Privacy policy

Tecon Group Pty Ltd (ACN 125 701 466) is an electrical, data and building contractor based in Springvale, Victoria. This policy explains how we handle personal information about our clients and the people we deal with on their sites, people who use this website or ask us for a quote, and our staff and subcontractors. We follow the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

“We”, “us” and “our” mean Tecon Group Pty Ltd. Personal information is information or an opinion about a person who is identified, or who can reasonably be identified.

What we collect

Clients, site contacts and quote requests

• Your name, company, phone number, email address and how you prefer us to contact you.
• Site and billing addresses, and details about the site such as how we get access.
• Details of the work: what you’ve asked for, quotes, job notes, diary entries, photos, certificates and safety records.
• Invoices and payments: amounts, dates, how you paid and the payment reference. We don’t take card payments on this website and we don’t keep card numbers.

People who use this website

• What you type into our quote or contact form.
• With each form, your IP address and the type of browser you used. We keep these to stop spam and misuse.
• Like every website, ours handles each visitor’s IP address and request details to deliver pages and block attacks. We don’t use analytics or advertising tools to track visitors.

Our staff and subcontractors

Our team uses Tecon HQ, our own app for jobs, scheduling, timesheets and invoices. For staff and subcontractors we hold:

• Name, email, phone and HQ sign-in details. Passwords are stored only as a one-way scrambled code (a salted hash), never as the password itself.
• Employment details: employee number, position, employment type, start date, apprenticeship start and year, licence number, labels such as A Grade or Apprentice 2nd year, pay rate, an emergency contact and office notes.
• Work records: the jobs and crews you’re on, clock on and off times, timesheets and any changes to them (with the reason), diary entries, the photos and notes you add, and the changes you make to jobs.
• Location, only if we switch it on: one reading each time you tap Clock on or Clock off (see Clock on and location).
• Security records: when you sign in, the browser used for each session, and the IP address of each sign-in attempt.

If you apply to work with us, we also hold your application, your resume and what your referees tell us. Some handling of employee records is exempt from the Privacy Act, but we look after them as this policy describes.

Sensitive information

We don’t ask for sensitive information, such as health information, unless we need it, for example after an injury at work or to meet a safety duty. We collect it only with your consent or where the law allows, and we also handle health information under the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

How we collect it

Most of what we hold comes straight from you: through our website forms, by phone or email, in person, on site, or when you use Tecon HQ. Sometimes it comes from someone else, such as:

• a builder, property manager, landlord or business that books work at a site where you live or work
• our staff, when they record job details or take photos on site
• your referees, if you apply to work with us
• public records such as the ABN register, to check a business’s details.

If you give us someone else’s details, such as a tenant to contact for access or your emergency contact, please let them know and point them to this policy.

You can ask us general questions without giving your name. To quote, do work or employ you, we need to know who you are and how to reach you.

How we use it

We use personal information to:

• answer enquiries and prepare quotes
• plan, schedule, do and record work, including safety records and the certificates the law requires
• invoice, take payments and keep our accounts
• employ and manage our people: rosters, timesheets, pay, apprenticeships, licences, training, safety and emergencies
• run and protect our systems: sign-in, stopping spam and misuse, backups and fixing problems
• meet our legal duties, for example under tax, workplace, building and electrical safety laws, and deal with complaints, disputes and insurance claims.

We use it for other purposes only with your consent or where the law allows. We don’t send you marketing unless you’ve agreed to it, and you can opt out at any time.

Clock on and location

Staff clock on and off jobs in Tecon HQ on their phone, and their timesheets are worked out from those times.

HQ can also save the phone’s location when someone clocks on or off. This is switched off unless we turn it on, and we tell staff before we do. When it’s on:

• HQ asks your phone for its location once, at the moment you tap Clock on or Clock off, and saves that one reading (and how accurate it is) with the clock entry.
• Your phone asks your permission first. If you say no, you can still clock on and off; the reading is simply left out.
• HQ never tracks you between taps, or outside work.
• Only office administrators can see the readings. Other staff can’t.
• We use them to confirm who was on which site and when, to check timesheets, and for safety.

Job photos

• Our crews photograph sites and their work for job records, quality checks, safety and invoicing.
• Before a phone photo is uploaded to Tecon HQ, HQ removes the hidden camera data stored in it, including where it was taken.
• Job photos can only be opened by signed-in staff: office administrators and the crew on that job. A photo’s link shows nothing to anyone else.
• We try not to photograph people. We won’t publish photos of your home, or photos that identify you, without your permission.

Automatic calculations

Tecon HQ works some things out automatically from personal information:

• Timesheet hours are calculated from each person’s clock on and off times, or from time noted in the job diary when there are none. HQ rounds them, and if someone forgets to clock off it caps the time at a set number of hours.
• When we invoice a job, HQ uses those hours to work out the labour charge.

These calculations can affect pay and what clients are charged, so the office checks timesheets and invoices and can correct them, recording the reason. If you think your hours or an invoice are wrong, tell us and a person will review it.

Who we share it with

We don’t sell, rent or trade personal information. We share it only when we need to, with:

• our service providers: Cloudflare, which hosts this website, Tecon HQ, its database and photo storage; Xero, our accounting software, which receives client names and contact details, invoices and payments; and our email, phone and IT providers
• people involved in your job: our subcontractors and suppliers, the builder, property manager or business that engaged us, and building managers who arrange site access
• regulators and government bodies, such as the electrical safety and building regulators, WorkSafe Victoria, the Australian Taxation Office and the Fair Work Ombudsman, and electricity distributors when work needs a power connection, where the law requires or allows it
• for our staff: payroll and superannuation providers, and training organisations for apprentices
• our accountants, lawyers and insurers, and, if an invoice isn’t paid, people who help us recover it.

When a staff member taps a map button for a job in Tecon HQ, the site address goes to the map app they choose (Waze, Apple Maps or Google Maps) to get directions.

Information stored overseas

Cloudflare runs this website and Tecon HQ on its worldwide network. Information you send us may pass through other countries, and our database and photos may be stored in Australia, the United States or other countries where Cloudflare operates. Xero processes information in countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United States. We use established providers with strong security, and take reasonable steps to make sure they protect information as the Australian Privacy Principles require.

Cookies

• This website doesn’t use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, and doesn’t load fonts or scripts from other companies.
• Cloudflare may set a security cookie that helps tell real visitors from bots. It isn’t used for advertising or to follow you around the web.
• Tecon HQ uses a cookie to keep staff signed in, for up to 7 days, and short-lived cookies to finish secure sign-ins, such as connecting Xero. HQ can’t work without them. It also remembers some display choices, such as how the timesheet looks, in your browser on that device.

Keeping it safe

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

• everything is sent over encrypted (HTTPS) connections
• staff see only what their role needs: technicians see the jobs they’re on, while pay rates, location readings and other staff records are for office administrators only
• passwords are stored only as salted hashes, repeated sign-in attempts are blocked, and sessions expire
• job photos open only for office administrators and the crew on that job.

No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we’ll act quickly to contain it and tell the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

How long we keep it

We keep personal information while we need it for the reasons above, and for as long as the law requires. For example, we keep employee records for at least 7 years and tax and business records for at least 5 years. We keep job and safety records while warranty, defect or legal claims could still be made, which for building work can be up to 10 years. When we no longer need information, we delete it or remove anything that identifies you.

Seeing and correcting your information

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, using the contact details below. Staff can also see their own clock times and timesheets in Tecon HQ at any time.

• We’ll check who you are before we give out or change anything.
• We’ll respond within 30 days.
• Asking is free. If giving you access takes a lot of work, we may charge a reasonable fee, and we’ll tell you first.
• If we can’t give you access or make a correction, for example because the law doesn’t allow it, we’ll tell you why in writing and how you can complain.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question about privacy, or think we’ve mishandled your personal information, please contact our privacy officer and tell us what happened and how to reach you. We’ll look into it and reply in writing within 30 days.

If you’re not happy with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update this policy when the way we handle personal information changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. You can ask us for a copy in another form, such as on paper, at any time.