Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 2026
Geelong Rural Trades ("we", "us", "the directory") is a local business directory covering Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula, and the Surf Coast. This page explains what information we collect, why, and how it's handled.
What we collect
If you submit a business listing, we collect the business name, category, suburb/region, phone number, email, website, and description you provide. If you're a sole trader, some of this may be personal information rather than purely business information — we treat it the same way regardless.
If you upgrade to a Featured listing, payment is processed entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your card details — Stripe passes us only a confirmation that payment succeeded, along with your business ID so we know which listing to upgrade.
We keep simple, anonymous counts of profile views and contact clicks (phone/website) against each listing, so business owners can see how their listing is performing. These counts aren't tied to who's browsing — we don't use cookies, don't track individual visitors, and don't build profiles of people visiting the site.
How we use it
- To display your business listing publicly on the directory
- To contact you about your listing (approval, edits, or a link to manage it yourself)
- To process and manage a Featured subscription, via Stripe
- To show you (as a business owner) aggregate view/click stats for your own listing
When a customer contacts a business through the directory — calling, emailing, or visiting a website listed — that happens directly between the customer and the business. We don't see, store, or relay the content of those enquiries.
Who we share it with
- Stripe — payment processing for Featured subscriptions
- Cloudflare — hosting, storage, and infrastructure for the site and its data
- Google — we use Google's Places data to help find and verify publicly available business details when researching new listings for the directory
We don't sell contact information, and we don't share your details with other businesses for marketing purposes.
Where data is stored
The site runs on Cloudflare's global infrastructure. While we operate the directory from Australia, Cloudflare may store or process data across its international network as part of normal operation.
Your listing, your control
You can request corrections to your listing, ask us to remove it, or ask what information we hold about your business at any time — see contact details below. Business owners with an active edit link can update their own listing's contact details, description, and photos directly.
Questions or concerns
Contact us at geelongruraltrades@gmail.com for anything relating to this policy, your listing, or your data. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
Changes to this policy
We may update this page as the directory grows. Material changes will be reflected here with an updated date at the top.