Privacy Policy

Faraway Ventures operates the Farmers Mate mobile application and related services (together, the “App”). In this policy, “Faraway Ventures”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the sole trader operating under the registered business name Faraway Ventures.

This policy applies to personal information handled through Farmers Mate. It should be read together with the Farmers Mate Terms of Service and any collection notice shown when a particular permission or feature is used.

Farmers Mate is designed as an offline-first farm management and record-keeping tool. Some information may remain only on your device, while signed-in and synchronised features may transmit information to cloud services so it can be backed up, restored, or shared with authorised farm members.

2.1 Account and identity information

• Name, email address, phone number where provided, authentication identifiers, account status, account preferences, and security-related account information.
• Farm membership, role, permissions, invitations, ownership status, and other access-control information.
• Information you provide when contacting support, reporting a problem, or making a privacy request.

2.2 Farm and operational data

You may enter or generate information about a farm and its operations. Depending on the features you use, this may include:

• Farm profile, property, paddock, rainfall, livestock, breeding, animal health, treatments, movements, equipment, servicing, parts, costs, tasks, notes, reminders, and related records.
• Names or contact details entered into free-text fields, attachments, notes, supplier records, team records, or other user-created content.
• Dates, identifiers, relationships between records, audit information, deletion markers, synchronisation status, and record history needed to maintain data integrity across devices.

Farm Data is associated with the Farm and remains part of the shared Farm record regardless of which authorised Farm Member created or edited it. The App's Owner role provides administrative authority within Farmers Mate; it does not by itself determine legal ownership of land, livestock, equipment, a business, intellectual property, or personal information.

Farm data may contain personal information if you or another user includes information that identifies an individual. You are responsible for ensuring you are permitted to enter and share that information through the App.

2.3 Photos, files, camera and device content

Where a feature allows it and you choose to use it, Farmers Mate may access the camera, photo library, or files you select. We only seek access needed for the feature you initiate. Selected content may be stored locally and, where cloud synchronisation is enabled, uploaded with the relevant farm record.

2.4 Location information

Farmers Mate may request device location access for location-enabled farm features, such as establishing or using a farm or property location for weather and related services. Location use is optional. Where a Farm has multiple members, the Farm Owner controls the farm-level location setting, while each user also controls whether Farmers Mate may access location through that user's device permissions. Depending on the permission granted, the App may receive approximate or precise location while the relevant feature is being used. Disabling device permission or pausing the farm-level setting may limit location-dependent functionality.

2.5 Notifications and device settings

If you enable notifications, the App may use notification permissions and locally stored preferences to deliver reminders or status messages. Notification tokens or delivery-related identifiers may be processed by platform or cloud notification services when remote notifications are used.

2.6 Technical, security and diagnostic information

We may collect technical information needed to operate, secure and improve Farmers Mate, including:

• App version, device type, operating system, language or region settings, network or synchronisation status, timestamps, and technical identifiers.
• Authentication events, security events, error messages, failed operations, and information needed to detect misuse or protect accounts and farm access.
• Crash logs, stack traces, device and app state, and related diagnostics through Firebase Crashlytics or similar reliability tools.

Crash reporting is used to diagnose faults and improve stability. We do not intend to place farm record contents, passwords, biometric information, or unnecessary personal information into crash logs. Diagnostic tools may automatically collect device and app information as described by their providers.

2.7 Biometrics and device authentication

Farmers Mate may ask your device to verify you using Face ID, Touch ID, fingerprint, device passcode, or another device-security method before sensitive actions. The biometric template remains controlled by your device and operating system. Farmers Mate receives only the result of the verification, not your fingerprint, facial scan, or biometric template.

2.8 Information we do not intentionally collect

• We do not sell personal information.
• We do not use third-party advertising networks or cross-app advertising trackers.
• We do not currently use behavioural product analytics to profile how individual users use Farmers Mate.
• We do not use SMS-based authentication unless this policy and the App are updated before that feature is introduced.

• Directly from you when you create an account, configure a farm, enter records, invite users, contact support, or use an App feature.
• From other authorised farm users when they invite you, assign a role, add information about you, or create and update shared farm records.
• Automatically from your device, operating system, authentication provider, cloud service, and diagnostic tools when necessary to operate, secure, synchronise, or troubleshoot the App.
• From app stores or payment providers if paid features are introduced, limited to transaction status and related information made available to us. We do not receive full payment-card details from app-store purchases.

• Provide, maintain and personalise Farmers Mate and its offline and online features.
• Create and secure accounts, authenticate users, manage farms, roles, invitations and permissions.
• Store records locally and, where enabled, synchronise, back up, restore and share records across authorised devices and users.
• Deliver notifications and reminders you configure.
• Respond to support requests, complaints, access requests and other communications.
• Diagnose crashes, correct defects, improve reliability, maintain data integrity and prevent records from being duplicated, corrupted or unintentionally restored after deletion.
• Detect, investigate and prevent unauthorised access, fraud, abuse, security incidents or violations of our Terms.
• Comply with legal obligations and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• Administer subscriptions or paid features if introduced and accepted by you.

We do not use farm data to provide advertising to you or to train general-purpose artificial intelligence models.

5.1 Local device storage

Farmers Mate is offline-first and stores information locally on your device so core functions can operate without a continuous internet connection. Local persistence currently uses technologies including Hive and SharedPreferences, together with platform security controls and encrypted storage where implemented. Local information may include account state, preferences, Farm Data, pending changes, cached cloud information, and technical data required for safe synchronisation.

Local data is affected by the security, backups and settings of your device. Removing the App, clearing app data, losing the device, disabling device backups, or device failure may result in loss of information that has not been synchronised or otherwise backed up.

5.2 Cloud services

Signed-in features may use Google Firebase services, including Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, related cloud infrastructure, and Firebase Crashlytics. These services may process account information, farm data, synchronisation metadata and diagnostics on our behalf.

Cloud synchronisation may occur automatically or when you initiate a refresh or synchronisation action. Changes made offline may be uploaded after connectivity returns. While we design the App to reconcile changes safely, you should check important records after extended offline use, device replacement, conflict resolution, restore or deletion.

5.3 Team farms and shared access

Farm Data is associated with the Farm rather than the individual Account that happened to create a record. Authorised members may access shared Farm Data according to their role. Farmers Mate currently uses Owner, Manager, User and View Only roles with different permissions. The Owner controls top-level farm authority, including ownership transfer and farm-level settings; other roles have more limited access. Authorised actions may affect shared records on all synchronised devices.

Do not add a person to a farm unless you are authorised to give them access. Users should maintain separate accounts and must not share passwords.

We may disclose information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes in this policy, including to:

• Other authorised users of the same farm, according to farm roles and permissions.
• Service providers that host, secure, authenticate, deliver, support or diagnose the App, including Google Firebase and app-store platform providers.
• Professional advisers, insurers, regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies or other parties where reasonably necessary to obtain advice, comply with law, respond to lawful requests, protect rights or safety, or manage a dispute.
• A purchaser or successor if the Farmers Mate business or relevant assets are reorganised, transferred or sold, subject to appropriate confidentiality and privacy protections.

We do not sell or rent personal information. Service providers may process information only for contracted services or as otherwise permitted by their own terms and applicable law.

We intend to use Australian cloud regions where practical and suitable for performance and reliability. However, Farmers Mate relies on global service providers, including Google Firebase and app-store/platform providers. Personal information may therefore be processed, routed, backed up, supported or disclosed in Australia and overseas. The countries or regions involved can depend on the final service configuration, redundancy, support operations, the user’s location and the provider’s infrastructure. Where it is practicable to identify likely overseas recipient locations, we will keep this policy updated to identify them.

Countries outside Australia may have privacy laws that differ from Australian law. Where applicable, we take reasonable steps to use reputable providers and contractual, technical or organisational protections appropriate to the information and service.

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect information, which may include authenticated access, role-based permissions, secure transport, platform security controls, device authentication for sensitive actions, re-authentication, data-integrity checks, backups, access restrictions and diagnostic monitoring.

No method of storage or transmission is completely secure. You are responsible for securing your device, email account and Farmers Mate credentials; installing updates; using device locks; reviewing farm access; and promptly telling us if you suspect unauthorised access.

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the App, maintain account and farm records, complete synchronisation and deletion, support backups and recovery, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent abuse and meet legal obligations.

Deletion may not be instantaneous across every device, cache, backup or service. Deleted data may remain temporarily in secure backups, diagnostic records, logs, queued operations or systems awaiting routine deletion or overwrite. We may retain limited records where required by law or reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution or evidence of completed deletion requests.

10.1 Deleting your account

You may request or initiate deletion of your personal Account through the App where available or by contacting us. We may require identity verification or recent authentication. Deleting an individual Account is different from deleting a shared Farm. Farm Data is not automatically deleted merely because the member who created or edited a record later leaves or deletes their Account. If you are the Owner, you must first transfer ownership or choose to delete the entire Farm before deleting only your Account.

10.2 Deleting an entire farm

A Farm Owner may choose to delete the entire Farm and its associated Farm Data. This is a high-impact action that removes the Farm and access for every Farm Member and is intended to permanently delete the shared Farm records, subject to synchronisation, backups, legal retention and technical processing periods. The App may require device authentication, Firebase re-authentication, explicit confirmation or other stronger verification before completing this action.

10.3 Local copies and other users’ devices

When access is removed or a Farm is deleted, synchronised devices should remove or disable access to the affected cloud data. Temporary local, cached or offline copies may remain until the relevant device reconnects, synchronises, is signed out, or app data is cleared. Farmers Mate does not currently provide a general customer-facing export/download feature. If export functionality is introduced later, separately exported copies will be controlled by the recipient and will not automatically be deleted when the source Farm or Account is deleted.

Subject to applicable law and verification, you may ask to access or correct personal information we hold about you, request deletion, withdraw optional permissions, object to or restrict certain processing, or make a complaint.

• Update available profile, farm and record information within the App.
• Change camera, photo, location and notification permissions in device settings.
• Disable or limit optional features where the App provides that control.
• Contact us using the details below for requests that cannot be completed in the App.

We may decline or limit a request where permitted by law, where it would affect another person’s rights, where information belongs to a farm controlled by another user, or where we cannot reasonably verify the requester. We will explain our decision where required.

Please contact us first so we can investigate. Include enough information to identify the issue, but do not send passwords or unnecessary sensitive information. We will aim to acknowledge and address complaints within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied, you may be entitled to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or another relevant regulator.

Farmers Mate is a farm management and record-keeping service and is not designed specifically for children. We do not set a fixed minimum age for use of the App. A young person must have sufficient understanding and maturity to make the relevant privacy decisions and, where they do not have that capacity or where law otherwise requires it, a parent, guardian or other legally authorised person must provide the necessary consent or authority. Farm Owners and other authorised members are responsible for ensuring that a person they invite or permit to access Farm Data is appropriately authorised. We do not use children’s personal information for advertising or behavioural profiling. If we become aware that personal information has been provided or an account is being used without required capacity, consent or authority, we may restrict access and take reasonable steps to address or delete the affected personal information, subject to legal and shared-record requirements.

The App may link to third-party websites, app stores, device settings or services. Their privacy practices are controlled by them, not by this policy. Review their notices before providing information or enabling integrations.

We may update this policy when Farmers Mate, our service providers, legal requirements or data practices change. The updated version will show a new effective date and may be provided through the App, website, app-store listing or email where appropriate. Material changes may require notice or consent where required by law.