Privacy Policy

This policy explains how thestudent.com.au ("The Student", "we") collects, uses, holds and discloses personal information, and how you can access or correct your information or make a privacy complaint. We handle personal information in accordance with applicable Australian privacy laws, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) where it applies to us, and we follow the Spam Act 2003 for our email updates.

What we collect

• If you sign up for discount updates: your email address, postcode, and optionally your first name and the categories you're interested in, along with a record of when and how you agreed to receive our emails (and when you unsubscribe).
• If you contact us: the name (optional), email address and message you send through the contact form, along with the listing you're reporting if you use "Report this offer". We keep it so we can reply and follow up.
• If you create a business account: your name and contact email, login details, your business name and ABN (if you give it), website, the brands and store locations you add, the offers you submit, your plan and payment status, and any messages between you and us.
• If you subscribe to a paid plan or buy a promotion: Stripe, our payment processor, handles your card and payment details. We don't receive or store your full card number. We may keep payment-related information such as your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, your plan and your payment status.
• Basic usage data: limited information such as offer views, searches and clicks, linked to a random session identifier, so we can see what's useful and what isn't. Our own analytics are not intended to identify individual students and are not used to build personal behavioural profiles.
• Google Analytics: we use Google Analytics to understand overall site traffic - pages visited, approximate location (city/region level), device and browser type, and how visitors move through the site. We don't send Google your name or email address. See Cookies and Google Analytics below.

Location and maps

If you tap "Use my location" on our Local Discounts page, your device sends its coordinates to our server for a one-time search for nearby offers. We do not store your precise location or keep any history of where you've searched from. (Your browser may remember your last search for the rest of your visit, so the Back button works; that stays on your device.) If you type a suburb or postcode instead, we look it up in our own postcode list first, and if it isn't there that text - never your coordinates - may be sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find its location.

The interactive map itself is provided by Geoapify and OpenStreetMap. Like any map you'd find on the web, loading the map images reveals the general area being viewed to that provider, in the same way any website request does - but your precise device location from "Use my location" is never sent to the map provider, and is never stored by us. Business accounts that add a store location use Google Places to find and confirm the address.

How we use it

To send you the discount updates you've signed up for, personalise those updates by postcode or category where relevant, run your business account and billing, keep the site safe and improve it, and respond if you contact us. We don't sell your personal information to anyone, and listing a business's offer on the site doesn't share your details with that business.

Who we share it with

We use service providers to run The Student: Supabase for our database and account infrastructure, Netlify for website hosting and server functions, Resend for sending email, Stripe for payments, Google Analytics for website analytics, Google Places for business addresses, and Geoapify, OpenStreetMap and Nominatim for maps and location lookups. These providers process information under their own privacy policies and our arrangements with them.

Some of these providers process or store information outside Australia, including in the United States and other countries where they operate. We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

Cookies and Google Analytics

Google Analytics uses cookies to recognise your browser across visits and measure site usage. This helps us see which pages and discounts get the most interest so we can improve the site. We don't give Google your name, but it may process device, browser and usage information to provide aggregate analytics. Google processes this data under its own privacy policy, available at policies.google.com/privacy.

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing Google's Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by blocking cookies in your browser's settings.

Marketing emails

We only send discount update emails to people who've signed up for them. Every email includes a clear unsubscribe link, and you can also unsubscribe directly at thestudent.com.au/unsubscribe at any time. We process unsubscribe requests promptly and no later than 5 working days after receiving them.

Access, correction and deletion

You can ask us to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you at any time through our contact form. We'll respond within a reasonable time, and aim to do so within 30 days.

How we protect and keep information

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes in this policy, including legal, accounting, security and dispute-resolution needs, and delete or de-identify it when it is no longer required where appropriate.

Privacy complaints

If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, use our contact form (or show our email address). We will investigate and aim to respond within 30 days. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Young users

Our public discount pages can be used by students of different ages. Our email signup is for people aged 16 or over (16 and 17 year olds need a parent or guardian's permission), and we don't knowingly collect information through it from anyone younger. We keep the information we collect from students to a minimum, and we don't store precise location data from "Use my location" searches.

Third-party links

Discount pages often link out to a business's own website or a verification platform like UNiDAYS to redeem an offer. Once you leave our site, that site's own privacy policy applies - we're not responsible for how they handle your information.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information? Use our contact form or show our email address.