Privacy policy

What this policy covers

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who we give it to, and how you can see it, correct it or have it deleted. It covers this website and the emails we send. It also covers the information we hold about conveyancing firms.

We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect from you

The answers you give us. To match you to conveyancers, we ask whether you are buying or selling, whether the property is residential or commercial, the suburb and postcode of the property, the type of property, how far along you are, whether you have finance pre-approval, and when you need a conveyancer.

Your email address. We ask for this at the last step, and it is optional — leave it blank and your comparison is shown just the same. What we use it for is set out below. The comparison never asks for your name; the only place we ask for one is the contact form, so that a reply can be addressed to a person.

Where we cover. We cover Australia — every state and internal territory, and the Indian Ocean territories.

What your browser tells us. Our hosting provider records the ordinary details of every visit — the pages requested, the time, the browser and device, and the IP address the request came from. We use this to keep the site running and to detect abuse.

What you send us through the contact form. If you write to us from the contact page, we collect your name, your email address and your message, and we record which of the two forms you used so that a privacy request is not lost among general feedback. We keep it so we can answer you and so we have a record of what was asked and what we did about it. We do not add you to any marketing list because you wrote to us.

Which conveyancers you click. When you click through to a firm, we record that click against a random identifier for your visit, together with the answers you gave. This tells us which kinds of search send visitors to which firms, which is how the service pays for itself.

What we never collect

We do not ask for, and you should never send us, any of the following:

• The street address of the property.
• Your own home address, your date of birth, or your phone number.
• Identity documents, bank account or card details, or tax or Medicare numbers.
• Health information, or anything else the Privacy Act treats as sensitive information. We do not ask why you are selling. The comparison has one box you can type into — the type of property, if you choose "Other" — and it is for the kind of property, nothing else; the contact form has one too, and it asks you not to put that kind of detail in it.

If you send us sensitive information anyway, or information we could not have asked you for, we will delete it once we notice it.

Why we collect it

• To match you to conveyancers and show you the comparison.
• To follow up with you once, if you gave us your email address, to ask how your conveyancing went and how the firm you chose performed. Giving us the address is how you agree to that message, and every message has an unsubscribe link.
• To send you news and updates about Conveyancer Compared — only if you tick the box asking for that. The box starts empty, and you can stop at any time.
• To answer a message you sent us through the contact form, and to keep a record of what was asked and what we did about it.
• To understand how the comparison is used and improve it.
• To keep the site secure and detect misuse.
• To meet our legal obligations, or where the law requires or authorises the disclosure.

We will not use your information for anything else without asking you first.

What we do not do with it

We do not give your details to conveyancers. Clicking a result takes you to that firm's own website in a new tab. We do not send it your email address, your answers, or anything else. If you want that firm to know who you are, you tell it yourself. It follows that we cannot be paid per lead, because we do not deliver leads.

We do not sell, rent or licence your information. Not to conveyancers, not to marketing companies, not to anyone. There is no exception to this sentence.

We do not use your information to train or prompt AI systems.

We do not run advertising pixels or third-party tracking cookies, so we cannot follow you around other websites and neither can anyone else through us.

Cookies and analytics

We use a small amount of storage in your browser to hold your answers while you move through the questions. It stays on your device and is cleared when your session ends.

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count visits and see where people stop. It does not use cookies and does not identify individual visitors — we see totals, not people. Vercel is based in the United States.

We do not use Google Analytics, advertising pixels, session recording or heatmaps. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; nothing on this site depends on them.

Emails from us

Two different things, and we keep them apart. If you give us your email address we will follow up once to ask how your conveyancing went and how the firm you chose performed — that is the reason we ask for it, and giving us the address is how you agree to it. Separately, we will only send you news about the service if you tick the box asking for that; the box starts empty, so if you leave it alone you will get the follow-up and nothing else. Both kinds of message carry an unsubscribe link, and we never make seeing your results conditional on either.

Every message we send carries an unsubscribe link and identifies us as the sender, as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) requires. Unsubscribing stops the emails; if you also want your details deleted, ask us and we will delete them.

We do not send marketing by SMS and we do not make marketing phone calls.

When you write to us

The contact page has two forms — one for general enquiries and feedback, one for privacy questions and complaints.

What we collect. Your name, your email address, your message, and which of the two forms you used. We record which form you used so that a privacy request is not lost among general feedback — a request about your own information has obligations attached to it that a note about the service does not.

Please leave sensitive details out of it. A message box is open-ended, so we say this plainly rather than relying on you to guess: do not send us health information, financial or identity details, or anything else the Privacy Act treats as sensitive. We do not need any of it to answer you. If you send it anyway, we will delete it once we notice it, and we will not use it for anything in the meantime.

What we use it for. Answering you, and keeping a record of what was asked and what we did about it. That record is how a complaint can be followed up rather than taken on trust. We do not use anything you send us to market to you, and writing to us never adds you to a mailing list — the marketing consent lives on the comparison form and does not reach across to here.

Who sees it. Us, and our database provider, which stores it in Australia. We never pass a message, or the fact that you sent one, to a conveyancer or to anyone else, on the same footing as everything else in this policy.

How long we keep it. Two years, so we have a record of what was asked and what we did about it, then we delete it. Ask sooner and your messages go with everything else we hold about you, within 30 days.

Who else handles your information

We use a small number of service providers to run the site. They handle information on our instructions and for no other purpose:

• Our hosting and analytics provider, Vercel, a United States company. Visit logs and aggregate analytics are handled by it.
• Our database provider, which stores your answers, your email address and any message you send us through the contact form, in Australia.
• Our email delivery provider, Resend, a United States company, which sends messages using Amazon Simple Email Service in Japan. It handles the contact-form messages we send to ourselves and any email we send you.

We may also disclose information where an Australian law, a court or a tribunal requires it, or where it is reasonably necessary for a law enforcement activity. If our business is ever sold or transferred, information held by it may transfer with it, and the buyer will be bound by this policy or one no less protective.

Where your information is stored

Your answers, your email address and any message you send us through the contact form are stored in Australia. Some of it is handled in the United States and in Japan by the providers named above. Where information is handled outside Australia we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

How we protect it

Everything you send us travels over an encrypted connection, and is encrypted where it is stored. Access is limited to the people who need it to run the service, which today is a very short list.

If a data breach happens that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act requires.

How long we keep it

Your email address is deleted about a month after we send you the follow-up message, because that is the only thing we collected it for. Your answers stay, without anything that identifies you. Anything you send us through the contact form is kept for two years so we have a record of what was asked and what we did about it, then deleted. You can ask us to delete any of it sooner — ask, and we will do it within 30 days and confirm that we have.

If you unsubscribe, we keep a record that you did, indefinitely. That record is what stops us emailing you again, so deleting it would undo your decision. It holds nothing but your email address and the date.

We keep the count of how many times each conveyancer was clicked indefinitely, because that is the record the business runs on. Those counts are totals only and are not connected to you.

Using the site without telling us who you are

You can use the whole comparison without identifying yourself. We ask for an email address at the last step, but it is optional — leave it blank and your results are shown just the same. An email address is the only thing the comparison ever asks about you; it never asks for your name.

The contact form is the one place we ask for a name, because a reply has to be addressed to someone. You do not have to use the form: the same two addresses are published on the contact page, and writing to them directly reaches us the same way.

Information about conveyancers and solicitors

Our directory holds records for conveyancing firms across Australia. Many of those firms are sole traders, so their business details are also personal information about a person, and this section explains how we handle them.

Where it comes from. The NSW Fair Trading register of licensed conveyancers, the register of licensed conveyancers published by Consumer Affairs Victoria, the register of settlement agents published by the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety in Western Australia, the Northern Territory Government's public register of conveyancing agents licensed by the Agents Licensing Board, and firms' own public websites. Not every state or territory contributes a register. Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory do not license conveyancers at all, and the South Australian and Tasmanian registers are not available to us, so every Queensland, ACT, South Australian and Tasmanian record comes from the firm's own public website and from nowhere else. Victorian solicitors also come from firms' own websites, because the Victorian register covers licensed conveyancers only. We record where each detail came from and the date we checked it, and we show that date beside anything we publish.

What we hold. Business name, trading name, business address and service area, licence number and status, ABN and ACN where the register publishes them, business phone number and website, the kinds of work the firm says it does, and any fee it advertises publicly. We do not publish anything about a firm that the firm or a public register has not already published.

Why. So that consumers can compare conveyancers, and so we can tell a firm how many people clicked through to it.

If you are a listed firm. Write to us at conveyancercompared@outlook.com.au and we will correct anything that is wrong, or remove your listing entirely, at your request.

Seeing, correcting and deleting your information

Write to us at conveyancercompared@outlook.com.au and you can ask us to give you a copy of what we hold about you, correct anything that is wrong, or delete it. Deletion means all of it — your answers, your email address, the record of which conveyancers you clicked, and any message you have sent us through the contact form. We will respond within 30 days and we do not charge a fee.

There are narrow situations where the Privacy Act allows us to refuse access — for example where giving it would unreasonably affect someone else's privacy. If we ever refuse, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain about it.

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your personal information, write to us at conveyancercompared@outlook.com.au. We will investigate and respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.

Children

This service is for people buying or selling property and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will publish the new version here and change the version number and date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you before it takes effect.

Who we are

Conveyancer Compared (ABN 41 906 406 247) is a comparison service. It asks you a short set of questions about your property transaction and shows you conveyancers and solicitors who match. It is not a law practice, it does not provide legal services or legal advice, and it does not act for you.

Contact us

Privacy enquiries, access and correction requests, and complaints: conveyancercompared@outlook.com.au.