1. Who we are
The Term Talk Hub (hub.termtalk.com.au) is operated by Nicola Ann Di Bernardo (ABN 96 977 004 755), trading as Term Talk.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
2. What we collect
Account information
When you create an account, we collect:
- Your name
- Your email address
- A password (stored as a one-way hash - we cannot see your password)
We use this information to create and manage your account, send verification and password reset emails, and communicate with you about the service.
Mailing list (optional)
During registration, you can opt in to the Term Talk mailing list. If you opt in, your name and email address are shared with MailerLite, our mailing list provider, and added to the Hub Users group. You can unsubscribe at any time. MailerLite's privacy policy applies to data they hold: mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy.
Payment information
If you subscribe to Premium, your payment is processed by Stripe. We do not see or store your credit card number. Stripe holds payment data independently under their own privacy policy: stripe.com/au/privacy.
Generation data
When you use ReportReady, we store the parameters you enter for each generation:
- Year level, subject, section type, strand
- Achievement level and effort level
- Student first name and pronouns
- Tone preference and custom instructions
We store these parameters permanently while your account exists, as part of your generation history. We do not store the generated comment text - this is displayed in your browser and not retained by the Hub.
Voice profile (optional)
If you complete the voice profile interview, we store your responses (preferred style, tone, and vocabulary preferences). This is used to personalise your generated comments and is stored as part of your account data.
3. How we use your data
We use your personal information to:
- Provide and operate the Term Talk Hub
- Process your subscription and payments
- Send transactional emails (verification, password reset)
- Send marketing emails if you have opted in to the mailing list
- Generate personalised report comments via the Anthropic Claude API
- Improve the service based on aggregated, non-identifying usage patterns
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your data for advertising.
4. Third-party services
The Term Talk Hub relies on the following third-party services, each of which may process your data under their own privacy policies:
- Anthropic (Claude API) - processes generation parameters to produce report comments. Anthropic does not use this data to train their models.
- Stripe - processes subscription payments. Holds payment data independently.
- MailerSend - sends transactional emails (verification, password reset).
- MailerLite - manages the mailing list for opted-in users. Holds subscriber data independently.
- Render - hosts the Hub portal and database.
We do not share your personal information with any other third parties.
5. Data about students
ReportReady asks for a student's first name and pronouns to generate personalised report comments. We do not collect student surnames, student IDs, dates of birth, school names, or any other information that could identify a specific student.
Student first names are stored as part of the generation parameters in your account history. They are not shared with anyone other than Anthropic's API for the sole purpose of generating the comment.
The Term Talk Hub is not designed to hold sensitive student data. Teachers should not enter identifying student information in the custom instructions or free-text fields.
6. Data retention
Your account data (name, email, preferences, generation history) is retained for as long as your account exists. Inactive accounts are not automatically deleted.
If you cancel your Premium subscription, your account remains active on the free tier and your data is retained.
If you wish to have your account and all associated data deleted, contact support@termtalk.com.au. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.
Please note that data held independently by Stripe and MailerLite is subject to their own retention policies and may not be deleted when your Hub account is deleted. You can contact those services directly to request deletion of data they hold.
7. Data security
We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information:
- Passwords are hashed using bcrypt and cannot be retrieved
- All connections to the Hub use HTTPS encryption
- Session tokens are stored in secure, HTTP-only cookies
- The database is backed up daily to a separate secure location
No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you as soon as practicable.
8. Your rights
Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Request correction of inaccurate information
- Request deletion of your account and data
- Withdraw consent for mailing list communications at any time
To exercise any of these rights, contact support@termtalk.com.au.
If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.
9. Cookies
The Term Talk Hub uses a single session cookie to keep you logged in. This cookie is essential for the service to function and is not used for tracking or advertising. We do not use analytics cookies or third-party tracking scripts.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email. The effective date at the top of this policy will be updated accordingly.