Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 July 2025

In short: we only collect the details you choose to give us (such as your name and email when you ask to be connected with an adviser), we use them to respond to you, and we don't sell your information to anyone. Where you have given your consent, we will pass your contact details to a financial adviser who is appropriately authorised under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) so they can contact you — and you can withdraw that consent at any time.

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Cognify Labs Pty Ltd, which builds and operates the AdviceGenie website ("AdviceGenie", "we", "us", "our"), collects, uses, discloses, and protects your personal information. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. The personal information we collect

We collect personal information you provide directly to us, primarily when you submit an enquiry or "find an adviser" form on the Site. This may include:

your name;
your email address; and
the topic or area you indicated you are interested in, and the page you submitted from.

We may also collect limited technical information automatically when you visit the Site (such as your browser type and general usage data) through standard web-server logs and any analytics we use. We do not ask for, or knowingly collect, sensitive information through the Site.

3. Why we collect and how we use it

We use your personal information to:

respond to your enquiry and contact you about it;
where you have asked, connect you with a licensed financial adviser who can assist you;
operate, maintain, and improve the Site; and
meet our legal and record-keeping obligations.

We will only use your information for the purpose you gave it to us, a related purpose you would reasonably expect, or as otherwise permitted by law.

4. Connecting you with a financial adviser — and your consent

Please read this clause carefully. When you ask us to connect you with an adviser, you are giving us your express consent to disclose your contact details to a third-party financial adviser for that purpose.

AdviceGenie is an educational and referral service. We do not provide personal financial product advice ourselves. If you submit a "find an adviser", callback, or enquiry form and indicate that you would like to speak with an adviser, you expressly consent to AdviceGenie disclosing your contact details and the information you provided (such as your name, email address, and the topic you are interested in) to a financial adviser who is appropriately authorised to provide financial product advice under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), so that the adviser can contact you to discuss how they may be able to assist.

By giving this consent, you understand and agree that:

the adviser is a separate organisation from AdviceGenie, and is not employed or controlled by us;
once your details are passed on, the adviser will handle your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policy, which we encourage you to read;
the adviser may contact you by phone, email, or other means you have provided to follow up on your enquiry;
any advice or service the adviser provides is the adviser's sole responsibility — AdviceGenie does not provide, endorse, or take responsibility for that advice; and
we may receive a referral fee or commission from the adviser if you become their client. This does not change the price of any service to you, and we will disclose such arrangements where required by law.

Your consent is voluntary and you can withdraw it at any time. If you change your mind before we have passed your details on, or you do not want an adviser to contact you, simply contact us using the details below and we will not refer you (or will ask the adviser to stop contacting you). Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any disclosure made before you withdrew it.

5. Who else we share it with

Apart from the consent-based adviser referral described above, we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may disclose it to:

service providers that help us operate the Site and communicate with you (for example, email, form-handling, and cloud-hosting providers), who are only permitted to use it to provide those services to us; and
government, law-enforcement, or regulatory bodies where required or authorised by law, or to protect our legal rights.

6. Direct marketing

From time to time we may send you information we think may be useful to you, such as updates about AdviceGenie. You can opt out of these communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the message or by contacting us. We will not use sensitive information for direct marketing, and we do not provide your information to third parties for their own marketing.

7. Storage, security, and overseas hosting

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Your information is held using reputable cloud-infrastructure providers, with data hosted in Australia where practicable. Some of our service providers may store or process data overseas; where that occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Data breaches

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual whose personal information we hold, we will assess and respond to it in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including notifying affected individuals and the OAIC where required.

9. Accessing and correcting your information

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, consistent with APPs 12 and 13. To make a request, contact us using the details below. We may need to verify your identity first. We will respond within a reasonable time, and if we decline a request we will tell you why.

10. Cookies and analytics

The Site may use cookies and similar technologies to help it function and to understand how it is used. You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the Site may not work as intended if you do.

11. Children's privacy

The Site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

12. Retention

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, or as required by law, after which we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

13. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first and we will try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version published on the Site applies, and we will update the "last updated" date above when we make changes.

15. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, contact us at privacy@advicegenie.com.au.

AdviceGenie is built by Cognify Labs Pty Ltd