Privacy policy

This policy explains how NextOwner handles personal information. We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988, and we only collect what we need to run the site.

• Your account: your email address, your name if you give it, your phone number if you give it (only we see it), whether you want news and offers from us, and your password, which is stored in a scrambled form we can't read.
• Your ads: what you put in a listing, broker profile, franchise ad or pitch, including photos, videos and the contact details you choose to show.
• Enquiries and messages: the name, email, phone number, budget and message you send to an advertiser or to us. We also keep reports you make about ads.
• Payments: what you paid for, the amount and the date. Stripe handles your card. We never see or store your full card number.
• Search alerts: the searches you ask us to email you about.
• How the site is used: pages viewed, the website you came from, your device type and country. We don't use cookies for this, and we don't store your IP address. Each visitor is counted using a one-way code made from their connection details and the date, which changes every day and can't be turned back into who you are. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, we don't count your visit at all.
• Security: to stop spam and bots, forms use Cloudflare Turnstile, and we count attempts using a one-way code made from your IP address.

• to run your account and show your ads
• to pass your enquiry or message to the advertiser you contacted
• to check ads against our ad rules, and deal with reports
• to take payments and process refunds
• to send search alerts you've asked for
• to keep the site secure and stop spam, scams and misuse
• to understand which pages people use, so we can improve the site
• to meet our legal obligations, such as keeping tax records

A person reviews every ad before it goes live, and a person decides whether to decline or take one down. Our forms flag possible problems automatically while you type, such as a phone number in an ad's description, but those warnings don't decide anything.

• Advertisers: when you send an enquiry or message, the advertiser gets your details so they can reply.
• Everyone: your ads are public, including any contact details you choose to show in them.
• Companies that help us run the site: Supabase (database, file storage and sign-in, with our data stored in Sydney), Vercel (hosting), Stripe (payments), Cloudflare (bot checks) and, once email is switched on, Resend (sending email). Some of these companies are based overseas, mainly in the United States, and may handle information outside Australia. They may only use it to provide their service to us.
• When the law requires it, for example to respond to a court order or to help stop a scam.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers for marketing.

We only use cookies that the site needs to work: to keep you signed in and to keep your account secure. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

We send emails about your account, ads and payments (such as a new enquiry, a reminder before a free listing comes down or an annual plan renews, or a change to your sign-in details), and the search alerts you ask for. Every search alert has a link to stop it. We only send news and offers if you tick the box when you sign up or on your account page. Every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link, and you can untick the box any time.

Information is encrypted when it travels between your device and the site. Access rules in our database mean people can only see their own private information, and admin access needs a password and an authenticator code. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the law requires.

• Account and ad information: until you delete your account or the ad.
• Payment records: 5 years, because tax law requires it. When you delete your account, they're no longer linked to you.
• Usage counts: these don't identify you, and we keep them to see how the site changes over time.

You can edit your ads and see your payments on My account, and delete your account there at any time.

To ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, or to have it corrected, use the contact form and choose “My personal information”. We'll reply within 30 days.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, tell us through the contact form and we'll look into it. If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

We'll update this page if anything changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed.