Privacy Policy

Last updated on February 13, 2025

Your privacy is important to us. It is Sponge Holdings Pty Limited (trading as “Sponge”)’s policy to respect your privacy and comply with any applicable law and regulation regarding any personal information we may collect about you, including across our website, https://www.thesponge.com.au (including any subdomain) and other sites we own and operate.

Personal information is any information about you which can be used to identify you. This includes information about you as a person (such as name and date of birth), your devices, payment details, and even information about how you use a website or online service.

In the event our site contains links to third-party sites and services, please be aware that those sites and services have their own privacy policies. After following a link to any third-party content, you should read their posted privacy policy information about how they collect and use personal information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any of your activities after you leave our site.

This policy is effective as of February 13, 2025.

Information We Collect

Information we collect falls into one of two categories: “voluntarily provided” information and “automatically collected” information.

Voluntarily provided: Information you knowingly and actively provide us when using or participating in any of our services and promotions.
Automatically collected: Information automatically sent by your devices in the course of accessing our products and services.

Log Data

When you visit our website, our servers may automatically log standard data provided by your web browser. This data may include:

Your device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address
Browser type and version
The pages you visit
The time and date of your visit
Time spent on each page
Other details about your visit

Additionally, if you encounter certain errors while using the site, we may automatically collect data about the error and the circumstances surrounding its occurrence. This data may include technical details about your device, what you were trying to do when the error occurred, and other technical information relating to the problem.

Please be aware that while this information may not be personally identifying by itself, it may be possible to combine it with other data to personally identify individual persons.

Device Data

When you visit our website or interact with our services, we may automatically collect data about your device, such as:

Device type
Operating system
Geo-location data

Data we collect can depend on the individual settings of your device and software. We recommend checking the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider to learn what information they make available to us.

Personal Information

We may ask for personal information— for example, when you subscribe to our newsletter or contact us—which may include one or more of the following:

Name
Email
Social media profiles
Phone/mobile number

Transaction Data

Transaction data refers to data that accumulates over the normal course of operation on our platform. This may include:

Transaction records
Stored files
User profiles
Analytics data and other metrics
Other information created or generated as users interact with our services

Legitimate Reasons for Processing Your Personal Information

We only collect and use your personal information when we have a legitimate reason for doing so. In such cases, we only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide our services to you.

Collection and Use of Information

We may collect personal information from you when you do any of the following on our website:

Register for an account
Purchase a subscription
Sign up to receive updates via email or social media channels
Use a mobile device or web browser to access our content
Contact us via social media or similar technologies
Mention us on social media

We may collect, hold, use, and disclose information for the following purposes, and personal information will not be processed further in a manner incompatible with these purposes:

To provide you with the Website’s core features and services
To enable you to customise or personalise your experience
To deliver products and/or services to you
For analytics, market research, and business development (including to operate and improve our website, associated applications, and social media)
For advertising and marketing (including sending you promotional information about our products, services, and third parties that may be of interest to you)
To enable you to access and use our website and associated platforms
For internal recordkeeping and administrative purposes

We may combine voluntarily provided and automatically collected personal information with general information or research data we receive from other trusted sources.

Security of Your Personal Information

When we collect and process personal information, and while we retain it, we will protect it within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss, theft, and unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.

However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and absolute data security cannot be guaranteed. You are responsible for selecting and securing any passwords and ensuring the security of your own information within the bounds of our services.

How Long We Keep Your Personal Information

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need to. This time period may depend on what we are using your information for, as outlined in this Privacy Policy. For example, if you have provided personal information to create an account with us, we may retain this information for the duration your account exists.

If your personal information is no longer required for these purposes, we will delete it or anonymize it by removing all details that identify you. However, we may retain your personal information if necessary for compliance with a legal, accounting, or reporting obligation, or for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes.

Children’s Privacy

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information about children under 13.

Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties

We may disclose personal information to:

A parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of our company
Third-party service providers for the purpose of enabling them to provide services, including (without limitation) IT service providers, data storage, hosting and server providers, ad networks, analytics, error loggers, debt collectors, maintenance or problem-solving providers, marketing providers, professional advisors, and payment systems operators
Our employees, contractors, and/or related entities
Our existing or potential agents or business partners
Credit reporting agencies, courts, tribunals, and regulatory authorities, in the event you fail to pay for goods or services 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 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
Third parties to collect and process data
An entity that buys or to which we transfer all or substantially all of our assets and business

Third parties we currently use include:

Google Analytics
LinkedIn
Hotjar
ActiveCampaign
Meta
Stripe

Your Rights and Controlling Your Personal Information

Your choice: By providing personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not provide personal information, it may affect your use of our website or products/services.
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 that person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.
Marketing permission: If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing, you can change your mind at any time by contacting us via the methods provided on our website.
Access: You may request details of the personal information that we hold about you.
Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please contact us. We will take reasonable steps to correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or out of date.
Non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights over your personal information. Unless your personal information is required to provide a particular service, we will not deny goods or services, charge different rates, or provide different levels or quality of goods or services based on the exercise of your rights.
Notification of data breaches: We will comply with laws applicable to us in respect of any data breach.
Complaints: If you believe we have breached a relevant data protection law and wish to make a complaint, please contact us with full details of the alleged breach. We will promptly investigate and respond, in writing, regarding the outcome and steps we will take to address your complaint. You also have the right to contact a regulatory body or data protection authority in relation to your complaint.
Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe from our email database or opt out of communications (including marketing communications), please contact us using the methods provided on our website. We may need to request specific information from you to help confirm your identity.

Use of Cookies

We use “cookies” to collect information about you and your activity across our site. A cookie is a small piece of data that our website stores on your computer and accesses each time you visit, so we can understand how you use our site. This helps us serve content based on your preferences.

For more information, please refer to our Cookie Policy (if applicable).

Business Transfers

If we or our assets are acquired, or in the unlikely event we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, we may include personal information among the assets transferred to any parties who acquire us. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any parties who acquire us may continue to use your personal information according to this policy (to the extent permitted by applicable law and subject to the same obligations we have).

Limits of Our Policy

Our website may link to external sites not operated by us. Please note that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.

Changes to This Policy

At our discretion, we may change our Privacy Policy to reflect updates to our business processes, current acceptable practices, or legislative or regulatory changes. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will post the changes here at the same link you are accessing this policy.

If the changes are significant, or if required by law, we will contact you (based on your selected preferences for communications) and/or all registered users with the new details. Where required by law, we will seek your permission or give you the opportunity to opt in or opt out of any new uses of your personal information.

Additional Disclosures for Australian Privacy Act Compliance (AU)

International Transfers of Personal Information

Where the disclosure of your personal information is solely subject to Australian privacy laws, you acknowledge that some third parties may not be regulated by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or the Australian Privacy Principles. If such a third party engages in any act or practice that contravenes the Australian Privacy Principles, it may not be accountable under the Privacy Act, and you may not be able to seek redress under that Act.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy, you can reach us through the methods provided on our website. We do not publish our physical address, phone number, or email address, but we will respond to queries submitted through our Contact page or any other designated channel on
https://www.thesponge.com.au.