Privacy policy
Last updated 28 August 2026
MechConnect answers the phone for trade businesses. That means we handle two different kinds of information, and it matters which one you are.
- If you rang a business and we answered — we took down what you told us so the business could follow up your booking. Section 1 is about you.
- If you are a business using MechConnect — we hold your account and billing details. Section 2 is about you.
We do not record calls. No audio is captured, stored, or kept for any period. What exists is a written note of the conversation, and nothing else. This is a design decision, not a setting — there is no audio store to turn on.
The standard we hold ourselves to. Australian privacy law exempts small businesses — under $3 million a year — from the Australian Privacy Principles. We are telling you that rather than letting you assume otherwise. We follow them anyway, and this policy is written to them. The Government has said the exemption should go; when it does, nothing here will need to change.
1. If you called a business that uses MechConnect
We tell you at the start
Every call opens by saying that the call is being noted down so your booking can be followed up. You hear this before you say anything.
What we write down
Only what you tell us, and only what the business needs to do the job:
- Your name and the phone number you called from
- Where the work is needed
- What you are driving, where that is relevant
- What the problem is, in your words
- The time you agreed to
A written transcript of the conversation is kept alongside those details.
Because there is no recording, that transcript is the only record of what was said. We are not built to take payments over the phone and you should not be asked for a card. If you read a card number out anyway, we look for it and remove it before the transcript is saved.
Who it is for, and who is responsible for it
The business you called. We are answering their phone on their instructions — they decide what happens with your booking, and you are their customer, not ours. In privacy law terms they are the ones responsible for your information and we handle it for them.
That matters if you want something changed or removed: you can ask either of us. If you ask us, we will do it and pass the request on, because they hold their own copy of the booking.
We do not sell it, rent it, share it for advertising, or use it to contact you about anything other than the job you rang about.
How long we keep it
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Call transcripts and booking details | 12 months, then deleted |
| Technical system logs | 90 days maximum |
| A small number of transcripts kept to check and improve how the receptionist handles calls | Longer than 12 months — see below |
That last row is a real exception and we would rather write it down than have you find it. A small sample of calls is retained beyond the normal 12 months so we can measure whether the receptionist is getting things right — hearing an address correctly, understanding what is wrong with a vehicle. If you would prefer your call was not used this way, tell us and we will remove it.
SMS
If a text message is part of following up your booking, we send it to the number you called from, in the name of the business you rang. We do not add you to a marketing list.
2. If you are a business using MechConnect
We hold what you give us to run the service: your business name and contact details, your phone number and hours, your service area and pricing, and the settings that tell the receptionist how to answer.
Your calendar
With your permission, MechConnect connects to your calendar so it knows when you are free and can write bookings into it.
We do read the events already in your calendar, and we are not going to pretend otherwise, because it is the whole reason the booking works. If we could only see our own bookings we would cheerfully offer a customer three o'clock while you were already at the dentist. Knowing what is in your day is how we avoid booking on top of it.
- Google Calendar — we request
calendar.events.owned, which lets us see, create, change and delete events on calendars you own. It is the narrowest scope that can still see a real working day. It does not reach calendars that belong to someone else and are merely shared with you, and it does not let us delete or share the calendars themselves. We do not request access to your email, contacts, or anything else in your Google account. - Apple Calendar and other CalDAV calendars — we use an app-specific password you generate, which is encrypted before it is stored. We read the calendar you nominate to see when you are free, and write the bookings we make for you into it.
We look at your existing events to answer one question — are you free then? — and for nothing else.
Disconnecting is available at any time and removes our access immediately. Calendar data is never used for advertising and never sold.
Payments
Subscription payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe directly and are never held by us — we see only the last four digits and the outcome of the charge.
If you leave
Your bookings and call notes are yours to take. The terms set out how to ask for them and how long you have — see section 4 of the terms.
3. Where your information lives
In Australia. The database, your records and your transcripts are in Sydney, and so is every server that answers your calls. Speech-to-text, the voice you hear, and the reading of job details out of a call are all processed in Australia.
One step is not always. The language model that composes what the receptionist says is served by Telnyx, from whichever of their regions runs that model. We request Australia wherever the model is available here; where it is not, that step is served from overseas — at present the United States, and potentially the European Union or the Middle East. Telnyx does not guarantee a region, so we do not claim one.
What that step receives is the text of the conversation so far. No audio ever leaves Australia. Wherever it is served, Telnyx is bound by our agreement with them, and we remain responsible to you for how it is handled.
4. Who else touches it
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Telnyx | Carries the phone calls and text messages, converts speech to text, and runs the language model that holds the conversation. All of this happens in Australia except the language model, which may be served from overseas — see section 3 |
| DigitalOcean | Hosts the servers and the database, in Sydney |
| Stripe | Processes subscription payments from businesses |
| Google / Apple | Only where you have connected a calendar, and only for that |
That is the whole list, and we keep it that way deliberately. Each of these does one job for us and nothing else with what passes through it. If we ever add another, this table changes and businesses using MechConnect are told before it happens.
5. Nothing here trains an AI model
Nothing you or your customers say is used to train an AI model. Not the transcripts, not the bookings, not your calendar. Telnyx, which runs the language model, is contractually barred from training on what passes through it.
The one thing we do keep is the accuracy sample described in section 1, and it is worth being precise about what that is. We compare what the receptionist heard against what was actually said — did it get the street name right, did it understand the fault — and we count how often it was wrong. That is us marking our own work against a known answer. It does not change the model, and it never leaves us.
A business using MechConnect can ask to be left out of that sample. A caller can ask for their own call to be removed from it. Either way, just tell us.
6. Keeping it safe
- Every connection is encrypted in transit.
- Each business's data is isolated from every other business's at the database level.
- Credentials are encrypted at rest and are never displayed back, even to us.
- Access to production systems is restricted to keys held by the operator.
7. If something goes wrong with your information
If we find that information has been accessed, disclosed or lost when it should not have been, we tell the affected business within 48 hours of confirming it, in writing, with what we know so far and what we are doing about it. We tell you at 48 hours even if we do not yet have the full picture, because you may have your own obligations running on their own clock.
Where the law requires the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to be notified, we do that too, and we do not wait to be asked.
8. Your rights, and how to complain
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to the address below and we will respond within 30 days. We do not charge for it.
If you called a business and want your details removed, we will pass the request to that business as well, since they hold their own copy of the booking.
If you think we have handled your information badly, complain to us first at the address below. We will acknowledge it within five business days and give you an answer within 30 days, in writing, including what we are doing about it.
If that answer doesn't satisfy you, you can take it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992. You do not need our permission and we will not hold it against you.
9. Cookies, and what this website doesn't do
This website sets no cookies at all. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel, no tracker of any kind, and nothing here follows you anywhere else. We know how much of your business day this page is worth and it is not worth that.
The signed-in area sets one cookie, which keeps you signed in and does nothing else. It stays on our own site, it lasts at most 30 days and expires sooner if you stop using it, and there is no way to be signed in without it.
10. Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. We will not quietly broaden what we do with information already collected.
11. Contact
MechConnect Pty Ltd
ACN 702 185 822 · ABN 66 702 185 822
trading as MechConnect
privacy@mechconnect.com.au
That address reaches the person responsible for privacy at MechConnect. For anything else, contact support@mechconnect.com.au.