Privacy Policy

National Trades Survey Last updated: May 2026

Who we are

The National Trades Survey is an independently operated Australian workforce intelligence initiative. We invite voluntary contributions about experiences in the trades sector to build aggregated understanding of workforce conditions, pathways, and pressures.

We are not a government agency, university, or registered research institution unless we say otherwise on a specific page.

Privacy contact: privacy@in-formius.au Operator: National Trades Survey — an independent Australian workforce intelligence initiative operated via in-formius.au

What this policy covers

This policy applies when you:

visit our website and take the survey
optionally provide contact details after completing the survey
use optional follow-up questions where offered
use the separate contributor recognition / contact pathway where offered

It does not cover third-party websites we link to.

Our commitments

You can complete the core survey without contact details — no account, name, email, or phone is required to submit answers.
Survey answers are used in aggregate — we look for patterns across many responses, not to publish individual answer sheets.
Contact information is optional and separate — when you choose to share it, it is stored separately from survey answer content.
We do not sell identifiable respondent data (such as your name, email, or phone number) to third parties.
We do not publicly tie identifiable contact details to individual survey answers.
We may use aggregate insights and platform capabilities commercially in future (for example, workforce briefings or partner-supported programmes), but not by selling personal contact lists or identifiable answer profiles.

Thank you for the trust you place in this work. We intend to honour it with integrity, restraint, and responsible stewardship.

Anonymous survey participation (plain limits)

The core survey is designed so you can participate without giving your name, email, or phone number.

That does not mean there is zero data processing. To run the site we use hosting, database, analytics, and error monitoring (described below). If you optionally provide contact details, those are personal information. We do not claim “no personal information is ever collected” or “no tracking at all.”

Your completion reference code (shown after you finish) is a participant reference and share-attribution token. It is not your name or a government identity number. It helps confirm your contribution was received and may support attributed sharing if you choose to share a link. It is not used to publicly identify your individual answers.

Optional contact — three separate choices

After completing the survey, you may see separate, optional choices. Each has its own purpose:

Choice	What it is	What it is not
Reference receipt email	A one-time email with your completion reference	Ongoing newsletters or future-update emails
Future findings / updates	Email when reports or survey updates are published	Automatic — only if you explicitly opt in
Contributor recognition	Contact details on a separate page for eligible sessions	Linked to your survey answers in public outputs

Important: Requesting a reference-only email does not opt you in to future findings or updates. Those require a separate checkbox.

Contact details you provide are stored separately from anonymous survey response records, where that separation is implemented in our systems.

Information we collect

Survey responses

Depending on your path through the survey, this may include how you relate to the trades, general location bands you choose to provide, demographic ranges you select, views on outlook and work conditions, and optional written comments if you continue past the core survey.

You do not need an account to participate.

Limited technical information

To operate, improve, and protect the platform, we may collect limited technical information such as:

signals needed to run the survey session reliably
optional, non-personal campaign tags from the link you used (for example, how you heard about the survey)
basic device and connection information
error and reliability diagnostics (see Sentry below)

Website analytics (Stage 1)

We use Vercel Web Analytics for aggregate website analytics only — for example, page visits and referral patterns across the site.

We do not send survey answers, free-text responses, names, emails, phone numbers, postcodes, session IDs, or completion codes to Vercel Analytics. We take steps to strip sensitive query parameters from analytics page URLs before they are sent.

Error monitoring (Stage 1)

We use Sentry for error monitoring and platform reliability. Sentry may receive technical diagnostic data such as route, HTTP status code, browser/runtime context, and non-PII error context.

We do not intentionally send survey answers, free-text responses, names, emails, phone numbers, or postcodes to Sentry.

What we do not use in Stage 1

We do not use Google Analytics (GA4), Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, or other advertising / remarketing pixels in the public survey experience at this stage.

Optional contact details

If you choose to leave contact details (for reference email, future updates, or contributor recognition), we may collect name (optional), email, phone (optional), and your consent to that specific use. This is stored separately from your survey answers.

How we use information

We use information to:

analyse and report on workforce patterns in aggregate
maintain survey quality and integrity
send optional transactional reference emails where you requested them (via Resend)
provide optional future updates or contributor follow-up only where you have consented
improve and secure the platform
support authorised internal review of aggregated and anonymised materials

We do not use optional contact details to publicly label your survey answers.

Where data is stored and processed

Survey and application data is stored in Supabase (PostgreSQL database). The website is hosted on Vercel. Transactional reference emails are sent through Resend when you request them. These providers process data on our instructions for service delivery.

Legal bases (plain language)

We rely on:

your voluntary participation for survey answers
your explicit consent for optional contact, reference emails, future updates, and contributor recognition
legitimate interests in securing the platform, understanding aggregate workforce patterns, and maintaining service quality — balanced against the safeguards described here

Where sensitive topics appear in the survey, we limit use to aggregated research purposes described at collection.

Sharing information

We may share:

aggregated statistics in reports, briefings, or public summaries
service providers that help us host and operate the platform (including Supabase, Vercel, Resend, and Sentry), under arrangements that limit use to providing the service
partners or sponsors only with aggregate outputs — not your contact details or identifiable individual answers

We may disclose information if required by law or to protect rights, safety, and the integrity of the platform.

We do not sell personal information as a contact list or identifiable survey profile.

Storage and security

Data is held using reputable cloud hosting providers. Access to identifiable contact records is limited to authorised personnel.

No system is perfectly secure. We use reasonable technical and organisational measures — including access controls and separation between contact and answer data — to reduce risk.

Published outputs and small-cell suppression

We combine many answers before reporting. We take steps to reduce the risk of identifying individuals in published outputs.

Where a breakdown would reflect very few people, we may combine, suppress, or withhold it so summaries do not inadvertently highlight identifiable individuals.

Individual survey answers are not published in an identifiable form.

Retention

We keep information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy. Survey answers may be retained for analysis relevant to the survey wave and longer in de-identified aggregate form. Contact details are retained for the purpose you agreed to, then removed or archived according to our retention practices. We will publish or update retention information on the website as our practices mature.

Your choices and rights

You may:

stop at any time — you can leave the survey whenever you choose
skip all contact steps — completing the survey does not require contact details
contact us with privacy questions or to request access, correction, or deletion of contact information you provided — email privacy@in-formius.au

Because survey answers are designed to be separate from optional contact details, we may be unable to locate or delete a specific answer without information that could re-identify you. We will explain what is possible when you contact us.

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

Children

The survey is intended for adults participating in or connected to the trades workforce. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 16.

International users

The platform is operated from Australia with an Australian workforce focus. If you access it from overseas, your information may be processed in Australia and where our service providers operate.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as features evolve. We will post the new date at the top and, where changes are material, provide a clear notice on the site.

Future features

We may introduce optional participation programmes (for example, early access to tools, community programmes, or credentials). If we do:

they will have separate terms
they will not imply financial investment or guaranteed rewards unless explicitly and lawfully offered
survey anonymity principles for aggregated answers will remain as described here unless you separately choose to link an account

We may add additional analytics tools (such as GA4) in a later phase. If we do, we will update this policy before they are enabled.

Contact

Privacy: privacy@in-formius.au Security: security@in-formius.au General: hello@in-formius.au