Last updated: August 2023

The Local Project is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect to how we manage your Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy sets out The Local Project’s policy regarding any personal information you might supply to us via the The Local Project website hosted at www.thelocalproject.com.au (Website) and related subdomains and application(s) (collectively, the Platform), and how that information may be used.

What is Personal Information and why do we collect it?

1. Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. Examples of Personal Information we collect include your name, email address, contact details, date of birth, credit card information and other information you choose to provide. The Local Project primarily collects personal information from you through written and electronic means of communication when you interact with us. This may occur when you subscribe to our newsletter, log in to or register for an account, browse for or make a purchase transaction, enter a competition, submit a reader review, send us an email, or post on the Platform or one of our social media platforms/accounts. Additionally, when you enter any password-protected area of the Platform, the Platform will recognise you and collect information that you submit through the use of authentication tokens tied to user accounts created on or through an integrated third-party platform.
2. If you login to our Platform or register for an account or access our website (or any part of it) via a third party platform (such as Facebook or Google), you consent to us collecting, storing and using the information you make available to us via the third party platform. This includes your name, date of birth, the profile information you make public (including your profile picture) and location information (and any other information you may from time to time consent to provide to us). If you have questions about how third party integrations work, check the terms of use of the relevant third party service.
3. Information sent by your web browser may be automatically collected. This information typically includes the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer or device to the Internet, operating system and platform, the average time spent on the Platform, pages viewed, information searched for, access time, websites visited before, location information and other relevant statistics. The amount of information sent depends on the settings you have on your web browser and/or personal electronic device.
4. We also use some technologies to collect information, including cookies and plug- ins. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, see the Cookies section below. Through the use of cookies, we may automatically collect information about your online activity on the Platform, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Plug-ins are pieces of software that users download to allow certain web-based software to operate. In order to use our Platform, you may be required to install certain plug-ins.
5. When you first launch the Platform, you may be asked to consent to the collection of location information. If you initially consent to the collection of location information, you can subsequently stop the collection of this information at any time by changing the preferences on your mobile device. If you do so, certain features of the Platform may no longer function optimally or in a customised way.
6. You may also choose to communicate with The Local Project anonymously or using a pseudonym, however doing so may restrict your ability to interact with certain sections of the Platform, may affect The Local Project’s ability to provide you with products, services or benefits and may prevent the processing of any payments or requests.
7. We collect your Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our services to you, providing information to our clients and marketing. We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing.

Use and disclosure of personal information

1. The Local Project may use your personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected. This purpose will be a purpose that is reasonably expected at the time of collection and may be specified in a privacy collection statement at the point of collection. The Local Project may also use your personal information for a secondary related purpose. By submitting your personal information, you consent to The Local Project using it to:
   1. provide you with products and services (both our own and those of other entities) that may be of interest to you;
   2. answer your queries regarding the products and services we provide, including support services;
   3. collect payments and/or administer your account;
   4. provide you with updated or new information about products and services (both our own and those of other entities);
   5. monitor online activity on the Platform;
   6. identify you and your posts or activities on the Platform to other users and/or the public;
   7. conduct competitions, deals and promotions;
   8. market and advertise to you (including by sending newsletters, alerts, special offers and promotions), and target advertisements based on users’ interests;
   9. develop existing and new The Local Project products and services;
   10. maintain and update our business infrastructure, databases and systems;
   11. promote our and our suppliers’ other products and services to you, including by way of direct marketing; and
   12. l. do any other act or thing required or authorised by law.

2. In providing our products and services or collecting and using your personal information, we may be required to disclose some of your personal information to third party organisations, including:
   1. outsourced service providers and their personnel;
   2. third parties authorised by you to receive personal information held by us;
   3. our legal, accounting, financial or other professional advisors;
   4. regulatory, government and other authorities as required by law; and
   5. our related organisations.

3. All information sent by your web browser will be used only to assist us for the purposes of providing an effective service on the Platform. We may from time to time supply the owners or operators of third party websites from which it is possible to link to the Platform with information relating to the number of users linking to the Platform from such third party website. You will not be personally identifiable from this information.
4. The Local Project may use the information that it automatically receives from your web browser to see which pages you visit within the Platform, which website you visited before coming to ours, and where you go after you leave. The Local Project can then develop statistics that are helpful in understanding how our visitors use the Platform. We may use this information to measure the use of the Platform and to administer and improve the Platform. Once aggregated for statistical purposes, you will not be personally identified from this information. This statistical data is interpreted by The Local Project in its continuing effort to present the Platform content that visitors are seeking in a format they find most helpful.

Will you receive direct marketing?

1. If you provide us with your personal information you consent to receiving direct marketing communications from The Local Project, and you authorise us to send you promotional messages and materials related to The Local Project’s and our select partners’ products and services, unless you submit a later request not to receive direct marketing communications.
2. The Local Project’s direct marketing messages and materials will contain a prominent statement (including, for electronic messages, a functional unsubscribe facility) that you may request not to receive direct marketing communications.

Will your information be disclosed overseas?

Some of our service providers or disclosees, or the services they provide (like cloud storage services), may be based outside Australia. For example, certain personal information is stored using servers in the United States. In order to protect your personal information, we take care where possible to work with service providers who we consider maintain acceptable standards of data security compliance and we do our part to meet those standards as they apply to us.

By providing us with personal information, you consent to personal information being used, stored and disclosed overseas, and acknowledge that in some cases the overseas laws regarding privacy may be different to Australian laws and that you may not be able to seek redress under the privacy laws of Australia.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

1. Under the CCPA, Californian residents have the right to declare their preferences on the sale of data for advertising and marketing purposes.

Individuals in the European Economic Area (EEA)

1. If you are in the EEA, you have certain rights and protections under the law regarding the processing of your personal information and we will only process your personal information in the following situations:
   1. We need to use your personal information to perform our responsibilities under our contract with you (e.g., processing payments for and providing the products or services you have requested).

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information. For example, we may process your personal information to send you marketing communications, to communicate with you about changes to our products and services, and to provide, secure, and improve our products and services. We have your consent to do so. When consent is the legal basis for our processing, you may withdraw such consent at any time.

Use of Cookies

1. The Local Project may store some information on your computer such as cookies when you visit the Platform. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to the hard drive of a visitor’s computer for record-keeping purposes. This information facilitates your use of the Platform. You can erase or choose to block this information from your computer if you want to. Erasing or blocking such information may limit the range of features available to you on the Platform.
2. From time to time we use Google advertising programs that use cookies to improve your online experience, including the display of more relevant ads on external websites. Anyone may opt out of these programs at any time by visiting http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/
3. Our properties may feature Nielsen proprietary measurement software, which will allow you to contribute to market research, like Digital Content Ratings. To learn more about the information that Nielsen software may collect and your choices with regard to it, please see the Nielsen Digital Measurement Privacy Policy at http://www.nielsen.com/digitalprivacy

Third Parties

1. Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.
2. We don’t share your personal information with third parties, unless otherwise stated, for example; third party giveaway campaigns. Aggregated, anonymised data is periodically transmitted to external services to help us improve the Website and service.
3. We may allow others to provide analytics services and serve advertisements on our behalf across the web and in mobile applications. These entities may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers and other technologies to collect information about your use of the services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in apps, links clicked, and conversion information. This information may be used by The Local Project  and others to, among other things, analyse and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests on our services and other websites, and better understand your online activity.
4. We also use social buttons provided by services like Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook. Your use of these third party services is entirely optional. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of these third party services, and you are responsible for reading and understanding those third party services’ privacy policies.

Security

1. The Local Project  will take reasonable steps to ensure the security of any personal information you provide to us.
2. The Local Project will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed.

Links to other sites

1. You may be able to access other sites external to the Platform by clicking on links that have been provided through the Platform. The Local Project is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites. As these sites are not part of The Local Project, you will need to contact the organisation/institution that administers the site directly to obtain information about their privacy policy or practices.

Contacting us / Complaints

1. You generally have the right to access personal information we hold about you subject to the restrictions provided by law. We aim to keep our information about you as accurate as possible. If you have a complaint in relation to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal information, please contact The Local Project via the details provided below. The Local Project will review all complaints received and respond to each complainant within a reasonable period upon due consideration (which may require further information to be provided).
2. If you have any queries or complaints about our Privacy Policy please contact us at: hello@thelocalproject.com.au with the subject line, “Privacy”. The Local Project will not charge any fee for your access request, but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your Personal Information. In order to protect your Personal Information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

Further Information on Privacy

1. A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/.

The Local Project Pty
ABN 48 643 018 044
Suite 09, 32 Ralph Street
Alexandria, NSW 2015
Australia