PRIVACY POLICY

Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

Willship is a freight forwarder and licensed customs broker. This policy explains:

• what personal information we collect, and why;
• what we do with it, including where our software and AI are involved;
• who we share it with;
• how you can see or correct it, or complain.

We follow the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. "Personal information" means information or an opinion about a person who can reasonably be identified.

2. What we collect

If you ship with us or ask for a quote:

• your name, contact details and address;
• your business details, such as your ABN;
• details of your goods or vehicle, and the shipping, customs and commercial documents that go with them (invoices, bills of lading, packing lists and booking forms);
• what customs and biosecurity need from you, such as your residency status when a vehicle concession may apply;
• identity documents, such as your passport, when customs or a vehicle import needs them;
• billing and payment details, and what you give us if you apply for a credit account.

If you use our website:

• what you type into our forms and chat assistants;
• the files you upload;
• how you use the site: the pages you visit, where you came from, your device, browser and IP address.

If you call us or meet with us: some phone calls and meetings are recorded and transcribed.

If you work with us or apply to: what you give us in your application or engagement, and what referees tell us.

3. How we collect it

Mostly from you, when you:

• contact us;
• use our website or chat;
• book a shipment;
• send us documents.

We also collect personal information from:

• your suppliers, agents and anyone else involved in moving your goods;
• shipping lines, ports and tracking services;
• government agencies;
• public sources.

4. Why we use it

We use personal information:

• to quote for, arrange and track your shipment;
• to clear it through customs and biosecurity;
• to deliver it and bill for it;
• to answer your questions and keep you updated;
• to meet our legal obligations, including as a licensed customs broker;
• to improve our website, chat assistants and services;
• to tell you about our services, where the law allows (section 10);
• to consider an application for a credit account;
• to consider you for work with us.

You can ask us general questions without telling us who you are. If you don't give us information we need, we may not be able to quote for, ship or clear your goods.

5. Our chat assistants

Our website chat assistants, Alex and Sam, are AI, and the website labels them as AI.

• They answer questions and give estimates.
• They pass your enquiry to our team, and email you a copy of your plan or chat.
• We keep the conversations and the files you upload. We use them to follow up your enquiry and to check and improve the assistants' answers.

What an assistant tells you is an estimate or general guidance until our team confirms it. You can contact our team instead at any time.

6. Computer programs, AI and decisions about you

We use computer programs, including AI, to give you estimates quickly and to handle shipping and customs paperwork. Some make, or help us make, decisions that could affect you.

The personal information these programs use:

• your name and contact details;
• what you tell us about your shipment or vehicle;
• your residency status and other answers that show whether a duty or GST concession might apply;
• the documents and emails we receive about your shipment;
• our past dealings with you, such as how we classified the same goods before;
• how you used our website and chat.

Decisions a program makes on its own:

• the estimated cost in the quotes and shipping plans our website gives you, and whether your vehicle looks likely to qualify for a GST or duty concession. These are estimates. Our team confirms the price we charge, and the Australian Border Force decides any concession.
• how quickly your website enquiry is followed up, and which of our team it goes to;
• setting up and updating the record of your shipment: reading the documents and emails we receive, filing them on your shipment and recording its progress;
• which of our ads you see online, based on your visits to our website;
• when to tell you that your shipment's arrival date has changed: a program writes and sends the email, and our team checks a daily list of exceptions.

Decisions a program helps a person make:

• the tariff classification of your goods, which sets the duty you pay. A program suggests a classification, and our licensed customs broker checks and accepts each one.

If you'd like a person to look at a decision, or want to know more about how a program was used, contact us (section 14).

7. Who we share it with

Only as needed for the purposes in section 4:

• the Australian Border Force and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and other government agencies when the law requires it;
• shipping lines, airlines, ports, transport and storage companies, and our agents overseas;
• insurers, and our professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants;
• our service providers. These include:
  • cloud, email and phone systems, and IT support;
  • our customer database;
  • freight and customs software;
  • container tracking;
  • banks and payment providers;
  • our website developers;
  • the AI services behind our chat and paperwork tools;
  • website analytics, advertising and the emails our website sends;
• a buyer of all or part of our business, and its advisers;
• anyone you ask us to share it with.

We don't sell personal information.

8. Where it is kept, and overseas

Most of the information we hold is kept in Australia. Our email and files are in Microsoft 365 in Australia, and our website chat and shipment-tracking systems are hosted in Sydney.

Some of it goes overseas:

• to the United States, for the AI services we use, website analytics and some of our software;
• to the Philippines, where some of our team work;
• to India, for container tracking;
• to the European Union, for website analytics and the emails our website sends;
• to South Korea, where some early records of our website chat are stored;
• to the countries your goods are shipped from or to, for our agents there.

The AI services behind our website chat don't use your conversations to train their models. We take reasonable steps to make sure the people we share personal information with overseas handle it as Australian law requires.

9. Website, cookies and analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar tools to make it work and to measure how it is used, including:

• tools that record how visitors move through pages and forms;
• advertising tags from Google and Meta.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Parts of the site may then not work.

10. Marketing

We may send you information about our services where you've agreed to it or the law allows it. Every marketing email has a way to unsubscribe, or you can contact us. If you ask us to stop, we stop, and we keep a note that you asked.

11. Keeping it safe, and how long we keep it

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access. These include limiting who can see it and using reputable providers. If a data breach is likely to cause someone serious harm, we tell them and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the law requires.

We keep personal information only as long as we need it:

• shipping, customs and accounting records: at least five years, as customs and tax law require;
• job applicants who aren't engaged: up to six months;
• staff and contractors: up to seven years after they leave;
• suppliers: up to six years after our last dealing.

We may keep it longer if we need it for a dispute or a legal claim. After that, we delete it or remove what identifies you.

12. Seeing and correcting your information

You can ask for the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, by contacting us. We may need to confirm who you are first. Asking is free; where the law allows, we may charge a reasonable fee for the work of giving you access. If we can't give you access or make a correction, we'll tell you why.

If you're in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may have extra rights under your local law. Contact us to use them.

13. Complaints

Contact us first. A senior member of our team will look into it and tell you what we found and what we'll do, as soon as we reasonably can. If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, or 1300 363 992.

14. Contact us

Email general@willship.com.au, or write to Willship International, 16/853 Nudgee Road, Northgate QLD 4013.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always on our website.