Privacy Policy

ChangeFest Privacy Policy

(14 May 2026)

1. Our Commitment to Your Privacy
ChangeFest (“we”, “us”) is committed to protecting your personal information. We collect and use information only when we need it to provide our services, run events, communicate with you or if our funding requires us to collect some personal information about the people who use our services or attend our events.

In Australia there are rules for organisations to tell them how they collect personal information. These are called the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We follow these and have summarized them in Appendix 1 below.

2. What This Policy Covers
This policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share personal information across our platform, mailing list systems, event registrations and other services.

3. How We Collect Your Information
We collect information when you sign up, register for an event, join a mailing list, contact us, respond to a surveys, or use our website.

4. What Personal Information We Collect
Personal information is any information that can identify someone. If we collect your information, it will include the following types of personal information:

• Name
• Contact details such as phone, email and postal address
• Profile information
• Event registration details
• Communication preferences
• Website usage data
• Other information that you may choose to give us.

5. Why We Collect and Use Your Information
We only collect data that is necessary for the services we provide and the events we run. We use your information to provide services, send updates, improve our services, support participation, for statistical and reporting purposes, overall systems administration and security.

6. How You Can Control Your Information
We respect your personal information and this means it will always be your information even if we have a copy of it. You can ask us to give you a copy of the personal information we have for you. You can also update your details, decide that you don’t want to receive any communications from us, or let us know if you want us to correct or delete any of your personal information.

Please email us at hello@changefest.com.au and provide your name, email address and/or telephone number and a clear outline of your request. We will respond to you as soon as possible.

7. Children and Young People
We do not seek to collect data from children under 16 years unless we have the permission of their parent, caregivers or carers or guardian. If we find out that we have collected personal information from a child under 16 without appropriate permission, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 16 without parental consent, please contact us.

8. When we use other services
To run our programs and events we sometimes use other services, for example Humanitix to sell tickets for events. We choose these services carefully, especially when they will need to also collect personal information, and when you use their services, your personal information is protected by their privacy policy.

We do not sell or rent personal information to others and only share personal information with another organisation when the law says we must or to protect the safety of people at ChangeFest, the users of our website or the public.

9. Cookies and Website Tracking
We use cookies to understand usage and improve our website.

Technical information about cookies and web beacons; logging practices; external links; and Do Not Track (DNT) can be found in our Technical Information at the bottom of this document (Appendix 2).

10. Data Security and Retention
We protect your information and only retain it as long as necessary.

11. Changes to This Policy
We will review this policy each year and publish the most up to date version on our website.

12. Contact Us
Email us at hello@changefest.com.au if you:

• have questions about how we collect or use your personal information;
• are unhappy about the way we handle your personal information;
• think we need to update any of the personal information we hold about you;
• or wish to access the personal information we hold about you.

We will respond to any requests as soon as possible.

Appendix 1 – The Australian Privacy Principles

APP 1 — Open and Transparent Management of Personal Information
Organisations must handle personal information openly and transparently, including having a clear, up‑to‑date privacy policy.

APP 2 — Anonymity and Pseudonymity
Where possible, you must be given the option to interact with an organisation anonymously or using a fake name, except in specific situations where identification is required.

APP 3 — Collection of Solicited Personal Information
Organisations may collect personal information only when necessary—especially sensitive information, which requires stricter protection.

APP 4 — Dealing with Unsolicited Personal Information
If an organisation receives personal information it didn’t ask for, it must decide whether it could have collected it legally. If not, it should destroy or de‑identify it.

APP 5 — Notification of the Collection of Personal Information
When collecting personal information, organisations must tell you what they’re collecting, why, how it will be used, and other relevant details.

APP 6 — Use or Disclosure of Personal Information
Personal information can only be used or shared for the purpose it was collected unless an exception applies.

APP 7 — Direct Marketing
Organisations can use or share personal information for marketing only if certain conditions are met, and individuals must be allowed to opt out.

APP 8 — Cross‑border Disclosure of Personal Information
Before sending personal information overseas, organisations must take steps to make sure it will be protected.

APP 9 — Adoption, Use or Disclosure of Government‑related Identifiers
Organisations generally can’t use government identifiers (like Medicare or tax file numbers) as their own identifiers except in limited circumstances.

APP 10 — Quality of Personal Information
Organisations must ensure any personal information they collect, use, or disclose is accurate, up to date, complete, and relevant.

APP 11 — Security of Personal Information
Organisations must protect personal information from misuse, loss, or unauthorised access, and destroy or de‑identify it when it’s no longer needed.

APP 12 — Access to Personal Information
You have the right to access your personal information, and organisations must provide access unless a specific exception applies.

APP 13 — Correction of Personal Information
If your personal information is incorrect, organisations must take reasonable steps to fix it

Appendix 2 - Technical Information

Logging Practices

When you use the ChangeFest website, we automatically collect your IP address. An IP address is a unique number assigned to your device when it connects to the internet. Most internet connections use a “dynamic” IP address, which means the number changes regularly. However, some broadband connections use a “static” IP address that stays the same. In those cases, the IP address may be linked to your specific device and could be considered personal information.

We also collect information about:

• The website you visited just before coming to the ChangeFest site
• The search terms you used to find us
• Which pages you visit on our site and how long you spend on them
• Your searches on our website (these remain anonymous and confidential)

We use this information only to understand what content is most useful to visitors and to help improve the website.

In addition, we may collect certain technical details your device sends automatically as part of standard website traffic analysis, such as:

• Your browser or device type and version
• Your operating system
• The date and time you accessed the website
• How much data was transferred

External Links

Our website contains links to external sites created and maintained by other organisations. These links are provided for your convenience.

When you click one of these links, you leave the ChangeFest website. This means our privacy policy no longer applies. We strongly recommend reading the privacy policy of any external site before sharing your personal information.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Our website or emails uses cookies and web beacons (small files or tags placed on your device) to help us understand how people use our website over time.

We use:

• Session cookies — active only while your browser is open
• Persistent cookies — remain on your device and recognise you when you return
• Web beacons – only used if you have signed up for a marketing and open them

These tools help us:

• Identify returning visitors
• Make the website easier for you to use
• Understand how people navigate the site
• Balance traffic across our servers

We may also use tracking cookies, third‑party cookies, and similar technologies to support features like social media sharing or to understand how you engage with our emails.

Do Not Track (DNT)

Some browsers allow you to send a “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal to websites to request that your browsing is not tracked. At this time, our website does not respond to DNT signals.

Last updated: 14 May 2026