Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Breaking Grime

Last updated: 8 August 2026

1. About this policy

This policy explains how Breaking Grime collects, uses, stores, shares and protects your personal information. It applies to our website at www.breakinggrime.com.au, our quoting and booking process, the work we do at your property, and any other dealings you have with us.

We've written it in plain English on purpose. If anything here isn't clear, please just ask us — our contact details are in section 17.

Who we are: Breaking Grime is a pressure washing and exterior cleaning business operated by Philip Michael Herington as a sole trader, ABN 90 692 451 971, of 16 McDougall Street, Milton QLD 4064.

In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Breaking Grime. "You" and "your" mean any person whose personal information we handle — customers, prospective customers, property occupants, website visitors, suppliers and job applicants.

Our position under the Privacy Act. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) currently exempts most businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less. Breaking Grime may fall within that exemption. Regardless, we have chosen to handle your personal information in accordance with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), because we think that's the right way to treat our customers and because the exemption is being progressively narrowed. Where this policy commits us to something, we mean it and you can hold us to it.

2. What personal information we collect

Contact and identity information: your name, postal and street address, email address, phone number, and the name of the business, body corporate or agency you represent.

Property information: the address and access details of the property to be cleaned, the type and condition of surfaces, photographs and measurements of the site, gate codes, key or lockbox instructions, alarm information, parking arrangements, details of pets, and anything you tell us about pre-existing damage, defects, asbestos-containing materials or other hazards. This may include information about a property you don't own, such as a rental you occupy or manage.

Job and transaction information: quotes, job notes, scheduled dates, service history, invoices, receipts, payment status, and any complaints or warranty claims.

Payment information: we may record that a payment was made, the amount, the date and the method. We do not store your full card number or CVV — card payments are handled by our payment providers, who process that data on their own systems.

Photographs and video: we take before-and-after photographs of the areas we clean as part of our standard quality and record-keeping process. We may also record video, including footage taken from a camera mounted on equipment or worn or carried by our operator, for safety, training and quality purposes. This footage may incidentally capture people, vehicles, and parts of your property or neighbouring properties. Section 6 explains how we handle images.

Marketing preferences: whether you have consented to receive our emails or SMS, and whether you have unsubscribed.

Website and technical information: your IP address, device and browser type, the pages you visit, how you arrived at our site, how long you stay, and similar analytics data collected through cookies and tracking tools. Section 7 covers this.

Communications: the content of emails, SMS messages, online form submissions, chat messages and voicemails you send us, and our file notes of phone conversations.

Job applicants and contractors: if you apply to work with us or are engaged as a subcontractor, we may collect your resume, work history, references, licences and tickets (including white card, working-at-heights and asbestos awareness training records), ABN, insurance certificates, bank details and tax file number.

Sensitive information. We don't seek out sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act. Occasionally you may volunteer something relevant to the job — for example a health condition affecting chemical use on site, or a safety concern relating to a person at the property. If you do, we'll only use it for the purpose you gave it to us and we'll keep it confidential.

3. How we collect your personal information

We collect most information directly from you — when you call, text or email us, fill in a form or booking widget on our website, message us on social media, meet us on site, or engage us for work.

We also collect information:

• from our own observation and records while we're at your property, including photographs, video and job notes;
• from a third party who arranges work on your behalf — for example a real estate agent, body corporate committee, strata manager, landlord, tenant, builder or another tradesperson. If someone else gives us your details, we handle that information under this policy and we'll take reasonable steps to make you aware we hold it;
• from publicly available sources, such as a business website, ABN Lookup or a public property listing, where we're preparing a quote or verifying who we're dealing with;
• automatically through our website analytics and advertising tools; and
• from our service providers, such as our accounting and job management software.

Anonymity and pseudonyms. You can ask us a general question without giving your name. But we can't quote, schedule, attend a property, invoice or provide warranty support without knowing who you are and where the work is.

Unsolicited information. If we receive personal information we didn't ask for and don't need, and we're not required to keep it, we'll destroy or de-identify it as soon as it's practical and lawful to do so.

4. Why we collect, hold and use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and prepare quotes;
• schedule, plan and carry out cleaning work safely and correctly;
• identify site hazards and comply with our work health and safety obligations;
• record the condition of surfaces before and after work, so we can resolve any dispute about damage or results;
• invoice you, take payment, and follow up unpaid accounts (including, if necessary, engaging a debt collector or lawyer);
• handle warranty claims, complaints and disputes;
• keep records we're required by law to keep, including tax and business records;
• maintain and improve our services, pricing and website;
• send you marketing communications, where you've consented or where the law otherwise permits (see section 5);
• promote our business using before-and-after images, where you've given permission (see section 6);
• assess job applications and manage contractors; and
• meet any other legal obligation.

If we ever want to use your information for a purpose that isn't listed above and isn't reasonably expected to be connected to it, we'll ask you first.

5. Direct marketing

If you've been a customer or have given us your details and consented, we may send you occasional emails or SMS messages about seasonal services, reminders that it's been a while since your last clean, offers and updates.

Every marketing message we send will identify us clearly and include a working unsubscribe option. We'll action any unsubscribe request within five business days and at no cost to you. You can also just reply to any message, or email contact@breakinggrime.com.au, and ask us to stop.

We comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth). We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information to anyone for their own marketing.

Unsubscribing from marketing doesn't stop service messages — booking confirmations, arrival notifications, invoices and warranty correspondence. Those are part of doing the job.

6. Photographs, video and social media

Before-and-after photographs are how we demonstrate our work and how we protect both of us if there's ever a question about the condition of a surface. We take them on every job as a matter of course, for our internal records.

We will not publish images of your property — on our website, social media, in advertising or anywhere else — unless you have given us permission. We'll ask for that permission specifically, and you can say no without it affecting the price, the booking or the quality of the work.

Where you do give permission:

• We won't publish your street address, house number or your name alongside the images unless you separately agree.
• We'll take reasonable steps to avoid publishing identifiable people, vehicle registration plates, security arrangements or the interior of your home.
• We'll avoid publishing images that clearly identify a neighbouring property.
• You can withdraw permission at any time by emailing us. We'll remove the images from any platform we control within a reasonable period. We can't always guarantee removal of content that others have already shared, reposted or cached.

Video. We may record video for safety, training and quality purposes — for example, footage of roof access or equipment operation. This footage is kept internally and is not published without permission. We don't use covert recording, and we don't record inside your home.

Strata, rental and commercial properties. If you're engaging us as an agent, landlord, tenant or body corporate representative, you're responsible for having the authority to let us onto the property and to photograph it. Where images may identify a specific lot, unit or occupant, we'll seek permission from that occupant before publishing.

7. Cookies, analytics and advertising

Our website is built and hosted on Framer. Like most websites, it uses cookies and similar technologies.

Essential cookies keep the site working — page loading, form submission, security. The site won't function properly without them.

Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how people find and use our site — which pages are visited, how long people stay, and which suburbs our traffic comes from. This helps us improve the site and target our services sensibly.

Advertising and remarketing. We use the Meta Pixel and Google Ads tracking. These place cookies that let us measure whether our ads work and show ads to people who've visited our site. That means Meta and Google may match your visit to your account with them.

These tools may collect technical identifiers, including your IP address and device identifiers, and may set cookies that persist across sites.

Your choices. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though this may break parts of our site. You can also opt out through:

• Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
• Google Ads settings: myadcenter.google.com
• Meta ad preferences: within your Facebook or Instagram account settings

8. Artificial intelligence and automated tools

We use AI-assisted software in parts of our business — for example, to help draft written communications, summarise job notes, prepare documents and organise our records. Depending on the task, this may involve providing information to the AI provider.

Where we do this:

• We don't use AI to make any decision that produces a legal effect for you or that significantly affects your rights or interests. Quotes, warranty outcomes, complaint decisions and pricing are made by a person.
• We take reasonable steps to limit the personal information provided to AI tools to what the task actually requires.
• We use business-tier services and choose providers who do not train their models on our business data by default.

We'll keep this section updated as our tools change, and we'll comply with the automated decision-making transparency requirements that take effect under the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024.

9. Who we share your personal information with

We share your personal information only where we need to. The main recipients are:

Our people. Any employees or subcontractors we engage to carry out or assist with your job. They are required to keep your information confidential and to use it only for the job.

Software and service providers:

Professional advisers. Our accountant, bookkeeper, insurer, insurance broker or lawyer, where relevant.

Debt recovery. If an invoice remains unpaid after we've followed the process in our Terms of Service, we may provide your details to a debt collection agency, a lawyer or a court.

Third parties involved in your job. Where you've engaged us through an agent, body corporate, strata manager, builder or landlord, we may need to share job details, photographs and invoices with them.

Where required or permitted by law. Including to a regulator, a court, or where necessary to prevent a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety.

Business sale. If we sell or transfer our business, customer records may transfer to the buyer. We'd require the buyer to handle your information consistently with this policy.

We do not sell your personal information.

10. Overseas disclosure

Several of the providers listed above store or process data outside Australia. Based on our current arrangements, your personal information may be handled in:

• United States — Google, Meta, Framer, Anthropic, and some payment infrastructure
• New Zealand — Xero
• Australia — ServiceM8 and our local banking

Providers may also use data centres in other countries as their infrastructure changes. Before disclosing personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that the recipient handles it in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles — normally through the provider's contractual terms and published privacy commitments. However, overseas recipients may be subject to the laws of their own country, and those laws may permit access to information in circumstances that Australian law would not.

By providing us with your personal information, you acknowledge these disclosures may occur. If you'd rather your information not be handled overseas, contact us — but in practice we may not be able to provide our services without using these systems.

11. How we store and protect your information

We hold your personal information in cloud-based systems operated by the providers listed above, and in some cases on our own devices — a phone, tablet or computer used to run the business.

Reasonable steps we take to protect it include:

• multi-factor authentication on our business accounts;
• strong, unique passwords managed properly;
• device passcodes, screen locks and encryption on the devices we use;
• limiting access to those who need it;
• keeping software and operating systems up to date;
• requiring confidentiality from employees and subcontractors; and
• securely destroying paper records rather than putting them in the bin.

No system is completely secure. We can't guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, and any transmission is at your own risk.

12. How long we keep it

We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, and for as long as the law requires. In practice:

• Financial and tax records — at least 5 years from the transaction, as required by the ATO.
• Job records, site photographs and job notes — at least 7 years, because that's the period in which a property damage or negligence claim can generally be brought against us. These records are our primary evidence of the condition of your property before and after we worked on it, and they protect you as much as us.
• Enquiries that don't become jobs — generally 2 years.
• Marketing lists — until you unsubscribe, then we keep a minimal suppression record so we don't accidentally contact you again.
• Unsuccessful job applications — 12 months, unless you ask us to remove them sooner.

When we no longer need information and aren't required to keep it, we destroy or de-identify it.

13. Data breaches

If we become aware of unauthorised access to, or disclosure or loss of, personal information we hold, we'll act quickly to contain it and assess the risk.

Where a breach is likely to result in serious harm to you and we can't prevent that harm, we'll notify you and, where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies to us, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Even where the scheme doesn't strictly apply to us, we'll tell you if a breach could seriously affect you.

14. Accessing and correcting your information

You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct anything that's wrong, out of date, incomplete or misleading.

Email contact@breakinggrime.com.au with your request. We may need to verify your identity first. We'll respond within 30 days.

Access is normally free. If a request is unusually large or complex, we may charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs, and we'll tell you the amount before we do the work.

There are limited circumstances where we may refuse access or correction — for example, where giving access would unreasonably affect someone else's privacy, or where the information relates to a legal dispute between us. If we refuse, we'll tell you in writing why, and how to complain.

15. Complaints

If you think we've mishandled your personal information, tell us first. Email contact@breakinggrime.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line, or call +61 493 009 674.

We'll acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and give you a written response within 30 days. Most issues get sorted out at this stage.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• Online: oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints
• Phone: 1300 363 992
• Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

16. Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy from time to time as our business, our software or the law changes. The current version will always be on our website with the date it was last updated at the top. Material changes will be flagged on the website.

17. Contact us

Breaking Grime ABN 90 692 451 971 16 McDougall Street, Milton QLD 4064 Email: contact@breakinggrime.com.au Phone: +61 493 009 674 Web: www.breakinggrime.com.au