Privacy Policy

This policy covers kitwekvictoria.org and the Kitwek Victoria mobile app (Android and iOS), both operated by Kitwek Victoria Incorporated (ABN/registration No. A0126042O), an incorporated association registered under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (Victoria, Australia). In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Kitwek Victoria Incorporated.

We are committed to handling personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

What we collect depends on how you use our website and app. It can include:

• Account and profile information: name, username, email address, phone number, profession, bio and profile photo.
• Membership and payment information: membership status, member number, subscription plan, and payment details processed on our behalf by Stripe. We do not receive or store full card numbers — only limited metadata such as card brand, last 4 digits and expiry, plus a Stripe customer reference.
• Welfare fund information: if you register for or make a claim against the welfare fund, we collect details relevant to the claim, which may include the name of a deceased member or family member, your relationship to them, a description of the claim, beneficiary names and contact details, and supporting documents (for example death certificates, proof of relationship, or identity documents). Some of this is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, and we only use it to assess and administer claims.
• Immediate family / next-of-kin records: name, relationship, phone, email and, where supplied, identity documents, if you choose to register family members for welfare purposes.
• Event, merchandise and giving records: ticket purchases, merchandise orders and delivery details, donations and fellowship offerings.
• Device and usage information: basic analytics and crash diagnostics from the app (via Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics), device type, app version, and a push-notification token if you allow notifications.
• Support and correspondence: anything you send us through the contact form, email or in-app support.

Most information is provided directly by you — when you create an account, sign in with Google or Apple, apply for membership or welfare registration, lodge a welfare claim, buy a ticket or item, or contact us. Some technical information (device, crash and basic usage data) is collected automatically by the app so we can keep it working reliably.

• To create and administer your membership account.
• To process payments for membership, subscriptions, welfare registration and reimbursements, events, merchandise, donations and fellowship offerings.
• To assess, approve and pay out welfare fund claims, and to collect reimbursement contributions from members.
• To send transactional emails and SMS (for example receipts, reminders and welfare notices), and push notifications through the app.
• To operate member voting, events, forums, news and merchandise features.
• To maintain the security of accounts and detect and fix technical problems.
• To meet our legal, accounting and regulatory obligations.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We do share it with service providers who help us run the platform, under terms that limit their use of it to providing that service to us:

• Stripe – payment processing.
• Google Firebase – authentication, analytics, crash reporting and push notifications.
• ZeptoMail (Zoho) – transactional email delivery.
• Twilio – SMS notifications.
• DigitalOcean – secure storage for uploaded documents and images.
• Railway – hosting for our website, API and database.

We may also disclose information where required by law, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Kitwek Victoria, our members or the public.

Information is stored on infrastructure provided by the service providers listed above, which may process or store data outside Australia (including the United States). We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information, including encrypting data in transit and keeping uploaded welfare and family documents private, accessible only via time-limited links generated for authorised access.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, including to maintain welfare fund and financial records for as long as required by law or sound record-keeping practice, after which it is deleted or de-identified where we are not required to keep it.

You can ask us to access, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to legal and record-keeping obligations (for example, we may need to retain welfare and payment records for a period after a claim or transaction). You can also ask about how we’ve handled your information or raise a concern. Contact us using the details in section 11, or visit /contact-us on the website.

If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Our services are intended for adults and are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

We may update this policy from time to time as our services change. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when it was last revised. Continued use of our website or app after an update means you accept the revised policy.

For privacy questions, access or correction requests, or complaints, contact Kitwek Victoria Incorporated at info@kitwekvictoria.org or through our contact page.