Handballed Pty Ltd (ABN: 26 699 475 075) operates handballed.com.au - an Australian professional services marketplace that connects small and medium business owners with verified expert consultants.
This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we store and protect it, and your rights in relation to it.
If you have any questions, contact us at hello@handballed.com.au
From customers (people posting briefs)
- First name, last name, business name
- Email address and phone number
- State or territory
- Description of the business problem or situation you need help with
- Urgency and category of your request
From expert consultants (providers)
- First name, last name, business name
- Email address and phone number
- Professional category and location
- Hourly rate
- Australian Business Number (ABN), and the business name and status recorded for it on the Australian Business Register
- Verification documents you upload: photo ID, professional indemnity insurance certificate (including its expiry date) and evidence of credentials
- The names and email addresses of the referees you nominate, and the references they provide to us
- Star ratings and written reviews from clients
From both parties
- Messages sent between matched customers and consultants through the platform
- Invoice and payment records
- Account login information (your email address; we sign you in with an emailed link, so there is no password)
Technical information
- Browser type and device information
- IP address and general location
- Pages visited and time spent on the platform
We collect personal information only for the purposes of operating the Handballed platform. Specifically:
- To match you with the right expert. Your brief, first name and business name are shared with verified consultants in the relevant category. Your email address and phone number are not shared: all contact happens through Handballed messaging.
- To verify consultants. We collect professional credentials to confirm that experts on the platform are qualified and appropriately insured.
- To facilitate communication. Messages sent through our platform are stored to support the ongoing conversation between customers and their matched consultant.
- To process payments. Invoice and payment records are maintained for accounting and dispute resolution purposes.
- To send notifications. We email you when a brief is matched, when a message arrives, or when an invoice is ready. These are operational notifications, not marketing.
- To improve the platform. We analyse usage patterns to understand how the platform is being used and where it can be improved.
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following circumstances:
Matched consultants
When you post a brief, verified consultants in that category can see the brief along with your first name, business name and state. Consultants you are matched with can also see your last name and message you through the platform. Your email address and phone number are kept by Handballed and are not shown to consultants. Consultants' names, profiles and credentials are shown to the businesses they are matched with.
Our technology partners
- Supabase: our database provider, which stores platform data on secure servers
- Stripe: our payment processor, which handles all payment transactions
- Resend: our email delivery provider, which sends platform notifications
- Netlify: our hosting provider, which serves the Handballed website
- Anthropic: provides the AI model behind our brief intake chat and portfolio builder. What you type into those chats is sent to Anthropic to generate a reply
- Australian Business Register: we check consultants' ABNs against the public register when they join and every six months
Each of these providers maintains their own privacy policies and security standards appropriate to their role. Our database is hosted in Sydney, Australia. Some of these providers (including Stripe, Resend, Netlify and Anthropic) may store or process information outside Australia, including in the United States.
Legal requirements
We may disclose personal information where required by law, court order, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of any person.
Your personal information is stored in a secure database provided by Supabase, hosted on cloud infrastructure in accordance with industry security standards. We implement the following protections:
- All data is transmitted over encrypted HTTPS connections
- There are no passwords to steal: sign-in is by a one-time link sent to your email
- Verification documents are stored in a private storage area that only our verification team can open
- Row-level security policies ensure each user can only access their own data
- Administrative access is limited to named Handballed staff
- Payment card data is never stored on our platform - it is handled entirely by Stripe
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide the services you've requested and to meet our legal obligations:
- Active accounts: Retained while your account remains active
- Brief and invoice records: Retained for 7 years for accounting and tax purposes in accordance with Australian law
- Platform messages: Retained for 2 years after the relevant job is marked complete
- Verification documents and references: Retained while the expert's account is active, and deleted when the account is closed unless retention is required by law
- Closed accounts: Personal information deleted within 30 days of a written deletion request, except where retention is required by law
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you have the right to:
- Access your information. You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct your information. If any information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, you can ask us to correct it.
- Delete your account. You can request that we delete your account and the personal information associated with it, subject to any legal retention requirements.
- Opt out of notifications. You can ask us to stop sending you email notifications at any time by contacting us directly.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@handballed.com.au. We will respond within 30 days.
Handballed uses only functional cookies necessary to keep you logged in and maintain your session. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or behavioural advertising tools.
We use basic analytics to understand how the platform is being used. This data is aggregated and does not identify individual users.
If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, please contact us first at hello@handballed.com.au and we will endeavour to resolve your concern within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the date below and where the changes are material, we will notify registered users by email. Continued use of the platform after changes are published constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.