Privacy Policy
Effective date: 21 July 2026
Last reviewed: 21 July 2026
Applies to: https://newlifeinaus.com.au/ and all of its subpages
This policy explains, in plain language, what information this website collects about you, who else gets to see it, and what you can do about it. We have tried to be specific rather than vague — where we use a particular tool, we name it.
1. Who is responsible for your information
New Life In Australia is published by an individual sole trader registered in Australia, not by a company:
- Publisher: Shoumya Chowdhury, trading as New Life In Australia
- ABN: 70 716 218 890 (you can verify this on ABN Lookup)
- Location: Victoria, Australia
- Contact for all privacy matters: admin@newlifeinaus.com.au
There is no separate privacy team. Your email comes directly to the person who runs the site.
2. Which privacy laws apply — an honest answer
Most privacy policies claim compliance with every law they can name. Here is the more accurate position.
Australia
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to Australian Government agencies and to organisations with an annual turnover of more than $3 million, plus certain other organisations regardless of size. This website is a small publishing operation well under that threshold, so it is likely covered by the small business exemption and is probably not legally bound by the Act.
We tell you this rather than hide it. We have chosen to handle your information in line with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles anyway, because it is the right way to treat readers — and because the Australian Government has announced its intention to remove the small business exemption in a future tranche of privacy reform. When that happens, we intend to already be compliant.
Europe, the UK, and everywhere else
Much of our audience is outside Australia — people planning a move, not yet arrived. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we treat you as having rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, and section 9 sets out the legal bases we rely on. If you are in California, section 10 covers you.
3. What we collect
A. Information you deliberately give us
This website has no user accounts, no newsletter signup, and no on-site contact form. The only way you can give us personal information is by emailing us directly. If you do, we receive whatever you put in that email — typically your name, your email address, and your message.
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, sensitive information such as passport numbers, visa grant numbers, tax file numbers, bank details, or health information. If you send it anyway, we will delete it.
B. Information collected automatically
When you read a page, analytics and hosting systems record technical information:
- IP address — used by Google Analytics to derive approximate location, then discarded rather than stored against your record
- Approximate location at city or region level, never a precise GPS position
- Browser, operating system, device type and screen size
- Pages viewed, time on page, scroll depth, and which link or search brought you here
- Server logs kept by our host for security and troubleshooting
None of this identifies you by name. It is used in aggregate to work out which guides are useful and which are not.
4. The third parties we actually use
Rather than saying “we may use analytics tools”, here is the real list as at the effective date above.
| Service | What it does here | Data it can see | Their policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 (property G-Q99CVHNPW0) | Measures traffic and which pages are read | IP address, device, pages viewed, referrer, approximate location | Google Privacy Policy |
| Google Tag (GT-WRDDZGXF) | Loads the analytics tag | Same as above | Google Privacy Policy |
| Google Site Kit | Connects the site to Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights | Aggregate search and performance data | Google Privacy Policy |
| Google AdSense (publisher ca-pub-9144697979680971) | Not yet active. The account exists but the ad code is switched off, so no ads are served and no advertising cookies are set by us today | Nothing at present. If ads go live, see section 5 | Google Ads Policy |
| Grow by Mediavine (faves.grow.me) | Social sharing and audience features. It also loads its own separate Google Analytics property and the Unified ID 2.0 advertising identity SDK, independently of anything we configure | Anonymous identifier, pages viewed, and an advertising identifier | Grow Privacy Policy · UID2 Privacy Policy |
| Hostinger | Web hosting and email | Server logs including IP address | Hostinger Privacy Policy |
| QUIC.cloud / LiteSpeed | Caching and image optimisation so pages load faster | Request metadata | QUIC.cloud Privacy Policy |
Analytics is configured to exclude logged-in site administrators, so our own visits do not pollute the data.
A note on Grow. Grow is a Mediavine product we use for social sharing, and it is part of how this site is funded. It also loads an advertising identity SDK on every page. We are naming it here rather than leaving it unmentioned, because you should know what runs on a page you are reading.
If we add or remove a service, we will update this table and change the “last reviewed” date at the top.
5. Advertising
As at the effective date of this policy, this website does not display advertising. A Google AdSense account has been created but the ad code is not enabled.
We are telling you this because most privacy policies describe advertising that is not actually running, which makes the whole document less trustworthy. When ads do go live, the following will apply and we will update the effective date:
- Google and its partners may use cookies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites
- You can opt out of personalised Google advertising at Google Ad Settings
- You can opt out of many vendors at once at Your Online Choices Australia or optout.aboutads.info
- Readers in the EEA and UK will be shown a consent notice before any advertising cookie is set, as Google requires
We have never sold, and will not sell, your personal information.
6. Cookies
Cookies are small files stored by your browser. This site uses a small number of them, listed in full in our Cookie Policy, which explains what each one does and how long it lasts.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time. Essential cookies aside, nothing on this site breaks if you do.
7. How we use information, and why we are allowed to
| Purpose | Legal basis (GDPR / UK GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Replying to an email you sent us | Legitimate interests, and your consent implied by contacting us |
| Keeping the site online, fast and secure | Legitimate interests |
| Understanding which guides people find useful | Consent where required; otherwise legitimate interests |
| Detecting spam, scraping and abuse | Legitimate interests |
| Serving advertising, if and when enabled | Consent |
| Meeting a legal obligation | Legal obligation |
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you, and we do not build advertising profiles ourselves.
8. Where your information goes
Australian Privacy Principle 8 asks us to tell you when information crosses a border. Ours does, because the services above are global:
- Google processes analytics data on servers in the United States and elsewhere
- Hostinger operates data centres across Europe, North America and Asia
- QUIC.cloud serves cached pages from edge locations worldwide, including one near you
These countries may not offer the same legal protections as Australia, the EEA or the UK. Where those providers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or similar safeguards, we rely on them too.
9. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can email admin@newlifeinaus.com.au and ask us to tell you what we hold, correct it, or delete it. We aim to reply within 30 days and we do not charge for this.
In practice, unless you have emailed us, we hold nothing that identifies you — only aggregate analytics.
If you are in the EEA or UK
You additionally have rights to portability, to restrict or object to processing, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting what came before. You can complain to your national data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
If you are in Australia
Please raise it with us first. If we cannot sort it out, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
10. California residents
We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA and CPRA, and we do not knowingly collect it from anyone under 16. You may request access or deletion using the contact address above, and we will not treat you differently for asking.
11. How long we keep things
- Emails you send us — kept up to 24 months so we can follow up, then deleted. Ask sooner and we will delete sooner
- Google Analytics data — retained according to the property setting, a maximum of 14 months for user-level data
- Server logs — rotated by our host, typically within weeks
12. Security, and what happens if it fails
The site runs over HTTPS, administrator access is restricted, and software is kept updated. No website can promise perfect security, and we will not pretend otherwise.
If a breach occurred that was likely to cause you serious harm, we would tell affected readers and, where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies, notify the OAIC. We would do this whether or not the scheme legally binds us.
13. Children
This site is written for adults making decisions about studying, working and living in Australia. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us information, email us and we will delete it.
14. Links to other sites
We link heavily to government departments, universities, regulators and service providers, because that is where the authoritative answer usually lives. Once you follow one of those links you are on someone else’s site under their privacy policy, not ours.
15. Changes to this policy
When this policy changes we update the effective date at the top. Material changes — a new advertising network, a new analytics provider — will be described here rather than slipped in quietly.
16. Contact
Email: admin@newlifeinaus.com.au
Publisher: Shoumya Chowdhury, trading as New Life In Australia, ABN 70 716 218 890
Postal enquiries: available on request by email
Related pages: Cookie Policy · Terms and Conditions · Disclaimer · Editorial Policy
