Patternmakers' Privacy Policy
Patternmakers Pty Ltd (ABN 97 627 469 649)
Effective date: 15 October 2026
Last reviewed: 16 October 2026
Introduction
Patternmakers Pty Ltd (ABN 97 627 469 649) respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ("Privacy Act"). Patternmakers Pty Ltd also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles click here.
This Privacy Policy for Patternmakers Pty Ltd (“Patternmakers”) lets you know what personal information of yours we hold, what we do with it, who we will disclose it to and how you can access the personal information we hold about you. You can also find out here how to change inaccurate personal information and how to opt out of receiving communications from us.
What personal information about you does Patternmakers collect and hold?
The information Patternmakers collect could include name, email address, IP address, age, gender, postcode, household income, opinions and feedback in relation to cultural experiences. When providing personal information you have the option of remaining anonymous or to use a pseudonym to be identified by. However, in certain circumstances, such as where we receive your contact details from a third party or where the research data itself may potentially allow for identification, this may not be practicable.
Depending on the nature of the research we conduct, we may also collect sensitive information from you, including country of birth, health and family information.
Where we collect sensitive information for research purposes, we do so only with consent and where reasonably necessary for the relevant research project. Sensitive information may be collected in identifiable, confidential or de-identified form depending on the research design and ethics requirements.
How does Patternmakers collect and hold your personal information?
Patternmakers will generally collect your personal information directly from you in the course of you participating in our research and/or online surveys. However, we may also from time to time collect personal information about you from third parties, such as supporting partners. If so, we will inform you as soon as practicable of this collection and the circumstances of this collection.
If you are a respondent to a survey, Patternmakers will generally collect your personal information via Checkbox Survey at www.checkbox.com , Web Survey Creator at www.websurveycreator.com or via Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) at www.alchemer.com. The information collected is only for research purposes, and no personally identifiable information will ever be used for marketing.
Checkbox Survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Checkbox Privacy Policy here: www.checkbox.com/privacy_policy/ and their data hosting in AWS centres here.
Web Survey Creator data is stored securely on servers hosted in Australia. You can read more about Web Survey Creator Privacy Policy here: www.websurveycreator.com/privacy_policy.aspx.
Alchemer survey data is stored securely on servers hosted in the USA. Alchemer is committed to complying with international regulations including GDPR. You can read more about Alchemer’s Privacy Policy here: www.alchemer.com/privacy/.
We may also collect personal information in Brevo (previously Sendinblue at www.brevo.com, MailChimp at www.mailchimp.com and Beehiiv at www.beehiiv.com if you opt-in to join our database of research participants or if you subscribe to a newsletter from our website, www.thepatternmakers.com.au.
You can read more about Brevo’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/ Brevo upholds your privacy rights and comply with privacy regulations under the GDPR.
You can read more about MailChimp’s Privacy Policy here: www.mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. MailChimp complies with Australian Privacy Law (Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) for its storage of customer data.
You can read more about Beehiiv’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.beehiiv.com/privacy.
If you register to attend a Patternmakers event your information may be collected via EventBrite, www.eventbrite.com.au.
What are the purposes for which Patternmakers use, handle and disclose your personal information?
We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information provided for research for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. If you declined to participate in our research, there are limited circumstances where we may use your personal information to re-contact you for a research purpose, but only if we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. If you have participated in our research, we will only re-contact you if you were informed of this, opt-ed in, or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact.
Patternmakers may also collect personal information (name, email address or postal address) when you provide it to receive specific services, such as contracting us to deliver research services, or buying a ticket to an event. This information is stored in secure databases. As a customer of Patternmakers, your email address may be added to a mailing list, as purchasing from us is an indication that you want to hear about our services. However, you can unsubscribe at any time. The information you provide will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. You can choose not to receive such information.
Who will Patternmakers disclose your personal information to?
We will not disclose any personally identifiable research information we collect from you unless we have your express prior consent and will only report the information you provide in an aggregate form that will not personally identify you. We will not disclose any personal information or personally identifiable research information to a third party for a purpose other than conducting our research unless we have your express prior consent or are required to do so by an Australian law or court/tribunal order.
Personal information may be stored or processed in Australia, the United States and other countries where our service providers operate. In the course of conducting our research we may rely on third party service providers to host or store the data we collect who are located overseas. While we take reasonable steps to ensure service providers maintain appropriate privacy safeguards, information transferred overseas may be subject to the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.
The names and locations of key suppliers are:
Checkbox Survey Inc., based in the U.S., data stored on servers hosted in Australia.
Alchemer LLC, based in the U.S.
WolfBrown LLC, based in the U.S.
Brevo Inc, based in Europe.
MailChimp, The Rocket Science Group LLC, based in the U.S.
Microsoft, based in the U.S.
We will also take reasonable steps to ensure any service providers (and their employees and contractors) comply with relevant privacy regulations in their jurisdiction, as well as this Privacy Policy.
Data retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for research, contractual, legal and business purposes. When personal information is no longer required, it is securely deleted or de-identified.
Data security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Security measures may include password protection, encryption, access controls, secure cloud storage and staff confidentiality obligations.
Notifiable data breaches
If we become aware of a data breach involving personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will comply with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, including notifying affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where required.
Research with children
Where research involves children or young people under 16, consent will be obtained from a parent, guardian or authorised representative where required by law or research ethics standards.
Young people over 16 may be invited to participate in research, with consent processes designed in plain English
Openness
You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details listed below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how access is provided (e.g, emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However this fee will not be excessive and will only apply to the facilitation of your request.
If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate.
Questions and complaints
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following email: info@thepatternmakers.com.au
We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint or not. If we do not agree, we will provide reasons. If we do agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider it appropriate to take in response. If you are still not satisfied after having contacted us and given us a reasonable time to respond, then we suggest that you contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:
Phone: 1300 363 992 (local call cost, but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If calling from overseas:+61 2 9284 9749
TTY: 1800 620 241 (this number is dedicated to the hearing impaired only, no voice calls)
TIS: Translating and Interpreting Service: 131 450 (If you don’t speak English or English is your second language and you need assistance and ask for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)
Post: GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
We aim to acknowledge privacy complaints within 7 business days and respond substantively within 30 days where practicable.
Patternmakers Website
When you visit our website, we may collect information about your use of the site through cookies and similar technologies.
We use Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our website, improve performance and enhance the user experience. Google Analytics may collect information such as:
IP address (which may be anonymised by Google Analytics settings)
Device type and operating system
Browser type
Pages viewed and time spent on pages
Referring websites and search terms
General geographic location
This information is collected in aggregated form and is not used by Patternmakers to personally identify individual visitors.
Google Analytics may store information on servers located outside Australia. For more information about how Google handles personal information, please refer to Google's Privacy Policy.
Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through browser settings. You can choose to disable cookies, although some website functionality may be affected.