Privacy Policy

1Who this policy applies to

Settle Smart Mediations is a registered business name of Kayla Christie Curtis, ABN 72 368 827 692, who trades as a sole trader. In both documents "Settle Smart Mediations" means that business, and "you" means the person using this website. Because the business is a sole trader, the obligations set out here are Kayla Curtis's own.

This policy applies to settlesmartmediations.com.au and to enquiries sent through it. Questions about it can go to kayla@settlesmartmediations.com.au or 0406 269 167.

2What this policy does not cover

Information exchanged once a mediation is arranged is governed by the mediation agreement the parties sign before the session, not by this policy. That agreement deals with confidentiality, which is a stronger obligation than privacy and works differently.

This policy also does not govern what either party does with information outside the mediation, or how any other website you reach from here handles your information.

3What is collected through this website

Only what you type into the enquiry form, which is:

• Your name.
• Your email address.
• Your phone number, if you choose to give one. It is optional.
• The category of situation, if you select one. It is optional.
• Whatever you write in the message field.

The form also carries a hidden field and a timestamp. Neither asks you for anything and neither is visible. They exist to tell automated submissions apart from real ones, they are discarded as soon as that check is done, and they are never stored or sent on.

An enquiry travels as an ordinary email. It is not encrypted end to end and it is not privileged. The form says so where you write your message, and it is worth repeating here. Send enough for a first response, not the whole file.

4What this website does not do

This is short because it is nearly all of it. This website:

• Sets no cookies.
• Runs no analytics, no tracking pixels, no advertising and no social media embeds.
• Serves its fonts from its own domain rather than from a font service, so loading this page does not report your visit to a third party.
• Builds no profile of you, and has no mailing list to add you to.
• Never sells, rents or trades personal information. There is no circumstance in which that would happen.

5What the hosting provider records

This website is hosted by Vercel. Like any web host, Vercel keeps server logs that can include your IP address, the time of the request, the page requested and your browser's user agent string. That happens at the infrastructure level for operation and security, and is not gathered by Settle Smart Mediations for any purpose of its own.

How long those logs are kept is determined by Vercel rather than by Settle Smart Mediations.

6How an enquiry is handled

The website stores nothing. There is no database behind it, no queue and no file written. This is a design decision, not an accident of scale, and the code is written so it stays true.

When you submit the form, the site composes an email and hands it to an email delivery service. Once it is delivered, your enquiry exists in an email inbox and nowhere on this website.

The content of your message is never written to a log, whether the send succeeds or fails. The only thing recorded is whether delivery worked, and if it did not, the reason it failed.

7What the information is used for

Your enquiry is used to reply to you, to work out whether mediation is suitable for your situation, and to tell you plainly if it is not. It is not used for anything else, and it is not used for marketing.

8Disclosure to the other party

Mediation involves at least two people, so this needs saying directly. If only one party has made contact and the matter goes ahead, the other party is invited to take part. Doing that necessarily tells them who has enquired and, in general terms, what the dispute is said to be about.

Nothing is sent to the other party without discussing it with you first. If being contacted would put you at risk, say so at the first opportunity and it will be dealt with before anything is sent.

9Who else the information is disclosed to

Providers used to run this website and receive email:

• Vercel Inc, which hosts the website. United States.
• Resend, which delivers the enquiry email. United States.

Because two of those providers are based in the United States, submitting the form means your information is transmitted to and handled in the United States, where privacy law differs from Australian law.

Information is not disclosed to anyone else, except with your consent or where disclosure is required or authorised by law.

10How long it is kept

Enquiries that do not lead to a mediation are deleted from the inbox after 1 calendar month.

11Security

This website is served over HTTPS and instructs browsers to refuse an unencrypted connection to it. Because the site itself holds no enquiries, there is no website database that could be taken.

Once delivered, an enquiry has the security of the email account it sits in. Email is not end to end encrypted. No system is perfectly secure and this policy does not claim otherwise.

12Access and correction

You can ask what personal information is held about you and ask for it to be corrected. Write to kayla@settlesmartmediations.com.au. In practice such a request concerns what is in the email inbox, because the website holds nothing.

There is no charge for asking. If a request has to be refused, you will be told why in writing.

13Complaints

If you are unhappy with how your information has been handled, raise it directly first, at kayla@settlesmartmediations.com.au. Complaints are acknowledged and answered in writing.

If you are not satisfied with the response, you can take the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

14Changes to this policy

Any change is published on this page and the date at the top is moved. There is no mailing list, so this page is the only notice you will get.