In short: We collect the personal information we need to install, maintain and repair lifts, to keep our people safe on site, and to run our business. We do not sell it. Most of it is stored in Australia. Some of it is handled by service providers overseas, and this policy says who they are. You can ask to see or correct what we hold about you, and you can complain to us or to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
About this policy
This policy explains how We Elevate ("we", "us", "our") handles personal information. It covers our website, the We Elevate management system (the "panel"), our field app Cobber, and the work we do for customers on site.
We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Where a law in Victoria or Tasmania gives you more protection, we follow that too.
Using Cobber? The sections most about you are "Lone worker safety and location", "Artificial intelligence" and "The Cobber app".
Our contact details are at the end of this policy.
Whose information we handle
- Customers and their representatives: building owners, owners corporations and strata managers, facility and building managers, and their staff.
- Site contacts: keyholders, concierges and anybody who reports a fault or lets us into a building.
- Members of the public: for example, a passenger who was in a lift when it stopped, or a witness to an incident.
- Suppliers and subcontractors, and their staff.
- Our employees and contractors, including technicians who use Cobber.
- Job applicants.
- Visitors to our website and to the pages we send customers, such as a quote or an agreement to sign.
What we collect
Customers, site contacts and the public
- Names, job titles, the organisation you work for, phone numbers, email addresses and postal addresses.
- Site details, including how to get in. This can include access instructions, key or key-safe codes, alarm details and keyholder contacts.
- What was reported about a fault, including, where it happened, whether anyone was trapped and how to reach them.
- Quotes, agreements, invoices, payments and correspondence with you.
- Signatures, when you sign an agreement, accept a quote or sign off a job.
- Photographs of equipment, lift cars, lift shafts and machine rooms. We take these to record the work. We try not to photograph people, but someone may sometimes appear in the background.
Our employees and contractors
- Identity and contact details, emergency contact (next of kin), licences and qualifications.
- Work records: jobs attended, travel, arrival and departure times, timesheets, leave, allowances claimed and receipts, safety checks, notes and photographs.
- Pay information, which is processed in our payroll system. This includes bank and superannuation details and tax file numbers, which are handled under the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015.
- Location, at two moments only: when a technician raises an SOS alarm, and when an on-site safety check-in is missed. See "Lone worker safety" below.
- Information about the phone and app version you sign in from. We use it to keep your account secure and to sign a lost phone out.
Sensitive information
We collect sensitive information only when it is reasonably necessary and you consent, or when the law allows it without consent. Health information is the main example. If someone is injured, trapped or unwell on a site, we record what is needed to respond and to meet our work health and safety obligations.
Website and system use
When you use the panel or a page we send you, we record technical information such as your IP address, browser, and the time and pages of your visit. We use this for security and to fix problems. We use only the cookies the system needs to work, such as the one that keeps you signed in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.
How we collect it
- From you: when you call, email, fill in a form, accept a quote, sign an agreement or use our systems.
- From others: a building manager, owners corporation or agent may give us the details of site contacts and keyholders. A colleague may report a fault on your behalf. A recruiter may refer an applicant. If we collect your information from someone else, we take reasonable steps to make sure you know.
- From our own work: a technician records times, notes and photographs on Cobber while on site.
Why we collect and use it
- To quote, carry out, record and invoice lift installation, maintenance, repair and modernisation work.
- To respond to breakdowns and to people trapped in lifts.
- To keep people safe on site and to meet our duties under work health and safety laws.
- To employ and pay our people, to manage rosters, leave and timesheets, and to keep the employee records the Fair Work Act 2009 requires.
- To meet our legal, tax, insurance and regulatory obligations, and to deal with complaints, disputes and claims.
- To run, secure and improve our systems.
We use your information only for the purpose we collected it for, a related purpose you would reasonably expect, or where the law allows. If you do not give us information we ask for, we may not be able to do the work, reach the site or pay you.
Lone worker safety and location
Our technicians often work alone in plant rooms, lift shafts and basements. Cobber has two safety features.
- Safety check-in. When a technician arrives on site, Cobber asks them to confirm every hour that they are OK. If they do not answer in time, an alert is sent to their branch.
- SOS. A technician can slide to raise an emergency alarm.
When an alarm is raised, Cobber sends the phone's location at that moment with the alert. The alert goes to staff at the technician's branch and to the nearest technicians, so that someone can reach them. Cobber does not track a technician's location in the background or while they travel. The app asks for location permission "while using the app" only.
The alert names the technician's emergency contact so the office can find the number quickly. The system never contacts that person automatically. A person decides whether to call.
Artificial intelligence
Some features use a third-party AI service. At the time this policy was written, that service is Anthropic (Claude), based in the United States.
- "Tidy with AI" in Cobber. If a technician taps it, the draft job note is sent to Anthropic, which suggests a clearer wording. The technician decides whether to use the suggestion. Nothing is saved until they do.
- Reading supplier bills. The panel can send a supplier's bill to Anthropic so the office does not have to type it in.
- Daily quiz questions for our staff are written with AI help. No personal information is used for this.
Anthropic processes this information on our behalf. Under its commercial terms, it does not use the information to train its models.
We do not use AI to make decisions about you. Some things are calculated automatically, such as how a timesheet's hours are classified for pay. A manager reviews and approves every timesheet before it is paid. If a computer program helps make a decision that significantly affects you, you can ask us how it works and ask for a person to review it.
Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information. We share it only as described here:
- Our customers: a building owner or manager receives the job dockets, reports and photographs for work on their building. These name the technician who attended.
- Service providers who run our systems for us:
- cloud hosting and file storage (Amazon Web Services)
- email delivery (Resend)
- accounting and payroll (Xero)
- address lookup (Google Maps)
- notifications to phones (Apple and Google)
- document storage (Microsoft SharePoint)
- the AI services described above (Anthropic)
- Emergency services, when someone's life, health or safety is at risk.
- Regulators and authorities, such as WorkSafe Victoria, WorkSafe Tasmania, the Australian Taxation Office and Fair Work, when the law requires or allows it.
- Our insurers, lawyers, auditors and other professional advisers.
- A buyer of all or part of our business, under a confidentiality agreement.
Information sent overseas
Our main database and files are stored in Australia, in Sydney. Some service providers store or process information outside Australia, mainly in the United States. They include Anthropic, Resend, Google and Apple. Xero may store information in the United States and other countries where it or its providers operate.
We choose providers with strong security and contracts that limit how they use your information. We take reasonable steps to make sure they handle it in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
How we keep it secure
- Information is encrypted when it travels between your device and our systems.
- On a technician's phone, information waiting to be sent and the stored job list are encrypted. Signing out removes the previous user's information from the phone.
- Staff see only the information they need for their role and branch. Two-factor sign-in is available, and we can sign a lost phone out.
- Face ID and fingerprint unlock are handled entirely by your phone. We never receive your biometric information.
No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it for the purposes above or as the law requires:
- Job, maintenance and safety records: usually seven years, and longer where they relate to the safety history of equipment that is still in service.
- Financial and tax records: seven years.
- Employee records: seven years, as the Fair Work Regulations 2009 require.
After that, we destroy the information or remove anything that identifies you.
Your choices and your rights
See or correct your information
You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. We will reply within 30 days. Making a request is free. If we refuse, we will tell you why and how to complain, unless the law says we cannot.
Anonymity
You can deal with us without giving your name, or under a pseudonym, where that is practical. For example, you can ask a general question. We usually cannot quote, do work or employ you anonymously.
Marketing
We may occasionally send customers information about our services. Every message has a way to unsubscribe, and you can also ask us at any time.
Deleting your Cobber account
Cobber accounts are created by We Elevate for our employees and contractors. There is no public sign-up. To close your account, contact us using the details below, or ask your manager. Some records, such as timesheets, pay records and job records, must be kept after your account is closed for the periods set out above.
The Cobber app
Cobber asks for these permissions at the moment it needs them, never all at once on first launch:
- Camera and photos: to attach photographs to a job, a quote or a claim.
- Location: only when an SOS is raised or a check-in is missed (see above).
- Notifications: for new jobs, messages from the office and safety check-ins.
- Face ID or fingerprint: to unlock the app.
You can turn any of these off in your phone's settings. Some features will then stop working. For example, without location, an SOS alert cannot say where you are. Cobber has no advertising and no analytics or tracking tools.
Children
Our services and systems are not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. The exception is a child caught up in an incident, such as a child trapped in a lift. We record only what is needed to respond.
Complaints
If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:
- website: www.oaic.gov.au
- phone: 1300 363 992
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when the way we handle personal information changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. The current version is always at this address.