Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to anyone who visits educationinfluence.com, creates an account, applies to become an educator member, or uses any Education Influence service (the "Platform").

Education Influence operates globally but is governed by Australian privacy law. Our principal place of business is in New South Wales, Australia.

This policy should be read together with our Terms of Use, Acceptable Use Policy, and Cookie information below.

2. What personal information we collect

Personal information is information that identifies you or could reasonably identify you.

2.1 Account information

• Name
• Email address (used for login and account communications — never displayed publicly)
• Password (stored in encrypted/hashed form — we cannot read it)
• Account preferences and notification settings

2.2 Educator profile information (if your application is approved)

• Professional biography, tagline, subjects, teaching philosophy, and collaboration interests
• Work history and professional experience
• Profile and cover photographs
• City and country (we do not collect street addresses or postcodes)
• Content you publish: articles, projects, events, teaching resources, and collaboration opportunities

2.3 Communications and community activity

• Messages sent and received through our internal messaging system
• Comments, reactions, and recommendations
• Event registrations, project join requests, and collaboration responses
• Saved content, follows, and bookmarks
• Reports you submit about content or other members

2.4 Technical and usage information

• IP address (may be anonymised in logs)
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Pages visited, searches performed, and interactions with platform features
• Dates and times of access and activity

2.5 Contact form and support enquiries

If you contact us through our website contact form or support email, we collect the information you provide (such as your name, email, and message content).

2.6 Sensitive information

We generally do not ask you to provide sensitive information (such as health information, racial or ethnic origin, or political opinions).

If you upload images that may contain identifiable children or young people, you must confirm that you have permission to publish those images. We record that confirmation. You should not upload images of identifiable students without appropriate consent from your school, organisation, and/or parents or guardians as required by law.

3. How we collect personal information

• Directly from you — when you register, apply, complete your profile, publish content, send messages, or contact us
• Automatically — when you use the Platform (through cookies, server logs, and analytics tools)
• From other members — for example, recommendations about you (which you must approve before they appear on your profile)

We collect personal information only where it is reasonably necessary for our functions and activities as a professional educator community platform.

4. Why we collect and use your information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

• To create and manage your account
• To review and process educator applications
• To display your public educator profile and published content (if approved)
• To enable professional connections — messaging, following, saving, and collaboration
• To send transactional communications (account confirmation, application status, event registrations, security alerts)
• To send notifications and optional weekly digests (based on your preferences)
• To operate, maintain, and improve the Platform
• To keep the community safe — including AI-assisted content moderation, spam detection, and investigation of reports
• To comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests
• To analyse aggregated, de-identified usage patterns to improve the Platform

We do not use your personal information for advertising profiling. We do not sell personal information to third parties.

5. Messaging and professional communications

Education Influence provides an internal professional messaging system. This works like email or LinkedIn messaging — not live chat.

• Your email address is never displayed to other members.
• Members contact each other using the "Message Educator" feature.
• If members choose to share personal contact details within a private message, that is their own decision. The Platform does not encourage or facilitate public disclosure of personal contact information.
• Messages may be scanned by automated systems to detect spam, abuse, and content that violates our policies.
• Flagged messages may be reviewed by an administrator before action is taken.
• You can report, block, or mute other members and delete conversations.

A visible notice in the messaging system explains that communications may be moderated by automated systems and reviewed by administrators to maintain a safe professional environment.

6. AI-assisted safety and moderation

To maintain a safe professional community, we use computer programs (including artificial intelligence services) to help detect content that may violate our policies or harm members.

These systems may analyse:

• Messages between members
• Comments on articles
• Published content such as articles, resources, and profile information

The systems look for indicators of bullying, harassment, hate speech, sexual content, child safety concerns, scam behaviour, spam, and attempts to share inappropriate personal information.

Where content is flagged, an administrator may review it before any action is taken (such as removal, warning, or account suspension). In urgent cases involving serious safety concerns, content may be automatically held from public view pending review.

We do not use your private messages to train public AI models. AI services are used solely for safety, moderation, and platform operation.

This section addresses transparency requirements for automated decision-making under Australian privacy law.

7. What we never show on public profiles

Public educator profiles are designed to show professional identity only. We do not display:

• Personal email addresses
• Phone numbers
• Home or street addresses
• Precise GPS coordinates

8. Location and map privacy

We collect city and country to help educators discover colleagues around the world.

• We never collect or store street addresses or postcodes.
• Map pins are displayed with a deliberate offset of several kilometres — your exact location is never shown.
• Only city and country appear on your public profile.

9. Cookies and analytics

We use:

• Session cookies — to keep you logged in
• Security cookies — including reCAPTCHA for spam prevention on forms
• Google Analytics — to understand how the Platform is used (anonymised where possible)

We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

10. How we store and protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

• Account email addresses are stored using encryption.
• Passwords are stored using one-way hashing — we cannot retrieve your password.
• Administrator accounts require two-factor authentication.
• Access to personal information is limited to authorised personnel who need it to perform their role.
• Administrator actions on member accounts and content are logged for security and accountability.

Our Platform is hosted by Cloudways. Data is stored on secure servers. No security system is perfect, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We may disclose personal information to:

• Service providers who help us operate the Platform (hosting, email delivery, security, analytics)
• AI moderation service providers (for safety scanning only)
• Law enforcement or regulatory bodies when required by Australian law
• Other members — only information you choose to make public on your profile or published content

Current service providers include:

• Cloudways (website hosting)
• Zoho Mail (transactional email)
• Google Analytics (usage analytics)
• Google reCAPTCHA (spam prevention)
• OpenAI and/or DeepSeek (AI-assisted content moderation)

12. Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers store or process data outside Australia, including in the United States, European Union, and other countries where our hosting and technology partners operate.

Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles the information in accordance with applicable privacy standards.

13. Consent declarations and content you upload

When you upload or publish content, we may ask you to confirm:

• That you own teaching resources or have permission to distribute them
• That articles are your own original work
• That you have permission to publish identifiable people shown in uploaded images

We record the date and time of these confirmations. This helps protect both you and other members of the community.

14. Data retention

• Account data — retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we must retain it by law.
• Messages — retained while your account is active. Deleted conversations are removed from your view; copies may be retained for safety and legal purposes for a limited period.
• Moderation and safety logs — retained for up to 24 months for security and legal purposes.
• Consent declarations — retained for the life of the associated content plus 7 years.
• Analytics data — retained according to Google Analytics settings (typically 14 months).

15. Your rights

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, or misleading information
• Request deletion of your account and personal information (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Opt out of non-essential communications such as weekly digests
• Make a complaint about how we handle your personal information

To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

16. How to make a privacy complaint

If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us first:

Privacy Officer
Education Influence
Email: [email protected]

We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

• Website: oaic.gov.au
• Phone: 1300 363 992
• Email: [email protected]

17. Children and young people

Education Influence is a professional platform for educators aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

Educators must not upload images of identifiable children without appropriate permissions. We take child safety seriously and will remove content and take account action where this policy is violated.

If you believe we hold information about a person under 18, please contact us immediately.

18. Anonymity and pseudonymity

You may browse public content on the Platform without creating an account. However, to message members, save content, register for events, or publish content, you must create an account using your real name as a professional educator.

19. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make significant changes, we will update the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, notify registered members by email or platform notice.

Continued use of the Platform after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

20. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests:

[email protected]

Education Influence is committed to compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.