Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Ascot Vale Driving School (ABN 52 482 851 308) is a mobile driving instruction service operating across metropolitan Melbourne, including Ascot Vale, Carlton, Deer Park and Sunbury. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Ascot Vale Driving School.

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Questions, requests or complaints about privacy can be sent to ascotvaledrivingschool@gmail.com or phoned through to 0478 182 320.

2. Information We Collect

When you request a booking: your name, email address, phone number, the pickup address you give us, the lesson type you select, your requested date and time, and any message you choose to add.

Automatically, when you submit that form: the IP address the request came from. We record this only to stop the booking calendar being blocked out by automated or malicious requests, and it is never used to build a profile of you or shared for any other purpose.

During your lessons: notes Brandon keeps about your booking and your progress — for example an agreed pickup variation, a travel fee discussed with you, or areas to work on next lesson.

Standard web logs: our hosting provider records ordinary server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested) for security and reliability.

We do not collect or store payment card details. Payments are made by PayID or bank transfer directly between you and Brandon, outside this website.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use what you give us to confirm and manage your lessons, to issue invoices and keep the business records the law requires us to keep, and to answer your enquiries.

We contact you by email, phone call and SMS about your bookings — including calling or texting you on arrival at your pickup point, and to find you at a VicRoads testing centre on test day. Your phone number is used for this and nothing else.

We do not send marketing without your explicit consent, and we never sell your information or disclose it for another organisation's marketing.

4. Who We Share It With

We share personal information only where it is necessary to run the service:

Service providers. Our website and its database are operated on our behalf by hosting and database providers, and our email is provided by Google. These providers process information only to deliver those services to us.

Overseas storage. Some of these providers may store or process data on servers outside Australia. We take reasonable steps to use providers that handle information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Third-party content on this site. Our pages load fonts and icons from Google Fonts and Cloudflare's CDN. Requesting those files tells those providers your IP address and browser. We do not use advertising or analytics trackers.

Where the law requires it, including to VicRoads, an insurer, or a regulator or court where we are obliged to do so.

5. Learners Under 18

Many learner drivers are under 18. If you are under 18, please book with the knowledge and agreement of a parent or guardian — we may ask to confirm that consent before a lesson goes ahead, and a parent or guardian may ask us about, correct, or request deletion of their child's information on their behalf.

6. Data Storage & Security

Your information is held in a password-protected system that only Brandon can sign in to, and the connection between your browser and this website is encrypted. We take reasonable steps to protect information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access — though no method of transmission or storage can be guaranteed completely secure.

We keep booking and payment records for at least five years after your last lesson, because tax law requires business records to be retained for that long. Information we no longer need is deleted or de-identified.

7. Cookies

This website uses only essential cookies: one that keeps you signed in if you are signed in to the admin dashboard, and one that protects the booking form against cross-site request forgery. We do not use tracking, profiling or advertising cookies. You can block cookies in your browser, but the booking form will not work without them.

8. Your Rights

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct anything inaccurate, or ask us to delete it — subject to records we are legally required to keep. Email ascotvaledrivingschool@gmail.com and we will respond within a reasonable time, normally within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled a privacy matter, you can escalate it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.