Privacy Policy

AustralianCourses (australiancourses.com.au) is operated by Career FAQs Pty Ltd t/as Course Finder Group Pty Ltd (ABN: 39 299 617 067) ("we", "us", "our"). We are committed to protecting the personal information of everyone who uses our platform, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

This Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and disclose it, and your rights in relation to it. By using AustralianCourses, you consent to the practices described in this Policy.

If you have any questions, please contact us at privacy@australiancourses.com.au.

Students and Enquirers

When you submit an enquiry through our platform, we collect:

• Your name, email address, and phone number
• Your citizenship or residency status (for example, Australian citizen, permanent resident, or international student)
• Your nationality (for international student enquiries)
• The course or courses you are enquiring about
• The content of your enquiry message
• Your IP address and general location

Training Providers

When you claim or create a provider account, we collect:

• Business name, ABN, RTO code, and CRICOS code (where applicable)
• Contact person name, email address, and phone number
• Billing information (processed via Stripe — see Section 6)
• Subscription plan details and lead delivery preferences
• Provider portal usage data

All Website Visitors

We automatically collect the following when you visit our platform:

• IP address, browser type, and operating system
• Pages visited, time on site, and referral source
• Cookie identifiers and session data (see Section 9)

We collect personal information:

• Directly from you, when you submit an enquiry, create or claim a provider account, or contact us
• Automatically, through cookies and analytics tools when you browse the platform
• From government open data sources (training.gov.au, CRICOS, CourseSeeker, and state funding program data) for course and provider information displayed on the platform
• Via our MCP endpoint, when an AI agent acts on your behalf to submit an enquiry — the same collection practices apply in this case

For students and enquirers, we use your information to:

• Transmit your enquiry to the relevant training provider
• Display relevant government funding and eligibility information
• Improve and personalise your experience on the platform
• Respond to any support requests
• Provide you with access to special offers from trusted career and education-related marketing partners

For training providers, we use your information to:

• Manage your provider account and claimed listing
• Deliver student enquiry leads to you
• Process subscription and lead payments
• Provide analytics on your listing and enquiry performance
• Send account and billing communications

For all users, we use collected data to:

• Maintain the security and integrity of the platform
• Monitor and improve platform performance
• Comply with our legal obligations

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Training providers — student enquiry data (name, email, phone, course interest, and citizenship status) is transmitted to the provider you enquire with. Providers are required to handle this information in accordance with applicable privacy law and their own privacy policies.
• Stripe Inc — for payment processing on provider subscription and lead billing. Stripe operates from the United States. Please review Stripe's privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy.
• Google LLC — we use Google Analytics 4 for platform analytics. Google operates from the United States. Data transmitted to Google Analytics is subject to Google's privacy policy.
• Cloudflare Inc — for content delivery and platform security. Cloudflare operates from the United States.
• Government agencies and regulators — where required or authorised by law.
• Professional advisers — such as legal, accounting, or technology services providers, subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

We do not sell your personal information to any third party.

Note:

A Provider with an active Lead capture plan on AustralianCourses will automatically, by default, have its activated course listings added across Course Finder Group's 4-site course-comparison and lead-generation network, including its other lead-generation sites: CareerFAQs, CourseFinder, StudySelect.

As noted in Section 5, some of the third parties to whom we disclose personal information are based outside Australia, primarily in the United States (Stripe, Google, Cloudflare).

We take reasonable steps to ensure these overseas recipients handle personal information in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. By using AustralianCourses, you acknowledge and consent to the disclosure of your personal information to overseas recipients as described in this Policy.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. These measures include secure HTTPS transmission, access controls, and the use of PCI-DSS-compliant payment processing through Stripe (we do not store full payment card details).

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of information transmitted to or stored on our platform.

We retain personal information and access-log/IP data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which this data was collected, or as required by law. In practice:

• Student enquiry data is retained for up to two years for analytics and dispute resolution purposes, after which it is de-identified or deleted.
• Provider account data is retained for the duration of the account relationship and for seven years thereafter for tax and legal compliance purposes.
• Access-log/IP data is retained for ~12 months for third-party scraper detection purposes
• You may request deletion of your personal information at any time (see Section 10).

Our platform uses the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies — required for the platform to function (for example, session authentication for provider accounts). These cannot be disabled without affecting functionality.
• Analytics cookies — we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use the platform. This data is aggregated and used to improve the user experience. You can opt out via your browser settings or Google's opt-out tools.

You can configure your browser to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being set. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the platform, particularly provider portal features.

AustralianCourses operates an MCP (Model Context Protocol) endpoint that enables AI agents — such as AI assistants — to interact with the platform on behalf of users. When an AI agent submits an enquiry on your behalf:

• The same personal information collection, use, and disclosure practices described in this Policy apply.
• The AI agent is expected to have obtained your consent before submitting personal information.
• We record the source of enquiries (including AI agent attribution) for analytics and reporting purposes.

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of personal information that is inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete
• Request deletion of your personal information, subject to our legal retention obligations

To make a request, please contact us at privacy@australiancourses.com.au with sufficient information to identify yourself. We will respond within 30 days. In some circumstances, we may be unable to provide access or delete information — for example, where doing so would unreasonably interfere with the privacy of another person, or where we have a legal obligation to retain the information. We will explain any such limitations in our response.

If you believe we have handled your personal information in a way that breaches the Privacy Act 1988 or the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us in the first instance at privacy@australiancourses.com.au. We will investigate and respond 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):

• Website: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
• Phone: 1300 363 992

We may update and amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this Policy and, where appropriate, notify provider account holders by email. Your continued use of the platform after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

For all privacy-related enquiries, please contact:

Course Finder Group Pty Ltd

Email:

privacy@australiancourses.com.au

Website:

australiancourses.com.au

This Policy is governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia.