Privacy and cookies policy

1. Who we are

AusBusiness.net ("AUSBUSINESS", the "site") is a project by 7B Marketing ("7B Marketing", "we", "us", "our"). The site publishes practical guides for Australian small business owners and people building their careers.

7B Marketing decides how and why personal information collected through this site is used. Under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), this makes 7B Marketing the controller. We also handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Contact for anything in this policy: web@ausbusiness.net.

2. What we collect and why

We collect as little as we can. The table shows each purpose, the information involved, the legal basis under the GDPR, UK GDPR and FADP, and how long we keep it.

We don't ask for sensitive information, and we don't use your information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

3. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. "Similar technologies" include browser storage and pixels. We use two categories:

Google may change the names of its cookies. See Google's list of the cookies it uses. We don't use social media tracking cookies.

4. Advertising and Google AdSense

This site shows ads through Google AdSense, which helps pay for keeping it online. In particular:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising at Google's My Ad Center. You can also opt out of some other vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info (US), youradchoices.ca (Canada) or youronlinechoices.eu (Europe).
• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google and its partners take part in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. The consent message there lists every advertising partner, and you can accept or refuse each one.
• If you refuse personalised ads, you may still see non-personalised ads. These are chosen from the page you are reading and your approximate location. Where the law requires it, even these only use cookies with your consent.

For more detail, see how Google uses information from sites that use its services and Google's privacy policy. Google handles the information it collects as an independent controller.

5. How consent works where you live

• EU/EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland: no advertising or analytics cookies are set until you choose. The message you see is Google's certified consent tool. "Reject all" is as easy as "Accept all", and you can refine your choices by purpose and by partner.
• Everywhere else: our own message asks for your choice, with separate switches for analytics and personalised advertising. Until you choose, we don't load ads or set analytics cookies. If you choose "Reject all", only non-personalised ads are shown and no analytics cookies are set.
• Before you choose (everywhere): Google Analytics runs in a restricted "consent mode". It stores nothing on your device, and Google may receive only basic information without cookies, such as that a page was viewed.
• Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a refusal of personalised ads, analytics cookies, and the "sale" or "sharing" of your information, without asking.
• Changing your mind: withdraw or change your consent at any time with Your privacy choices, at the bottom of every page. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect anything done before you withdrew it.

6. Who we share information with

We don't sell personal information for money, and we don't share it with anyone except:

• Cloudflare, Inc. hosts the site, protects it, and checks enquiry form submissions for spam, acting as our processor.
• Our email delivery provider passes enquiry form submissions to our inbox, acting as our processor.
• Google (Google Ireland Limited for users in the EEA and Switzerland; Google LLC elsewhere) and, in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, the advertising partners you allow, when ads are shown.
• Google, as our service provider for Google Analytics, if you allow analytics. We’ve turned off Google Signals and advertising features in Google Analytics.
• Authorities and advisers, when the law requires it or to protect our legal rights.

7. International transfers

Google and Cloudflare process information in many countries, including the United States. When information about people in the EEA, UK or Switzerland leaves those regions, it is protected by:

• the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss–US Data Privacy Framework, under which both companies are certified; and/or
• the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, and the Swiss equivalents.

For Australian residents, we take reasonable steps under Australian Privacy Principle 8 to make sure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

8. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in section 2, or longer only if the law requires it. Then we delete it. Information kept by Google and Cloudflare is governed by their own retention settings, described in their policies.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct it if it's wrong or incomplete;
• delete it ("right to be forgotten");
• restrict how we use it, or object to uses based on legitimate interests;
• object to direct marketing and personalised advertising at any time;
• receive it in a portable format (data portability);
• withdraw consent at any time, as easily as you gave it;
• not be discriminated against for using your rights. You'll get the same site whatever you choose.

These rights come from laws including the GDPR (EU/EEA), UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, the Swiss FADP, Brazil's LGPD, Canada's PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25, US state privacy laws, and Australia's Privacy Act. To use any of them, email web@ausbusiness.net. We may need to confirm your identity first. We'll answer within one month (45 days for US state law requests), and we'll tell you if we need longer.

We only hold limited information that can identify you directly, so for advertising data the quickest route is usually Your privacy choices or Google's My Ad Center.

10. Notice for US residents

This section applies to residents of California and other US states with consumer privacy laws (such as Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and Oregon).

• Categories collected in the last 12 months: identifiers (IP address, cookie and device IDs), internet activity (pages viewed, ad interactions), and approximate location. We collect them from you and your device. We use them for the purposes in section 2.
• Sale, sharing and targeted advertising: letting Google use cookies for personalised ads may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising, or as targeted advertising, under these laws. We don't sell personal information for money. To opt out, use Your privacy choices or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser.
• Sensitive information: we don't knowingly collect it or use it to infer characteristics about you.
• Appeals: if we turn down a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer. If you're still unhappy, you can contact your state attorney general.
• You can use an authorised agent to make a request on your behalf.

11. Complaints and regulators

Please contact us first so we can try to fix the problem. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, for example:

• EU/EEA: the authority in your country (list of EU data protection authorities)
• United Kingdom: Information Commissioner's Office
• Switzerland: Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner
• Australia: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
• Canada: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

12. Children

This site is meant for adults. It isn't directed at children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their personal information or show them personalised ads. If you think a child has given us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

13. Security

The site is served only over encrypted HTTPS connections, has no user accounts or databases of visitors, and is hosted by a provider with strong security measures. No method of sending information over the internet is completely secure, but we work to protect the little information we hold.

14. Changes and contact

We may update this policy when the law, our advertising partners or the site changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change affects what you have agreed to, we'll ask for your choice again.

Questions, requests or complaints: web@ausbusiness.net
7B Marketing, operator of AusBusiness.net