Privacy policy

Big Stakes is a podcast and website at bigstakespod.com, run by the Big Stakes team in Sydney, Australia (“Big Stakes”, “we”, “us”). This policy explains how we handle personal information when you visit the site, subscribe to The Brief, or contact us.

We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). If you’re in another country, you may have extra rights under local law, and we’ll respect them.

We only collect what we need:

• Newsletter: your email address and which form you used.
• Enquiries and guest pitches: your name, email, company (optional), what you’re interested in, budget range and your message.
• Security data: your IP address and basic browser signals used to tell people from bots when you submit a form.
• Usage data: pages viewed, referring site, approximate location (city level), device, browser and time on page, collected by Google Analytics.
• Server logs: our hosting and network providers keep standard request logs (IP address, time, page requested and browser) for security and troubleshooting.

We don’t ask for sensitive information, such as health or financial details. Please don’t include it in a message. You can browse the site and listen to the show without telling us who you are.

• To send The Brief, if you subscribed.
• To read and reply to enquiries, partnership requests and guest pitches.
• To protect the site and its forms from spam and abuse, including limiting each IP address to two form submissions an hour.
• To understand which episodes and pages are useful, and improve the site.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We only email you if you subscribe. Every issue identifies us and has a one-click unsubscribe link, as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) requires. When you unsubscribe, we stop within five business days.

We don’t sell, rent or trade email addresses, and we never share them with sponsors. Sponsored slots in The Brief are placed by us and always labelled.

We use a small number of cookies and browser storage items:

• Analytics cookies: Google Analytics measures visits so we can see which pages are useful. These last up to two years.
• Security cookies: short-lived cookies that protect the site and its forms from bots and abuse.
• Local storage on your device: your light or dark mode choice, and whether you’ve closed or completed the newsletter pop-up. This never leaves your browser.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, or opt out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on. The site still works without them.

Episodes are embedded from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode, and nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. After that, YouTube’s privacy policy applies. When you follow a link to Spotify, Apple Podcasts or another app, that service’s privacy policy applies.

We don’t sell, rent or trade personal information, and we don’t share it with anyone for their own marketing or purposes. That includes sponsors and partners.

Like most websites, we rely on a small number of service providers to run the site, such as hosting, security, email delivery and analytics. They handle information only on our behalf, only as needed to provide their service to us, and under confidentiality and data protection terms.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our audience, our team or the public.

Some of our service providers store or process data outside Australia, mainly in the United States. Before using them, we take reasonable steps to make sure they protect personal information to a standard consistent with the APPs.

• Newsletter emails: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
• Enquiries: up to two years after our last contact, unless we’re working together.
• IP addresses used for rate limiting: no more than one hour, held in memory only.
• Analytics data: 14 months, the retention setting in Google Analytics.

The site is served only over HTTPS. Forms are protected by bot detection and rate limits, and access to submissions is limited to the Big Stakes team. No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a data breach likely to cause serious harm, we’ll notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Contact us through the contact form (choose “Privacy request”). We’ll respond within 30 days, and we don’t charge for requests. We may need to confirm who you are first.

Big Stakes is made for adults. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you think a child has sent us their details, tell us and we’ll delete them.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, contact us first through the contact form (choose “Privacy request”) and we’ll try to fix it within 30 days. If you’re still not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992).

We’ll update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top shows the current version. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we’ll say so in The Brief.