Privacy policy

Book A Local (part of the NearMe network) collects the minimum personal information needed to run an Australian classifieds and local services marketplace. This page says what that is, plainly, and follows the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

Account: your email address, name, phone number and password (stored hashed). Profile: a username and, for business sellers, a supplied trading name and ABN used for account classification. The public profile shows the trading name and optional seller-controlled business details, but not the ABN number itself. Book A Local does not independently verify ABR ownership at launch. Listings and messages: the goods or services you list, the photos you upload, and the enquiry messages you send or receive through the site. Technical: the IP address of enquiry submissions and basic device and browser information, kept for security, abuse prevention and to understand how the site is used, and never shown to other users.

What it is used for

Running the marketplace: showing your listings, delivering enquiry messages between buyers and sellers, notification emails about your own activity (enquiries, replies, expiry warnings, search alerts you set up), and preventing abuse. We do not sell personal information. We send marketing or remarketing from Book A Local and the NearMe Ads network only when you separately opt in to the selected email or SMS channel.

Marketing consent is optional, off by default, and separate from service messages, listing enquiries and public phone display. We keep an immutable record of each grant or withdrawal, including its wording version and source. You can withdraw email or SMS marketing consent in Account preferences; an active NearMe network suppression or opt-out always prevents marketing in that channel.

Enquiries and bookings

When you enquire on a listing or ask to book a service, we pass your message and the contact details you choose to share to the seller or provider you contacted, so they can respond. We do not pass your details to any other seller, and a seller cannot see who else has enquired on their listing beyond that conversation.

Retention

We keep account, listing and message data for as long as your account is open and for a reasonable period afterwards to meet legal, accounting and dispute obligations. Closing your account does not immediately delete messages the other party to a conversation holds their own copy of.

Cookies and analytics

We use essential cookies to keep you logged in and to keep the site secure; the site does not work without them. Vercel, which hosts the site, may record standard server logs (such as IP address and pages requested) as part of running the infrastructure.

Who processes it

Data is hosted with Supabase (database and authentication), payments are processed by Stripe (we never see your card number), transactional email is sent through Resend, and the site runs on Vercel. Each processes data only to provide their service to us.

All four are based in the United States, so your personal information is stored and processed outside Australia, principally in the United States.

What other users see

Your public identity is your username or business name. Your email address is never shown to other users. A phone number is only ever shown on a listing if you explicitly turn it on for that listing, and it is never published automatically. When you enquire on a listing, the seller sees your display name, your message, and a phone number only if you chose to share one.

Access, correction and deletion

You can edit your profile and listings from your account. To access, correct or delete anything else, including closing your account entirely, email support@bookalocalau.com and we will action it promptly.

Contact and complaints

Privacy questions or complaints: support@bookalocalau.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).