Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 October 2026

Equal Psychology Pty Ltd (ACN 667 320 050) is a private psychology practice with rooms in Kew and Croydon and sessions by telehealth. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, and by the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) for health information.

In short: we collect only what we need to provide our services and run this website, we keep it secure, we do not sell it, and you can ask to see, correct or transfer what we hold about you at any time.

This policy covers our psychology services, this website, our mailing list and our consulting room hire. You can ask us for a free copy in another format, such as print.

What we collect

When you are a client

Your health information. What we need to provide psychological care: the reason you are seeking support, relevant history, session notes, assessment results, treatment plans, and letters to and from your general practitioner or other referrer. If you choose to, you can give us the name and phone number of an emergency contact.

Assessments and questionnaires. We use NovoPsych to send you questionnaires and score them. Your answers and scores are kept in your client file.

Session notes. Your psychologist may use NovoNote, an AI note-taking tool, to help write session notes. It listens to the session, makes a transcript and drafts a summary for your psychologist to check and edit. The audio is deleted once it is transcribed, the transcript is deleted once the summary is saved, and only the summary your psychologist approves is kept in your file. We explain NovoNote and ask for your consent as part of our informed consent before your first session, and we check with you again at the start of each session. You can say no at any time without it affecting your care.

Telehealth. Telehealth sessions are held on Microsoft Teams. We do not make video or audio recordings of sessions. If you agree to NovoNote, it listens only to make a transcript, and the audio is deleted once the transcript is made.

Medicare, claims and payments. Your Medicare number, referral and Mental Health Treatment Plan details where you use a Medicare rebate, details of any funded program (such as the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), WorkSafe Victoria or a Support at Home provider), and payment records. Payments and Medicare and health fund claims are processed through Tyro Health. We use your Medicare number only for claims, never as our own way of identifying you.

When you contact us or book

Enquiries. Your name, contact details and anything you choose to tell us by email, phone or this website.

Phone calls. Our phone line is answered by Linda, an AI receptionist provided by Summit AI Limited (New Zealand). At the start of each call, Linda says it is an AI and that the call is recorded. Summit records and transcribes the call so Linda can book, reschedule or cancel your appointment directly in our practice management system, and emails a summary of the call to our admin inbox, which only authorised staff can access. Summit deletes call recordings and transcripts 30 days after the call. We delete call summaries from our inbox after 30 days. Anything from a call that is needed for your care is added to your client record.

Online booking and reminders. Bookings are made through our practice management system, Pracsuite, which collects the details needed to make the appointment. If you agree when you complete our consent form, Pracsuite sends appointment reminders by SMS, email or both, as you choose.

Social media. If you message us on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, or leave a Google review, we see what you send and your profile name. Those platforms' own privacy policies apply. Please do not send health details through social media; contact us directly instead.

When you use this website

Every visit. Our hosting provider records standard technical information with each request, such as your IP address, browser type, the page requested, and the date and time. We use it to keep the site secure and working. We do not run advertising, advertising cookies or tracking pixels on this website.

Visitor statistics. To understand how people use this website, we record which pages are viewed, how long each page is open, how far down it is read, which buttons and links are pressed, whether the visit is on a phone or a computer, the name of the website someone came from, and, when someone arrives through a link we have tagged (for example a link in one of our ads, social media posts or printed cards), the campaign name in that link. Pages viewed in one visit are linked by a random code that is kept only in that browser tab and deleted when the tab is closed. We do not use cookies for this, and we do not record your IP address, location or anything else that identifies you or follows you across other websites.

Page speed and visit counts. Cloudflare, which hosts this website, also runs a small measuring script (Cloudflare Web Analytics) that counts page views and measures how quickly pages load, which page someone came from, and the type of browser and device. It does not use cookies or other browser storage and does not track individual visitors. As with every request, Cloudflare uses the visitor's IP address to work out which country a visit comes from.

Ask. Ask is the search on this website. To find the pages and answers that fit your question, we keep the words of your question, the day you asked it, and which answer and page we showed you. Before saving, we remove email addresses, phone numbers, web links and other numbers. We do not keep your IP address, cookies, device or browser details, location or anything else that links a question to you, and your question is not written into our hosting provider's request records. If a question mentions a crisis, such as suicide, self-harm or being in danger, we count that it was asked but do not keep the words. Please do not type your name or other personal details into Ask. If you need help with something personal, contact us directly.

Likes and display settings. When you like a blog post, or change text size, contrast or reading settings, your choice is stored only in your own browser. For likes, we keep a total count for each post, with no information about who liked it.

When you join our mailing list

Your email address, the date and page you signed up from, the wording you agreed to, and the date you confirmed your subscription by clicking the link in our confirmation email. We keep these as a record of your consent.

When you hire a consulting room

If you are a health practitioner hiring a room in Kew, we collect your name, email, phone, date of birth, ABN, profession, registration or membership number and expiry, Working With Children Check number and expiry, insurance details, a copy of your Working With Children Check and Certificate of Currency, your signature on the hire agreement, your bookings and your payment records. An inspection request sends us your name and phone number by email; the website does not keep a copy.

When you visit our Kew suite

Security camera. For security, a camera faces the entry door of our Kew suite. It records video only when someone is at the door. It does not record sound and does not view the consulting rooms. Recordings are stored on a recording device in Australia, not in the cloud, and are kept for 30 days and then deleted. Only Matthew Hallam and Natalia Cajide can view recordings, and only when there is a security concern.

When you sign in

Room renters and our staff sign in with a one-time code sent by email, or with Google or Microsoft. If you choose Google or Microsoft, it tells us your email address and an account identifier so it can recognise you next time; we receive nothing else from your account. Signing in sets a cookie that keeps you signed in, and Google or Microsoft sign-in also sets a short-lived cookie that protects the sign-in step. Both are strictly necessary and are not used for anything else. We keep a record of sign-ins and changes made in our systems to keep them secure.

How we collect it

Mostly from you, directly. With your consent, we may also receive information from your general practitioner, psychiatrist or another referrer, or from a funding body such as the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), WorkSafe Victoria or a Support at Home provider.

You can deal with us anonymously or using a pseudonym for general enquiries. For clinical services and Medicare claims we need your real name and contact details. If you choose not to give us information we ask for, we may not be able to provide a service, process a rebate or claim, or contact you about your care.

If we receive information about you that we did not ask for, we check whether we could have collected it ourselves. If not, we destroy or de-identify it as soon as we lawfully can.

How we use it

• To provide, coordinate and review your psychological care.
• To manage appointments, fees, Medicare rebates and funded program claims.
• To communicate with your referrer about your care, with your consent.
• To discuss your care in clinical supervision, which helps us provide safe, good-quality care. We remove your name and identifying details first.
• To send our newsletter, if you have subscribed. We never use client information for marketing.
• To improve Ask: we review the questions people ask so we can write new answers and fill gaps in our pages.
• To manage consulting room hire: agreements, bookings, payments, suite access and reminders when a registration, check or insurance is about to expire.
• To keep our Kew suite and the people who use it secure.
• To keep this website and our systems secure and working, and to understand which pages are useful so we can improve them.
• To meet our legal and professional obligations.

AI tools we use

We use three AI tools. For session notes and website answers, a person always checks what the tool produces before it is used.

• NovoNote helps your psychologist write session notes, only with your consent (see Session notes above). NovoPsych, which provides it, states that NovoNote data is stored in Australia, that any outside AI model receives de-identified information, and that your information is not used to train AI models.
• Claude, from Anthropic, reviews the questions asked in Ask each day and drafts new answers. It receives only the stored question words, with nothing that identifies the person who asked. Every answer is checked and approved by one of our psychologists before it appears on this website.
• Linda, our AI phone receptionist provided by Summit AI, answers calls and books, reschedules or cancels appointments (see Phone calls above). Summit states that the AI services it uses do not keep call data or use it to train AI models.

When we share it

We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only:

• with your consent, for example a letter to your general practitioner;
• with Medicare, a health fund or a funding body to process a claim;
• with another health provider, when you ask us to send them your records;
• with the service providers who help us run the practice and this website (listed below), under their own privacy and security obligations;
• where the law requires or allows it, including where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety.

Service providers and where information is stored

These providers help us run the practice and this website. Each has its own privacy and security obligations.

Cloudflare may set cookies that are strictly necessary for security. Where a provider stores or processes information outside Australia, we choose providers that protect it to a standard consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Our newsletter

We send our newsletter only to people who have subscribed and confirmed their email address. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also ask us to remove you at any time. We use your email address only to send the newsletter.

Guided breathing app

Our free guided breathing app (the App in its Terms of Use) is at learn.equalpsychology.com.au/guided-breathing. It works without an account and is designed to collect as little as possible.

• No account. The app does not ask for your name, email address or health information.
• Kept on your device. Your routines, settings, safety acknowledgement and practice history are saved in your own browser. They are not sent to us and we cannot see them. Clearing your browser data for the app deletes them.
• Daily notifications, only if you turn them on. To send them, we keep a random code for your device, the address your browser gives us for notifications (from your browser's notification service, such as Apple, Google or Mozilla), the time and days you chose, your time zone, when you set them up or changed them, and the date the last one was sent so it goes once a day. We do not keep your routine, your name or anything you type, and the notification wording is the same for everyone. Which routine a notification opens stays on your device. Turning notifications off in the app deletes this straight away. It is also deleted when the notification service tells us notifications have ended for your device, or if notifications cannot be delivered for three days in a row. To prevent misuse, we also keep a one-way code made from your internet address (not the address itself) for up to a day, to limit how often notifications can be changed or tested. Nothing else is sent to us.
• Calendar reminders. If you add a reminder to your calendar instead, the calendar file is made on your device and goes into your own calendar app. Nothing is sent to us.
• Recorded voices. The voice guidance is sound files played on your device. They were made with ElevenLabs; nothing you do in the app is sent to ElevenLabs or to us.
• Shared links and QR codes. A shared link carries the routine inside the link itself, after the # sign. Browsers do not send that part to our website. Anyone you share a link with can see the routine and its name, so avoid personal details in routine names.
• No visitor statistics. We do not collect visit statistics for the app or record which buttons are pressed. Like most websites, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) keeps short technical logs of requests, including internet addresses, for up to 7 days to keep the site working and secure.
• Offline use. If you add the app to your home screen, your browser keeps a copy of the page, and of the chosen recorded voice after a finished session, so it works offline. These copies contain no personal information.

The App's Terms of Use also apply.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Our free Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise is at learn.equalpsychology.com.au/muscle-relaxation. It works the same way as the Guided breathing app above and is designed to collect as little as possible.

• No account. It does not ask for your name, email address or health information.
• Kept on your device. Your settings (including any parts of your body you choose to leave out), safety acknowledgement and practice history are saved in your own browser. They are not sent to us and we cannot see them. Clearing your browser data for the site deletes them.
• Daily notifications, only if you turn them on. We keep the same information as for the Guided breathing app's notifications, and also which of the two the notification is for, so it is worded and opens correctly. We do not keep your practice, your name or anything you type. Turning notifications off deletes this straight away, and it is deleted in the same cases as above.
• Calendar reminders, recorded voices, visitor statistics and offline use work as described for the Guided breathing app above.

Its Terms of Use also apply.

Keeping it secure

We store information electronically, with access limited to the people who need it, using password protection, multi-factor sign-in where available, and secure systems.

How long we keep it

If there is a data breach

We have a Data Breach Response Plan, approved by our Board. If personal information we hold may have been lost, or accessed or disclosed without permission, our Privacy Officer leads our response straight away: we contain it, find the cause, and assess the risk of serious harm to the people involved. If an AI or automated tool is involved, we pause it until it has been reviewed.

If a breach is likely to cause serious harm, we notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner within 72 hours, which is sooner than the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires, and contact the people affected as soon as practicable. We tell you what happened, what information was involved, what we have done, what you can do to protect yourself, and how to contact our Privacy Officer. If we cannot contact everyone directly, we publish a notice. Every breach is recorded and reviewed so we can prevent it happening again.

Seeing, correcting or transferring your information

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to send your health records to another health provider, by contacting our Privacy Officer. We will respond within 30 days.

Asking for access is free. Depending on what you ask for, for example copies of a large file, we may charge a fee to cover our costs. We will tell you the fee before we go ahead, and it will be no more than the maximum allowed under Victorian law. In limited circumstances the law allows us to decline access, and if so we will explain why in writing and tell you how to complain.

If Equal Psychology closes, or your psychologist leaves the practice, we will keep your records safely for the required period and tell you how to get them or have them sent to another provider.

Age

Our services are for adults. This website is not directed at people under 18, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information through it.

Our free guided breathing app is for adults; younger people may use it with a parent, guardian or their clinician. The app does not ask anyone for personal information, and a young person's routines and settings stay on their own device.

Other websites

This website links to other sites, such as Google Maps, social media and our booking system. Their own privacy policies apply when you use them.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question, or believe we have mishandled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

Privacy Officer
Email: privacy@equalpsychology.com.au
Phone: (03) 8652 9499
Post: Level 4, Suite 413, 89-93 High Street, Kew VIC 3101

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Phone: 1300 363 992
Post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001
Online: oaic.gov.au

For complaints about health information, you can also contact the Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria) at hcc.vic.gov.au.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised.