Privacy Policy

We collect personal information necessary to deliver bench diagnostic and repair services, fulfill retail and warehouse orders, manage second-hand device purchases, and provide customer support:

• Contact Details: Your full name, mobile telephone number, email address, and physical residential or delivery address for workshop intake, courier logistics, and return dispatch.
• Hardware Information: Device make, model, storage capacity, colour, IMEI or serial numbers, operating system version, and physical fault descriptions required for component sourcing, bench diagnostics, and warranty verification.
• Second-Hand Buyback Identity Records: When you sell a device to our St Marys workshop, we are required by the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996 (NSW) to collect your full legal name, residential address, date of birth, category and unique identification number of your government-issued photo identity document (such as an Australian Driver Licence or Passport), your signature, and an explicit declaration of ownership. We also record the device IMEI, serial number, and hardware specifications. We cannot purchase a pre-owned device without this statutory documentation.
• Online Store & Dropshipping Orders: Customer name, shipping address, contact phone number, email address, and item selections for transactions completed on phones.prcrepair.com.au (refurbished phones) and warehouse.prcrepair.com.au (factory-direct parts and accessories).
• Communication Records: Messages, fault descriptions, diagnostic questions, photos, and voice notes transmitted to our workshop team or automated assistant (Sam AI) via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, SMS, or web intake forms.
• Payment Information: Transaction identifiers, payment timestamps, and receipt records. Card details and sensitive financial data are processed directly through PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant gateways (Stripe, Square, PayPal, Afterpay, or workshop EFTPOS terminals) and are never stored on our local servers or POS databases.

Your information is collected and processed solely for legitimate operational and legal purposes:

• To perform bench diagnostics, component micro-soldering, screen refurbishment, data recovery, and post-repair quality assurance.
• To send automated SMS and email notifications regarding job intake, technician diagnostic findings, quote approvals, parts arrivals, and collection readiness.
• To validate store warranty and Australian Consumer Law guarantee claims against historical POS job records.
• To fulfill online store orders and courier mail-in dispatches via Australia Post Express or international factory logistics channels.
• To comply with statutory second-hand dealer reporting obligations by transmitting required transaction logs to the NSW Police Service.
• To publish de-identified, educational diagnostic discussions on our public Community Knowledge Hub to assist consumers with common hardware issues.

Phone Repair Centre operates a public Community Support Discussions platform and Diagnostic Knowledge Hub at prcrepair.com.au/community to assist consumers across Australia with common electronic faults, repair feasibility questions, and bench troubleshooting.

• Educational Case Publishing: Technical fault descriptions, diagnostic questions, and hardware symptoms communicated with our automated conversational assistant (Sam AI) across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, or web intake may be transformed into public educational discussion threads to help other device owners experiencing identical problems.
• Mandatory Human Review and De-Identification: Before any scenario is approved for public release, a PRC specialist reviews the material and permanently strips all personal identifying information, including customer names, telephone numbers, residential addresses, email accounts, IMEI numbers, serial numbers, passcodes, and photos supplied by the customer. Scenarios are rewritten in our own technical words and clearly labeled as PRC-curated case studies based on authentic consumer inquiries. Member handles displayed on the hub are illustrative and do not link to real consumer profiles.
• Opt-Out Right and Rapid Removal: Customers are informed of the educational knowledge hub upon initiating chat with Sam. You may opt out at any time by replying STOP HUB in your chat thread, informing our workshop counter staff, or emailing service@prcrepair.com.au. Upon receiving your notice, we will exclude or remove the relevant case study within 5 business days.

PRC technicians operate under strict professional privacy covenants when handling customer hardware:

• Zero Browsing Policy: Technicians are strictly forbidden from opening, viewing, copying, or browsing personal photos, text messages, email archives, web browsing history, financial applications, or personal documents stored on customer handsets.
• Functional Testing Only: Passcodes provided voluntarily by customers are used solely for post-repair diagnostic verification (validating touch digitizer responsiveness, camera autofocus, speaker and microphone fidelity, ambient light sensors, and network connectivity).
• No Passcode Mandate: Providing a passcode is completely optional for standard hardware repairs. If you choose not to share your PIN, our technicians will fit the replacement components and conduct all final functional testing alongside you at our workshop counter upon collection.
• Data Recovery Exception: For specialized data extraction and disaster recovery jobs, the device passcode is mandatory to enable hardware cryptographic decryption. In these cases, technicians copy recovered files to secure external media to return them to you. Files are accessed solely to the extent necessary to verify data integrity and confirm recovery success. Temporary bench recovery files are permanently erased from our encrypted workshop storage 7 calendar days after you confirm receipt.
• Passcode Deletion: Testing PINs recorded on physical workshop job sheets are shredded upon collection. Passcodes entered into digital support chats are removed from our active systems upon job completion. Because chat histories may persist on messaging networks, we strongly advise customers to share passcodes in person at our workshop counter or via phone.

We do not sell, rent, or trade customer personal data to marketing brokers or advertising networks. We disclose data solely to verified operational partners and statutory authorities:

• Payment Processors: Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Afterpay process payment transactions directly through encrypted gateways. We never store full card numbers on our local systems. Afterpay conducts independent identity and repayment assessments governed by its own privacy terms.
• Domestic Logistics: Australia Post and express courier partners receive your contact name, delivery address, phone number, and tracking email to fulfill local mail-in repair dispatches and phone store shipments.
• Cross-Border Disclosures (Australian Privacy Principle 8): Some of our specialized technology and fulfillment partners operate infrastructure outside Australia:
  • China and Hong Kong: For direct factory orders placed on warehouse.prcrepair.com.au, customer name, shipping address, contact phone number, and order item details are transmitted to our supply partner TVC-Mall and international air carriers in Shenzhen and Hong Kong to enable factory-direct dispatch. Privacy laws in mainland China may not offer protections equivalent to the Australian Privacy Principles. By placing a warehouse order, you provide informed consent to this cross-border disclosure for order fulfillment.
  • United States: Meta Platforms Inc (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Cloud API infrastructure), ManyChat Inc (messaging automation), Railway Corp (application server hosting), Stripe Inc, PayPal Inc, Block Inc (Square), Cloudflare Inc (content delivery and DDoS edge defense), and Google LLC (secure LLM infrastructure powering Sam AI). DigitalOcean provides Sydney-based cloud computing nodes.
  • Canada and United States: Shopify Inc (storefront and checkout systems for phones.prcrepair.com.au).
• Law Enforcement and Statutory Compliance: Where required by Australian federal or state legislation, court summons, or the NSW Police Service under the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996, we provide statutory records regarding second-hand hardware purchases and reported stolen property.

We maintain comprehensive administrative, technical, and physical security measures to safeguard your information:

• In-Transit Encryption: All web traffic across our website, storefronts, and community discussions is protected using industry-standard TLS 1.3 / SSL encryption.
• Access Controls: POS customer databases and workshop job management systems are protected by strict firewall rules, role-based access permissions, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) restricted strictly to authorized workshop personnel.
• Data Recovery Storage: Forensic bench data recovery images are stored on dedicated, physically isolated storage media and are permanently wiped 7 calendar days after customer confirmation.
• Notifiable Data Breaches: In the unlikely event of a security incident or data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to individuals, PRC will promptly notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in accordance with the mandatory Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principles, you hold defined rights regarding your records:

• Access and Correction: You may request access to personal information Phone Repair Centre holds about you, and request correction of any inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date records.
• De-Linking and Deletion Commitment: You may request the deletion or de-linking of your contact profile from past service records. While the Privacy Act does not contain a general right to erasure, PRC provides this as a customer commitment, subject strictly to records we are legally mandated to retain under Australian taxation, corporate, or second-hand dealer law.
• Statutory Retention Schedules:
  • Workshop job sheets, tax invoices, and sales receipts: Retained for 7 years in compliance with Australian taxation and corporate legislation.
  • Second-hand buyback identity and transaction records: Retained for at least 3 years as mandated by the Pawnbrokers and Second-hand Dealers Act 1996 (NSW).
  • Support chat transcripts and automated inquiry logs: Retained for up to 12 months for quality assurance and training, after which they are de-identified or securely deleted.
• Direct Marketing and Spam Act 2003: We send commercial messages or promotional offers only where you have given express or inferred consent. Every marketing message contains a clear, functional unsubscribe or opt-out mechanism. We promptly honour all unsubscribe requests within 5 business days.

In accordance with evolving Australian Privacy Principle transparency guidelines regarding automated decision-making and artificial intelligence:

• Automated Assistant: Sam is an automated artificial intelligence system, not a human technician. Sam assists customers 24/7 across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and web intake by triaging hardware symptoms and providing indicative pricing estimates.
• Preliminary Estimates Only: Pricing, repair feasibility advice, and fault classifications generated by Sam are preliminary calculations based on customer-reported information. All final repair assessments, parts availability confirmations, and official quotes are verified by an experienced workshop technician following physical bench inspection.
• Human Authority: Sam does not make legally binding decisions regarding warranty approvals, refund disputes, trade-in buyback agreements, or uncollected goods disposals. All contractual decisions and repair approvals are executed by authorized human staff.

For any privacy inquiries, data access requests, community hub opt-out notices, or complaints, contact our Privacy Officer:

Complaints Handling: We acknowledge all privacy complaints within 7 business days and aim to complete our investigation and provide a written resolution within 30 calendar days.

If you are unsatisfied with our handling of your complaint, you hold the right under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to lodge an official complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) online at oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.