Privacy Policy

What personal information do we collect?

Only what is needed to answer you, attend the property and invoice the work. Depending on how you deal with us, that can include:

• Your name, phone number and email address when you call, text, email or use the contact form.
• The property address and suburb, and whether you are the owner, a tenant, a property manager or a strata contact.
• What you tell us about the problem: the pest or animal, where it is, how long it has been there, and any photos or videos you send.
• Details needed for the certified taxable invoice: the name and address the invoice is issued to, the work done, the amount, the GST and the warranty terms.
• Payment records showing that an invoice was paid. Card details are handled by the payment provider at the time of payment and are not stored by Symes SA.
• Notes and photos taken on the job, such as the entry point on a roof, the condition of a roof space, or images from a cage camera placed during a possum removal.

We do not ask for, and do not want, information that is not connected to the job. Health details are not collected unless you choose to tell us something relevant to a treatment, such as a chemical sensitivity in the household or a pet with a condition, in which case it is used only to plan that treatment.

How do we collect it?

Directly from you, in almost every case: on the phone, by text message, by email, through the contact form on this website, or in conversation at the property. Where a property manager, landlord, strata manager or agent books on an occupant's behalf, we collect the occupant's name and phone number from them so the visit can be arranged and the re-entry timing explained.

Photos and notes are created by the technician during the visit. A cage camera, where one is used on a possum job, records the trap and the animal on your property so that the capture and release can be confirmed; you are told when one is placed.

Why do we use it?

• To answer your enquiry, quote the work and book a day and a time window.
• To find the property, attend it, and carry out the treatment, removal or proofing you asked for.
• To issue the certified taxable invoice and record payment, which the business is required to keep for tax purposes.
• To honour the warranty written on the invoice, which means keeping a record of what was treated or sealed, where and when.
• To tell you about a follow-up that the job itself needs, such as the second visit of a bed bug or flea program or the annual inspection a termite system depends on.
• To meet legal obligations, including record keeping for licensed pest management work and for wildlife trap and release permits.

We do not use your details for marketing lists, we do not send newsletters, and we do not sell, rent or trade personal information to anyone.

Who do we share it with?

As few people as possible. Your information may be seen by:

• The person who booked the job on your behalf, such as a property manager or landlord, to the extent needed to report what was found and done.
• Accounting and bookkeeping software and the business's accountant, for invoicing and tax.
• The payment provider processing a card payment.
• Government agencies where the law requires it, for example a wildlife authority auditing trap and release records, or a regulator inspecting pest management records.
• A licensed snake catcher or other specialist we refer you to, if you ask us to pass on your details rather than contact them yourself.

Photos of completed work are sometimes used on this website or in quotes to other customers to show what a job looks like. They are never used with your name, your street number or anything that identifies the property, and if you would rather a photo of your roof or garden was not used at all, say so on the day or afterwards and it will not be.

How is it stored and protected?

Enquiries arrive on a business mobile and a business email account, both password protected. Job notes, photos and invoices are kept in accounting and job-record software that is also access controlled. Paper is kept to a minimum. Information is not transferred overseas by Symes SA, although the email, cloud and accounting services the business uses may store data on servers outside Australia under their own security arrangements.

Invoice and payment records are kept for the period the Australian Taxation Office requires for business records, which is five years from the date the record was made. Job notes and photos are kept for as long as a warranty on that job is live, and are then deleted or archived. Enquiries that do not become a job are deleted once they are clearly finished.

Cookies and this website

This website is built on WordPress. Like most sites it may set functional cookies that keep the site working during your visit; these do not identify you. Page fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which means your browser requests the font files from Google's servers and Google receives the standard technical information any web request carries, such as your IP address. The contact form sends what you type to the business email address and nowhere else. No advertising trackers run on the site.

Links to outside sites, such as the Department for Environment and Water pages cited in our possum law guide, take you to sites with their own privacy policies.

How do you access, correct or delete your information?

Ask. Email symessa@outlook.com.au or call 0488 608 498 and Edward will tell you what is held about you, correct anything that is wrong, or delete what the business is not legally required to keep. Invoice and tax records cannot be deleted inside the retention period the law sets, but anything beyond that, including photos and job notes, can be removed on request.

If you send a photo or message by mistake, tell us and it will be deleted without being read further.

Complaints and the Australian Privacy Principles

Symes SA handles personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you believe your information has been mishandled, contact the business first at the details above and it will be looked into and answered in writing. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

This policy is reviewed when the way the business handles information changes, for example if a new booking or payment tool is introduced. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last updated, and the current version is always the one published here.