Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information SwapU Pty Ltd (ABN 38 633 008 456), trading as SwapBox ("SwapBox", "we", "us"), collects, what we do with it, who we share it with, and how long we keep it. It covers sellers, who have a SwapBox account, and buyers, who use a sale link without an account. It covers the SwapBox app, the website swapbox.au and the sale pages a buyer opens from a link. We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Our Terms and Conditions sit alongside this policy.

Your account: your name, email address and mobile number. We check the mobile number by texting you a code. If you give us an address, we keep that too. Each sale: the description and price you enter, the photograph you take of the item in the open locker compartment, the times things happen in the sale, and the version of our Terms you accepted when you created it. Getting paid: Stripe collects your identity and bank details directly when you set up payouts, and holds them. We receive only a reference to your Stripe account and whether it is ready to receive money. We never see your bank account number or identity documents.

You do not need an account. When you say yes to a sale we collect your mobile number, which we check by texting you a code, and we record the version of our Terms you accepted. When you pay, Stripe handles your card. We never see or store your card number. Stripe gives us a card fingerprint (a code Stripe uses to recognise the same card again, not the card number), the country the card was issued in, and a Stripe customer reference. If you turn the item down at the locker, we keep the photograph you take of it. Every sale page links to this policy, including the step where you give your mobile number.

IP address. When you pay, your IP address is sent to Stripe with the payment, and Stripe's payment form in your browser collects its own device information for its fraud checks. We also use IP addresses for a short time to limit repeated attempts, for example many wrong codes. Where an IP address is written to our logs, we shorten it first so it no longer identifies a single connection. Browser storage. On a buyer sale page, your browser keeps your mobile number and an access code for that sale, so you do not have to enter them again. They stay in your browser until you clear its data for the site. The app keeps your sign-in and some preferences in the same way. Analytics. See section 9. A device check, planned and not yet in use. To stop people buying from themselves, we plan to store a random identifier in your browser on sale pages and in the app, and record it with each sale. We will update this policy with the date it starts before it does. We do not collect your date of birth, and we do not use device identifiers today.

To run the handover: to create the sale link, book and open the locker door, send you the texts about each step, and show each side what they need. To move the money: Stripe holds the buyer's payment, takes it after collection, and pays the seller, less our fee. To prevent misuse: to check codes, limit repeated attempts, refuse cards we cannot accept, and notice patterns like a card paying the same seller more than once. To answer you and to meet our legal obligations, including tax records. To understand how the website and app are used, through analytics (section 9). We only send marketing messages if you have agreed to them, and every one has a way to stop them.

Some decisions about a sale are made by our systems without a person looking first: - A payment is refused if the card was not issued in Australia. When this happens, any hold on the card is released. - If the same card has already paid for an earlier sale by the same seller, the payment goes ahead and the sale is flagged for a person to look at. - A sale's item description can be screened automatically against our prohibited items list, and a sale can be refused on that basis. - Deadlines run automatically. If the seller does not drop off in time, the sale closes. If the buyer does not pay in time, the sale closes and the seller is contacted about getting the item back. - If the buyer refuses the item, cancels, or does not collect it in time, the hold on their card stays until the seller confirms they have the item back, and is released then. If the seller has not confirmed within 24 hours of being told to collect it, the hold is released automatically at that time, or at 9am if that time falls between 11pm and 6am. - If the buyer collects and does not turn the item down in the time allowed, the payment is taken. If you think one of these decisions was wrong, contact us (section 13) and a person will look at it.

Sale photographs are the seller's photograph of the item in the open compartment, the buyer's photograph if they turn the item down, and the seller's photograph when answering a turned-down sale. Before we store a photograph we remove its hidden information, including any location data, and we check the location data is gone. Photographs are kept in private storage. The buyer can see the seller's photograph of their sale, and the seller can see the photographs for their sale. We delete sale photographs 90 days after the sale finishes.

We share personal information with the companies that run parts of SwapBox for us, only for that purpose: Supabase: our database, sign-in and photo storage. Railway: runs our servers. Every photograph passes through them on the way to storage. Vercel: hosts our website and the buyer sale pages. Stripe: payments, payouts, card checks and seller identity checks. Twilio: sends the codes and texts, so it receives your mobile number and the text of each message. My Parcel Locker: runs the locker. For a sale we send the door size and a sale reference, not your name or number. Google Analytics: website and app analytics (section 9). Sentry: records errors in our systems. We remove sale codes, access codes, phone numbers and email addresses before sending, but an error can contain other details. Anthropic: if automatic screening is switched on, a sale's title and description are checked by an AI model. No photographs are sent for sales. Resend and Klaviyo: email, including our waiting list. Firebase: app notifications. Telegram: our internal alerts and tools for staff. Alerts carry sale references and sometimes an item's title, and a staff lookup can show a user's name and email. We also share information when the law requires it, or with a buyer or seller when a sale needs it: for example, the buyer sees the seller's photograph of the item. We do not sell personal information.

We use Google Analytics on swapbox.au and in the SwapBox app. It sets cookies in your browser (named _ga) and records the pages you visit, your browser and device type, and your approximate location, which Google works out from your IP address. This is per-browser information, not an anonymous total. What we never send to Google Analytics: sale codes, access codes, your name, email, mobile number, account ID, or any other ID, such as which sale, swap or building something relates to. We do not attach details about you to your visits. In the app, a page is recorded by its type, for example "a sale page", never by which sale, and an action such as starting a listing is recorded only as what happened, for example with the item's category. The buyer sale pages do not use analytics. You can block analytics cookies in your browser settings, or with Google's opt-out tool.

Our database and photo storage are in Sydney, Australia. Some of the companies in section 8 store or process information outside Australia: Singapore: Railway, which runs our servers. United States: Stripe, Twilio, Google (Analytics and Firebase), Sentry and Anthropic. And other countries where these providers operate, including Vercel, which serves pages from locations around the world, Telegram, Resend and Klaviyo. We choose providers that commit to protecting the information, but when information is held overseas it is also subject to that country's laws.

Sale and payment records, including the mobile numbers and card fingerprints recorded with them: kept for seven years after the sale, for tax and legal reasons, and then deleted. Sale photographs: deleted 90 days after the sale finishes. Account details: kept while your account is open. You can ask us to delete your information at any time (section 12) and we will, except where the law requires us to keep it.

You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Email support@swapbox.au. We will reply within 30 days. We may need to confirm who you are first, for example with a code to your mobile number. If we cannot do what you ask, we will tell you why.

Contact us first at support@swapbox.au. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

What we do: photographs are in private storage and served only to the people in that sale. The buyer's access code for a sale is stored only in a scrambled form that cannot be reversed. IP addresses are shortened before they are written to our logs. Only the people who run SwapBox can reach our systems, through their own accounts. No system is free of risk. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the Information Commissioner, as the law requires.

You must be 18 or over to buy or sell through SwapBox. Sellers confirm their identity with Stripe when they set up payouts.

If you used SwapBox's earlier swap service, some of it still works differently. Swap item photographs are stored in public storage, so anyone with the link can see them. For swaps, we send your name, email and mobile number to My Parcel Locker to set up your locker access, and we use your IP address to find your nearest locker through a location service (ipapi.co).

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you through the app or by email at least 14 days before the change takes effect, and show the date it starts at the top of this page.