Draft for legal review, not yet in force. Items in [square brackets] are for you to confirm or fill in; the policy is reviewed by a qualified adviser before launch (Milestone 6). Until then the current site's policy applies.
Privacy Policy
NanoTechnology Solutions
Website: nanotechnologysolutions.com.au
Effective date: 1 July 2017 · Last updated: [date of publication]
This Privacy Policy explains how NanoTechnology Solutions (“we”, “us”, “our”) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access or correct it. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and, for people in New Zealand, the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) in the Privacy Act 2020 (NZ).
Most of the people we deal with are researchers, laboratory managers, procurement officers and other representatives of universities, research institutes and companies, so the information we collect is mainly business contact information.
1. What personal information we collect
Contact details: name, work email address, work phone number, organisation or institution, job title or department, and business postal or delivery address.
Enquiry and quote details: the products, options and quantities you ask about, the content of your messages, and records of our correspondence, quotes, technical support and service requests.
Order and account details: purchase orders, invoices, delivery and installation details, and warranty or service records for products you buy from us. Our website does not take online payments or offer customer accounts; orders are placed with us directly after a quote.
Marketing preferences: whether you have asked to receive newsletters or product updates, and your unsubscribe requests.
Website and technical information: IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, how you arrived at our site (including from search engines and advertisements), and information collected by cookies and similar technologies (see section 8).
We do not ask for sensitive information (such as health information) and ask that you do not send it to us.
2. How we collect it
We collect personal information directly from you when you:
- send an enquiry or quote request through our website, by email or by phone;
- place an order, request a demonstration, service or training;
- subscribe to our newsletter or updates;
- meet us at trade shows, conferences, training sessions or site visits.
We also collect information from other sources:
- automatically, when you use our website (section 8);
- from manufacturers and distributors we represent, when they refer an enquiry from Australia or New Zealand to us;
- from event organisers, when you attend an event where we exhibit and agree to share your details;
- from publicly available sources, such as institutional websites and professional networking profiles.
When we collect your information from someone other than you, we take reasonable steps to let you know (for example, when we first contact you), unless an exception applies. (New Zealand: this reflects IPP 3A, in force from 1 May 2026.)
3. Why we collect, use and disclose it
- To respond to enquiries and prepare quotes, product information and technical documentation.
- To supply, deliver, install and support products we sell, including warranty, repairs and service.
- To manage our relationship with you and your organisation, including invoicing and record-keeping.
- To send product updates, newsletters, event invitations and offers — only with your consent where the law requires it, and always with a way to unsubscribe (section 7).
- To operate, secure and improve our website, including measuring which pages and advertisements are useful.
- To comply with our legal obligations (for example, tax and export record-keeping) and to protect our rights.
We only use or disclose your information for these purposes, for a related purpose you would reasonably expect, with your consent, or where the law requires or allows it.
4. Who we share it with
We share personal information only as needed with:
- Manufacturers we represent, to obtain pricing, configure systems, arrange delivery and installation, and provide warranty and technical support.
- Service providers who help us run our business, including:
- Cloudflare (website hosting, security and spam protection, including Cloudflare Turnstile on our forms);
- Google (Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager for website measurement and advertising; YouTube for embedded videos);
- Zoho (Zoho CRM, our customer relationship management system: website enquiries are recorded there, in Zoho’s Australian data centre, and Zoho emails us a notification);
- Relentless Hosting (website email hosting for nt-s.com.au, in Australia); our accounting records are kept in our own internal system;
- freight and logistics providers;
- professional advisers (accountants, lawyers, auditors).
- Government and regulatory bodies, where required or authorised by law.
- A buyer or successor, if our business or its assets are sold or restructured.
Our service providers may only use your information to provide services to us.
5. Overseas disclosure
Some of the recipients above are located, or store information, outside Australia and New Zealand — in particular the United States (Cloudflare, Google), and the countries where the manufacturers we represent are based: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Republic of Korea and Turkey.
Before disclosing personal information overseas we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it consistently with the APPs (APP 8) and, for New Zealand, that it is protected by comparable safeguards (IPP 12). Where we cannot do this, we will tell you and, where required, ask for your consent.
6. How we hold and protect it
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including:
- encryption in transit (HTTPS) for our website and forms;
- our website does not store form submissions — enquiries pass through our hosting provider (Cloudflare) straight into our CRM (Zoho, Australian data centre), which notifies our business inbox;
- access controls and multi-factor authentication on the business systems that hold your information;
- spam and abuse protection on our forms;
- secure deletion or de-identification when information is no longer needed.
No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Retention. We keep personal information only as long as we need it:
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Quotes, orders, invoices and related correspondence | 7 years after the last transaction (tax and business records) |
| Enquiries that do not lead to an order | 5 years |
| Warranty and service records | For the life of the warranty or service agreement, then 7 years |
| Marketing preferences | Until you unsubscribe, then a suppression record so we don’t contact you again |
| Website analytics data | Up to 14 months in Google Analytics (the longest it keeps event-level data on our account); summary reports without personal information up to 4 years |
| Security logs | Up to 12 months |
7. Marketing
We only send commercial emails or messages with your consent (express or, where permitted, inferred from an existing business relationship), and every message identifies us and includes a working way to unsubscribe, in line with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (NZ). Asking us for a quote does not sign you up to marketing. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails or by contacting us. We will still send you messages about your orders, quotes, safety notices and support requests.
8. Cookies, analytics and advertising
Our website uses:
- Essential storage — for example, remembering your light/dark display choice in your browser, and Cloudflare security checks on our forms. These cannot be switched off without affecting the site.
- Analytics — Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager via a gateway on our own domain, to understand how visitors use our site (pages viewed, approximate location, device, how you found us). Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.
- Advertising — Google Ads conversion tracking and remarketing, to measure our ads and show our ads to people who have visited our site.
- Embedded videos — YouTube videos load only when you press play, using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode; YouTube may then set its own cookies.
- Form protection — Cloudflare Turnstile loads only when you start filling in a contact or quote form, to check the submission isn’t automated.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, opt out of Google Analytics with Google’s browser add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout), and manage Google ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com. Blocking cookies does not stop you using our website.
9. Automated decisions
We do not use computer programs to make decisions about you that could significantly affect your rights or interests. Pricing, quotes and orders are handled by our staff. (Disclosure required for APP entities from 10 December 2026.)
10. Accessing and correcting your information
You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, by contacting our Privacy Officer (section 12). We may need to verify your identity. We will respond within 30 days and there is no fee for asking. If we refuse a request, we will tell you why and how to complain. You can also ask us to delete information we no longer need; we will do so unless we are required or permitted by law to keep it.
11. Complaints
If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer first (section 12). We will acknowledge your complaint within 10 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact:
- Australia — Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): www.oaic.gov.au · 1300 363 992 · GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
- New Zealand — Office of the Privacy Commissioner: www.privacy.org.nz · 0800 803 909 (+64 4 474 7590 from overseas) · enquiries@privacy.org.nz.
12. Contact us
Privacy Officer, NanoTechnology Solutions Level 30, 91 King William Street, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia Email: info@nt-s.com.au · Phone: (08) 6266 8324 (+61 8 6266 8324) ABN 91 676 471 702
13. Data breaches
If we experience a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, we will contain and assess it, notify affected people, and notify the OAIC and/or the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner where required by law.
14. Children
Our website and services are intended for businesses and institutions. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
15. Links to other websites
Our website links to manufacturers’ and other third-party websites. Their privacy practices are their own; please read their policies.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated. We will tell you about significant changes, for example by a notice on our website.
Change summary versus the 7 February 2026 policy (for the owner — remove before publishing)
| Change | Why |
|---|---|
| Removed website account, username/password and online payment items | The new eStore is quote-only (D1); no accounts or payments |
| Named Cloudflare, Google (Analytics, Ads, Tag Manager, YouTube) and the email provider | Clearer disclosure of the services the site actually uses; analytics kept (owner decision 29 Oct 2026) |
| Added New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, IPP 3A notice for indirect collection, NZ Privacy Commissioner contact | NZ is in scope (D5); the current policy lists third-party sources, so IPP 3A applies |
| Added “Automated decisions” section | APP 1 disclosure required from 10 December 2026 |
| Added Spam Act / UEMA wording; quote requests are not marketing consent | Clarity |
| Removed “by using our website you agree to this policy” and governing-law clauses | A privacy policy is a notice, not a contract; adviser to confirm |
| Removed EU-style rights (restriction, objection to legitimate interests, portability) | Not rights under Australian or NZ law; access, correction and complaint rights kept |
| Corrected OAIC postal address to GPO Box 5288 (was 5218) | OAIC website |
| Added phone and street address for the Privacy Officer | APP 1 requires contact details |
| Retention table kept from the old policy; added enquiry retention | Owner to confirm the bracketed periods |
| Says form submissions are not stored on the website | True for the new site; the current WordPress site stores them |