Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Explore & Develop Pty Ltd, ABN 71 134 549 616 (we, us or our) is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information we collect through our website at exploreanddevelop.com.au (Website). We are the franchisor of the Explore & Develop network of early childhood education and care centres. We do not own or operate individual centres.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and store personal information in connection with your use of our Website. It is intended to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). This Website is not intended for use by persons aged under 18 years.

By using our Website, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. There are special categories of personal information called ‘sensitive information’ which require greater protection, such as racial or ethnic origin and health information. We do not request this kind of information via our Website.

2. What Personal Information We Collect

The types of personal information we may collect through our Website include:

2.1 Family Enquiry and Waitlist Forms

When you submit an enquiry or waitlist request for a specific centre, we may collect your name, email address, phone number, your child’s name and date of birth, preferred days of care, and any other information you choose to provide.

This information is transmitted to the relevant franchised centre. However, a copy of the information you submit may also be retained by us on our website platform or in a third-party centre management system (such as Owna or a similar platform used by the centre). Once the information is received by the centre, that centre (as an independent entity) becomes responsible for its own handling of your personal information in accordance with its privacy obligations under the Privacy Act.

2.2 Employment Application Forms

When you submit an employment application for a centre, we may collect your name, contact details, qualifications, work experience and any other information included in your application.

This information is transmitted to the relevant franchised centre. A copy of the information may also be retained on our website platform or in a third-party system. The centre is responsible for recruitment decisions and for handling your information in accordance with its own privacy obligations.

2.3 Franchise Enquiry Forms

When you express interest in becoming a franchisee, we may collect your name, email address, phone number, location preferences, financial capacity details, and any other information you provide in your expression of interest. This information is received and held by our franchise team.

2.4 Downloadable Resources

We may from time to time offer downloadable resources (such as franchise information packs) in exchange for your name and email address. If you choose to access such resources, we will collect the information you provide.

2.5 Website Usage and Tracking Information

When you browse our Website, we and our third-party analytics providers automatically collect certain information, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, device type, referring URLs, pages visited, time and date of visits, click behaviour, scroll depth, and general geographic location. This information is collected through cookies and similar tracking technologies (see section 6 below).

Our Website currently uses the following third-party tracking and analytics tools:

• Google Tag Manager which is a tag management system that deploys and manages tracking scripts on our Website;
• Google Analytics collects anonymised data about how visitors use our Website, including page views, session duration, traffic sources, and user demographics;
• Meta (Facebook) Pixel tracks visitor activity on our Website to measure the effectiveness of our advertising on the Meta platform, and may be used to deliver targeted advertisements to you on Facebook, Instagram and other Meta services; and
• Microsoft Clarity which is a behavioural analytics tool that records how visitors interact with our Website through session recordings and heatmaps, capturing mouse movements, clicks and scroll behaviour. Microsoft Clarity does not collect passwords, payment details or sensitive personal information.

Each of these providers collects and processes data in accordance with its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of Google, Meta and Microsoft for further information about how they handle your data.

3. How We Use Your Personal Information

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

• to facilitate the transmission of family enquiries and waitlist requests to the relevant franchised centre;
• to facilitate the transmission of employment applications to the relevant franchised centre;
• to respond to and assess franchise expressions of interest;
• to provide you with downloadable resources you have requested;
• to direct market including to communicate with you about our franchise opportunities (where you have expressed interest);
• to measure and analyse the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns;
• to deliver targeted advertising to you on third-party platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) based on your interaction with our Website;
• to improve our Website, content and user experience, including through behavioural analytics such as heatmaps and session recordings;
• to analyse Website traffic and usage patterns; and
• to comply with our legal obligations.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients:

• Franchised centres: Family enquiry, waitlist and employment application information is transmitted to the relevant franchised centre. Each centre is an independently owned business and manages your information under its own privacy obligations.
• Website and form platform providers: Our Website is built on WordPress and uses form plugins to process your submissions. Form data may also be processed through third-party centre management platforms such as Owna.
• Website hosting provider: Our Website is hosted by Panthur (a brand of Newfold Digital) on servers located in Australia.
• Analytics and advertising providers: We share Website usage data with Google (via Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager), Meta Platforms, Inc. (via the Facebook Pixel), and Microsoft (via Microsoft Clarity). These providers may use your data in accordance with their own privacy policies.
• Professional advisors: We may share information with our legal, accounting and other professional advisors.
• As required by law: We may disclose information where required or authorised by law, including to comply with a court order, subpoena or other legal process.

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information to third parties for their independent marketing purposes.

5. Overseas Disclosure

Our Website is hosted on servers located in Australia (Sydney, NSW and Melbourne, VIC) by Panthur, a brand of Newfold Digital.

However, some of the third-party service providers we use to operate our Website are based overseas or store data on servers located outside Australia. In particular:

• Google LLC (Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager) is headquartered in the United States and may process data on servers located in various countries;
• Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook Pixel) is headquartered in the United States; and
• Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft Clarity) is headquartered in the United States.

Where your personal information is disclosed to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles your information in a manner consistent with the APPs. If you do not consent to this disclosure, please do not provide your personal information to us via our Website.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies. Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. We use the following types of cookies and tracking technologies:

• Essential cookies: These are necessary for the Website to function properly (e.g. session management, security) and cannot be switched off.
• Analytics cookies: These are set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to help us understand how visitors interact with our Website, including which pages are visited, how long visitors stay, and where traffic comes from. This data is collected in anonymised or aggregated form.
• Advertising and retargeting cookies: The Meta (Facebook) Pixel places cookies on your device to track your activity on our Website. This allows us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising on Facebook and Instagram and to show you targeted advertisements on those platforms based on your visit to our Website. You can manage your advertising preferences through your Facebook account settings.
• Behavioural analytics: Microsoft Clarity may record your interactions with our Website, including mouse movements, clicks, and scrolling behaviour, to generate heatmaps and session replays. This helps us identify usability issues and improve the Website experience. Clarity masks sensitive content by default and does not collect passwords or payment information.

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings. You can also opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, and manage your Meta advertising preferences at www.facebook.com/adpreferences. Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our Website.

7. Direct Marketing and Targeted Advertising

We may use the Meta (Facebook) Pixel to deliver targeted advertisements to you on the Meta platform based on your interaction with our Website. This means that after visiting our Website, you may see advertisements for Explore & Develop on Facebook, Instagram or other Meta services.

If we send you direct marketing communications by email in the future (for example, in connection with franchise opportunities or downloadable resources), we will do so in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You will be able to opt out of receiving such communications at any time by using the unsubscribe facility in the communication or by contacting us using the details in section 13 below.

You can opt out of targeted advertising by adjusting your advertising preferences on the relevant platform (e.g. Facebook Ad Preferences) or by disabling cookies through your browser settings.

8. Data Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These measures include password-protected systems, secure servers, and encryption of data in transit.

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information. If a data breach does occur, we will activate our Data Breach Response Plan.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Our retention practices are as follows:

• Family enquiry and waitlist data: Copies retained on our website platform or third-party systems are held for [12 months / 24 months] after the date of submission, after which they are deleted or de-identified unless we are required by law to retain them for a longer period.
• Employment application data: Copies retained on our website platform or third-party systems are held for [12 months / 24 months] after the date of submission, after which they are deleted or de-identified.
• Franchise enquiry data: Retained for the duration of the assessment process and for a reasonable period thereafter, or until you request deletion.
• Website usage and analytics data: Retained in anonymised or de-identified form by our analytics providers in accordance with their own data retention policies.

When personal information is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

10. Your Rights

Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to:

• Access: Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: Request that we correct any inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date personal information.
• Complaints: Lodge a complaint about how we have handled your personal information.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in section 13 below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period (and in any event within 30 days). We may require you to verify your identity before processing your request.

If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on their contact details at www.oaic.gov.au.

11. Information Held by Franchised Centres

Each Explore & Develop centre is independently owned and operated by a franchisee. If you have submitted a family enquiry, waitlist request or employment application that was transmitted to a centre, that centre holds your personal information independently of us. To access, correct or make a complaint about information held by a centre, you should contact that centre directly in the first instance.

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time by publishing the revised version on our Website. The updated version will be effective from the date of publication. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to access or correct your personal information, or wish to make a privacy complaint, please contact us at:

Explore & Develop Pty Ltd

Privacy Officer

Email: admin@exploreanddevelop.com.au

Address: Suite 305, 71 Longueville Road
Lane Cove
NSW 2066

Phone: (02) 9451 0489