Privacy Policy — Australia
Last updated: 11 October 2026
1. Who we are
POLICYANDPLAY LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17253846). Registered office: 7 Cosford Drive, Shortstown, Bedford MK42 0DQ, United Kingdom. ICO registration: ZC165321. We trade as Compare the Cool and Compare the Heat. Contact: [email protected].
We are the controller of the personal data described here. This policy covers comparethecool.com and comparetheheat.com, in every country edition.
2. What we collect and why
| Data | Why | Lawful basis | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outbound click log: market, product, retailer, referring page. No name, email or IP address is stored by us. | Work out which products people use, so we can rank and improve the site. | Legitimate interests (running and improving the site). | 26 months, then deleted or aggregated. |
| Server and hosting logs (IP address, browser, pages requested). | Security, fault finding, preventing abuse. | Legitimate interests (keeping the site secure). | 30 days. |
| Market preference (a small cookie, ctc_market). | Send you to your country's version of the site. | Consent (set only if you accept cookies). | 180 days. |
| PDF orders: email address, product bought, amount, country, order ID, download token, your acknowledgement of immediate access. | Take payment, deliver the PDF, send your receipt, handle refunds and support. | Contract; legal obligation (tax and accounting records). | 6 years from the order (HMRC record keeping). |
| Card and billing details. | Take payment. Stripe collects these directly; we never see your full card number. | Contract. | Held by Stripe under its own policy. We keep only the order record above. |
| Emails you send us. | Reply to you and keep a record of the conversation. | Legitimate interests (answering you) or contract, if about an order. | 2 years after the last message. |
| Consent choice (ck_consent and a timestamp) stored on your device. | Remember whether you accepted or rejected optional cookies. | Strictly necessary (no consent needed). | 12 months, then we ask again. |
We do not run user accounts, newsletters or price-alert emails. We do not use your data for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.
3. Marketing emails
We do not send marketing emails. We only email you about an order you have placed (your receipt and download link).
4. Who we share it with
We never sell personal data. We use these providers to run the site:
- Netlify (hosting, edge routing and serverless functions; US).
- Supabase (database for the click log and PDF orders).
- Stripe (payments for PDF products; US).
- Resend (order emails; US).
- Cloudflare cdnjs (loads the animation library GSAP on each page, so Cloudflare sees your IP address; US).
- Amazon and eBay. Product images load from their servers, so they see your IP address. If you click a Buy link they receive you as a visitor and may set their own cookies. Their privacy notices apply from that point.
- eBay Partner Network, only if you accept optional cookies (see our cookie policy).
We also disclose data where the law requires it, for example to HMRC or the police.
5. International transfers
Some providers are in the US. We rely on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement / Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
6. How long we keep data
Retention periods are in the table above. Once a period ends we delete the data or anonymise it.
7. Your rights
You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or move it to another service. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests, and object to direct marketing at any time. Where we rely on consent you can withdraw it at any time (use “Cookie settings” in the footer). You also have rights around automated decisions. Email [email protected]. We reply within one month.
8. Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, email [email protected]with “Data protection complaint” in the subject. We'll acknowledge within 30 days and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113.
9. Cookies
Optional cookies stay off until you accept them. See the cookie policy for every cookie and storage item we use.
10. Children
The site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.
11. Changes
We will update this page if what we do changes. The date at the top shows the latest version.