Privacy Policy

Who this covers

This policy covers people who visit thefalcon.com.au, ask us for an audit or a call, become clients or work for clients we serve, refer businesses to us, or work with us as contractors. We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. We may be a small business under that Act, but we've chosen to comply with it in full because we handle call recordings and lead data on behalf of our clients.

What we collect

If you visit our website: pages viewed, device and browser, approximate location, how you arrived, and cookie identifiers from Google Analytics, Google Ads and our CRM's website tracking. If you fill in a form: your name, business name, phone, email, and what you tell us.

If you ask for a Google Ads audit: the above, plus read-only access to your Google Ads account that you grant us through Google. We see campaign settings, spend, search terms, ads and conversion data. We don't see your payment details.

If you ask for a market snapshot: your business name and suburb, and publicly available information about businesses advertising in your area.

If you become a client: business and contact details, ABN, billing contacts, the details in your onboarding questionnaire, access to your Google Ads, Google Business Profile, Google Analytics and domain settings that you grant, and performance data from your campaigns. If you ask us to enter a payment method into your Google Ads account on your behalf, we handle those details once under a signed authorisation and permanently delete them within one business day, keeping only a record showing the last four digits.

If you call a client's tracked number or submit a form on a client's landing page: your phone number, the time and duration of the call, a recording of the call, and anything you enter into the form. We collect this on behalf of the business you contacted, so it can respond to you and so we can report to it on how its advertising performs. Calls are recorded only after an announcement that says so.

If you refer businesses to us as a partner: your name, business, and contact and payment details for referral fees, and the details of the businesses you introduce, which you must have their permission to pass on.

If you work with us as a contractor: your name, contact and payment details, ABN, insurance details, and the work you produce for us.

We don't collect government identifiers, health information or other sensitive information, and we ask you not to send us any.

How we collect it

Directly from you (forms, calls, email, SMS and questionnaires), from your Google accounts when you grant access, from our call tracking and analytics tools, and from public sources such as Google Business Profile, the Google Ads Transparency Centre, ABN Lookup and LinkedIn when we research businesses that may benefit from our services.

Why we collect it

To respond to you and provide what you asked for. To run audits and snapshots. To deliver, manage and report on advertising for our clients. To invoice and be paid. To pay partners and contractors. To improve our services and our website. To tell you about our services where the law allows. To meet legal obligations, including tax and record-keeping.

Direct marketing

If you've asked for an audit, a snapshot or a call, or you run a business that publishes a contact address for that purpose, we may email or SMS you about our services. Every message identifies us and tells you how to stop. Reply STOP to any SMS or use the unsubscribe link in any email and we'll honour it within five business days. We don't buy lists or sell yours.

Who we share it with

Service providers we use to run the business, who handle your information on our instructions:

- GoHighLevel (LeadConnector): CRM, SMS, email and forms. United States.

- HubSpot: CRM records and marketing email. United States.

- WhatConverts: call tracking and recording. United States.

- Google (Ads, Analytics, Tag Manager, Business Profile, Workspace, Drive and Meet): advertising platforms, analytics, email, documents and video calls. United States and other Google data centre locations.

- Xero: invoicing and accounting. Australia and New Zealand.

- Stripe and GoCardless: payment processing. We never see or store your card or bank details; those providers do.

- Webflow: website hosting. United States.

- Loom: audit videos. United States.

- Zapier: connecting the tools above. United States.

- Canva and Wispr Flow: design assets and meeting notes. Australia and United States.

- AI tools from Anthropic (Claude) and xAI (Grok): we use these to draft copy, summarise audits and prepare reports. We limit what goes in to what the task needs, don't put payment details or recordings into them, and don't allow them to train on our clients' data where the provider offers that control.

Our contractors: freelance account managers, landing page builders and bookkeepers, each under a written agreement covering confidentiality and data handling, with access limited to what their work needs and removed when it ends.

Our clients: if you contacted a client through their tracked number or landing page, that client receives your details and the recording, because they're the business you contacted.

Referral partners: only the status of a business they introduced (stage reached, signed, active or ended), never account data.

Others where the law requires it: regulators, courts or law enforcement on a valid request, or to protect our rights or someone's safety.

Some of these providers store information outside Australia, mainly in the United States. We choose providers with recognised security practices and contractual commitments to protect information, but overseas laws may differ from Australian law.

Call recording

Tracked numbers on our clients' ads and landing pages play an announcement before connecting that the call may be recorded. Recording lets the business review enquiries and lets us measure lead quality. We keep recordings for the term of the client's engagement plus 90 days, then delete them. The client owns its recordings and may keep copies. If you don't want a call recorded, hang up when you hear the announcement and contact the business through its website or Business Profile instead.

Security

Two-factor authentication on every business system. Access limited by role and removed on exit. Client account access held through Google's own manager account permissions, which you can revoke at any time. No card or bank numbers stored in our systems. Payment authorisation forms deleted within one business day of use. Quarterly review of where data lives and who can reach it.

How long we keep it

Prospect records: 24 months from last contact, then deleted or anonymised. Client records: the term of the engagement plus 7 years for financial records, as the law requires; account performance data is anonymised after the engagement ends unless you've consented to a case study. Call recordings: term plus 90 days. Partner and contractor records: 7 years for payment records. Website analytics: 14 months.

Your rights

You can ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it where we don't need to keep it by law, and opt out of marketing at any time. Email support@thefalcon.com.au or call 0482 625 495. Billing questions go to accounts@thefalcon.com.au. We respond within 30 days and don't charge for reasonable requests.

Complaints

If you think we've mishandled your information, tell us at support@thefalcon.com.au. We'll acknowledge within five business days and respond within 30 days. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Data breaches

If a breach is likely to cause serious harm to you, we'll notify you and the OAIC as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

Changes

We'll post updates here with a new date. Material changes affecting clients are also sent by email.

Contact

The Falcon Recommends Pty Ltd (ABN 11 638 222 705), Level 13/50 Cavill Ave, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217. support@thefalcon.com.au. 0482 625 495.

Please also review our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy