Privacy Policy
The Nautical Nerds Inc.
The Nautical Nerds Inc. respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal information responsibly, transparently and securely.
This Privacy Policy explains how we may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information when you visit our website, use our AI chatbot Professor Shell, contact us, make a donation, subscribe to updates, participate in our activities or otherwise interact with our organisation.
1. Who we are
The Nautical Nerds Inc. is an Australian not-for-profit environmental organisation focused on the protection, restoration and long-term health of marine environments, including the Great Barrier Reef.
For privacy enquiries, requests or complaints, you can contact us at:
Email: contact@thethenauticalnerds.org
2. Our approach to Australian privacy law
The Nautical Nerds Inc. is committed to protecting personal information and complying with applicable Australian privacy laws.
Depending on an organisation’s size, activities and circumstances, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) may or may not apply to all of its activities.
Where the Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles apply to The Nautical Nerds Inc. or to a particular activity we undertake, we will handle personal information in accordance with those requirements.
Regardless of whether particular provisions of the Privacy Act apply, we aim to handle personal information responsibly and consistently with recognised privacy principles and good governance practices.
3. Information we may collect
The personal information we collect will depend on how you interact with us.
This may include:
- Your name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Postal or billing address
- Donation amount and donation history
- Information required to issue or maintain donation records and receipts
- Information provided when contacting us
- Information submitted through forms on our website
- Questions, messages or other information you choose to submit through Professor Shell
- Newsletter and communication preferences
- Information relating to volunteering
- Information relating to corporate partnerships, sponsorships or other partnerships
- Information relating to events, activities or campaigns
- Information relating to media or other enquiries
- Technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type and general website usage information
- Technical or usage information associated with use of website features, including Professor Shell
- Any other information you choose to provide to us
We aim to collect only information that is reasonably necessary for our activities, administration and legal obligations.
We ask that you avoid providing sensitive personal information unless it is reasonably necessary for the purpose of your interaction with us.
In particular, please do not provide passwords, banking login credentials, payment-card details, health information or other sensitive or confidential personal information through Professor Shell.
4. How we collect information
We may collect personal information:
- Directly from you when you contact us
- Through forms on our website
- Through information or questions you submit to Professor Shell
- When you subscribe to news or updates
- When you communicate with us by email
- When you participate in one of our activities, events or programs
- In connection with a donation
- Through third-party services that we use to operate our organisation, website or AI features
- Automatically through website technologies such as cookies, analytics tools, security systems and server logs
Where reasonably practicable, we will collect personal information directly from you.
You may browse general areas of our website without identifying yourself. However, there may be situations where we need identifying information in order to respond to you, administer a donation, issue a receipt or provide a particular service.
5. Donations
Online donations through GiveNow
Standard online donations to The Nautical Nerds Inc. are processed through GiveNow, an external Australian donation platform.
When you choose to make an online donation, you may be directed to GiveNow to complete the donation.
GiveNow may collect personal and payment information required to process the donation, administer the transaction and provide relevant records or receipts.
Information you provide directly to GiveNow is handled in accordance with GiveNow’s own privacy policy, terms and security practices.
The Nautical Nerds Inc. does not collect or store complete credit or debit card details through our website.
We may receive information relating to donations made to our organisation through GiveNow. Depending on the information provided by the donor and made available through the service, this may include information such as donor name, contact details, donation amount, donation date, donation frequency and information required for donation records or receipts.
GiveNow may use third-party service providers in Australia and overseas. Donors should refer to GiveNow’s Privacy Policy for current information about its information-handling, storage and security practices.
Larger donations and bank transfers
People wishing to make a larger donation may contact The Nautical Nerds Inc. directly before making their donation.
Where appropriate, we may arrange for the donation to be made directly by bank transfer.
In these circumstances, we may collect your name, contact details, donation amount, date of donation, transaction or payment reference, information reasonably required for financial records and information required to issue a donation receipt.
We will never ask you to provide your online banking password, PIN, security code or other banking login credentials.
Bank account details used to facilitate larger donations may be provided directly to prospective donors rather than being publicly displayed on our website.
Donations & Refunds
For information about tax deductibility, recurring donations, donation receipts and refund requests, please see our Donations & Refunds Policy.
6. How we use personal information
We may use personal information to:
- Respond to enquiries and requests
- Administer and record donations
- Issue donation receipts or other relevant documentation
- Communicate with donors and supporters
- Provide information about our organisation, projects and activities
- Generate responses to questions submitted through Professor Shell
- Operate, maintain, improve and secure Professor Shell and other website functionality
- Manage volunteers and expressions of interest
- Manage partnerships, sponsorships and other organisational relationships
- Administer fundraising activities, campaigns and events
- Maintain financial, operational and governance records
- Send newsletters or updates where appropriate
- Improve our website and services
- Understand how people use our website
- Maintain the security and integrity of our website and information systems
- Prevent or respond to fraudulent, unlawful or inappropriate activity
- Meet legal, taxation, financial, regulatory and reporting obligations
We do not sell or rent personal information to advertisers, marketing companies or other third parties.
7. Professor Shell and Artificial Intelligence
Our website includes an interactive artificial-intelligence chatbot known as Professor Shell.
Professor Shell uses artificial intelligence to generate responses to questions submitted by website users. When you communicate with Professor Shell, you are interacting with an automated AI system rather than a human representative of The Nautical Nerds Inc.
Information entered into the chatbot is processed for the purpose of understanding your question and generating a response.
Depending on the technical systems and service providers used to operate Professor Shell, questions, messages and associated technical information may be transmitted to or processed by third-party technology, hosting or artificial-intelligence service providers.
These providers may process information on our behalf or as otherwise described in their applicable contractual, security and privacy arrangements.
We aim to minimise the personal information required to operate Professor Shell and do not intend the chatbot to be used for collecting sensitive personal information.
Please do not enter information such as:
- Passwords or security credentials
- Credit or debit card details
- Bank account login details
- Health or medical information
- Government identification numbers
- Highly sensitive or confidential personal information
- Confidential information belonging to another person or organisation
Professor Shell is intended primarily to provide general information about The Nautical Nerds Inc., marine environments, restoration, conservation, marine science and related educational topics.
The Nautical Nerds Inc. does not use Professor Shell to make decisions about individuals that have legal or similarly significant effects, and the chatbot should not be used for donations, payment processing or emergency communications.
Artificial-intelligence systems may generate inaccurate, incomplete or outdated information. Users should not assume that information generated by Professor Shell is necessarily correct simply because it is presented confidently.
Further information about limitations on AI-generated responses is contained in our Website Disclaimer.
8. Information generated by artificial intelligence
In some circumstances, an AI system may generate, infer or repeat information about an identifiable individual as part of a response.
Where such information constitutes personal information and applicable privacy laws apply, we will seek to handle that information consistently with our privacy obligations.
Professor Shell is not intended to create profiles about individual website users, determine eligibility for services, assess people or make automated decisions about them.
If you believe Professor Shell has generated inaccurate or inappropriate personal information about you, please contact us at:
Email: contact@thethenauticalnerds.org
9. Email communications and newsletters
People may have the opportunity to subscribe to newsletters, project updates, fundraising information or other communications from The Nautical Nerds Inc.
As a matter of practice, we aim to send promotional newsletters and updates to people who have asked to receive them or where contacting them is otherwise permitted by law.
Where we provide an online newsletter or marketing sign-up option, we intend to make the choice to subscribe clear rather than requiring a person to subscribe simply because they have made a donation or contacted us.
Our communications will identify The Nautical Nerds Inc. as the sender and provide an appropriate method for recipients to unsubscribe from promotional communications.
You may unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe option contained in a communication, where available, or by contacting:
Email: contact@thethenauticalnerds.org
We will action unsubscribe requests as promptly as reasonably practicable.
Unsubscribing from promotional communications will not prevent us from contacting you where reasonably necessary about a donation, enquiry, transaction, legal matter or other communication you have requested.
10. Cookies, website analytics and technical information
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to help the website operate correctly, maintain security, improve functionality and understand how visitors use the site.
These technologies may collect information including IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, pages visited, approximate location derived from technical information, time spent on the website, referring website and general website interaction information.
Technical information may also be processed when you interact with Professor Shell or other website functionality in order to operate, secure and troubleshoot those services.
We may use third-party website analytics, security, performance or related services.
You can usually control or disable cookies through your browser settings. However, disabling certain cookies may affect the operation or functionality of parts of our website.
As the services and technologies used on our website change over time, we may update this Privacy Policy to reflect those changes.
11. Website forms and enquiries
If you submit a contact form, volunteer enquiry, partnership enquiry or another form through our website, we may collect the information you choose to provide.
We may use that information to respond to your request, contact you about the matter you raised, provide information you requested, assess an expression of interest, manage our relationship with you or take other action reasonably related to your enquiry.
Please avoid including sensitive or unnecessary personal information in general website forms or emails.
Professor Shell should not be used as a replacement for our contact forms or email address where you need to provide personal, confidential or sensitive information or require a response from a human representative of The Nautical Nerds Inc.
12. Children and young people
Our website contains educational and environmental information that may be of interest to children and young people.
We do not knowingly seek to collect unnecessary personal information from children.
Professor Shell may also be accessible to younger visitors. Children and young people should avoid providing personal or sensitive information through the chatbot. We encourage parent, guardian or educator involvement where appropriate.
Where a child or young person provides personal information through our website or seeks to participate in an activity that requires personal information, we will take additional care and seek to collect only information reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.
13. Embedded content and external websites
Our website may contain or display content provided by third parties.
This may include videos, images, maps, social-media content, news articles, scientific or educational material, donation services and other embedded content.
Embedded content may operate in a similar way to visiting the third-party website directly.
Those third parties may collect information, use cookies or otherwise record interactions with their content in accordance with their own privacy practices.
Our website may also contain links to external websites, including GiveNow and websites operated by government agencies, research organisations, media organisations, environmental organisations and other third parties.
The Nautical Nerds Inc. is not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of external websites.
We encourage users to review the privacy policies of third-party services they choose to use.
14. Third-party service providers
We may use trusted third-party organisations and service providers to assist us in operating our organisation and website.
These may include providers involved in:
- Donation administration, including GiveNow
- Artificial-intelligence and chatbot services
- Website hosting
- Website maintenance
- Website security
- Email services
- Newsletter distribution
- Cloud storage
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Financial administration
- Website analytics
- Information technology
- Data backup
- Professional and administrative services
We may provide or make information available to these providers where reasonably necessary for them to provide services to us.
Where Professor Shell is used, information entered into the chatbot may be processed through third-party AI or technology systems for purposes associated with generating responses and operating, maintaining or securing the service.
We seek to use reputable providers and take reasonable steps appropriate to our circumstances to protect personal information entrusted to third parties.
We may also disclose personal information where required or authorised by law.
15. Overseas storage and processing
Some third-party services used in connection with our website, organisation or Professor Shell may process, store or have access to information outside Australia.
This may include technology, cloud-hosting, artificial-intelligence, communications or other service providers with infrastructure or personnel located overseas.
The countries involved will depend on the service providers and infrastructure being used at the relevant time.
Where the Privacy Act or Australian Privacy Principles require us to identify likely overseas disclosures, we will take reasonable steps to determine and disclose the countries or regions involved where it is practicable to do so.
We will also take reasonable steps appropriate to the circumstances when selecting service providers that may handle personal information outside Australia.
Because third-party technology providers may change their infrastructure and service locations from time to time, this Privacy Policy may be updated as our systems and providers change.
16. Storage and security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, unauthorised modification and unauthorised disclosure.
Depending on the information involved, these measures may include administrative, physical and technical safeguards.
Where third-party systems are used to provide website or AI functionality, the security measures and infrastructure of those providers may also be relevant to how information is protected.
However, no method of transmitting information over the internet or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
We encourage users to take reasonable precautions when providing information online and to avoid submitting sensitive or confidential information through Professor Shell.
17. Data retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet applicable legal, taxation, financial, regulatory, governance and record-keeping obligations.
Certain financial, donation and operational records may need to be retained for seven years or longer where required by applicable law or regulatory requirements.
Information processed through third-party website or AI services may also be subject to the retention arrangements of those providers and the technical configuration of the relevant service.
We aim to minimise unnecessary retention of information submitted through Professor Shell and do not encourage users to use the chatbot to provide information that needs to form part of an official organisational record.
Other personal information will generally be deleted, destroyed or de-identified when it is no longer reasonably required, provided we are not legally required or otherwise permitted to retain it.
Different categories of information may be subject to different retention periods.
18. Data breaches
If we become aware of a data breach involving personal information, we will take reasonable steps appropriate to the circumstances to contain the incident, assess what information may have been affected, investigate the cause, reduce the risk of further harm, take reasonable remedial action and review relevant security practices where appropriate.
Where The Nautical Nerds Inc. is subject to the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme or another legal notification requirement and the relevant criteria are met, we will notify affected individuals and the appropriate authorities as required by law.
19. Accessing or correcting your personal information
You may contact us if you would like to request access to personal information we hold about you.
You may also ask us to correct information you believe is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading.
We will consider requests and take reasonable steps appropriate to the circumstances.
We may need to verify your identity before providing access to personal information or making certain changes.
If you believe Professor Shell has generated or displayed inaccurate personal information about you, you may also contact us so that we can consider the matter.
To request access or correction, contact:
Email: contact@thethenauticalnerds.org
20. Privacy enquiries and complaints
If you have a question, concern or complaint about how The Nautical Nerds Inc. has collected, used, stored, processed, disclosed or otherwise handled your personal information, including in connection with Professor Shell, please contact us.
The Nautical Nerds Inc.
Email: contact@thethenauticalnerds.org
Please provide enough information for us to understand and investigate your concern.
We will aim to acknowledge and respond to privacy complaints within a reasonable period.
If you are not satisfied with our response and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to the matter, you may be entitled to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for further information or to make a complaint.
21. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may review and update this Privacy Policy from time to time.
Changes may be made to reflect developments in our organisation and activities, our website, Professor Shell or other AI functionality, donation arrangements, technology and service providers, information-security practices, applicable laws and regulatory requirements.
The current version of this Privacy Policy will be made available on our website.
We encourage visitors to review this page periodically if they would like to remain informed about how we handle personal information.
Last updated: 10 September 2026