Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 July 2026

This policy explains how Real Reviews ("we", "us") collects, uses and protects your personal information, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

1. What we collect

• Account information — your name or display name, email address and password.
• Verification information — if you choose to become a verified reviewer, identity documents you submit and the outcome of our verification checks.
• Review content — your reviews, ratings, and any evidence you attach (such as receipts, invoices or photos).
• Usage information — standard technical data such as pages visited and approximate location derived from your IP address, used to run and secure the service.

2. How we use it

• To operate your account and publish your reviews.
• To verify your identity and your purchases so your reviews can be classified as "Real".
• To moderate content, prevent fraud and rating manipulation, and enforce our Terms of Use.
• To communicate with you about your account, verification, and reviews.

3. Identity documents and evidence

• Identity documents are used solely to verify that you are a real person. They are reviewed by our verification team, are never displayed publicly, and are never shared with the businesses you review.
• Purchase evidence (receipts, invoices, photos) is used to confirm a genuine transaction. We recommend redacting payment card numbers and other unnecessary details before uploading.
• Verification material is retained only as long as needed for verification and audit purposes, and is stored with access restricted to authorised staff.

4. What's public

Your published reviews, your display name, and your verification status (the badge, not the underlying documents) are public. Your email address, identity documents and evidence are not.

5. Disclosure

• We do not sell personal information.
• We share information with service providers who help us run the platform (such as hosting and email delivery), under obligations of confidentiality.
• We may disclose information where required by law — for example in response to a court order — or to protect the safety of users or the integrity of the platform.

6. Cookies

We use cookies necessary for the site to function, such as keeping you logged in and protecting forms against cross-site request forgery.

7. Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, including encryption in transit and restricted access to verification material.

8. Access, correction and deletion

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information by contacting us. You can withdraw or unpublish your own reviews at any time from your account.

9. Complaints

If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, contact us first and we will respond within a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

10. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: [email protected].