1. About This Policy

AquaBlueprint Pty Ltd ("AquaBlueprint", "we", "us", "our") operates the AquaBlueprint aquaculture system design platform, the aquablueprint.com.au website, the supplier and consultant directory, and related services (together, "the Platform"). This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use, hold and disclose it, and how you can access or correct it or make a complaint.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

AquaBlueprint is related to LoTech Aquaculture Pty Ltd (ABN 54 684 981 039), which provides staff, consulting services and the email accounts we use to respond to you. LoTech staff working on AquaBlueprint's behalf are bound by this policy.

Individual use of the Platform is free. We do not sell personal information.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

2.1 Information you give us

• Account information: your name, email address and password (stored only as a one-way hash), and, if you choose to give them, your organisation, phone number, region and a short profile. We record when you accepted our terms, when you confirmed your age, and whether you agreed to receive marketing emails.
• Your designs: the designs, projects and inputs you enter (such as species, production targets, system parameters, site details and financial assumptions) and the results the Platform calculates. We treat these as your confidential information.
• Enquiries and messages: when you send a quote request, a design or consulting enquiry, a contact message or feedback, your name, contact details and what you tell us, and a copy of a design if you choose to attach one.
• Institutional licences: the names and contact details of the people who arrange and administer a licence for an institution, and billing contact details for invoicing.
• Directory listings: the business and contact details a supplier or consultant submits for its listing.

2.2 Information collected automatically

When you are signed in, we record when you are active on the Platform and the main actions you take, such as signing in, verifying your email address, running a calculation, saving a design, creating a project, exporting a report and sending an enquiry. We use this to run, secure and improve the Platform.

Whether or not you are signed in, we record views and clicks on sponsored placements and clicks through to directory listings. For these records we keep a one-way hash of your IP address, used to filter out automated and duplicate traffic, and not the IP address itself.

Our web server and security systems log IP addresses and browser information for security and abuse prevention. Web server access logs are kept for 14 days. System logs may be kept longer for troubleshooting.

2.3 Payment information

We do not collect or store payment card numbers. Paid individual subscriptions, which have ended, were processed by Stripe, which holds the card details. Institutional licences are invoiced and paid by the methods shown on the invoice.

2.4 Sensitive information

We do not ask for sensitive information (such as health, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious information) and ask that you do not include it in your designs, enquiries or messages.

3. How We Use Personal Information

We use personal information to:

• provide the Platform, including calculations, design reports, saved designs and projects;
• create and secure your account, verify your email address and prevent misuse, fraud and automated abuse;
• respond to enquiries, quote requests, feedback and support requests;
• run institutional licences, including giving teachers and course coordinators access to their own students' designs (section 7);
• publish directory listings and show sponsored placements (section 4);
• understand how the Platform is used so we can improve its accuracy, performance and features;
• send service messages (such as verification, security and account notices) and, if you have agreed, news and marketing emails (section 11); and
• comply with our legal obligations and resolve disputes.

We may use de-identified or aggregated information for analysis, research and platform development, and to describe the Platform's use to others. Aggregated figures do not identify any individual.

4. Analytics, the Directory and Sponsored Placements

The usage information in section 2.2 is collected and stored by AquaBlueprint in our own database. It is not sent to an outside analytics or advertising service, and the Platform does not use third-party analytics or advertising tags.

Users who are not using the Platform under an institutional licence see sponsored placements, labelled "Sponsored". Placements are chosen by their position on the page, not by a profile of you. Sponsors and directory businesses do not receive information that identifies you.

Enquiries, quote requests and contact messages you send through the Platform go to AquaBlueprint only, and are handled by AquaBlueprint and LoTech staff. We do not pass them to directory businesses. If we offer that in future, we will ask you first, each time, and update this policy before we do.

If you click a sponsored placement or a link in a directory listing, you leave the Platform and the other business's own privacy policy applies.

5. Who We Disclose Personal Information To

We disclose personal information only as described in this policy. The service providers we use are engaged to provide their service to us and handle information under their own contractual terms.

We may also disclose personal information to our professional advisers, to a buyer or successor if all or part of our business is sold or restructured (in which case this policy will continue to apply), and to courts, regulators or law enforcement where we are required or authorised by law.

We do not send your designs, enquiries or other inputs to artificial intelligence or large language model services.

6. Overseas Disclosure

Some of the service providers in section 5 hold or process information outside Australia, mainly in the United States. Before we use an overseas provider we take reasonable steps to ensure it handles personal information in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through its contractual commitments.

7. Students and Young People

Individual accounts are only for people aged 18 or over, and registration asks you to confirm your age. Anyone under 18 may use the Platform only through a student account under a licence held by their school, college, university or training provider ("institution"). Because we cannot verify age, we treat every student account as potentially belonging to a minor, whatever the student's actual age.

For a student account we collect only the student's name and email address, the institution and the class or course they are enrolled in, and the designs they create. For student accounts:

• no usage, click-through or advertising records are collected;
• the student cannot send quote requests, enquiries, contact messages or feedback, to AquaBlueprint or anyone else;
• the student is not offered, and does not receive, marketing emails, and does not see sponsored placements; and
• the student's information is available only to AquaBlueprint staff operating the Platform and to the teachers and course coordinators at the student's own institution, who can see the designs the student saves.

When a student's access ends, because the institution removes the seat or its licence ends, the account is locked and stays outside the records above until its holder confirms they are 18 or over, and it then becomes an individual account. If they do not confirm, the account and its designs are deleted 90 days after the access ended. We send a warning email first, and the holder can download a copy of their designs while the account is locked. If the licence is renewed in that time, the account continues as before.

The institution decides who is enrolled and is responsible for obtaining any consent needed from the student or their parent or guardian. Teacher and course coordinator accounts are adult accounts and are treated as other users.

8. How We Hold and Protect Personal Information

We store data on secure servers and apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it, including access controls, encryption where appropriate, passwords stored only as one-way hashes, and bot protection on public forms.

No online system can guarantee absolute protection. If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

9. How Long We Keep Personal Information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy or as required by law, then delete or de-identify it. Accounts whose email address is never verified are deleted after 30 days, with a warning email beforehand. Former student accounts are handled as described in section 7.

10. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We do not use advertising or third-party analytics cookies. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but blocking the session cookie stops you signing in.

11. Marketing Communications

We send marketing emails, such as news about the Platform and new features, only if you have agreed to receive them. You can opt out at any time by contacting us. We will still send service messages about your account and your designs, which are not marketing.

12. Automated Processing

The Platform performs automated calculations on the design inputs you enter to produce design outputs. These are a design aid for you; they are not decisions about you. We do not use personal information in computer programs to make decisions that could significantly affect your rights or interests.

13. Your Rights

You may ask us to:

• give you access to the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading;
• close your account and delete your personal information, subject to any records we must keep by law; or
• stop sending you marketing emails.

Contact us using the details in section 17. We will need to confirm your identity, and we aim to respond within 30 days. We do not charge for a request. If we refuse a request, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain.

14. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us using the details in section 17. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and give you a written response within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992).

15. Third-Party Links

The Platform links to external websites, including those of directory businesses and sponsors. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at aquablueprint.com.au/privacy, with the date it was last updated. We will notify registered users of material changes through the Platform or by email.

17. Contact Us