Privacy Policy

Effective date: 16 August 2026
Last updated: 16 August 2026

About this policy

Signal Circle is operated by Carruthers Consulting Pty Ltd (ABN 68 682 757 268), a company based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In this policy, we, us and our mean Carruthers Consulting Pty Ltd, and Signal Circle means the Signal Circle website, online community, communications, events and related services.

This policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information when you visit Signal Circle, create or use an account, register for or attend an online or in-person event, make a payment, submit or interact with content, communicate with us, or otherwise engage with our services.

We aim to handle personal information openly and responsibly. Where the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles apply to us, this policy is intended to describe our information-handling practices in accordance with those obligations. We may also adopt the practices in this policy where the Act does not strictly apply to a particular activity.

The personal information we collect

The kinds of personal information we collect depend on how you interact with Signal Circle. We collect information that is reasonably necessary to provide and improve our services, administer events and payments, publish content, communicate with our community, meet legal obligations and protect our rights and users.

Interaction or purpose	Information we may collect
Account registration and profile	Name, email address, password or account authentication details, profile photograph, professional role, organisation, biography, location, interests, links, preferences and other information you choose to add to your profile.
Event registration and attendance	Registration details, ticket type, event selections, attendance status, dietary requirements, access requirements, emergency contact details where necessary, networking preferences and other event-related information you provide.
Payments and billing	Purchaser name, contact details, billing address, transaction details, ticket or order history, refunds and payment status. Payment card details are ordinarily collected and processed directly by our nominated payment service provider, rather than by us.
Content and community participation	Content, comments, profile information, images, video, audio, messages, submissions, feedback and other material that you publish, upload or send through Signal Circle.
Communications and support	The contents of enquiries, correspondence, feedback, survey responses and records of interactions with us.
Website and technical information	IP address, browser and device information, device identifiers, operating system, pages viewed, referring URLs, dates and times of access, cookie identifiers and related usage information.
Marketing and preferences	Subscription status, consent and communication preferences, engagement with our emails and events, and topics or services that may be relevant to you.

We ask that you do not provide sensitive information unless it is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose. For example, a dietary or accessibility requirement may reveal health information. Where we request sensitive information, we will explain the purpose of collection at or before the point of collection and obtain your express consent, unless collection is otherwise permitted or required by law. We will use and disclose the information only for the stated purpose, such as arranging suitable catering or access arrangements, and will limit any disclosure to the relevant event venue, caterer, accessibility provider or event partner to what is reasonably necessary.

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information directly from you when you create an account, complete a form, purchase a ticket or service, register for an event, update a profile, submit content, attend an event, subscribe to communications, contact us or otherwise use Signal Circle.

You may browse parts of Signal Circle without identifying yourself. However, we need certain information to create an account, process a payment, register you for an event, respond to a request or provide a personalised service. If you choose not to provide information required for those purposes, we may be unable to provide the relevant feature, transaction or service.

Collection notices and consent

When we collect personal information through an account-registration form, event-registration form, payment or ticketing form, newsletter form, survey or other collection point, we will provide a collection notice at or before the time of collection. The notice will identify us, explain the purpose of collection, identify usual disclosures, explain any significant consequence of not providing the information, link to this policy and identify likely overseas disclosures where relevant.

We will obtain your consent where consent is required by law or where we rely on it for a specific activity. Consent requests will be presented clearly and separately from other matters where practicable. We will not use pre-ticked boxes for optional marketing, optional cookies or optional collection of sensitive information. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect processing that occurred before withdrawal or information we must retain by law.

We may collect technical information automatically through cookies, pixels, analytics services, server logs and similar technologies when you use our website. We may also receive personal information from event co-hosts, speakers, sponsors, venues, payment providers, service providers, publicly available sources, your employer or organisation, or another person who registers you for an event. Where we collect information about you from a third party, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are notified as required by applicable law.

If you provide personal information about another person, including when registering another person for an event or uploading material that identifies them, you must ensure that you are authorised to do so and that they have been informed of this policy.

Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes:

We may also use and disclose personal information for purposes directly related to those described above, for another purpose where you have consented, or where otherwise permitted or required by law.

Public profiles, published content and event media

Signal Circle is a networking and publishing service. Information you choose to make public, including your profile information, posts, comments, event participation, images, recordings and other submitted content, may be visible to other users, event attendees, the general public or search engines, depending on the settings and context of publication.

Please consider carefully what you choose to publish or share. Public information may be copied, shared or retained by others outside our control. You may be able to edit or remove certain content through your account or by contacting us. However, copies may remain in backups, archives, cached pages, third-party platforms or records where retention is necessary or permitted by law.

We may photograph, film or record online and in-person events for operational, archival, editorial, educational and promotional purposes. Where practicable, we will provide notice of recording before or at the event. If you do not wish to be photographed or recorded, please tell the event organiser before the event or speak to a member of the event team on arrival. We will make reasonable efforts to accommodate requests, but cannot guarantee that incidental capture can always be avoided at open or large-scale events.

Payments

We use third-party payment service providers to facilitate online payments. These providers collect and process payment information under their own privacy policies and terms. We receive information about the transaction that is necessary to confirm payment, fulfil your order, manage refunds, address disputes and maintain our financial records.

Before publication, insert the name and link to the privacy policy of each payment provider used by Signal Circle: [insert payment provider name and privacy-policy link].

Who we disclose personal information to

We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients, only where reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy:

Recipient	Reason for disclosure
Service providers	Hosting, cloud storage, website administration, authentication, email, customer relationship management, analytics, payment processing, event registration, videoconferencing, content delivery, security, professional advisers and other operational services.
Event partners	Co-hosts, venues, speakers, facilitators, sponsors and event suppliers, where necessary to deliver the event or where we have told you this will occur. We will limit the information shared to what is reasonably necessary.
Other Signal Circle users and the public	Where you select a public profile setting, publish content, participate in a public event or otherwise choose to share information through Signal Circle.
Government authorities and legal recipients	Regulators, law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and other parties where disclosure is required or authorised by law, or is reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety or property.
Business advisers and successors	Accountants, auditors, insurers, lawyers, financiers and prospective or actual purchasers of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality arrangements.

We do not sell personal information as a separate commercial activity. We do not disclose personal information to sponsors for their own direct marketing unless we have clearly informed you and, where required, obtained your consent.

Overseas disclosures

Some of our service providers may store or process personal information outside Australia. Before publication, we will maintain and insert an accurate list of the countries in which overseas recipients are likely to be located. These may include [insert countries, for example: the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union member states, Singapore and New Zealand].

Where we disclose personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles the information in a manner consistent with applicable Australian privacy requirements, unless an exception applies under applicable law.

Cookies, analytics and similar technologies

We use cookies, pixels, software development kits and similar technologies to operate Signal Circle. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website. These technologies may collect information such as cookie identifiers, IP address, device and browser information, pages viewed, referring URLs, interactions with email communications and dates and times of access.

Category	Purpose	Consent approach
Strictly necessary cookies	To operate the website, maintain security, enable sign-in, process transactions, remember essential settings and prevent fraud.	These cookies are necessary to provide the service and cannot be disabled through our cookie preference tool.
Functional cookies	To remember optional preferences and provide enhanced features.	Activated only with your consent, unless the functionality is essential to a service you have specifically requested.
Analytics cookies and pixels	To understand aggregate use of Signal Circle, measure the performance of content and communications, identify technical issues and improve our services.	Activated only with your consent.
Advertising and social-media cookies or pixels	To measure advertising performance, build or use audiences, or display more relevant advertising on third-party platforms.	Activated only with your consent. We will not use these technologies to disclose sensitive information to third-party platforms.

When you first visit Signal Circle, we will provide a cookie notice that enables you to accept, reject or manage non-essential cookies at a granular level. Rejecting non-essential cookies will be as easy as accepting them. We will retain a record of your selection and will not place or activate non-essential cookies before you give consent, except where a cookie is strictly necessary to provide the service or where otherwise permitted by law.

You can change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time through [insert persistent ‘Cookie settings’ link or tool location]. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings. Blocking or deleting cookies may affect the availability or functionality of parts of Signal Circle. Withdrawal of consent will apply to future collection through the relevant technology and will not affect information already collected or processing required by law.

Before publication, we will maintain a current cookie register and separate cookie notice identifying each technology in use, its provider, purpose, category, retention period, whether information is sent overseas and a link to the provider’s privacy information. We will review tracking technologies regularly and configure them to minimise the personal information collected.

Direct marketing

We may send you information about Signal Circle, events, content and related services where you have consented or where otherwise permitted by law. Optional marketing consent will be separate from account creation, ticket purchase and event registration. We will identify Carruthers Consulting Pty Ltd as the sender and include current contact details in our commercial electronic messages.

You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or by contacting us using the details below. Our unsubscribe facility will be clear, free of charge, available for at least 30 days after the relevant message, and will not require you to provide additional personal information or log in to an account. We aim to process an opt-out within five working days. Opting out of marketing will not prevent us from sending service, transaction, event or other non-marketing communications that are necessary to provide Signal Circle to you.

How we protect and retain personal information

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. Our safeguards may include access controls, authentication measures, encryption where appropriate, secure service providers, staff and contractor confidentiality obligations, monitoring and incident-management processes.

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for notifying us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to meet legal, tax, accounting, dispute-resolution and reporting obligations. When personal information is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it, unless we are required or permitted by law to retain it.

Accessing and correcting your information

You may request access to personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct information that you believe is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, irrelevant or misleading. Please make your request in writing using the contact details below. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

We will respond within a reasonable period and, where applicable, as required by law. We may decline a request in limited circumstances permitted by law. If we do so, we will give you written reasons, subject to any legal restrictions. We do not ordinarily charge a fee for making an access or correction request, although we may charge a reasonable fee for providing access where permitted by law.

Complaints

If you have a privacy concern or believe that we have handled your personal information improperly, please contact us in writing. Please describe your concern and provide enough detail for us to investigate it.

We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to respond within 30 days. If we need more time, we will let you know. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Children and young people

Signal Circle is intended for adults and professional networking. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 16 without appropriate consent or another lawful basis. If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us in circumstances that are not appropriate, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to investigate and, where appropriate, delete the information.

Third-party links and services

Signal Circle may link to third-party websites, services or platforms. Those third parties are responsible for their own privacy practices. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before providing personal information to them.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. We will publish the updated policy on Signal Circle and update the effective date. If a change is material, we may provide additional notice through Signal Circle, email or another appropriate method.

Contact us

For questions, access or correction requests, privacy complaints, or to exercise a privacy-related preference, contact:

Privacy Officer
Carruthers Consulting Pty Ltd
ABN 68 682 757 268
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: hello@signalcircle.com