Privacy Policy

Seed ("Seed", "we", "us", "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, hold, disclose and protect personal information when you visit our website, enquire with us, or use our services across Australia and New Zealand.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles in Australia, and the Privacy Act 2020 in New Zealand. Where we handle information for both countries, we apply the standard that gives your information the greater protection.

1. Who we are

Seed is the trading name of Seed Marketing Group Limited (SeedMGL), a New Zealand company (NZBN 9429047483255). Seed provides virtual reception and digital services including websites, systems, AI training, and email and billboard marketing, to businesses across Australia and New Zealand, operating from local offices in Sydney, Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand.

2. The personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

• Contact and enquiry details you give us through our website forms, our free-trial and quote forms, our Missed Call Calculator lead capture, by phone, or by email. This typically includes your name and phone number, and where you provide them, your email address, business name, location (Australia or New Zealand), the service you are interested in, and any details in your message.
• Customer and account information if you become a client, including the details we need to set up and deliver your service, billing information, and the way you want your calls, messages and work handled.
• Information we handle on behalf of our clients when we deliver our services. For example, when we answer calls as your business we record your callers' details and messages; when we run email campaigns we manage the contact lists you provide.
• Technical and usage information collected automatically when you use our website, such as your IP address, device and browser type, pages visited, and how you found us, through cookies and similar technologies (see section 5).

We do not intentionally collect sensitive information through our website. If sensitive information is provided to us in the course of delivering a service, we handle it with additional care and only for the purpose it was given.

3. How we collect personal information

We collect personal information:

• Directly from you when you complete a form, call us, email us, or engage us as a client.
• Automatically when you use our website, through cookies and analytics tools.
• Indirectly, from our clients or other sources, when it is necessary to deliver a service. For example, a client may provide a contact list for an email campaign, or a caller's details may be captured when we answer a client's phones. Where we collect your information from someone other than you, we take reasonable steps to make you aware of that collection and of this policy, as soon as reasonably practicable, in line with our obligations in Australia and New Zealand (including New Zealand's Information Privacy Principle 3A).

4. Why we collect, hold and use personal information

We use personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and contact you about it;
• set up, provide, manage and improve our services to you;
• answer calls, take messages, and carry out the front-office, email and billboard work you engage us for;
• process billing and payments;
• operate, maintain and improve our website and understand how it is used;
• send you information about our services where you have asked for it or where we are permitted to, and always with a way to opt out (see section 9);
• meet our legal, regulatory and record-keeping obligations.

We only use your information for the purposes for which it was collected, for a directly related purpose you would reasonably expect, or where you have consented, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

5. Cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to help it work, to remember your preferences, and to measure how the site performs. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand website traffic and usage, and Google Ads conversion tracking to measure the performance of our advertising. These are the only analytics and advertising tools we use.

These tools may set cookies and collect information such as your IP address and on-site activity. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect how parts of the website function.

6. When we disclose personal information

We do not sell your personal information. We may disclose it to:

• Our service providers, who help us run our business and website, such as hosting and infrastructure providers, our email delivery provider, our analytics and advertising providers (Google), our billboard booking platform (YouDooh), and payment providers. They are only permitted to use your information to provide their services to us.
• Within Seed, between our Australian and New Zealand operations, so we can deliver and support your service.
• Our clients, where we have collected information while providing a service on their behalf (for example, passing a caller's message to the client whose phones we answer).
• Others where you would expect it or have consented, and to third parties where we are required or authorised by law, or to protect our rights, property or safety or those of others.

7. Storing and sending information overseas

Seed operates in both Australia and New Zealand, and some of our service providers store or process information on servers that may be located outside your country. This means:

• information about Australian customers may be accessed or held in New Zealand, and information about New Zealand customers may be accessed or held in Australia; and
• some cloud and technology providers we use may store information in other countries.

Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles and the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, and remains appropriately protected.

8. How we hold and protect your information

We store enquiry and customer information in secure systems, and every website enquiry is recorded in our database. We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, and we limit access to those who need it to do their work.

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or for as long as the law requires. When it is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to securely destroy it or permanently de-identify it.

9. Direct marketing and your choices

We may contact you about our services where you have enquired with us or where we are otherwise permitted to. Every marketing message includes a simple way to opt out, and you can ask us at any time to stop sending you marketing by contacting us using the details in section 11. We do not use your information for marketing in a way you would not reasonably expect.

10. Accessing and correcting your information

You have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if it is wrong, out of date, incomplete or misleading. To make a request, contact us using the details in section 11. We may need to verify your identity first. We will respond within a reasonable time and in line with our obligations in Australia and New Zealand. If we cannot give you access or make a correction, we will explain why.

11. Contact us, and how to make a complaint

If you have a question about this policy, want to access or correct your information, or wish to make a privacy complaint, please contact us:

• Privacy contact: info@seedmgl.com
• Australia: 02 9139 3925
• New Zealand: 03 595 6830

We take complaints seriously. If you make a complaint, we will acknowledge it, look into it, and respond to you within a reasonable time. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the relevant regulator:

• Australia: the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), at oaic.gov.au.
• New Zealand: the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, at privacy.org.nz.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The current version is always available on our website, and the effective date at the top shows when it was last updated. Significant changes will be made clear on this page.