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Privacy Policy

DIRECT STUDY – PRIVACY POLICY

This document is the Privacy Policy of Direct SWA Holdings Pty Ltd ACN [690 530 860], trading as Direct Study (“Direct Study”, “we” or “us”). This policy also applies to the use of the website operated by Direct Study under its official domain name http://www.directstudy.com.au (website).

We understand that your privacy is important to you. We are committed to respecting your right to privacy and to complying with all of our privacy obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (Principles). The Principles are designed to protect confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals by regulating the way personal information is managed. Personal information is generally, information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, irrespective of whether the information or opinion is true or is recorded in a material form.

This policy sets out how and when Direct Study collects, uses, and discloses your personal information and how you may request access to it.

The types of information we collect may include details about: our customers, our suppliers (and their employees), personal contacts of institutional or corporate clients, applicants for employment, and other individuals who interact with Direct Study in the ordinary course of business. Information is collected in various ways, including online application forms, business and event activities, mail, telephone, email, online platform interactions, and via third parties such as education agents and service providers.

Employee Exemption: Direct Study is not bound by the Privacy Act or the Principles with respect to the handling of its current or former employees’ records, if those records relate directly to the employment relationship.

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT

1.1 We may collect personal information about you from a range of sources, including directly from you, from customers or students, suppliers, referral partners (such as education agents, accommodation providers, insurance companies, telecom operators) and their intermediaries, employees, other business contacts, sponsors, publicly available resources, or in the ordinary course of business. Where information is collected from third parties, DirectStudy will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware.

1.2 We may also collect and disclose non-sensitive personal information from and to our related companies, including when you are a customer of Direct Study and also a customer of our related companies. Such personal information about you may include but is not limited to, the services arranged by us and provided to you by our related companies.

1.3 Types of personal information we may collect include your name, address, contact details (including email), phone number, identification details, date of birth, preferred accommodation or service choices, banking or credit card details (if payment is required), discount or concession entitlements, and records of interaction with us. Sensitive information (as defined in the Privacy Act, including health information if related to health insurance arrangements) will only be collected with your consent or when required by law.

1.4 If you provide us with the personal information of another person, you must make them aware of the matters set out in this collection statement.

1.5 Generally, you will need to identify yourself when dealing with Direct Study (such as when lodging an enquiry or requesting services). If appropriate and practical, you may act anonymously or use a pseudonym when you deal with us.

1.6 Providing personal information is voluntary, but may be necessary for us to deliver our services. Without it, we may not be able to fulfil your requests or deliver the same service standard. It is important that your personal information and any other information you give us is correct and that you inform us of any changes.

1.7 By submitting your details, you agree that Direct Study (and our related companies, service partners, or business partners) may contact you by any means (including by SMS or email) in the future (even if you cease acquiring services from us) to inform you about goods, services, promotions, competitions, or offers relevant to you. We may also disclose your information with other persons or entities who assist us in providing our services or running competitions or promotions or with other companies who provide prizes for competitions. If you do not wish for your personal information to be used for marketing, special offers or promotional purposes, you can opt-out by contacting our Customer Service Team, or email us at info@directstudy.com.au, or use the Contact Us page.

2. WHY WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

2.1 We will collect (or voluntarily receive) and use your personal information for the purpose of undertaking our business activities, including enabling us to:

  • Provide services and coordinate essential settlement needs for international students (such as arranging accommodation, health insurance, telecom services, and other requested services);
  • Communicate with our business partners in order to provide you with the services you have requested;
  • Communicate with you to manage our relationship with you;
  • Market products and services, promotions or other services offered by us and third party service providers which we consider may be of interest to you;
  • Update our records and keep your contact details current;
  • Respond to your enquiries or complaints;
  • Conduct, or contact you for the purpose of market research (even if you cease acquiring services from us);
  • Conduct research for the purposes of improving existing products or services, creating new products or services and to understand our customers needs and the needs of customers generally;
  • Provide you with any services you have requested;
  • Undertake other administrative and operational functions, including the administration of our website;
  • Comply with legal and regulatory requirements;
  • Process any job application.

2.2 We may collect and use your personal information for other purposes not listed above. If we do so, we will make it known to you at the time we collect such information.

3. HOW WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • Our related companies;
  • Your authorised representatives;
  • Business partners such as education agents and accommodation providers that we have collected your personal information from to confirm whether you have signed up to a service or product from one the business partners;
  • Any of our service providers or business partners, including organisations that assist us with marketing, market research, technology, security, or data management;
  • Our website host or IT providers in connection with site operation or technical issues;
  • Other third party on a confidential basis in the course of delivering connection, disconnection and moving services and related services to you and to achieve the purposes specified in section 2 of this Privacy Policy;
  • Government and/or regulatory authorities (where required by law);
  • Professional advisers (including lawyers, auditors, and business consultants).

4. OVERSEAS DISCLOSURES

Some information may be collected, used, disclosed, processed, or stored overseas by Direct Study, our call centres, or third-party service providers. Recipients may be located in countries including (but not limited to) New Zealand, the Philippines, India, China, the USA, the UK, and others from time to time, as our operations, partners, or technical infrastructure require. Where such parties are located overseas, you may have rights to enforce such parties’ compliance with applicable data protection laws, but you may not have recourse against those parties under the Privacy Act in relation to how those parties treat your personal information.

You agree to the disclosure and use of such personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and consent to its disclosure overseas and its use by third parties, including our related entities, any of our call centre operations and our service providers, in New Zealand, the Philippines, India, China, the USA, the UK, and other countries in which those parties or their computer systems may be located from time to time, where it may be used solely for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, without us being responsible for such use (or for any breach).

5. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will take all reasonable steps such as those set out in our Security Policy to ensure that your personal information is kept securely and not misused, interfered with or disclosed unless in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

6. ACCESS, CORRECTION AND COMPLAINTS

6.1 You may request more information on how Direct Study manages your personal information, seek access or corrections (where your information is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated), or lodge a complaint by contacting our Privacy Officer by emailing info@directstudy.com.au or use the Contact Us page.

6.2 We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially and will contact you to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint and aim to resolve your complaint in a timely and appropriate manner.

6.3 We may deny your request for access to personal information that we hold about you in limited circumstances, in accordance with the Privacy Act. In these circumstances, we will inform you of the reasons for our decision.

6.4 We may also charge you a reasonable fee for accessing your personal information.

7. OUR WEBSITE

7.1 This Privacy Policy also applies to your use of our website and any personal information that you provide to us when using our website.

7.2 We use ‘cookies’ to provide a secure, personalised experience on our website. Cookies are small data files that a website is able to place on a user’s computer hard drive or in its memory to record aspects of that user’s experience of the website. From time to time we may work with organisations to track non-personally identifiable parts of the website to facilitate digital media activity with them.

7.3 Cookies on this website are used as identifiers, and will not contain or store any information about a user. You will need to enable cookies on your browser to access the signed-in areas of our website.

7.4 Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

8. VARIATIONS AND UPDATES

8.1 We will review our Privacy Policy regularly, and may make changes from time to time. If we do so, we will update the policy on this website to reflect those changes. The updated versions of our Privacy Policy will be effective from the date of posting on our website.

8.2 This Privacy Policy was last updated on 15 Jul 2025.