (see Section 11 for full cross-border disclosure).
• Payment processors (Stripe).
• Email delivery services (Resend).
• Analytics providers (Google Analytics, Vercel Analytics).
• Professional advisers (legal, accounting) where required.
• Government and regulatory authorities, if required by law.

We do not sell personal information to data brokers or unrelated third parties for commercial purposes.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law (APP 11.2).

When personal information is no longer required, it is securely deleted using industry-standard deletion methods or permanently de-identified so that it can no longer be linked to an individual.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure (APP 11).

Security measures include:

• Encryption of all personal data in transit (HTTPS/TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256).
• Role-based access controls and least-privilege principles — staff access personal data only when necessary.
• Hashed (bcrypt) storage of administrator passwords; plain-text passwords are never stored.
• The Secure Magic Link system for lawyer disclosures: each link expires after 7 days, can only be used once, requires authenticated login, and creates a full audit trail.
• Regular security reviews and vulnerability assessments.
• Formal incident response procedures including escalation, containment, and notification processes.

9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. When you first visit, a cookie consent banner will be displayed and analytics cookies will only be set if you actively consent.

You may withdraw analytics consent at any time by clicking ‘Cookie Settings’ in the website footer or by adjusting your browser settings. Withdrawing analytics consent does not affect your ability to use the calculator or the legal referral service.

Note for EEA/UK users: We process analytics data under our legitimate interests basis for EU/UK users (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)), balanced against your rights. You may object to this processing at any time by contacting privacy@auschildsupport.com.au.

10. Your Rights

Under Australian privacy law, you have the following rights (APPs 12 and 13):

There is no fee for access or correction requests unless the request is unusually complex or voluminous, in which case we will advise you of any charges before proceeding. We will respond to all requests within 30 days. If we deny a request, we will provide written reasons and inform you of your right to complain to the OAIC.

11. Cross-Border Disclosure of Personal Information

Your primary personal information (name, email, phone, case details) is stored in Australia on Supabase’s Sydney servers. Technical and analytics data (IP address, browser information) may be processed in the United States.

12. International Users (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with applicable data protection laws, the following additional protections apply:

EEA/UK users have the right to: access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and the right to object. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@auschildsupport.com.au. You may also lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (e.g., your national data protection authority).

13. Children’s Privacy

Our service is intended for adults (parents and guardians aged 18 and over). We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 18.

When you use our calculator, you may provide information about your children (such as ages and care arrangements). This information is used only to generate child support estimates and, with your consent, to provide context to lawyers. We recommend using general descriptions (e.g., “Child 1, age 10”) rather than children’s full names when submitting inquiries. We do not collect children’s contact details.

If you become aware that a child has submitted personal information to us without appropriate consent, please contact us immediately at privacy@auschildsupport.com.au and we will take steps to delete that information.

14. Complaints and Contact

If you have a privacy concern or complaint, please contact us first and we will endeavour to resolve it promptly:

Email: privacy@auschildsupport.com.au (subject: “Privacy Complaint”)

Postal: ChildSupport Direct, [Street Address], [City], [State] [Postcode], Australia

Our complaint handling process:

• We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 business days.
• We will investigate and respond with a written decision within 30 days.
• If more time is needed, we will notify you and explain why.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact:

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy.
• Post a notice on our website homepage for at least 30 days.
• Email users who have submitted inquiries if the changes affect how we handle their information.

The current version of this policy is always available at auschildsupport.com.au/privacy-policy. We encourage you to review it periodically.

16. Glossary of Key Terms