Privacy Policy

About this policy

This policy explains how Tradie School AI (“Tradie School”, “we”, “us”) collects, holds, uses and shares personal information.

Tradie School is run by DFRNT Group Pty Ltd (ABN 21 679 198 317), trading as Tradie School AI. You can contact us by email at privacy@dfrnt.group about privacy, and at legal@dfrnt.group about anything else.

This policy covers:

• our website at tradieschool.ai, including the sign-up wizard at tradieschool.ai/join;
• the Tradie School app at app.tradieschool.ai;
• Smoko, our AI agent;
• the courses and the members’ community;
• emails and other messages we send you.

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Personal information is information or an opinion about you, where you are identified or can reasonably be identified. It does not matter whether it is true. If you run your business as a sole trader or a small partnership, many of your business details (your business name, ABN, licence number, suburb and mobile) can also be personal information about you. We treat them that way.

You can read this policy for free on our website. If you need it in another form, such as a printed copy, email privacy@dfrnt.group and we will take reasonable steps to give it to you that way.

This policy is governed by the laws of Queensland and the Commonwealth of Australia.

Our members

Tradie School is for adults (18 and over) who own or run a trades or home services business in Australia.

Summary

• We collect what you type into the sign-up wizard, what you tell Smoko, and some technical information about how you use the site and app.
• Your card details go straight to Stripe, our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.
• Smoko is an AI, not a person. What you tell Smoko, and the business details Smoko needs, are sent to Anthropic in the United States so the AI can reply.
• Some of our suppliers hold or process information overseas, mostly in the United States. They are listed below.
• We do not sell your personal information.
• You can unsubscribe from marketing messages at any time.
• You can ask to see or correct the information we hold about you.

Information we collect

Sign-up details

The sign-up wizard asks for:

• your trade;
• your role in the business;
• the size of your team;
• roughly what the business turns over a year, as a band (you can choose “Rather not say”);
• up to three things you want help with first;
• the jobs you do;
• your business name;
• your suburb and state;
• your full name;
• your email address;
• your mobile number.

We do not ask for your ABN.

When you finish the wizard, Smoko chats with you about the look of your business card. In that chat you can add your website or licence number to your card. Both are optional, and we keep them only if you add them. We keep the card design that comes out of the chat: the layout, colours, font and mark, the tagline, the line under your name, and which details and jobs the card shows. We do not keep a copy of the chat text itself.

We also keep a record of when you finished the wizard, how many times Smoko replied, and how many payment attempts were made. We use these to stop misuse.

Campaign tags

If you reached our site through an ad or a link with campaign tags, we record those tags. They tell us which ad or link sent you, for example “facebook” and the campaign name. They do not identify you on their own. We link them to your sign-up when you finish the wizard.

Account details

When you set up your login for the app, our sign-in provider, Clerk, holds your name, email address, password or sign-in method, second-factor settings (such as an authenticator app) and records of your sign-ins, such as the time, IP address and device. If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your name and email address, and may give us your profile picture.

Payments

Membership is paid through Stripe. Payments are taken on the Stripe account of DFRNT Group Pty Ltd. Your card statement shows DFRNT-GROUP, and our name appears on your receipts.

When you pay, you give your card or wallet details (Apple Pay, Google Pay or Stripe Link) to Stripe directly, through Stripe’s own payment form on our page. We never receive or store your full card number or security code.

Stripe tells us whether a payment worked, details such as the last four digits and type of your card, and the state of your membership (for example active, past due or cancelled).

We also use Stripe to hold your sign-up details (the wizard answers listed above, any website or licence number you add, your campaign tags and your card design) until your app account is set up. This means Stripe holds those details even if you finish the wizard and do not pay.

Smoko and the app

When you use Smoko and the courses in the app, we collect:

• what you type or say to Smoko, and Smoko’s replies;
• files you upload, such as logos, photos of your work and documents;
• what Smoko makes for you, such as website drafts, ads and quotes, and whether you approved them;
• your course progress and lesson answers.

The members’ community

If you post in the members’ community, other members can see your name, business name and what you post. Please do not post your customers’ details or anything you would not want other members to read.

Your customers’ details

Some Smoko tasks need details about your own customers, for example drafting a quote. If you give us your customers’ details, we use them only to do the task you asked for. These details are sent to our suppliers in the same way as your own, including to Anthropic in the United States. You need to have the right to share them with us. Please give Smoko only what the task needs.

If Smoko publishes a website for you that has an enquiry form, we receive and store what your customers submit and pass it to you. A separate notice on each form explains this to your customers.

Technical records

When you visit, our hosting provider records technical information. This includes your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit, the time of the visit and error records. We use it to run the service, keep it secure and fix problems.

Sensitive information

We do not ask for sensitive information, such as health information, racial or ethnic origin, religion or criminal records. Please do not include it in your chats, uploads or posts. Anything you type to Smoko is sent to Anthropic in the United States. If you give us sensitive information anyway, we will use it only as needed for what you asked, and we will delete it or remove anything that identifies you if we do not need it, where the law allows.

Collection and holding

We collect personal information:

• from you directly, when you fill in the wizard, chat with Smoko, use the app, post in the community, or contact us;
• automatically, through cookies and browser storage (see Cookies and browser storage) and our hosting provider’s records;
• from others, namely:
  • Stripe, about your payments and membership status;
  • Clerk, about your sign-ins;
  • Google, if you sign in with Google;
  • the ad or link that sent you, through campaign tags.

We hold personal information electronically, in our own database and with the suppliers listed under Disclosure. We do not keep paper records of members’ details.

Anonymity and pseudonyms

You can read our website without telling us who you are. You cannot join anonymously or under a false name, because we need to bill you, set up your account and make a business card with your real details.

Required and optional details

The wizard needs your trade, your role in the business, your team size, a turnover band (or “Rather not say”), at least one thing you want help with first, the jobs you do, your business name, suburb and state, and your full name, email and mobile. Without them we cannot sign you up or make your card. Your website and licence number are optional. You add them in Smoko’s chat only if you want them on your card. If you leave them out, they will not appear on your card.

Purposes

We use personal information to:

• sign you up and set up your account;
• make your business card and the other things Smoko drafts for you;
• run the courses, Smoko and the members’ community;
• take payments, manage your membership and keep financial records;
• send you messages about your account, payments and service changes;
• answer your questions and support requests;
• find out which ads and links bring members to us, so we spend our advertising money well;
• improve the courses, Smoko and the app;
• keep the service secure and stop fraud and misuse;
• meet our legal duties, such as tax record keeping;
• send you marketing about Tradie School, where the law allows (see Direct marketing).

We do not sell your personal information. We do not give it to other businesses, including other DFRNT Group businesses, for their own marketing.

AI and Smoko

Smoko is an AI agent, not a person.

Smoko runs on AI models made by Anthropic, a company based in the United States. To answer you, we send Anthropic:

• what you type to Smoko;
• the business details Smoko needs for the task. For the business card, this is your first name, business name, trade, suburb and state, your role in the business, your team size, what you want help with first, the jobs you do, and whether you added a website or licence number (not the details themselves). Your last name, email, mobile and turnover band are not sent;
• in the app, files and details you give Smoko for a task.

For the business card, Smoko chooses only the look of the card. Your name and contact details are placed on the card by our own system, not written by the AI. We do not store the text of the card chat. We keep only the card design that comes out of it.

Under Anthropic’s commercial terms, as we read them on 5 October 2026:

• Anthropic does not use the content we send it to train its models;
• Anthropic deletes that content within 30 days;
• if Anthropic’s safety systems flag content as a possible breach of its usage policy, Anthropic may keep it for up to 2 years.

Anthropic’s terms can change. We will update this section if they do.

In the app, when Smoko builds things such as a website draft, the work may be done in a temporary computer (a “sandbox”) run by DigitalOcean in the United States. The sandbox is deleted after the work is done.

AI can make mistakes. Smoko drafts your website, ads, quotes and other material for you to check. Smoko does not publish anything or send anything to your customers or the public until you approve it. Please check facts, prices and claims before you use them.

Automatic decisions

Smoko does not decide whether you can join, whether your membership continues, or whether you are refused service. People at Tradie School make those decisions.

Some checks run automatically, without a person looking at them first:

• the sign-up wizard ignores sign-ups that look like they come from a bot, for example a form filled in faster than a person could. It uses the time taken and a hidden form field, not your personal details;
• each sign-up can make up to 5 payment attempts, and Smoko replies up to 8 times during sign-up;
• Stripe’s fraud tools may decline a payment automatically, using your payment details, device and network information.

If you think one of these checks has stopped you by mistake, email privacy@dfrnt.group and a person will look at it. If we add other automatic decisions that could significantly affect you, we will update this policy first.

Disclosure

We share personal information with the suppliers who help us run Tradie School. Each one gets only what it needs to do its job.

We may also share personal information with:

• Apple or Google, if you pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay, and Stripe, if you use Link. They handle that part under their own privacy terms;
• other DFRNT Group companies that help us run Tradie School, such as for billing, support and administration;
• our professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers;
• police, courts or government agencies where the law requires or allows it;
• a buyer of all or part of our business. We would require the buyer to handle your information in line with privacy law.

Overseas disclosure

Some of our suppliers hold or process personal information outside Australia. Based on our records, these countries are:

• United States: Anthropic, DigitalOcean, Stripe, Clerk, Vercel and Postmark;
• Singapore: Supabase’s contracting company (your data is stored in Sydney);
• Other countries: Stripe may also handle data in other countries where it or its suppliers operate.

Before we send personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure the supplier handles it in line with the APPs. We do this mainly through contracts that limit what the supplier may do with it, and require them to keep it secure and tell us about breaches. We do not ask you to give up your rights under the Privacy Act for overseas disclosures.

Direct marketing

We send two kinds of messages.

Service messages. These include receipts, payment reminders, account and security messages, and notices about changes to the service or this policy. You will get these while you have an account, and afterwards if they relate to a payment you owe or your legal rights.

Marketing messages. These tell you about Tradie School courses, features and offers. We send them by email or SMS only where you have agreed, or where the law lets us infer that you agree, such as when you are a current member and the message relates to your membership. Finishing the sign-up wizard is not, by itself, agreement to marketing.

Every marketing message:

• says who sent it and how to contact us;
• has an unsubscribe link or, for SMS, a way to opt out.

Unsubscribing is free. You do not need to log in or give us more information. The unsubscribe link works for at least 30 days after we send the message. We act on your request within 5 working days. You can also email privacy@dfrnt.group to opt out, or to ask where we got your details.

We do not give your details to other businesses for their marketing.

Cookies and browser storage

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use only the cookies and storage we need to run the sign-up and the app. As at 5 October 2026, we do not use advertising pixels or third-party analytics cookies on tradieschool.ai. If we add any, we will update this policy first.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block our cookies, the sign-up wizard and the app will not work properly.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, change or disclosure. These include:

• encrypted connections (HTTPS) for the website and app;
• database rules so each member’s business can see only its own records;
• a second sign-in factor for our staff;
• card details handled by Stripe only;
• signed cookies that cannot be altered;
• no personal information in web addresses we create;
• keeping passwords and keys out of our database;
• contracts with our suppliers that require them to keep information secure.

No system is perfectly secure. If we suspect a data breach that is likely to cause serious harm, we will follow the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. We will take reasonable steps to assess it within 30 days. If it is an eligible data breach, we will tell the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the people affected as soon as practicable.

Retention

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as the law requires. Then we delete it or remove anything that identifies you.

Access and correction

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you. You can also ask us to correct it if it is wrong, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

• You can update most account details yourself in the app.
• You can update your payment details and cancel your membership in the Stripe billing portal. You reach it through the link in every receipt email, or from the membership area once you are signed in. Our Terms of Membership explain cancellation and your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
• For anything else, email privacy@dfrnt.group.

We may need to check your identity first. Asking is free, and we will not charge you to correct your information. We aim to respond within 30 days.

We may refuse access in limited cases the Privacy Act allows. If we refuse access or a correction, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain. If we refuse a correction, you can ask us to attach a statement to your information saying you think it is wrong, and we will do so.

You can also ask us to delete your account and personal information. We will delete it or remove anything that identifies you, except information the law requires us to keep, such as payment records. Copies in backups are deleted as the backups age out.

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your personal information, please email us first at privacy@dfrnt.group. Tell us what happened and what you would like us to do.

We will confirm we have your complaint within 5 working days and aim to give you our answer within 30 days.

If you are not happy with our answer, or we have not answered within 30 days, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

• website: www.oaic.gov.au
• phone: 1300 363 992

Changes

We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date at the top. The version on this page is the current one. If a change is significant, we will tell members by email before it takes effect.

Contact

• Privacy: privacy@dfrnt.group
• Everything else, including legal notices: legal@dfrnt.group
• DFRNT Group Pty Ltd, trading as Tradie School AI, ABN 21 679 198 317