Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This policy applies when you:

• use the ZeroTag app (iOS and Android) to claim a ZeroTag and edit your Share Cards (“owners”);
• open someone’s Share Card by tapping their ZeroTag, scanning a code or following a link (“visitors”). Share Cards open in your browser at share.zerotag.au (the “web Card”).

Buying ZeroTags. Our store at www.zerotag.au runs on Shopify and has its own store privacy policy, which covers orders, payments and delivery.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We have also written this policy to be clear for readers used to the EU and UK GDPR.

2. The short version

• Your Share Card is public. Anyone who taps your ZeroTag, or who has your Card’s link or QR code, can see it. Only put on it what you’re happy for anyone to see.
• We collect what we need to run your account and your Cards: your sign-in email and name, the Card content you add, and the photos, voice notes and PDFs you upload.
• Analytics are minimal. We count how many times each Card is opened and saved. We don’t use third-party product analytics in the app or on the web Card.
• We don’t sell personal information and we don’t use it for advertising.
• You can delete your account at any time in the app (Account → Settings → Delete account), or see Delete your account.

3. What we collect

3.1 If you have a ZeroTag account (owners)

Account details

• Your email address. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose “Hide My Email”, we receive Apple’s relay address, not your real one.
• Your name: what you type when you sign up, or the name Apple or Google shares with us when you sign in with them.
• Your password, if you sign up with email. Our sign-in provider, Google Firebase, handles it. We never see or store it ourselves.
• The fact that your account is linked to Apple or Google, and the identifiers those services give us for your account.
• A random account ID, and the dates your account was created and last updated.

Your ZeroTags

• Each tag’s ID, the date and time you claimed it, and which of your Cards it opens.
• The chip’s built-in hardware identifier, read over NFC when you claim the tag. We use it only to check that the tag is genuine and matches our records.

Your Share Cards

• What you put on your Card: your name, title, short text, artwork, photos, and the rows you add. Rows can include websites, social profiles, an email address, phone or messaging numbers, places and event details, payment details for people to copy (such as an account name, BSB and account number, or PayID), products from a Shopify store, music and media links, voice notes, PDFs, and text such as accordions, steps and dot points.
• PDF files you upload to your Card. We store them, and once you publish, anyone who can open your Card can open and download them.
• Earlier saved and published versions of your Card.
• If you retire a Card, the goodbye Card you choose to leave in its place (a photo, a short message or both).
• Your device’s time zone, saved privately with your Card. It is never shown on the Card.
• A short link for your Card.
• Other people’s Cards you choose to save in the app, so you can find them again.

Photos and artwork you upload

You choose them with your phone’s own photo picker. The app doesn’t ask for access to your whole photo library or your camera. When you upload an image, our server converts it and removes its hidden metadata, including any location (GPS) data and camera details.

Voice notes

The app asks to use your microphone only when you record a voice note for your Card. The recording is uploaded and published on your Card like a photo. If the app offers to write out what you said, it does this on your phone: the recording isn’t sent to a speech service for it. Any text you keep is saved with your Card.

PDFs

We publish PDFs exactly as you upload them. We don’t convert or clean them, so any hidden details inside the file stay in it and become public with it. These can include the author’s name, the software and dates used to make it, comments, earlier edits, and the location data of photos inside it. Please check a PDF before you add it. We also don’t scan PDFs for viruses or other harmful content. You choose the file with your phone’s own file picker. If you don’t give the PDF a title, the app uses the file’s name as its title (without “.pdf”), and that title is public on your Card like any other. You can change it before you add the PDF. Apart from that title, the file’s name never leaves your phone.

Links and places you add

To help you build your Card, our server may visit the web pages you link to, to suggest a title, show a preview image or fetch the site’s icon. For YouTube and Spotify links it also fetches a thumbnail or cover art. When you add products from a Shopify store, our server reads that store’s public product details from Shopify. When you add a music row, our server may look up the release you link to with Spotify and Apple’s iTunes lookup and search service, to get its title, artist, artwork and links. When you search for a place (for a place or Google Reviews row), the text you type is sent through our server to Google Places to find it. These requests come from our server, without any cookies or details about you, and send only what’s needed for the lookup, never your account, the rest of your Card or anything about the people who view it.

Crash reports

If the app crashes or hits an error, it can send a crash report to our provider Sentry. A report holds what went wrong and where in the app, your random account ID, the app version, and device details such as the model, operating system, locale, time zone, memory and screen size. On Android, a report about a crash outside the app’s own code also carries a random per-install ID that Sentry makes (not a hardware ID). It never includes your Card’s details, and Sentry doesn’t store your IP address. Crash reports are for errors only: we don’t record how you use the app. You can turn them off in Account → Privacy → Send crash reports.

No product analytics

We don’t use third-party product analytics in the app, and we don’t use your IP address to work out your location.

Information kept on your device

The app keeps you signed in, and remembers your settings. If a request to unclaim a tag is interrupted, the app saves a small private note on your device (your account ID, the tag ID and a random request key) so the request can be finished safely.

When you contact us or we contact you

We keep what you send us. That includes your email address and your message. When you write from the app’s Support page, the email also includes the app version, runtime and update, and your phone’s operating system and version, and the “My tag” topic adds your tag IDs. We email owners ourselves from our support email when we need to, for example to tell you we removed a PDF from your Card or hid payment details on it. Sign-in emails, such as password resets and email-change confirmations, are sent by Firebase Authentication.

If someone reports your Card

We keep the report as described in section 3.2. If we remove something from your Card, we tell you by email at your account’s email address.

3.2 If you open someone’s Share Card (visitors)

You don’t need an account to view a Card, and we don’t ask who you are.

• No access log. Our web Card server doesn’t keep a log of the Cards you open. Like any website, the servers that deliver a Card, its images and files, and the link a tag opens receive your IP address and browser details so they can answer the request. Our servers and hosting providers may keep short-lived technical logs for security and troubleshooting. We don’t use your IP address to work out your location.
• Visit and save counts. We count how many times each Card is opened each day, split into taps, QR scans and links, and how many times it is saved. The owner sees these totals. The counts hold no IP address, browser details, visitor ID or time of day, and we never know who you are.
• No third-party analytics. The web Card doesn’t use third-party product analytics, and we don’t set advertising or tracking cookies.
• Information kept in your browser. The Card page saves the date you first received each Card (shown as “Received on”, and never sent to us), your text-size choice, and which side of the Card you last looked at.
• Previews from other services. Some rows on a Card can open a player or preview from another service inside the Card, for example YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Maps, Luma, Humanitix or TryBooking. That service’s code is loaded only when you choose to open the preview. The provider then receives your IP address and browser details, and may set its own cookies, under its own privacy policy. A music row’s song preview is played from Apple’s preview server only when you tap Play, and Apple then receives your IP address and browser details. We don’t copy, store or pass on the audio.
• Links you tap take you to the owner’s chosen site, app or shop, which has its own privacy practices.
• Saving a Card. When you save a Card as a photo, the image is made on your device and nothing is uploaded to us, apart from adding one to the Card’s save count.
• Opening a PDF or voice note on a Card. These are served from our media server, which receives your IP address and browser details when you open them, like the Card’s images.
• Reporting a Card. Every Card has a “Report this Card” link. A report holds which Card you reported, which PDF on it (if you chose one) and a fingerprint (hash) of that file, the reason you chose, any note you write (up to 500 characters), the time, and its status. It doesn’t hold your IP address, browser details, cookies, account or email address, and we don’t ask who you are. To stop floods, our server counts reports per network address in memory for a short time, without storing or logging the address. Please don’t put personal details in the note. If you do, we keep them with the report. Because we don’t take your contact details, we can’t reply to you about a report.

4. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• create and secure your account, and let you sign in;
• let you claim your ZeroTags, check they’re genuine, and keep them linked to you;
• store, show, update, retire and delete your Share Cards;
• show owners how many times their Card was opened and saved;
• find and fix errors in the app;
• answer support requests and account requests;
• keep the service safe: prevent abuse and fraud, apply rate limits and investigate problems;
• look into reports about Cards, remove content that breaks our Terms of Service or the law, and keep a record of what we removed and why;
• meet our legal obligations.

We don’t sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or build profiles of visitors.

5. Legal bases (for readers in the EU, UK and similar places)

• Contract: running your account and Cards.
• Legitimate interests: security, service reliability, crash reports (which you can turn off), visit and save counts, and handling reports and takedowns. We have chosen data-minimising designs for these.
• Legal obligation: where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.

6. What is public

• Everything on your published Share Card is public. That includes your name, title, text, artwork, photos, voice notes, links, any payment details you add, and PDFs you upload, with everything inside those PDFs (see section 3.1). Anyone who taps your ZeroTag, or who has your Card’s link, short link or QR code, can see it. They can also share it, take screenshots, or save the Card.
• A goodbye Card you leave when you retire a Card is public in the same way, for as long as it shows.
• When someone shares your Card’s link in a messaging app, the app may show a preview with your Card’s name and artwork.
• We ask search engines not to index Cards, but we can’t guarantee every service will respect that.
• Private details stay private. These include your account email (unless you add it to your Card), your time zone, and drafts you haven’t published.
• If you add other people’s details or photos to your Card, they become public too. Please make sure you’re allowed to share them (see our Terms of Service).

7. Who we share information with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run ZeroTag, and only for that purpose:

Google (Firebase and Google Cloud)

Sign-in (Firebase Authentication, which also sends sign-in emails such as password resets), our database and its daily backups, our backend servers, and storage for photos, voice notes and PDFs.

Where: Singapore (database, backups and backend) and Sydney, Australia (media storage). Firebase Authentication may process sign-in data in the United States.

Google Places

Finds the place you search for when you add a place or Google Reviews row to your Card. Google receives only the search text you type.

Where: United States and other countries.

Google Workspace (Gmail)

Our support email, support@zerotag.au, and the emails we send owners ourselves.

Where: Google’s data centres, which may be outside Australia, including the United States.

Amazon Web Services

Hosts the web Card and the service that opens a Card when a tag is tapped.

Where: Sydney, Australia.

Sentry

Crash reports from the app (errors only), if “Send crash reports” is on.

Where: European Union.

Apple and Google

Sign in with Apple, Google Sign-In, and app distribution (App Store, TestFlight, Google Play).

Where: United States.

Expo

Builds and delivers the app.

Where: United States.

We may also disclose information:

• if the law requires it;
• to protect people’s safety or our rights;
• to the eSafety Commissioner or the police, if a report or takedown involves material that may be illegal;
• to a buyer as part of a sale of our business, under this policy.

8. Sending information overseas (APP 8)

Some of our providers store or access personal information outside Australia: in Singapore (Google Cloud), the United States (Firebase Authentication, Google Places, Google Workspace, Apple, Google and Expo) and the European Union (Sentry, for crash reports). We take reasonable steps to make sure these providers handle personal information consistently with the APPs, including using providers with published data-protection terms.

9. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, then delete or anonymise it.

Your account

Until you delete it. When you delete your account in the app, it is closed and your Cards go offline straight away. The rest of your information is deleted within 30 days. If you ask us by email, we complete the deletion within 30 days of confirming the request.

Your Share Cards, photos and voice notes

While the Card exists. Retiring a Card removes its content straight away; only the goodbye Card you choose to leave stays. A goodbye Card stays public at the Card’s link for up to 12 months, unless you remove it sooner. After that, the link says the Card has said goodbye. Deleting a Card removes everything, and its link then says the Card can’t be found. We keep a minimal record that the Card existed (its owner, its first tag and when it was made) until you delete your account.

PDFs and other files you upload

While they’re on your Card. When you remove or replace a PDF and publish, we delete the public file, usually within minutes. If the same file is in use on another Card (for example, because someone else links to it), it stays available until no Card uses it or we take it down. A PDF you uploaded but didn’t keep on your Card is deleted soon after. Copies people have already downloaded are outside our control.

Reports and takedowns

Kept only as long as we need them to handle the report and keep a record of what we removed and why. They are kept separately from the Card and the owner’s account, so deleting either doesn’t delete them.

Records of claims, unclaims and deletions

Records of when tags were claimed and unclaimed keep your random account ID, but not your email or name. When an account is deleted, we keep a minimal record that it was deleted (the account ID, when, and the tag IDs that were unclaimed), so we can show the request was handled. These are kept only as long as needed for that purpose, then deleted.

Visit and save counts, crash reports and technical logs

Kept only as long as needed for that purpose, then deleted or anonymised.

Backups

We back up our database once a day. Each backup is deleted automatically after 30 days, and our storage provider can still recover a deleted backup for 7 more days, so copies can stay in our backups for up to about 5 weeks. Deleted photos, voice notes and PDFs can be recovered by us for 30 days, then they’re gone for good.

After an account is deleted, we don’t use any remaining backup copies to rebuild your account or your Cards. Copies other people have made of your public Card, such as screenshots or saved images, are outside our control.

10. Security

We protect personal information with measures that include:

• encryption in transit (HTTPS);
• database and storage rules that block direct access, so private data is read and written only by our servers;
• removing location and other metadata from uploaded images (not from PDFs, which are published as uploaded);
• stripping cookies and sign-in details from public Card requests;
• rate limits;
• asking you to confirm it’s you before sensitive actions such as unclaiming a tag, deleting a Card or deleting your account;
• limiting who on our team can access owner data.

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

11. Your choices and rights

• Access and correction. You can see and edit your Cards and account details in the app. To ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or to correct it, email support@zerotag.au. We’ll reply within 5 business days and may need to confirm your identity.
• Delete your account. In the app, go to Account → Settings → Delete account. When you delete your account in the app, it is closed and your Cards go offline straight away. The rest of your information is deleted within 30 days. If you can’t use the app, see Delete your account.
• Retire a Card. In the app, choose Retire this Card from the Card’s ⋯ (More) menu. Its content is removed straight away, and you can leave a goodbye Card in its place. A goodbye Card stays public at the Card’s link for up to 12 months, unless you remove it sooner. After that, the link says the Card has said goodbye.
• Delete a Card. Choose Delete Card from a retired Card’s ⋯ (More) menu. Everything on it is removed, and its link says the Card can’t be found.
• Unclaim a tag. In the app, open your tag and choose Unclaim tag in the tag’s ⋯ (More) menu, beside its name. If the tag opens a live Card, or still holds your other Share Card that you’ve edited, the app asks you to retire that Card first. When you unclaim a Card’s last tag, you choose whether to retire or delete that Card.
• Remove a PDF. Remove or replace it in the app’s Card editor and publish.
• Crash reports. Turn off Account → Privacy → Send crash reports.
• Sign out everywhere from the app’s settings.
• Visitors can clear their browser’s storage for the Card’s website at any time.
• EU, UK and similar rights. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to object to or restrict our use of your information, to data portability, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
• Complaints. Please contact us first at support@zerotag.au. We’ll respond within 30 days. If you’re not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: www.oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992.

You can’t use ZeroTag anonymously as an owner, because an account is needed to claim a tag and manage a Card. You can view Cards without giving us any information about yourself.

12. Children

ZeroTag is for people aged 18 and over. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has created an account, please contact us and we’ll delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. If a change is significant, we’ll tell owners in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.

14. Contact us

ZeroTag Pty Ltd ABN 31 663 455 169
102 Victoria St, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
Email: support@zerotag.au