The scatter-gun founder (and how I fixed it)

Last updated August 2022

If you are visiting this page, you may have been directed here from one of our other sites. We have a firm and continuing commitment to the privacy of personal information provided by those visiting and interacting with any website controlled by VirtualDOO PTY LTD and have created this policy to apply across our various websites and apps.

We hold the privacy of your personal information in the highest regard and this privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our sites to enable you to make informed decisions about your personal information.

By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age

When we talk about ‘us’ ‘we’ or ‘our’, we mean VirtualDOO PTY LTD ABN 86650837657, PO Box 265, Manly, NSW 1655, Australia and we are the operator of the website from which you accessed this privacy policy and any other websites or apps controlled by VirtualDOO PTY LTD (collectively ‘website’). We are the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data.

When we talk about ‘you’, we mean you as a participant or user of this website or services of this website.

‘Personal information’ is information that directly identifies you, such as your name and email address, or data that could be used, on its own or in combination with other data, to identify you.

It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by issuing a ticket at support @ virtualdoo.com.

1. Staying Anonymous

You can browse our online services anonymously. However, if you request information, sign up for our communications or podcast or purchase any of our products or services, you will need to identify yourself and at that point we will collect your personal information. If you do not give personal information to us, it will affect our ability to provide you with requested information or to deliver our products or services.

2. Collecting personal information

At all times we aim to only collect the minimum information we need for the services we are providing and to only use the information for the purpose it has been provided. For example, if you sign up to our newsletter, we will collect and use your email address to send our newsletter. As you would expect, the more involved you are with us, the more information about you we will collect.

There are some unusual terms in new legislation that affect how we tell you about the way we manage your personal information. One is letting you know the ‘lawful ground’ for what we do. This just means we are letting you know that there is a provision in the legislation that says it is alright for us to collect or use your information for a purpose that is considered a ‘legitimate interest’ of our business.

The main way we collect information about you is when you give it to us and this can happen in a variety of ways. We may process the following categories of personal information about you:

Communication data: which includes any communication that you send to us. This might be when you join our mailing list or when you contact us through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. Communication data may also include geographical data if you enable this within our app so that we can send you communications relevant to your geographical location. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in replying to communications sent to us, keeping appropriate records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
Customer Data: which includes data you give to us when you purchase goods and/or services from us including any of our business training programs or events. This will include basic information about you and the information we require for billing purposes such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details (last digits only). We use third party services for processing payments such as PayPal, EWay and Stripe and we do not receive or store your full card payment information. We process this data to supply the goods and/or services you have expressed an interest in or purchased and to keep records of such transactions. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps at your request to enter into that contract and our legitimate business interest of keeping records for accounting purposes.
User Data: which includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back-ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in properly administering our website and our business.
Technical Data: which includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, your login data, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in properly administering our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
Marketing Data: which includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to partake in our online services, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising. We may use surveys or contests to request information and you are not required to enter or use these services. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in studying how customers use our products/services, developing our products, growing our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts, YouTube advertising or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. We may use pixels for retargeting to do this. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interest in growing our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).

3. Collecting information from third parties

As discussed above, we collect personal information about you when you give it to us and when it is collected by our website however we may also collect personal information that is given to us or available to us by a third party (for example, information that is on a publicly maintained record or that you have made available on a public platform).

We may automatically collect certain data from you as you use our website by using cookies and similar technologies.

We may receive data from third parties such as analytics providers like Google, advertising networks such as Facebook, information providers such as Google, providers of technical, payment and delivery services, such as data brokers or aggregators. These third parties may be within the EU or outside of the EU.

This information forms part of the personal information described in this policy. We will not intentionally collect personal information that is unintentionally disclosed.

4. Collecting sensitive information

We do not intend to collect sensitive information about you and request you never disclose information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or sexual orientation on our website or any blog or social media account associated with our website or business. If you include your photograph in our online forum please be aware that other forum users may make assumptions about your racial or ethnic background.

5. Children’s privacy

Our services are not designed to be used by minors under the age of 13 and we do not intend to collect information about such minors. We will make reasonable endeavours to delete any details of users under the age of 13 years where a parent or guardian has notified us that any such details have been obtained. By providing us with your data, you warrant to us you are over the age of 13. If you are over 13 but under 18 you may be able to use our services however only with permission and guidance from your parents or guardian and we request that their personal information be used not yours.

6. Testimonials

If you provide us with a testimonial, you give us your consent for the use of your name, likeness and the date of service delivery to be displayed on our website or in our other marketing material, together with the content of the testimonial that you provide. We may edit your testimonial but will only do so where possible without changing the meaning of what you have said. We may store and/or use your testimonial for a period of up to 7 years from the date it is given. We process this information based on your consent which you may withdraw.

7. Marketing Communications

Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business). Sometimes we may recommend sharing your information with a third party for their marketing purposes. Before we share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes we will get your express consent.

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by emailing us.

If you opt out of receiving marketing communications, this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided for other transactions such as purchases.

8. Social Networking Services and links to other websites

You can connect with us via our social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

We may provide links to other websites or use social networking services to communicate with the public about our work. When you communicate with us using these services we may collect your personal information. The social networking service will also handle your personal information for its own purposes and have their own privacy policies. You should become familiar with the privacy policies of any service you use.

This all seems quite hyped. It seems at odds that large social media companies can breach data yet EU will come after us minnows and lock us up…

9. How we use Cookies and other identifiers

We use a range of tools provided by third parties including our website host, third party service providers and search engine browsers to collect or view access and traffic information for statistical, reporting and maintenance purposes. Third party providers have their own privacy policies. We also may also use tracking pixels, cookies and session tools to improve your experience when accessing our online services.

The data collected by cookies does not usually identify you but may be combined with other information to identify you. If we identify you using information from cookies, we may use that information to track how you use our online services and send you information more specific to your needs, or to invite you to purchase our services.

The kind of information that can be collected includes:

device specific information such as mobile network information
server logs including your IP address, the times you use our services and system activity
location information including IP address, GPS, and Wi-Fi access points
local storage availability

We use the information to help to track your use of our online services to improve your user experience and the quality of our services.

To find out how to opt-out of tailored advertising, please see the options available at www.networkadvertising.org/choices.

10. Use and disclosure of personal information

In summary, as a legitimate business interest, the personal information we collect about you is used:

to verify your identity
to enable you to use our services
to process orders, registrations and enquiries
to provide you with information about events, products and services that may interest you
to provide you with personalised service or special opportunities
to allow you to participate in interactive features of our online services
to run competitions, prize draws, and promotions (if any)
to facilitate our internal business operations
to improve our products or services and in planning new products or services
to conducting market research surveys
to monitor compliance with our Terms and Conditions.

With your consent or at your request we may:

share your contact information with third party organisations who offer products or services that may be of interest to you (if you agree to receive such information)

We never sell, lend or lease your identifiable personal information.

We may also disclose your information to:

Other companies in our group who provide services to us.
Third party suppliers we engage to provide services which involve processing data on our behalf, for example IT and system administration services. In this case, we will require them to use that information only for the purpose of providing the services we have requested, and in compliance with the provisions of this privacy policy.
Payment third parties if there is a dispute over a payment. For example if PayPal contacts us regarding a dispute over a payment, we will provide PayPal with user activity information such as IP address and activity linked to the IP address, billing details on our system etc to allow the payment dispute to be resolved.
Professional advisers including accountants, lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers.
Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
Third parties where we are required to in accordance with the law and reserve the right to fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requiring or requesting us to disclose the identity or other usage details of any user of our online services, or in accordance with a properly executed court order, or as otherwise required to do so by law.

11. Security and overseas recipients

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure to industry standards however no system can be 100% secure and, provided we have acted in accordance with this policy, we are not responsible for loss you may suffer should your personal information be unlawfully accessed. Using the Internet to collect and process personal data necessarily involves the transmission of data on an international basis. For example, our hosting and storage systems have their datacentres in the United States.

Not all countries have the same level of privacy protection as the country within which you reside. You acknowledge and agree to our processing of personal data across international borders in this way. We will do our best to ensure your data is protected to a similar standard as set out in this policy by using third party providers with similar privacy protections.

We will also take reasonable steps to protect all personal information within our direct control from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, unlawful or accidental destruction, modification or disclosure. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we use respected hosting services, firewall and other electronic security procedures and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect from you.

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.

All hard copy records we keep are stored in Australia.

12. Opt-out/ unsubscribe

If we provide you with the opportunity to receive information about products or services from other carefully selected organisations (our business partners) about the products or services they offer, and you elect to do so, you can change your preferences at any time using the unsubscribe function within their emails.

Similarly, our marketing emails/newsletters will also have an unsubscribe option if you would like to opt-out. You can also update your subscription settings if you are a subscriber.

If you continue to receive communications you have unsubscribed from, please contact us by issuing a ticket at support @ virtualdoo.com and we will remedy the problem.

13. Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.

For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for five years after they stop being customers.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

14. Third Party Links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, applications and advertisements. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements or content. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

15. Updates

We regularly review and may update our privacy policy from time to time. The updated provisions will apply from the date they are posted on our website, so we recommend that you re-visit this privacy policy when you use our online services.

16. Accessing and correcting your personal information – Your legal rights

Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent (note: some of these rights only attach to individuals located within the EU).

You can see more about these rights at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us by issuing a ticket at support @ virtualdoo.com.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. For record keeping purposes, we will record and store all information exchanged during an exercise of your rights under this clause. These records will be stored securely and separate from our main active business systems.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.

If you request to have your information erased (also known as the right to be forgotten), we will, if appropriate, delete your personal information from our active business operating system. Your personal information will however continue to be stored within our backup(s) as we are unable to delete specific items from our backup. It will be deleted at the next scheduled backup deletion. We will keep a log of your request to be forgotten so that, should our backup be used to restore our operating system while your personal information is still stored, your personal information will again be removed from our active system upon restoration.

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in your country. For instance, in Australia, this is the Australian Privacy Commission (www.oaic.gov.au). In the UK contact the Information Commissioner Office at www.ico.org.uk. We would be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.