BlowInsPrivacy Policy
The short version
- We collect what you put in your Student Passport, and that's it. No tracking pixels, no ad networks.
- We never sell your data, and we never will. Ranked by fit, not by ads. That only works if your data isn't the product.
- The sensitive stuff (household income, first-in-family, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status) is optional, asked with your consent, used only to match you to funding, and never shown to landlords, employers or other students.
- Other students only ever see what you'd put on a flatmate ad: first name, region, uni, course and lifestyle preferences. Never your email, budget or funding details.
- You can see, fix or delete everything we hold about you, any time, by asking.
1. Who we are
BlowIns is a grassroots Australian organisation based in Sydney, NSW. We help rural and regional students land on their feet when they move to an Australian city: housing, scholarships, mates and work, matched through one Student Passport.
For anything in this policy, contact us at blowinsenquiries@gmail.com.
We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). For students joining us from New Zealand, we apply the same standards to your information as we do for Australian students.
2. What we collect, and why
| What | Examples | Why we collect it |
|---|---|---|
| Account details | First name, email, password | So you can save your passport, log back in and keep your matches. Passwords are hashed, so we can't read them. |
| Passport details | Home town, destination suburb, uni, course, move date, weekly budget, commute cap, transport, housing deal-breakers, lifestyle preferences, interests | This is the whole product: it's what we score housing, scholarships, people and work against. |
| Funding details (sensitive, optional) | First-in-family status, rough household income, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander identification | Used only to match you to equity, regional and Indigenous scholarships you may be eligible for. See section 3. |
| Activity on BlowIns | Scholarships you save or mark applied, filters you set | So your tracker and matches are there when you come back. |
We don't collect anything we don't ask you for. We don't buy data about you from anyone, and we don't run third-party advertising or tracking scripts.
3. Sensitive information: your call, always
Some scholarships exist specifically for first-in-family students, lower-income households, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. To match you to them, we ask about those things, but:
- Every one of these questions is optional, with a clear "rather not say" option. Skipping them never locks you out of BlowIns.
- We only collect them with your consent, given when you answer the question.
- They are used only for scholarship and funding matching. They are never shown to landlords, employers, other students, or anyone else.
- You can remove them at any time by editing your passport or asking us to delete them.
4. If you're under 18
Most blow-ins are 17 or 18 when they start planning the move. If you're under 18, we recommend going through your passport with a parent, guardian or careers adviser. They're usually part of the decision anyway. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 15. If you're a parent or guardian and believe a child under 15 has created a passport, email us and we'll delete it.
5. Who can see what
Other students
If you use Meet People, other signed-in students can see your first name, home region, destination suburb, uni, course, move date, lifestyle preferences and interests, the same things you'd put on a flatmate ad. They can never see your email, password, budget, exact address or any funding details. This is enforced in our database, not just in the page.
Landlords, employers and scholarship providers
Nothing is sent to them unless you choose to enquire or apply, and we'll always show you what's included before it goes.
Service providers
Your data is stored with Supabase, our database provider, in encrypted form, protected by row-level security so each student's records are only readable by them. We use service providers only for running BlowIns itself, never for advertising.
Everyone else
We do not sell, rent, trade or share your personal information with anyone for marketing. If the law compels us to disclose something, we'll only disclose the minimum required and will tell you unless we're legally prevented from doing so.
6. Where it's stored and how it's protected
- Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest.
- Database access is governed by row-level security: your rows are readable and writable only by your account.
- Passwords are hashed and salted by our authentication provider; we never see or store them in plain text.
- Our hosting and database providers may store data on servers outside Australia. Where they do, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information is handled consistently with the APPs.
7. How long we keep it
We keep your passport for as long as you have an account. Delete your account (or ask us to) and we delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we're legally required to keep specific records. Backups roll off automatically on our providers' standard schedules.
8. Your rights
You can, at any time:
- Access: ask for a copy of everything we hold about you.
- Correct: fix anything that's wrong (most of it you can edit yourself in your passport).
- Delete: ask us to erase your account and everything in it.
- Withdraw consent: remove your funding details or any optional answers, without losing access to BlowIns.
Email blowinsenquiries@gmail.com and we'll action it within 30 days, usually much faster. Every email is read and answered by our team.
9. Cookies and local storage
We use no advertising or analytics cookies. We use your browser's local storage and our authentication provider's session token for exactly two things: keeping you logged in, and remembering things like saved listings on your device. That's it.
10. Complaints
If you think we've mishandled your information, email us first. We'll investigate and respond within 30 days. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992. New Zealand students can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner NZ.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in any way that matters, we'll tell you by email and on this page before the change takes effect, and the date at the top will always tell you when it was last touched. We will never quietly change the "we don't sell your data" part. That one is permanent.