Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Licence Factory is an ACT Government approved driver education provider based in Canberra, ACT, Australia. We deliver the ACT Pre-Learner Licence Course, the ACT Safer Driver Course and the ACT Vulnerable Road User Program.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with and what you can do about it. It applies to this website and to every course we run. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

2. What we collect

We only ask for what we need to enrol you, teach you and issue your certificate. When you book a course we collect:

• Your name, email address, mobile number and date of birth.
• Your ACT licence number — for the Safer Driver Course and the Vulnerable Road User Program, where it is needed to credit logbook hours to the right licence.
• Your answer about basic English fluency, for the Pre-Learner Licence Course, so we can tell you before you pay whether the course will work for you.
• How you heard about us, which is optional and used only to understand where learners find us.
• Anything you choose to put in the notes field, and anything you tell us by email, phone or text.
• Course records — attendance, participation, knowledge test results and the certificate we issue you.
• Payment records — the amount, the date, the payment method and the last four digits of the card. We never see or store your full card number.

We do not collect sensitive information as the Privacy Act defines it, and we ask that you do not send us health or other sensitive details unless we have specifically asked for them — for example, if you request a cancellation on medical grounds and offer supporting documentation.

3. How we collect it

Almost always directly from you: through the booking form on this website, the contact form, or when you call, text or email us.

Occasionally we receive information about you from someone else — a parent or guardian booking on your behalf, or Access Canberra contacting us about a certificate. Where that happens, this policy still governs how we handle it.

4. Why we use it

We use your personal information to:

• Confirm your booking and take payment.
• Send you your Zoom invitation, course materials, reminders and receipt.
• Check you meet the eligibility requirements for the course you booked.
• Deliver the course, mark attendance and record your result.
• Issue your certificate and report your completion to the ACT Government.
• Answer your questions, process transfers and refunds, and handle complaints.
• Meet our tax, accounting and record-keeping obligations.
• Understand how the website is used, in aggregate, so we can improve it.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with anyone for their own marketing. We will not send you marketing email unless you ask us to, and if we ever do, every message will carry an unsubscribe link.

5. Learners under 18

The Pre-Learner Licence Course is open to learners from 15 years and 9 months of age, so many of the people we deal with are minors. We treat their information with the same care as everyone else's, and we ask for no more of it.

If you are under 18, please book with a parent or guardian's knowledge and consent. A parent or guardian may book on your behalf, ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or raise a concern with us on your behalf.

We do not use information collected from learners under 18 for marketing or advertising of any kind.

6. Who we share it with

We share your information only where it is needed to run the course or where the law requires it. The people it reaches are:

• The ACT Government — your course completion and certificate details are reported to Access Canberra as a condition of our approval as a provider. Your certificate is also presented to Access Canberra alongside your proof of identity when you apply for your licence.
• Our facilitators — the qualified people teaching your course see the class list and your course record.
• Stripe — our payment processor. You enter your card details directly with Stripe; they do not pass through our systems.
• Resend — the service that delivers your confirmation, reminder and receipt emails.
• Zoom — the platform our live online courses run on.
• Google Analytics — website usage data only, described in section 8. It is not linked to your booking.
• Our hosting and database providers, who store the information on our behalf.
• Our accountant, and any regulator, court or authority where we are legally required to disclose.

For the Safer Driver Course, the practical session is conducted by an Accredited ACT Driving Instructor. Where that instructor is not one of our own facilitators, we give them only the details needed to run your session — your name, contact number and booking reference.

7. Where your information is stored

Your booking and course records are held in our own database, on servers located in Australia. They are not stored overseas.

Some of the services in section 6 do operate outside Australia — Stripe, Resend, Google and Zoom process data in the United States and other countries, and information you give them, or that reaches them in the course of running your booking, is handled under their own terms. By booking a course you consent to that. We only use providers that publish binding privacy and security commitments, but we cannot control everything an overseas recipient does with information once it reaches them.

We do not otherwise send your personal information overseas, and we will not start doing so without updating this policy first.

8. Cookies and website analytics

This website uses Google Analytics to understand how visitors use it — which pages are read, where visitors arrive from, and which step of the booking form people stop at. This tells us where the site is confusing. It is not used to build a profile of you, it is not used for advertising, and we have not enabled Google's advertising or cross-device features.

Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser and records a shortened version of your IP address. You can block it entirely with your browser's cookie settings, a content blocker, or Google's official opt-out add-on, and the website will work exactly the same.

Separately, and with no data leaving your device, the booking form saves your progress in your own browser's local storage so you do not lose a half-finished booking if you close the tab. You can clear it at any time by clearing your browser's site data, and it is cleared automatically once your booking is confirmed.

9. Security and how long we keep it

Your information is held in an access-controlled database. Administrative access is limited to the people who need it to run courses, and is protected by individual accounts and passwords. Traffic to and from this website is encrypted.

No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information you send us over the internet — but if a data breach ever occurs that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

We keep your information only as long as we need it:

• Course and certificate records — seven years, to meet ACT approved-provider record-keeping requirements and so we can re-issue a certificate you have lost.
• Financial and payment records — five years, as Australian tax law requires.
• Enquiries that never became a booking — two years.
• Website analytics — 14 months, then deleted automatically.

Once a retention period ends, we delete the information or permanently de-identify it.

10. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct anything that is wrong. Email contact@licencefactory.com.au and we will respond within 30 days. There is no charge.

We may need to verify your identity before we release information — this protects you, not us. If we cannot give you access for a reason the Privacy Act allows, we will tell you why in writing.

You can also ask us to delete information about you. We will do so unless we are required to keep it for the retention periods in section 9.

11. Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your personal information, please tell us first — email contact@licencefactory.com.au with the details and we will investigate and respond in writing within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can take the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au, or by phone on 1300 363 992. You do not need our permission to do that.

12. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top of the page tells you when it last changed. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will let you know by email before it takes effect.