Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 October 2026

This policy explains what information RideWatch SA collects, why, who can see it, and how you can get it changed or deleted. We follow the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

When you sign in

If you sign in with Facebook, Google or an email link, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from that service. We never post anything to your Facebook or Google account, and we don't see your password.

When you report a stolen bike

• Bike details: make, model, year, colour, type, rego, VIN, distinguishing features and photos.
• Where and when it was taken. If you give a street, we use it to place the pin. Please leave out your house number.
• Your police report number. This is never shown publicly. We use it only to check that reports are genuine.

When you log a sighting or a suspicious bike

• The place, time, description and any photos you add.
• A rego or VIN you enter on a suspicious bike report is never shown publicly. It's only compared against stolen listings.

Automatically

Like most websites, our hosting provider records basic technical information such as your IP address, browser type and pages visited, for security and to keep the site running.

What other people can see

Stolen bike listings, sightings, suspicious bike reports and community posts are public, because the point is for people to see them. Your name is shown only as the display name you choose. Your email address, police report numbers, and any private rego or VIN you entered are never shown.

Services we use

• Hosting and database: Cloudflare and Supabase store and serve the site and its data.
• Maps: map images come from OpenStreetMap. When you enter a street, it's sent to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find its location.
• Sign-in: Facebook and Google, only if you choose to use them.
• Advertising: we use Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can turn off personalised ads at Google Ad Settings, and learn more in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
• Affiliate links: some links on our security gear page earn us a small commission. The store may set a cookie to record that you came from us.

Police

We may share information with police when you ask us to, when it helps recover a stolen bike, or when the law requires it.

How long we keep it

• Stolen bike listings stay up until you mark the bike recovered or remove it.
• Suspicious bike reports come down after 30 days unless an owner confirms a match.
• If you delete your account, we remove your listings and personal details within 30 days, except where we have to keep something by law.

Your choices

You can see, correct or delete your information at any time. Edit or remove your listings from your account, or contact us and we'll do it for you. To report a post that shows you or your property, use the report button on the post or contact us, and we'll review it quickly.

Security

Data is sent over encrypted connections and stored with access controls. No system is perfectly secure, so please don't post anything you wouldn't want made public.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, contact us first. If we don't resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.