Privacy Policy

• People who visit our website, subscribe to our newsletter, contact us, book a call, download a guide or use our free tools
• Business owners, directors and contacts of our customers
• Clients of our bookkeeping, payroll and BAS agent services, including clients whose records came to us when we acquired their previous provider's business
• Platform users, on the web and in the iOS app
• Employees and workers of our customers, where their information reaches us through connected systems (for example payroll and rostering) or through our services
• Job candidates who apply for roles on our job board or are interviewed for a customer's role
• People at businesses we contact about our services
• Advisors, specialists and contractors working with Valont

• Directly from you, when you fill in a form, use our website or tools, sign up, use the platform or apply for a job
• From your organisation, when it adds you as a user or provides your information as part of our services
• From Connected Systems, only with your organisation's explicit authorisation (for example OAuth consent flows that show what data is shared)
• From the public and third-party sources in section 2.4
• Automatically, through product analytics, system logs and the technologies in section 8

If we receive personal information we did not ask for and could not have collected under the APPs, we destroy or de-identify it where it is lawful and reasonable to do so.

• To provide the platform and our services, including dashboards, workflows and advisory support
• To provide bookkeeping, payroll and BAS agent services, including preparing and lodging activity statements and dealing with the ATO for you
• To generate AI-assisted insights, forecasts, alerts, recommendations and documents, including ones we raise without being asked, such as cash-flow warnings or unusual transactions
• To assess the quality of your source data so services start from a known baseline
• To respond to enquiries, deliver the tools and guides you request, and arrange calls
• To assess job applications, run interviews and share candidates with the hiring business, and to consider candidates for other roles only where they have agreed
• To contact businesses about services that may be relevant to them (see section 12)
• To bill you, provide support, and keep records we are legally required to keep
• To keep the website and platform secure, and to detect and prevent fraud and misuse
• To improve and develop our website, platform, services and AI tools, including training and testing our own AI models, and to produce industry benchmarks, using de-identified or aggregated data where possible. We never use tax file numbers for this, and our AI providers may not use your data to train their own models
• To send marketing communications, only where you have opted in or as section 12 allows
• To comply with the law

AI features are part of the platform, the Ask Valont assistant on our website, voice transcription in the iOS app and our recruitment process. When you use them, relevant data is processed by our AI providers to produce output for you. Our providers are contractually restricted: they process your data only to provide their services to us, may not use it to train their own models, and keep it only as long as needed to provide the service and for limited security monitoring. See our Cybersecurity Policy for how AI processing is safeguarded.

We use computer programs, including AI, to help with decisions such as:

• assessing job applications and interviews, and ranking candidates against roles
• flagging gaps or quality issues in your business data
• coding transactions, matching bank transactions and flagging unusual items, such as duplicate bills or payroll changes
• producing insights, forecasts and alerts about your business

These programs use the information described in section 2 that is relevant to the task, such as a candidate's CV, preferences and interview, or a business's financial and workforce records. Routine steps, such as coding and matching transactions or sending alerts, can happen automatically. Decisions that could significantly affect you are not made by a computer program alone. A qualified person approves anything we lodge with the ATO and any professional advice we give. Hiring decisions are made by the hiring business, and decisions about your business are yours.

We never sell your personal information. We disclose it only as described in this section.

Your platform data is primarily stored in Australia (Sydney regions), including our application database, analytics warehouse and document storage.

Some personal information is disclosed to, processed in, stored in or accessed from other countries:

• AI providers: requests are processed in the United States. Providers may not train their own models on your data, and keep it only as described in section 5. This includes voice transcription and AI interviews.
• Accounting and payroll software: bookkeeping, payroll and BAS records are held in the software used for your services, such as Xero and Dext. These providers may store data outside Australia, including in the United States, under their own terms and privacy policies.
• Operational data: system logs, error reports, product usage analytics, and records of emails sent and payments made may be processed and stored by our service providers in the United States. This data is limited to what we need to run, secure and support the website and platform.
• Other service providers: some providers in section 6.1, including our customer relationship management, email delivery, payment, analytics and error monitoring providers, are based in the United States and may process and store data there.
• Offshore team members and contractors: the people in section 6.2 access information from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Disclosure to our service providers, team members and contractors outside Australia is covered by written agreements with protections comparable to the APPs.

On our website we use:

• An Ask Valont session cookie (valont_sid), which links your assistant conversations together. It holds a random identifier, not your name or email, and lasts up to 12 months.
• Browser storage that remembers your email for 30 days after you enter it to access a tool or guide, so you are not asked again, and remembers when you dismiss a pop-up.
• Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights, which measure visits and page performance without cookies.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies on our website.

The platform uses essential cookies to keep you signed in and secure, and product analytics to understand how features are used. The iOS app stores your sign-in details in your device's secure storage. It does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

You can clear cookies and browser storage in your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will stop you signing in to the platform.

We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards. These include encryption in transit and at rest, tenant isolation, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication for our staff and contractors, and monitoring and alerting. They are described in our Cybersecurity Policy.

No method of storing or sending information over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a breach, we will act as described in section 13.

• Platform and service records: to meet record-keeping obligations that apply to our services (including tax, accounting and professional requirements), we retain platform and service records, including chat and message history and bookkeeping, payroll and BAS working papers, for at least 7 years. Content you delete is archived from your view but retained in our records for this period, as described in our Terms of Service.
• Website enquiries and marketing contacts: while we are in contact with you, and until you ask us to stop or the information is no longer needed.
• Ask Valont conversations: for as long as we need them to answer follow-up questions and check and improve the assistant's answers.
• Candidate profiles: until you delete your profile, unless we need to keep a record for legal reasons. Information already shared with a hiring business is held by that business under its own privacy obligations.

We may also keep information for longer where we need it to comply with the law, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements. When a retention period ends, we delete or de-identify the information.

• Access and correction: you can access and correct most information directly in the platform. You can also ask us for access to, or correction of, any personal information we hold about you (APPs 12 and 13).
• Export and deletion: you can ask us to export or delete personal information, subject to the retention obligations in section 10.
• De-identified use: our bookkeeping, payroll and BAS clients can opt out of our use of their de-identified data to improve our services and produce benchmarks by emailing hello@valont.com.au. The opt-out applies from when we receive it.
• Deleting your account: you can delete your user account in your account settings, or by contacting us. This removes your login, sessions and organisation memberships. Records belonging to your organisation stay with the organisation and are kept as described in section 10. If you own an organisation, you need to transfer ownership or ask us to close the organisation first.
• Candidates: you can withdraw from being considered for other businesses' roles, or delete your candidate profile, at any time using your profile management link.
• Permissions: you can turn off microphone and camera access in your browser settings, and microphone and notification access for the iOS app in your device settings, at any time.
• Anonymity: you can browse our website and use some free tools without telling us who you are. We cannot provide the platform or our services anonymously.

To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer using the details under Contact below. We respond to requests within 30 days and verify your identity before acting. We do not charge for making a request.

You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time using the link in any message or in your account settings. Marketing communications are separate from service communications, which we send as part of providing the platform and services.

We send newsletters and marketing emails only where you have opted in. We may also contact people at businesses, including through LinkedIn, about services that are relevant to their business. Each such message tells you how to opt out, and we stop when you ask.

If a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and affected individuals as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and we will notify affected business customers promptly.

If you have a privacy concern or believe we have breached the APPs, contact our Privacy Officer first, by email at hello@valont.com.au or by post to Privacy Officer, Valont Pty Ltd, Level 35, 71 Eagle Street, Brisbane QLD 4000. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days, investigate it, and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the OAIC at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

If your complaint is about our BAS agent services, you can also complain to the Tax Practitioners Board at www.tpb.gov.au.

Each version of this policy carries a version number and effective date. For material changes we will update this page, notify platform customers, and ask them to re-accept the updated version.