1. Who we are
Visa Pilot (visapilot.au, “we”, “us”) gives general information about Australian visas and introduces people to registered migration agents. Visa Pilot is operated by Keinu (keinu.com). We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). You can contact us about privacy at hello@visapilot.au.
2. What we collect
2.1 From you, when you use the chat or ask to be connected
- Your name, email address and (if you choose) phone number
- Where you live (suburb, town or postcode and state, or your city and country if you are overseas)
- Your nationality, current visa or status, age, occupation, qualifications, work experience, English level and family situation
- Anything else you tell us in the chat, and the chat transcript itself
You may choose to tell us about health, criminal history, relationship or other sensitive matters. We only collect that information because you provide it, and we use it only to pass your enquiry to migration agents with your consent. You don't have to answer any question, and you can use the visa guides without telling us anything.
2.2 About registered migration agents
We collect agents' names, MARNs, business names, suburbs, states and business email addresses from the public register published by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA). When an agent joins our network they also give us the details in the sign-up form. See Data sources.
2.3 Automatically
Like most websites, we receive technical information such as your IP address, approximate location (country and city from our content delivery network), browser and device type, and pages visited. If we use analytics or session-recording tools (such as Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity), they set cookies to measure how the site is used. You can block cookies in your browser.
3. How we use it
- To answer your questions with general information and prepare a short summary of your situation
- To send your enquiry to registered migration agents near you, and to follow up with you about it
- To run the referral network: notifying agents, checking MARNs, and asking how referrals went
- To keep the service secure, prevent spam and misuse, and fix problems
- To understand and improve how the website is used
- To comply with the law
We do not sell personal information.
4. Who we disclose it to
- Registered migration agents. When you ask to be connected, we send a summary of your situation to up to three registered migration agents near you (and, if none of them responds, up to three more). An agent who chooses to help sees your name and contact details. Agents are independent businesses and handle your information under their own privacy obligations.
- Service providers who help us run the service: Amazon Web Services (hosting, databases and email, in Sydney, Australia); OpenAI (processing chat messages to generate replies, in the United States); Google (reCAPTCHA spam protection and, where enabled, Google Analytics); Microsoft (Clarity, where enabled); and Slack (internal notifications to our team, in the United States).
- Others where required or authorised by law.
5. Overseas disclosure
Some of the service providers above store or process information outside Australia, mainly in the United States. We take reasonable steps to ensure they handle it consistently with the APPs. By using the chat you acknowledge that your messages are processed by OpenAI in the United States.
6. How long we keep it
- Chat transcripts: about 30 days
- Enquiries: about 30 days, or about 180 days if a migration agent took on the referral (so we can ask how it went)
- Unsubscribe and opt-out records: kept permanently so we never contact that address again
7. Security
We protect personal information with reasonable technical and organisational measures, including encryption in transit, access controls and signed links. No system is completely secure. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected people and the OAIC as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.
8. Access, correction and deletion
You can ask for access to, correction of, or deletion of the personal information we hold about you by emailing hello@visapilot.au. We will respond within 30 days. You can withdraw an enquiry at any time using the link in our confirmation email.
9. Marketing and emails
We only email you about your enquiry. Every email to a migration agent identifies us and includes a working unsubscribe link, as the Spam Act 2003 requires.
10. Children
The service is not intended for children under 16. A parent or guardian can make an enquiry on a child's behalf.
11. Complaints
If you think we have mishandled your personal information, email us first and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
12. Changes
We may update this policy. The date at the top shows when it last changed.