Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 June 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how HELM PLATFORMS PTY LTD (ABN 41 695 031 817) ("helm", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and protects your personal information. By using the helm Platform, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

1. Our Commitment to Privacy

helm is committed to protecting the privacy of our users and to complying with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act") and the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs") contained in that Act.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information we collect through the helm platform at hellohelm.co, the web application at app.hellohelm.co, and all associated services ("Platform"). It should be read together with our Terms and Conditions.

This Privacy Policy is effective from 18 June 2026. If you have questions about this policy or our privacy practices, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details in section 12 below.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

When you create an Account, list a property, or interact with our Platform, we collect:

Identity information: your full name, date of birth, and government-issued identification details (used for ownership and identity verification);
Contact information: email address, phone number, and postal address;
Property information: address, title details, property characteristics, photographs, asking price, listing descriptions, and related documentation (including rates notices and certificates of title);
Financial information: payment card details or bank account information (processed securely by our payment provider, Stripe; helm does not store your full card details);
Account credentials: username and password (stored in encrypted form); and
Communications: messages, enquiries, and support requests you send to us, and messages exchanged with other users through the Platform.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you use the Platform, we automatically collect certain technical information, including:

device and browser information (browser type, operating system, device identifiers);
IP address and approximate location data;
usage data, including pages visited, features used, time spent on the Platform, and click behaviour;
cookies and similar tracking technologies (see section 9 for more detail); and
log files and error reports.

2.3 Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third-party sources, including:

property and address data services (such as mapping and address lookup providers) used to help you complete your Listing;
Property Portals (Domain, realestate.com.au) in connection with your Listing; and
payment processors, in relation to transaction confirmations and payment status.

2.4 Information You Choose Not to Provide

You are not required to provide all personal information we request. However, if you choose not to provide certain information, we may be unable to create your Account, verify your identity, publish your Listing, or provide certain features of the Platform.

3. How We Use Your Personal Information

We collect and use personal information for the following purposes.

3.1 Providing the Platform and Services

creating and managing your Account;
verifying your identity and ownership of, or authority to list, the property being listed;
publishing your Listing on the Platform and submitting it to Property Portals;
powering AI Features such as offer scoring, listing content generation, photo enhancement, and guidance to support your decisions;
processing your payments; and
communicating with you about your Listing, Account, and the sale process.

3.2 Improving the Platform

analysing usage patterns and user behaviour to improve the Platform's features and performance;
evaluating and improving the quality and reliability of our AI Features; and
identifying technical issues and fixing bugs.

3.3 Marketing and Communications

With your consent (or where otherwise permitted by law), we may use your contact information to send you:

updates and announcements about new features, products, or services offered by helm;
newsletters and educational content relating to private property sales; and
information about promotions or partner offers.

You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or by contacting us at team@hellohelm.co.

3.4 Legal and Compliance Obligations

complying with applicable laws and regulatory requirements;
responding to lawful requests from law enforcement or government agencies;
enforcing our Terms and Conditions; and
managing disputes and legal proceedings.

3.5 Improving AI Features

We may use aggregated and, where practicable, de-identified data derived from user activity and property information to analyse, evaluate, and improve the performance of our AI Features. This data is aggregated and, where practicable, de-identified before use, and is handled so as to minimise the risk that it could be used to identify any individual user or property. helm does not use your personal information to train the underlying third-party artificial intelligence models that power the AI Features.

4. Disclosure of Your Personal Information

4.1 Service Providers

We share your personal information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating the Platform. These include:

cloud hosting and infrastructure providers (Amazon Web Services);
authentication providers (Clerk);
payment processors (Stripe);
Property Portal operators (Domain, realestate.com.au), for the purpose of submitting your Listing;
providers of the artificial intelligence models and services used to power AI Features;
customer support platform providers (Lorikeet);
identity verification providers; and
legal, accounting, and other professional advisers.

All service providers are required to handle your personal information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles.

4.2 Buyers and the Public

Your property information, including listing description, photographs, address, and asking price, will be publicly available on the Platform and any Property Portals to which your Listing is submitted. This is an inherent and necessary part of marketing your property for sale.

Enquiries and communications between you and prospective buyers are facilitated through the Platform. We do not publish your personal contact details (such as your phone number or email address) on your public Listing.

4.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, court order, or lawful request by a government or law enforcement authority. We may also disclose information where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of helm, our users, or the public.

4.4 Business Transfers

If helm undergoes a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring or successor entity as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such transfer and any change to this Privacy Policy that results from it.

4.5 No Sale of Personal Information

helm does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes.

5. Overseas Disclosure

Our infrastructure and property data are hosted in Australia (Amazon Web Services, Sydney region). Some of our service providers, including our payment and authentication providers, may store or process personal information outside Australia.

Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we take reasonable steps to ensure that those recipients handle your information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles or an equivalent standard of protection. Overseas disclosures may be made to recipients in the United States and Ireland. If you would like more information about our overseas disclosures, please contact our Privacy Officer.

6. AI Features and Data Use

helm's AI Features use the information that you and prospective buyers provide, together with your property and listing context, to generate outputs such as offer scores, listing content, and guidance to support your decisions.

Your property information, including the details of your Listing and the price at which your property sells, may contribute to improving the Platform in an aggregated and, where practicable, de-identified form. This means your data helps make the Platform more useful for all users, while being handled so as to minimise the risk of identifying you individually. helm does not use your personal information to train the underlying third-party AI models.

AI outputs presented through the Platform are tools to assist your decision-making. They are not valuations, legal advice, or financial recommendations. You should always seek independent professional advice, such as from a licensed conveyancer or solicitor, before making major property decisions.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to provide the Services and comply with our legal obligations. Generally:

Account information is retained for 12 months after your Account is closed;
Property listing data is retained for 7 years after your Listing is removed, reflecting the period during which a claim relating to a property sale may be brought; and
Financial records are retained for seven (7) years as required by Australian tax law.

When personal information is no longer required, we will securely destroy or de-identify it.

8. Security

helm takes the security of your personal information seriously. We implement a range of physical, technical, and organisational security measures to protect your information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. These include:

encrypted data transmission using industry-standard protocols (TLS/SSL);
encrypted storage of sensitive data including passwords and payment information;
access controls limiting employee access to personal information on a need-to-know basis;
regular security reviews and vulnerability assessments;
secure cloud infrastructure hosted by Amazon Web Services; and
incident response procedures for data breaches.

In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, helm will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act.

Despite our measures, no system is completely secure. You accept that providing personal information always carries some risk, and you should take steps to protect your Account credentials.

9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

9.1 What We Use

The Platform uses cookies and similar technologies (such as pixels, web beacons, and local storage) to:

maintain your session and keep you logged in;
remember your preferences;
analyse usage patterns and improve the Platform;
deliver relevant advertising; and
detect fraudulent activity.

9.2 Types of Cookies

Essential cookies: required for the Platform to function. These cannot be disabled.
Analytics cookies: help us understand how users interact with the Platform (for example, Google Analytics).
Marketing cookies: used to serve relevant advertising to you across third-party platforms. We use these in accordance with your cookie choices where your consent is required, and you can also opt out via your browser settings or tools such as Google's advertising opt-out.

Essential cookies are necessary for the Platform to operate and cannot be disabled. For analytics and marketing cookies that are not strictly necessary, we rely on the choices you make through the cookie controls we provide on the Platform, where required, and you can change those choices at any time. You can also manage or block cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the Platform. For more information about managing cookies, visit www.aboutcookies.org.

10. Your Rights

10.1 Access and Correction

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and to ask us to correct any information that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. You can review and update most of your personal information through your Account profile. For other requests, please contact our Privacy Officer.

We will respond to access requests within 30 days. We will not charge you for making an access request, though we may charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs in providing access to large volumes of information.

10.2 Deletion

You may request that we delete your personal information where it is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, subject to our legal obligations to retain certain information.

10.3 Complaints

If you believe we have breached your privacy rights or the Australian Privacy Principles, you may lodge a complaint by contacting our Privacy Officer using the details in section 12 below. We will investigate your complaint and respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal obligations. We will notify you of material changes by email or by displaying a notice on the Platform. Where a material change affects how we handle personal information we have already collected, we will notify you before that change takes effect. The revised policy will otherwise be effective from the date it is published. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Privacy Officer
HELM PLATFORMS PTY LTD (ABN 41 695 031 817)
Email: team@hellohelm.co
Postal address: street number Gordon St, Manly Vale, NSW 2093

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 18 June 2026. HELM PLATFORMS PTY LTD ABN 41 695 031 817 trading as helm. hellohelm.co