This Privacy Policy explains how Money Detective Australia collects, uses, stores and discloses personal information through the Money Detective website. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Money Detective Australia, a registered business name of Alexandria Buhot.
Depending on how you use the website, we may collect your name, email address, billing information, transaction details, product purchases, download information, customer-support messages, IP address, browser and device information, and cookies or similar technical information.
We do not require your bank password to purchase or use our downloadable products. If you voluntarily send us a bank statement or financial document for support, please remove account numbers and other sensitive information wherever possible first.
We may collect personal information when you visit our website, purchase a product, contact us, request support, download a product, or use a contact or checkout form. We may also receive limited information from payment, hosting and email service providers.
We may use personal information to process payments, deliver digital products, provide customer support, respond to enquiries, send transaction confirmations and download links, manage refunds, improve our products and website, maintain business records, prevent fraud, and meet legal obligations. We will not use personal information for an unrelated purpose unless permitted or required by law.
Payments are processed by Stripe. Stripe may collect and process your name, email, payment details, billing information and device information as part of processing your payment and preventing fraud. You can view Stripe's practices at the Stripe Privacy Policy. We do not intentionally store full payment-card numbers on our own systems.
After a successful purchase, we use Resend to send your receipt and product download or access links by email. Resend processes your email address and the content of that email solely to deliver it. You can view Resend's practices at the Resend Privacy Policy.
Our website is hosted and deployed using Netlify. Netlify may process technical information required to host, secure and deliver the website, including IP addresses, browser information, device information and server logs. You can review Netlify's practices at the Netlify Privacy Policy.
If you choose to upload an electricity, gas or solar bill to one of our comparison tools or the Energy Plan Check, or a bank statement to the Bank Statement Converter, the PDF is read in your own web browser using a copy of the open-source pdf.js library that is hosted on our website. The file and the details read from it (such as your provider, usage, rates, transactions and amounts) are not uploaded to Money Detective and are not sent to our server functions or to any other service, including any artificial intelligence service. They are held in your browser's memory only while you use the page.
These tools read PDF files only. Photos of bills are not read automatically; you can type the details in instead. Only upload a document you are authorised to use, and check every prefilled value against the original before relying on an estimate.
When you use the paid Energy Plan Check, the postcode, retailer and plan identifier you select are sent through a Netlify server function to the Australian Energy Regulator's public Energy Product Reference Data service so current plan information can be displayed. Money Detective does not send your uploaded bill image to the Australian Energy Regulator.
The usage and rate values shown in the Energy Plan Check are held in the browser for the current page session and are not saved to a Money Detective customer database. Netlify may process request information and server logs as described above. The private access link contains a Stripe checkout session identifier used to confirm the purchase, so you should not publish or share that link.
The figures you type into the free Payday Check (such as money available, bills and expenses) are calculated in your browser. They are passed to the result page in the part of the web address after the # symbol, which browsers do not send to our server or to Google Analytics. We do not save them to a database.
If you choose to email yourself a copy of your result, your first name (optional), email address and the figures you entered are sent through a Netlify server function to Resend, which sends you that one email. We do not add you to a mailing list unless you tick the newsletter box, in which case your name and email address are sent to Zoho Campaigns as described below. We record anonymous events in Google Analytics (for example, that a check was started or completed), not the amounts you entered.
Bill Finder on our Household Bills Checklist page reads the PDF bank statements you choose in your own web browser, using a copy of the open-source pdf.js library that is hosted on our website. Your statements, and the transactions, amounts and payee names read from them, are not uploaded to Money Detective and are not sent to our Netlify server functions, Anthropic, Zoho or any other service. They are not saved to your browser's storage. They are held in your browser's memory only while the page is open, and are cleared when you choose "Start again" or leave the page.
Google Analytics may record general events showing that Bill Finder was used, such as that it was started, finished or showed an error, and the number of statements chosen. These events do not include the file name or any content from your statement. The Pinterest tag may record that the page was visited, but nothing about your statements. Bill Finder does not need your name or email address, and we will never ask for your online banking login.
When you send a message through our contact form, your name, email address and message are emailed to our support inbox using Resend so we can reply to you. To protect the form from spam, we use Google reCAPTCHA, which collects information about your device and how you interact with the page to check that you are a real person. Google may process this information outside Australia. Use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service.
If you email us at hello@moneydetective.com.au, your message and email address are received and stored through Zoho Mail, our email hosting provider, so we can respond to you.
We use Zoho Campaigns, our email service provider, to store the details of people who sign up for the Money Detective newsletter and to send it. The newsletter includes practical money tips, tool updates and occasional offers. You can join it in these ways:
Every email we send through Zoho Campaigns includes a link to unsubscribe. You can review Zoho's practices at the Zoho Privacy Policy.
We use Google Analytics to understand general website use, including page views, device and browser information, approximate location, interactions with tools, downloads and purchases. Google may use cookies or similar technologies and process data outside Australia. We do not send uploaded bill or bank statement contents, or spreadsheet entries, to Google Analytics. You can review Google's practices at the Google Privacy Policy.
We use the Pinterest tag to understand whether people who find Money Detective on Pinterest go on to visit our website or buy a product, and to show our products in Pinterest's shopping features. The tag records page visits, which product pages are viewed, when a product is added to the cart, that a newsletter or free budget sign-up took place (not the email address used), and completed purchases (order number, order value and the products bought). It may also collect device, browser and approximate location information, and Pinterest may use cookies or similar technologies and process data outside Australia. We do not send your name, email address or payment details to Pinterest, and we never send uploaded bill or bank statement contents, or spreadsheet entries, to Pinterest. You can review Pinterest's practices in the Pinterest Privacy Policy, and manage personalised ads in your Pinterest account settings.
We use the Meta Pixel, a tool provided by Meta Platforms (the company behind Facebook and Instagram), to understand whether people who find Money Detective on Facebook or Instagram go on to use our tools or buy a product, and to measure and improve our advertising. The pixel records page visits, when a Free Payday Check is completed (with a general result category, not the amounts you entered), that you submitted your email address on the Payday Check result page (the event only, not your name or email address), and completed purchases (order value, currency and the products bought). Meta may also collect your IP address, device, browser and approximate location information, may connect this activity with your Facebook or Instagram account if you are logged in, and may use cookies or similar technologies and process data outside Australia. We do not send your name, email address or payment details to Meta, and we never send uploaded bill or bank statement contents, or spreadsheet entries, to Meta. You can review Meta's practices in the Meta Privacy Policy, and manage your ad preferences in your Facebook or Instagram settings.
Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to keep the website operating, remember preferences, support checkout functions, and assist with security. Stripe may use cookies when you interact with checkout pages, and Google Analytics, the Pinterest tag and the Meta Pixel may use cookies to measure website visits, advertising and purchases. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though disabling them may affect some website functions.
We only send marketing emails, such as the Money Detective newsletter, to people who have signed up through one of the options described above. Buying a product does not subscribe you to our newsletter. Every marketing email includes a link to unsubscribe, and you can also ask us to remove you by emailing hello@moneydetective.com.au. We also send transactional communications relating to your purchase, such as payment confirmations, receipts and download instructions, which are different from marketing emails and are sent whether or not you subscribe.
Some of our service providers may store or process information outside Australia, including Stripe, Netlify, Resend, Zoho, Google, Pinterest and Meta. Where required, we take reasonable steps to manage overseas disclosures in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, including using secure website connections, limiting access to personal information, and using reputable service providers. No online system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected, customer support, business recordkeeping, and legal or tax obligations.
You may contact us to request access to personal information we hold about you, or to ask us to correct inaccurate information, at hello@moneydetective.com.au. We may need to verify your identity before responding.
If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, contact us first at the email above. If you're not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Our website and products are not intentionally directed towards children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children for marketing purposes.
We may update this Privacy Policy when our business, technology or information-handling practices change. The latest version is published on this page with the updated date.
This policy is provided as general information for Money Detective's customers and has not been reviewed by a lawyer. If you have questions about your rights, contact hello@moneydetective.com.au or seek independent advice.