Privacy Policy

Last Updated: January 21, 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to Top5Sydney.org. We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about our policy, or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at our provided contact channels.

When you visit our website Top5Sydney.org (the "Website"), and use our services, you trust us with your personal information. We take your privacy very seriously. In this privacy notice, we describe our privacy policy. We seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have in relation to it.

2. Information We Collect

As a blog focused on Sydney’s businesses, legal issues, and international student support, we may collect information from you in several ways:

A. Personal Information You Disclose to Us

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when expressing an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, when participating in activities on the Website (such as posting comments in our "Business Mistakes" section or subscribing to our newsletter) or otherwise contacting us.

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Website, the choices you make, and the features you use. The personal information we collect can include the following: Names, Email Addresses, and Social Media handles.

B. Information Automatically Collected

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Website. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, and information about how and when you use our Website.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use personal information collected via our Website for a variety of business purposes described below. We process your personal information for these purposes in reliance on our legitimate business interests, in order to enter into or perform a contract with you, with your consent, and/or for compliance with our legal obligations.

  • To facilitate account creation and logon process: If you choose to link your account with us to a third-party account.
  • To send you marketing and promotional communications: We may use your personal information for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences.
  • To post testimonials and reviews: We often post reviews about Sydney businesses. If you provide a comment or review, it may be visible to other users.
  • To improve our content: We use data to understand which Sydney-specific topics (like Medical or Legal advice) are most popular.

4. Will Your Information Be Shared With Anyone?

We only share information with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services, to protect your rights, or to fulfill business obligations. We may process or share data based on the following legal basis:

  • Consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information in a specific purpose.
  • Legitimate Interests: We may process your data when it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests.
  • Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).

5. Google AdSense and Third-Party Advertising

Top5Sydney.org uses Google AdSense to serve ads when you visit our Website. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and other sites on the Internet.

Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology in their respective advertisements and links that appear on Top5Sydney.org and which are sent directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs.

Other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) may also be used by our site's third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and/or to personalize the advertising content that you see on the site.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Website.

7. Data Security and Retention

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, please also remember that we cannot guarantee that the internet itself is 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Website is at your own risk.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).

8. Your Rights as a Resident (GDPR & Privacy Act)

If you are a resident in certain territories (such as the EEA or Australia under the Australian Privacy Act 1988), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability.

9. Updates to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this policy, you may email us at info@top5sydney.org or visit our Contact Us page.