Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Helen's Way is a community platform focused on neurodivergent education advocacy in Australia. This Privacy Policy applies to the Helen's Way website (helensway.au) and all forms and services operated under it.

This policy is written in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. What information we collect

We only collect information you actively provide, and we have designed our forms to collect as little identifying information as possible.

• General enquiries by email: if you email us (for example at hello@helensway.au), we receive your email address and whatever you choose to include in your message. You are welcome to contact us without giving your real name.
• Idea, reform and resource contact forms: your name (optional), your email address, an optional one-line description of the topic, and your consent to be contacted. We do not collect the detail of your idea, reform or resource through the form — if you would like to take it further, we discuss it with you directly by email, so you stay in control of what is shared.
• Newsletter sign-up: your email address, so we can send you the Helen’s Way newsletter.
• Future-surveys opt-in: your email address only, so we can invite you to future voluntary surveys. This list is kept separate from the newsletter, and the surveys themselves are voluntary and de-identified.
• Reform supporters list: if you choose to join, your email address (and your name, if you provide it), so we can send you occasional updates about the reform agenda. This list is kept separate from the newsletter and survey lists, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
• Community tracker — data form: your role (e.g. parent, educator), the type of school involved, your state or territory, postcode, electoral divisions, year levels, and barriers encountered. We do not collect your name or email address through this form. No diagnosis or specific neurodiversity is collected, and the form is designed so responses cannot be easily traced back to an individual.

Sensitive information. Our forms are deliberately designed to avoid collecting sensitive information (such as health or disability details). We ask that you do not include diagnoses, or anyone’s name, school, service or other identifying details, in what you submit. We do not collect health records, financial information, or government identifiers. If you choose to share personal experiences when you email us, that information is handled with care and is never published in a way that could identify you, or a child in your care, without your separate, explicit consent.

3. How we use your information

We use the information you provide to:

• Respond to your enquiries and messages
• Contact you by email about an idea, reform or resource you have asked us to follow up on
• Send you the newsletter and community updates you have subscribed to
• Invite you to future voluntary, de-identified surveys, if you have opted in
• Send you occasional updates about the reform agenda, if you have joined the reform supporters list
• Analyse aggregate, de-identified data from the community tracker to inform advocacy and reform work
• Improve the website and our community programmes

We only publish an idea, reform or resource with your explicit consent, agreed with you directly, and only in the form you have agreed to. We keep the newsletter, survey-invitation, and reform-supporters lists separate and use each only for its stated purpose. We will not use your personal information for any purpose that you have not been made aware of, or that is inconsistent with the reason you provided it.

4. How we store and protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Form submissions are transmitted securely via Formspree, Inc. (United States) and are only ever accessed by Helen's Way for the purpose described at the time of collection.

Tracker submissions are received by Helen's Way as individual form responses. They are reviewed only for the purpose of compiling aggregated, de-identified insights — they are never published or reported in a way that could identify an individual, and raw submissions are not shared with any third party except the service providers described below.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information for marketing purposes.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law. When information is no longer required, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

5. Overseas data storage and processing

Some services we use to operate Helen’s Way store or process data on servers located outside Australia. This is standard practice for modern websites. We only use providers with established data security standards, and none of them are authorised to use your information for any purpose other than providing services to us.

Under Australian Privacy Principle 8, we are required to tell you about overseas recipients. The service providers we use are:

• Formspree, Inc. (United States) — receives submissions from our website forms (the contact-request forms, the newsletter and survey opt-ins, and the community tracker) and passes them to us by email and into our Airtable database. Formspree is SOC 2 compliant and subject to US privacy law, under standard contractual clauses for international data transfers.
• Airtable, Inc. (United States) — stores and organises the information submitted through our forms, including community tracker data and our contact and survey-interest lists. Airtable maintains GDPR-aligned data-processing standards and does not use your data for its own purposes.
• Intuit Mailchimp (United States) — planned, not yet in use. When we activate our newsletter, Mailchimp will manage the subscriber list and send email communications to people who have subscribed; until then, newsletter sign-ups are handled through Formspree. Mailchimp stores data on US servers under standard contractual clauses.

By submitting information through our website, you consent to it being transferred to and processed by these providers for the purposes described in this policy. Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Helen’s Way remains accountable for how these providers handle your information.

6. Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Act, you have the right to:

• Deal with us anonymously or by a pseudonym where practical — the community tracker collects no name, and you may email us or send a contact request without giving your real name
• Request access to personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, or misleading
• Ask us to delete personal information we hold about you (subject to any legal obligations to retain it)
• Opt out of the newsletter, survey invitations, or reform supporters updates at any time
• Lodge a complaint if you believe we have mishandled your personal information

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at hello@helensway.au. We will respond within 30 days.

Unsubscribing. To opt out of any of our email lists — the newsletter, future-surveys, or reform supporters — simply email hello@helensway.au and we will remove you promptly. Once we begin sending emails through a newsletter platform, every message will also include a one-click unsubscribe link.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

7. Children's privacy

This website is not directed at children under the age of 15. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children. Our community tracker and forms are intended for completion by adults (parents, caregivers, educators, and professionals) on behalf of or in relation to children in their care.

If you believe a child has submitted personal information through our website without appropriate parental consent, please contact us and we will promptly remove it.

8. Cookies and tracking

This website uses no analytics or tracking cookies by default. The only non-essential cookies are those set by our embedded Instagram feed (provided by Instagram/SociableKit), and — if we run Meta (Facebook) advertising in the future — the Meta Pixel. We ask for your consent before any of these load: when you first visit, an Accept / Reject banner appears, and non-essential cookies are only placed if you choose “Accept”. You can change your choice at any time using the “Cookie settings” link in the footer of every page. Essential cookies needed for the site to function, and your saved cookie preference, do not require consent.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices or legal requirements. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last revised. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Continued use of the website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, or wish to make a privacy request, please email us at hello@helensway.au. We will respond within 30 days.