Privacy Policy
HiveVia (ABN 49 950 077 028) (“we,” “us,” “our”) operates the website hivevia.com (the “Site”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you visit our Site, use our services, or interact with us.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Where applicable, we also comply with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for visitors from the European Economic Area (EEA).
1. Information We Collect
1.1 Information you provide to us
When you use our Site, you may provide us with personal information including:
- Contact information: name, email address, country of residence.
- Membership waitlist information: email address, traveller preferences, travel interests.
- Future diary / mood board information: travel wish destinations, dates, preferences, group size.
- Booking search information: search queries, destination preferences, travel dates, number of travellers (note: we do not process payments for hotel, flight, or car bookings — these are processed by our affiliate partners such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Skyscanner on their own platforms).
- Communication information: messages you send us, feedback, support requests.
- Hotel loyalty membership information: which hotel loyalty programs you are a member of (e.g., Accor ALL, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt) — provided voluntarily by you via our membership toggle feature.
1.2 Information collected automatically
When you visit our Site, we may automatically collect:
- Device and browser information: IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type.
- Usage information: pages visited, time spent on pages, referral source, click patterns.
- Location data: approximate geographic location derived from your IP address (we do not collect precise GPS location).
We use Plausible Analytics for website analytics. Plausible is a privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics service hosted in the European Union. It does not use cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not track individual users across websites. No consent is required for Plausible Analytics under GDPR or the Australian Privacy Act.
1.3 Information from third parties
We may receive information from:
- Affiliate partners: confirmation of bookings made through our affiliate links (booking reference, booking value — used for commission tracking only; we do not receive your payment details).
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- To provide and improve our services, including personalised travel content and country guides.
- To manage your membership waitlist registration and communicate membership updates.
- To process and track affiliate bookings (commission tracking only — we do not handle payments).
- To send you communications you have requested, including weekly cultural story emails and membership updates.
- To display relevant hotel loyalty program benefits based on your voluntarily provided membership status.
- To analyse website usage and improve our Site’s performance and content (via Plausible Analytics — no personal data collected).
- To comply with legal obligations, including Australian tax reporting requirements.
- To protect our rights, property, and safety, and those of our users.
Legal basis for processing (GDPR, for EEA visitors):
- Consent: for marketing emails and optional features like the future diary.
- Legitimate interest: for website analytics (cookieless, via Plausible), fraud prevention, and service improvement.
- Contract performance: for managing your waitlist registration and membership.
- Legal obligation: for tax reporting and regulatory compliance.
3. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal information and have no plans to do so. We may share your information with:
- Affiliate partners (Booking.com, Expedia, Skyscanner, hotel groups, experience providers): when you click an affiliate link, you are redirected to the partner’s website. The partner collects your booking information directly — we do not share your personal data with them. We receive only a booking confirmation and commission amount.
- Service providers — companies that help us operate our Site, including:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) — website hosting and content delivery (servers in Australia and US).
- Supabase — database and authentication (servers in Australia / US).
- Resend — transactional email delivery (US).
- Plausible Analytics — privacy-friendly website analytics (EU).
- Cloudinary — image hosting and delivery (US / EU).
- Legal authorities: when required by law, regulation, or legal process.
- Business transfers: if HiveVia is acquired, merged, or undergoes a change of control, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
When paid membership launches, we will use Stripe for payment processing. Stripe is PCI-DSS compliant and handles all payment card data directly — we never see, store, or process your card details. This Privacy Policy will be updated at that time.
International transfers: some of our service providers are located outside Australia (primarily in the United States and the European Union). Where your personal information is transferred overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient handles your information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. Countries where recipients of your personal information may be located include: United States and European Union member states.
4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use minimal cookies on our Site. Because we use Plausible Analytics (which does not use cookies), our cookie footprint is significantly smaller than most websites.
For detailed information about what cookies we use, why, and how to manage them, please see our Cookie Policy.
5. Commercial Electronic Messages (Spam Act 2003)
We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) in relation to all commercial electronic messages we send. This means:
- We only send marketing emails (such as our weekly cultural stories) to people who have given their consent by joining our waitlist or membership.
- Every marketing email includes a clear and functional unsubscribe mechanism.
- Every email identifies HiveVia (ABN 49 950 077 028) as the sender, with accurate contact information.
- We honour unsubscribe requests within 5 business days.
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting us at privacy@hivevia.com.
6. Your Rights
All users:
- Access: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correction: You can ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Deletion: You can ask us to delete your personal information (subject to legal obligations to retain certain data).
- Opt-out: You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting us.
- Complaint: You have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au if you believe we have mishandled your personal information.
Additional rights for EEA visitors (GDPR):
- Data portability: You can request your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
- Restriction of processing: You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
- Objection: You can object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw consent at any time.
- Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in the EU member state where you reside.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@hivevia.com.
7. Data Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure. These measures include:
- Encryption of data in transit (HTTPS / TLS).
- Secure database access controls (Supabase Row Level Security).
- Environment variable storage for API keys and secrets (never stored in code repositories).
- Regular review of access permissions.
- Incident response procedures for data breaches.
No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
8. Data Retention
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Specifically:
- Waitlist and membership data: retained for the duration of your membership or waitlist registration, plus 7 years for Australian tax record-keeping requirements.
- Booking affiliate data: commission records retained for 7 years per Australian tax requirements.
- Analytics data: Plausible Analytics collects only aggregated, anonymous data — no personal information is retained.
- Communication records: retained for 2 years after last contact, then deleted.
You can request deletion of your personal information at any time by contacting privacy@hivevia.com.
9. Children’s Privacy
Our Site is not directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take steps to delete that information.
Our cultural content (character library, country stories) is designed to be family-friendly and educational, but the booking and membership features of our Site are intended for adults (18+) or children supervised by a parent or guardian.
10. Automated Decision-Making
We do not currently use automated decision-making processes that significantly affect your rights or interests. If we introduce such processes in the future (including as part of our planned Cognitive Adaptive Interface), we will update this Privacy Policy and provide you with information about the logic involved, the significance, and the envisaged consequences.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by posting the updated policy on our Site with a new “Last updated” date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
12. Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Queensland, Australia.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your rights, or wish to make a complaint, please contact us:
HiveVia
ABN 49 950 077 028
Email: privacy@hivevia.com
Website: hivevia.com
Address: Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
For complaints about our handling of your personal information, you may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):
Website: oaic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au