Privacy Policy — DocTrail

Last updated: 27 June 2026

DocTrail ("we", "our", "us") provides a tax document organisation service for users in Australia. We are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Who We Are

DocTrail is operated by a sole trader based in Australia:

Business name: DocTrail
ABN: 50 954 205 252
Location: Australia

For any privacy enquiry or complaint, you can contact us at:

privacy@doctrail.com.au

1. What Information We Collect

Personal Information

Name and email address
Profile information (e.g. entities such as Individual, Sole Trader)

Financial & Tax Information

Tax-related documents (income statements, receipts, investment reports)
ATO-related data (categories, labels, summaries)

Sensitive Information

Some uploaded documents may contain sensitive data including:

Tax File Numbers (TFN)
Bank account and BSB details
Salary, payroll and financial history
Medicare card numbers
Driver's licence numbers
Passport numbers
Superannuation and investment account details

Because tax documents commonly contain sensitive personal information, DocTrail treats all uploaded documents as potentially sensitive and applies the same security protections regardless of whether automated detection identifies specific sensitive information. You consent to cloud storage of your documents up-front (at sign-up and before your first scan), so this protection does not depend on automated detection. When our best-effort detection does flag something, we show an additional advisory — but some sensitive data may not be caught. Use the redaction tool to remove sensitive information before uploading.

2. How We Collect Information

We collect information when you:

Create an account
Upload or scan documents
Use the AI categorisation or OCR features
Contact us for support

We collect personal information only where it is reasonably necessary to provide the DocTrail service, or where required or authorised by law.

Providing your information is voluntary. However, if you choose not to provide certain information, some DocTrail features may not function correctly or may be unavailable.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

Organise and classify your tax documents
Provide summaries, insights and accountant-ready reports
Improve and maintain our services
Communicate with you (service updates, support)

We do NOT sell your personal data to any third party.

4. Cloud Storage & Data Security

Your data is stored securely using Firebase (Google Cloud). We implement:

Encryption at rest and in transit (TLS)
Authentication managed by Firebase Authentication; passwords are hashed and managed by Firebase — we never see or store your raw password
Least-privilege, per-user access controls — no other user can access your documents
Firestore security rules enforced server-side
All documents stored in Firebase Storage (Google Cloud)
Platform-level monitoring, redundancy and backups provided by Google Cloud's infrastructure
Access to production systems restricted to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis

While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no system is 100% secure. Use the redaction tool to remove sensitive information from documents before saving when possible.

5. Data Location & Overseas Disclosure

Your data may be stored or processed on servers located outside Australia. Recipients may include, depending on our infrastructure configuration from time to time:

Google (Firebase / Google Cloud) — data centres which may be located in Australia, the United States or Singapore
Anthropic (Claude AI) — document analysis processing, primarily in the United States

Cloud providers may replicate data across multiple regions for resilience and availability. We take reasonable steps to ensure these providers maintain strong security standards consistent with Australian privacy law.

6. Use of AI & Automation

DocTrail uses third-party AI services — Google Cloud Vision API and Anthropic Claude — to:

Extract text and data from uploaded documents (OCR)
Suggest categories and tax labels

These providers process uploaded content solely to provide OCR and document analysis services on our behalf. We use commercial AI services subject to contractual terms and technical controls intended to protect customer data. Where supported by the provider, we configure these services so customer content is not used to train publicly available AI models.

To provide these features, document images and text are sent to the providers above for processing. By using these features, you consent to this processing. On-device detection attempts to redact sensitive values before sending, but because automated detection is not perfect, documents sent for processing may still contain sensitive information such as Tax File Numbers. AI-generated outputs are provided to assist with document organisation and may not always be accurate — please review them before relying on them for tax preparation or financial decisions.

7. Sharing of Information

We may disclose your personal information to:

Cloud infrastructure providers (Google Firebase)
AI processing providers (Google Cloud AI, Anthropic)
Your nominated tax agent (only when you explicitly share a report)

We may also use or disclose your personal information where required or authorised by law — for example, in response to a court order, a request from the Australian Taxation Office, or a police warrant.

We do not disclose your personal information to any other party without your explicit consent.

8. Tax File Numbers (TFN)

DocTrail does not request or require users to provide a Tax File Number. However, tax documents uploaded by users may incidentally contain TFNs. Where this occurs, DocTrail stores the document as instructed by you, in order to provide document management services.

TFNs are not used for identification, verification or any secondary purpose. Where a document you upload contains a TFN, the app will:

Store documents in the cloud only after you have given consent up-front (at sign-up and before your first scan)
Attempt to detect a TFN on-device using pattern matching (best-effort, not guaranteed)
Show an additional advisory if a TFN is detected — but this is not relied upon for consent
Allow you to redact sensitive information from documents at any time using the redaction tool

Automated detection of TFNs and other sensitive information is provided as a convenience feature only and should not be relied upon to identify all sensitive information contained within a document. You remain responsible for reviewing and, where appropriate, redacting your documents.

9. Data Retention

We retain your data:

For as long as your account remains active
Or as required for legal, regulatory and accounting purposes

You may request deletion of your account at any time from the app or by contacting us. When you do, we will delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period, unless we are required by law to retain it. Please note that residual copies may persist for a limited time in encrypted backups and system logs before they are overwritten in the ordinary course of operations.

10. Your Rights

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), you have the right to:

Access your personal information
Request correction of inaccurate information
Request deletion of your data
Complain about a breach of the APPs

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at:

privacy@doctrail.com.au

If you are not satisfied with our response to a privacy enquiry or complaint, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

11. Analytics & Diagnostics

We may use analytics and crash-reporting tools — such as Google Analytics for Firebase or Firebase Crashlytics — to improve the service. These tools may collect technical information such as device type, app version, operating system, crash reports and feature usage. We configure these services to minimise the collection of personal information where reasonably practicable.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. You will be notified of significant changes via the app or by email. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

For privacy enquiries or complaints:

privacy@doctrail.com.au

Australia