🔒 Privacy Policy

Effective: 23 June 2026 · SeeOzTogether

1. Who we are

SeeOzTogether ("we", "us", "our") is a small, Australian-run road-trip planning web application. You can reach the operator at seeoztogether@gmail.com. We are the data controller for any personal information collected through this site.

2. What personal information we collect

We collect only what we need to run the service:

• Account information: your name, email address, and a password hash (we never store your password in plain text). Optional profile fields: avatar URL, vehicle type and registration plate, emergency contact name and phone number.
• Trip content: trips you create, including trip name, description, start and end dates, waypoints, route points, POIs (points of interest), photos, comments, votes, and membership of other people's trips.
• Safety alerts and trip messages: anything you post on a trip.
• Authentication cookies: a session cookie set when you log in, so the site remembers you between requests. The cookie is marked HttpOnly and (when served over HTTPS) Secure. It expires when you log out or after 30 days of inactivity.
• Server logs: standard web-server access logs (IP address, request path, response code, user agent). Kept for at most 30 days for abuse investigation and rate-limiting, then deleted.

3. What we do NOT collect

• No tracking pixels, no third-party analytics (no Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, no Hotjar, no Sentry).
• No advertising identifiers.
• No third-party fonts (the site uses system fonts only).
• No location data beyond what you explicitly enter as a waypoint or POI.
• No biometric data, no government identifiers, no financial information.

4. Why we collect it (purposes)

• To create and maintain your account.
• To let you create, share, and discover road trips, and to interact with other users' trips (comments, votes, POI suggestions).
• To send you transactional emails: account verification, password reset, and trip notifications you have opted in to. We never send marketing emails.
• To keep the service secure and to investigate abuse (rate-limiting, banning abusive accounts).

5. Disclosure to third parties

We do not give your personal data to any third party. The only outbound requests our servers make to other services are:

• OpenStreetMap tile servers (tile.openstreetmap.org, tiles.stadiamaps.com) — to display the map. These requests include only the tile coordinates being viewed (zoom/x/y) and the standard browser Referer header. No account, email, or trip data is sent.
• Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org) — to convert the place names you type into the search box into latitude/longitude. These requests include only the search string you typed.
• OSRM demo server (router.project-osrm.org) — to calculate driving / cycling / walking distances and durations between your waypoints. These requests include only the coordinate list and the chosen transport mode.
• SMTP relay (only if you use the password-reset or email-verification flows) — your email address is sent to our SMTP provider solely to deliver the message. No other personal information is included. If no SMTP relay is configured on our server, these emails are written to a local outbox/ folder in dry-run mode and not sent.

None of these services receive your name, email, account ID, trip contents, or any other personal information. We do not embed third-party JavaScript that would have access to your session cookie.

6. Where your data is stored and how it's protected

All personal information is stored in a local SQLite database file (data/seeoztogether.db) on a single server located in Australia. The database file is not replicated to any third-party cloud service.

We protect your data with:

• HTTPS (TLS 1.2 or higher) for all traffic between your browser and our server. We also enable HSTS so a year of further requests are forced to HTTPS.
• Argon2id password hashing (memory-hard, resistant to GPU and ASIC attacks).
• HttpOnly + Secure session cookies to block JavaScript access and non-HTTPS leakage.
• Per-user CSRF tokens on every form submission.
• Strict server-side input validation and parameterised SQL queries (no string concatenation).
• Rate-limiting on authentication, registration, password-reset, and email endpoints.
• Session expiration after 30 days of inactivity.

7. Cross-border disclosure

The OpenStreetMap, Nominatim, OSRM, and Stadia Maps services are operated by overseas organisations. As noted above, the data they receive is limited to map coordinates and search strings — no personal information. If this changes, we will update this policy.

8. Your rights (Australian Privacy Principles)

Under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you (APP 12).
• Correct any personal information we hold that is inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete (APP 13). You can do this yourself from your profile page.
• Delete your account and all associated data. Use the "Delete account" button on your profile page, or email us at seeoztogether@gmail.com.
• Complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) if you believe we have breached the APPs. See oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints.

9. Children

The service is intended for users aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe we have collected information from someone under 16, please contact us so we can delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we will update the "Effective" date at the top of this page and notify active users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Non-material changes (typo fixes, clarifications) may be made without notice.

11. Contact

For any privacy question, complaint, or access/correction request:

• Email: seeoztogether@gmail.com
• Subject line should start with "Privacy:" so we can prioritise it.

We will acknowledge your request within 7 days and respond substantively within 30 days, in line with the APPs.