Forge West (“we”, “us”, “our”) is operated by Oliver Gniel as a sole trader (ABN 42 194 384 262), trading from Perth, Western Australia. We respect your privacy and are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and your rights.
1. Information we collect
We collect the following categories of personal information:
From visitors to forgewest.com.au:
- Information you give us via our contact form, email, or phone — including your name, business name, email address, phone number, and the message you send.
- Technical information collected automatically — IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and referral source — via Google Analytics and our hosting provider’s standard logs.
From prospective clients:
- Any information you share during a discovery call or in follow-up communication, including your business situation, current marketing performance, and goals.
From clients:
- Information required to deliver the services, including business details, ad account access, Google Business Profile access, campaign performance data, and call/lead records generated by our tracking.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. Our services are aimed at Australian trade business owners.
2. How we use your information
We use your personal information to:
- Respond to your enquiry and follow up about our services
- Deliver the services engaged under a Statement of Work
- Send invoices and administer your account
- Improve our website and services
- Comply with legal obligations (including tax, record-keeping, and Spam Act requirements)
If you are a client, we may also process personal information on your behalf — for example, leads your campaigns generate. In that case you are the data controller and we act as your service provider, handling that information only on your instructions.
3. Direct marketing
If you opt in (for example, by booking a discovery call or subscribing to updates) we may send you occasional marketing emails about Forge West’s services. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. Once you unsubscribe, we will not email you further marketing.
If you have not opted in and we contact you by cold email, we do so on the basis of inferred consent under the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) — because your business email address is published publicly and our message is relevant to your business. Every such email includes our full contact details and an unsubscribe option. Reply with the word “unsubscribe” and we will remove you from all future contact within 5 business days.
4. Cookies and analytics
Our website uses cookies to:
- Remember your session preferences
- Collect anonymous usage data via Google Analytics
You can disable cookies in your browser settings. Some features of the website may not work without cookies.
We do not currently use advertising pixels (Meta Pixel, Google Remarketing) on forgewest.com.au itself. When we run ads for clients, those pixels are placed on the client’s own landing pages under the client’s own policies.
5. Who we share your information with
We share personal information only where necessary to operate the business:
- Service providers that process information on our behalf — for example, our email host (Google Workspace), invoicing platform (Wave), cold-outreach platform (Instantly), analytics (Google Analytics), scheduling (Calendly). Each of these operates under its own privacy policy.
- Advertising platforms (Google Ads, Meta) — only when delivering campaigns for a client, and only to the extent required by that client.
- Legal and regulatory authorities — if required by law.
We do not sell your personal information to any third party.
6. Overseas disclosure
Some of our service providers are located outside Australia (typically the United States). Where information is transferred overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles your information consistently with the APPs.
7. Data security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access. These include password management, two-factor authentication on all critical accounts, and limiting access to information on a need-to-know basis. No system is perfectly secure — if you believe your information has been compromised, contact us immediately.
8. Data retention
We retain personal information only for as long as necessary:
- Enquiry information: up to 3 years, then deleted.
- Client records and invoices: 7 years, to meet ATO record-keeping obligations, then deleted.
- Marketing unsubscribe lists: retained indefinitely so we do not contact you again.
9. Your rights
You can ask us to:
- Confirm what personal information we hold about you
- Provide you a copy of that information
- Correct anything that is inaccurate
- Delete your information (where we are not legally required to retain it)
- Stop using your information for marketing
Send any request to oliver@forgewest.com.au. We will respond within 30 days.
10. Complaints
If you believe we have handled your personal information in a way that breaches the Privacy Act or this policy, please contact us first at oliver@forgewest.com.au. If we cannot resolve the issue, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at forgewest.com.au/privacy, with the “last updated” date at the top. Material changes will be notified on the website.
12. Contact
Forge West
Oliver Gniel, sole trader
ABN 42 194 384 262
oliver@forgewest.com.au
0490 220 784
Perth, Western Australia