Privacy Policy

ATA Accountants ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights, in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

This policy applies to information collected through our website, our office, and any other channel through which you interact with us.

Information we collect

We collect personal information in the following ways:

Information you provide directly:

• Contact form submissions (name, email, phone number, message)
• Appointment bookings (name, email, phone number, preferred meeting type, and any details you provide about your enquiry)
• Income tax calculator lead capture (name, email, phone number, and the income/deduction figures you enter, if you choose to email yourself a copy of your estimate)
• Newsletter subscription (email address, and name if provided)
• Any documents or information you provide to us directly as a client, in person, by phone, or through our secure client portal

Information collected automatically:

• Standard website usage data via Google Analytics (e.g. pages visited, time on site, general location at a city/region level, device and browser type, referring website)
• Session recording and heatmap data via Hotjar, which may include mouse movements, clicks, scroll behaviour, and page interactions, used to understand how visitors use our website and to improve its design and usability

How we use your information

We use the personal information we collect to:

• Respond to enquiries made through our contact form
• Schedule and manage appointments booked online or in person
• Provide the services you've engaged us for as a client
• Send you the results of an income tax estimate, where you've asked us to
• Send newsletter content (such as new blog articles) to subscribers, where you've opted in
• Understand and improve how our website is used
• Meet our legal and regulatory obligations as a registered tax agent

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Third parties we work with

We use a small number of trusted third-party service providers to help us run our website and respond to enquiries. These providers process personal information on our behalf, under their own privacy and security practices:

• Email delivery: we use a third-party email service provider to send transactional emails (such as contact form confirmations, appointment notifications, tax estimate results, and newsletter emails).
• Appointment scheduling: we use a third-party scheduling platform to manage appointment bookings made through our website.
• Website analytics: we use Google Analytics to understand general website usage and traffic patterns.
• Session recording and heatmaps: we use Hotjar to record anonymised or pseudonymised information about how visitors interact with our website (mouse movement, clicks, and scrolling), to help us improve the site's design and usability. We take reasonable steps to prevent sensitive form inputs (such as the income figures entered into our tax calculator) from being captured by this tool, but you should avoid entering sensitive personal information into any field on our website if you have concerns about session recording.
• Database hosting: form and enquiry submissions are stored securely using a third-party database hosting provider.
• Content management: our blog and article content is managed using a third-party content management platform.

These providers may store data on servers located outside Australia. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure the provider has appropriate data protection practices in place.

Cookies and tracking technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies (including those used by Google Analytics and Hotjar) to collect the automatic usage information described above. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings; however, this may affect the functionality of some parts of our website.

Newsletter and marketing communications

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will send you occasional emails, such as new blog articles or updates. Every email we send includes a clear unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we will stop sending you marketing emails once you do. We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) in all marketing communications.

How we store and protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Personal information submitted through our website is stored using secure, industry-standard infrastructure.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose it was collected for, or as required by law (including record-keeping obligations applicable to registered tax agents).

Access and correction

You have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if it's inaccurate or out of date. To make a request, contact us using the details below.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we've handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details below so we can try to resolve it directly. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your personal information:

ATA Accountants Bluedog Business Centre, Level 1, 16 McDougall St, Milton QLD 4064 Phone: 07 5591 3330 Email: info@aixaccountants.com.au

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The most current version will always be available on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.