Privacy Policy

BUILDERSHIELD PTY LTD – Privacy policy

This policy applies to all BuilderShield products and services, including our website, on-site safety portal, Applications, and software whether an account is created or not. By providing your personal information to BuilderShield, you consent to the use, storage and disclosure of such personal information in accordance with this policy.

All BuilderShield employees, consultants, contractors and other persons who collect and handle personal information must observe and comply with this policy.

If you do not understand any of the terms of this Privacy Policy, please contact us before using the Services.

1. Definitions

1.1 Act means Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

1.2 Australian Privacy Law means the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles.

1.3 Australian Privacy Principles (APP) means the Principles under Schedule 1 of the Act.

1.4 Employee Records means a record of personal information relating to the employment of the employee as defined under the Act.

1.5 BuilderShield means Builder Shield Pty Ltd and its respective subsidiaries and related corporations.

1.6 BuilderShield/our website means www.BuilderShield.com.au and any other website, app or online platform operated by BuilderShield.

1.7 Permitted General Situation means a situation in which an exception applies as described in paragraph 16B of the APPs.

1.8 Permitted Health Situation means a situation described in paragraph 16B of the APPs.

1.9 Personal information means personal information as defined under the Act. For the purposes of this policy, personal information does not include de-identified information, anonymised data, publicly available sources of information, or information about corporate entities such as businesses, firms or trusts.

1.10 Primary and Secondary Purposes means the primary and secondary purposes stated at clause 6.1.

1.11 Sensitive information means sensitive information as defined under the Act.

1.12 Social media means BuilderShield's pages and accounts on social media forums, applications, functions and promotions (for example Facebook and Instagram).

1.13 Spam Act means the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

1.14 we (us, our, ours) refers to BuilderShield.

1.15 you (your, yours) refers to any individual who provides personal information to BuilderShield.

2. Legislation

2.1 Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)

BuilderShield collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles in Schedule 1 to that Act.

2.2 Spam Act

Where we send commercial electronic messages (for example marketing email or SMS), we follow the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). That includes consent where the law requires it, clear sender identification, and a working unsubscribe path where applicable.

3. Information you provide

3.1 BuilderShield collects information from you in the course of your use of BuilderShield's products, services and website and to the extent it is reasonably necessary for us to carry out or undertake one or more of our functions or activities.

3.2 The type of information that we collect and hold may depend on your relationship with us.

3.3 BuilderShield collects personal information in a number of ways including when persons:

• browse our online services or otherwise interact with our website;
• directly interact, contact or communicate with BuilderShield including by the phone, in person, via email or otherwise where personal details are provided;
• interact with us on our social media, such as liking our posts, commenting on our posts, or private messaging us on our social media;
• use, receive, purchase, order, pay or subscribe to our products or services;
• attend a BuilderShield event;
• subscribe to a BuilderShield mailing list;
• lodge a complaint against a BuilderShield member;
• participate in market research or surveys;
• enter BuilderShield competitions or promotions;
• apply for employment at BuilderShield or are an external contractor or consultant tendering for or rendering services to BuilderShield; or voluntarily provide personal information to us.

3.4 As BuilderShield products, services and website change and evolve over time, this is not an exhaustive list of the circumstances under which BuilderShield may collect personal information.

4. Personal information

4.1 The types of personal information we may collect about you include:

• your name;
• images of you;
• images of your ID cards and/or licenses;
• images of your signature/s;
• your contact details, including email address, mailing address, street address and/or telephone number;
• your age and/or date of birth;
• your credit card details;
• your occupation, trade and qualifications;
• names, contact details and other information about any emergency contact you provide;
• voice audio captured when you use a voice transcription feature, including the voices of other meeting attendees;
• speaker-labelled transcripts and meeting notes generated from toolbox talk recordings;
• images of your tools, plant or equipment including any VIN numbers or associated service history;
• occupational license or registration details (if applicable);
• your demographic information, such as postcode;
• your preferences and/or opinions;
• information you provide to us through customer surveys;
• details of products and services we have provided to you and/or that you have enquired about, and our response to you;
• your browser session and geo-location data, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries and/or browsing behaviour;
• information about your access and use of our Site, including through the use of Internet cookies, your communications with our Site, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using and the domain name of your Internet service provider;
• additional personal information that you provide to us, directly or indirectly, through your use of our Site, associated applications, associated social media platforms and/or accounts from which you permit us to collect information; and
• any other personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

4.2 We may collect these types of personal information directly from you or from third parties through the use of our site, software and or products and services.

5. Collection and use of personal information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes:

• to contact and communicate with you;
• to operate site inductions, verify licenses and safety documents, respond to emergencies, and maintain site safety records for the responsible builder;
• to transcribe toolbox talk audio in real time and organise the resulting transcript into structured meeting notes;
• to send email or SMS follow-ups when a form or required safety document is incomplete or approaching expiry;
• at a builder's direction, to give an AI application the builder connects to their BuilderShield account access to the information in that account (see clause 6.4);
• to enable you to access and use our Site, associated applications and associated social media platforms;
• for internal record keeping and administrative purposes;
• for analytics, market research and business development, including to operate and improve our Site, associated applications and associated social media platforms;
• to keep a membership database;
• to verify identity;
• to keep a record of business transactions for necessary purposes such as orders, accounts, audit, tax, refunds and exchanges;
• to analyse our business transactions in order to improve our products and services;
• meeting our contractual or statutory obligations under various government funding or service delivery agreements;
• to run competitions and/or offer additional benefits to you;
• for advertising and marketing, including to send you promotional information about our products and services and information about third parties that we consider may be of interest to you;
• to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have; and
• to prevent and detect fraud;
• to consider your employment application;
• to comply with any law, statute, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority; and
• as permitted under the law.

6. Disclosure of personal information to third parties

6.1 We may disclose personal information to:

• third party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide their services, including (without limitation) IT service providers, data storage, web-hosting and server providers, cloud database, authentication and file storage platforms, email and SMS messaging providers, debt collectors, maintenance or problem-solving providers, voice transcription and artificial intelligence providers, marketing or advertising providers, professional advisors and payment systems operators, including without limitation Render, Supabase, Cloudflare, Resend, Twilio, Soniox, OpenAI, Google (including Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics), Microsoft (including Microsoft Clarity), Xero and Stripe;
• AI providers chosen by a builder, such as Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT), when the builder connects their AI application to their BuilderShield account (see clause 6.4);
• our employees, contractors and/or related entities;
• our existing or potential agents or business partners;
• sponsors or promoters of any competition we run;
• anyone to whom our business or assets (or any part of them) are, or may (in good faith) be, transferred;
• couriers such as Australia Post;
• data processors that analyse our website traffic or usage;
• credit reporting agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services we have provided to you;
• courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and law enforcement officers, as required by law, in connection with any actual or prospective legal proceedings, or in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights;
• third parties, including agents or sub-contractors, who assist us in providing information, products, services or direct marketing to you. This may include parties located outside Australia or that store or process data outside of Australia—for example in the USA, Singapore, Japan or another jurisdiction where a supplier operates.
• third parties that collect or process browsing, session or usage data for analytics, marketing measurement or advertising attribution, including vendors used with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity. These providers may operate or store data outside Australia.

6.2 By providing us with personal information, you acknowledge that Soniox and OpenAI process data outside Australia when providing voice transcription and meeting-note generation services.

6.3 By providing us with personal information, you acknowledge that some third-party service providers may store or process data outside Australia and may not be subject to Australian privacy laws in the same manner as Australian-based organisations.

6.4 AI connections: A builder can choose to connect an AI application, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to their BuilderShield account under our AI Connection Terms. If the builder whose site you work on, visit or supply does this, the AI application can read the information about you in that builder's account. That can include your name, contact details, company, trade, licence details, induction answers, check-ins and hazard reports you made. It does not include medical conditions you declare in a site induction. If you are injured, the AI application can read a summary of the injury report: your job title, the worksite, when it happened, and the cause and the place on site as the reporter wrote them. It does not include the parts of the report that record your name and contact details, what the injury was, where on your body, the actions taken or next steps, or who reported or witnessed it. The reporter describes the cause and place in their own words, so they can still mention you or your injury. The summary can be health information about you, particularly on a small site. Notes and descriptions that people type into other records, such as hazard reports and checklist comments, are shared as written and can mention your health if the writer included it. The AI application sends that information to its provider, such as Anthropic or OpenAI, which handles it under its own privacy policy and may process and store it outside Australia, including in the United States of America. The builder decides whether to connect an AI application. BuilderShield only discloses information to an AI provider through a connection the builder approves, and cannot recall information once it has been sent. To ask about information sent to an AI provider, contact the builder or the AI provider, or contact us and we will help where we can.

7. How we treat personal information that is also sensitive information

7.1 Sensitive information is a subset of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information. BuilderShield will not ordinarily ask you to provide sensitive information. However some information held by BuilderShield may fall within the definition of 'sensitive information'. In such circumstances, we will only collect sensitive information in circumstances where

• it is reasonably necessary for one or more of the services we provide or functions we carry out; and
• you consent to the collection of the information; or
• a permitted general situation exists; or
• a permitted health situation exists: or
• the collection of the information is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order.

7.2 To limit the health information an AI application a builder connects receives, BuilderShield does not share medical conditions declared in site inductions. It shares injury reports only as a summary that leaves out the parts recording the injured person's identity and the injury, as described in clause 6.4. Information that is shared, including the cause in an injury summary or free text entered in other reports, can still contain health information.

8. Your rights and controlling your personal information

8.1 Choice and consent: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By providing personal information to us, you consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect your use of this Site or the products and/or services offered on or through it.

8.2 Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person's consent to provide the personal information to us.

8.3 Restrict: You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information. If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us using the details below.

8.4 Access: You may request details of the personal information that we hold about you. We do not charge you to make a request. We may charge reasonable costs for providing access where the law allows it, and we will tell you first. We aim to respond within 30 days. In certain circumstances under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), we may refuse access and will give written reasons where required.

8.5 Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us using the details below. We will take reasonable steps to correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or out of date.

8.6 Complaints: If you believe that we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles and wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the alleged breach. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take to deal with your complaint.

8.7 Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe from our e-mail database or opt-out of communications (including marketing communications), please contact us using the details below or opt-out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.

9. Storage and security

9.1 We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

9.2 We may maintain encrypted or access-controlled backups of application data and uploaded files using secure cloud infrastructure providers, including Cloudflare R2, for disaster recovery, continuity and security purposes.

9.3 The site induction can save selected details, including an optional white card image and optional health information, in your browser on the device you use. This helps prefill future forms. Saved details expire after 90 days from the most recent save, and you can clear them from the form or success page at any time.

9.4 When you use voice transcription, audio is streamed to Soniox for real-time transcription. Soniox does not retain the audio or transcript content or use it to train its models. Soniox may retain content-free usage and diagnostic metadata, including an internal BuilderShield user reference.

9.5 The resulting transcript is sent to OpenAI to organise it into meeting notes. OpenAI does not use API data to train its models by default, but may retain API content for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring unless zero-data-retention controls apply.

9.6 BuilderShield does not store the voice audio. BuilderShield stores the submitted transcript and generated meeting notes as part of the relevant toolbox talk safety record.

9.7 We keep personal information only while the responsible builder needs it for site safety, legal, insurance, dispute, or record-keeping purposes, or while the law requires it. We then delete or de-identify it where lawful and practicable. Backup copies may remain until the relevant backup cycle expires.

9.8 We cannot guarantee the security of any information that is transmitted to or by us over the Internet. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk. Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that the personal information we collect will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

9.9 For AI connections, we keep a record of which AI application accessed a builder's account, what kind of request it made and when, for security, support and audit purposes. We do not keep a copy of the information the AI application read. AI providers keep information under their own retention rules.

10. Cookies and web beacons

10.1 We may use cookies on our Site from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. However, they do allow third parties, such as Google and Facebook, to cause our advertisements to appear on your social media and online media feeds as part of our retargeting campaigns. We use Google Tag Manager to manage tags or scripts on our Site or related properties, including those that connect to analytics services such as Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity. Those services typically use cookies or similar identifiers in line with those providers' own privacy disclosures. If and when you choose to provide our Site with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

10.2 We may use web beacons on our Site from time to time. Web beacons (also known as Clear GIFs) are small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor the visitor's behaviour and collect data about the visitor's viewing of a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page.

11. Links to other websites

11.1 Our Site may contain links to other websites. We do not have any control over those websites and we are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting those websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

12. Amendments

12.1 We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our Site. We recommend you check our Site regularly to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

For any questions or notices, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Luke Bonnici

[email protected]