Last updated: September 2026
Natural Dogs Australia is a small Australian website written by Louisa O’Neill on the Gold Coast, Queensland. This page explains what personal information the site collects, why, and what you can do about it. It is written in plain English on purpose.
The short version
- You can read every article on this site without giving us anything.
- If you join the email list, we keep your email address and the region you choose, and we use them to send you emails about your region. Nothing else.
- We never sell your information, and we never hand it to anyone for their own marketing.
- You can leave the list at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email, and we will delete your details if you ask.
- We use Google Analytics to count visits. You can opt out of it.
- Some links on this site earn us a commission. That is disclosed at the top of any page where it applies, and it costs you nothing.
Who is responsible for this site
Natural Dogs Australia is operated by Louisa O’Neill, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. If you want to contact us about anything on this page, email info@naturaldogsaustralia.com.au.
We are a small business. Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less are generally exempt from the Act. We do not rely on that exemption as an excuse. We handle your information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles as a matter of practice, and this policy describes what we actually do.
What we collect
If you join the email list
We collect your email address and the Australian region you select. We do not ask for your name, your address, your phone number, or anything about your dog, and you should not send those to us through the signup form.
We use this only to send you the emails you asked for — seasonal alerts for your region, new articles, and occasional recommendations. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately. This is how the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) requires us to operate, and we would do it anyway.
If you just read the site
Our web host records standard server information — IP address, browser type, the pages requested and when. This is ordinary web server logging, used to keep the site running and secure.
We also use Google Analytics to understand which articles people find useful and which parts of Australia readers are in. It tells us things like “eighty people from Queensland read the tick season article this week”. It does not tell us who you are.
If you email us
We keep your email so we can reply. Please do not send us your dog’s medical history, test results or photographs of a sick animal. Louisa is not a veterinarian and cannot tell you what is wrong with your dog or what to give it — in Queensland, doing so would be an act of veterinary science. We would rather not hold information we cannot act on, so anything of that kind will be deleted.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. This site uses them in three ways:
- Analytics. Google Analytics sets cookies to tell repeat visits from new ones.
- Performance. Our caching system may set a cookie so pages load faster.
- Affiliate tracking. If you click a link to a retailer or insurer, that company may set a cookie so they know the visit came from us. This is how the commission is credited.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site will still work. To opt out of Google Analytics specifically, Google offers a browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Affiliate links and commissions
Some pages on this site contain affiliate links. If you buy a product or take out a policy after clicking one, we may receive a commission from that company. It does not change the price you pay.
Where a page contains affiliate links, we say so in plain words at the top of that page, before you read the recommendation. We do not accept payment to recommend a product, and a commission never changes what we say about whether something works.
Who else handles your information
We use a small number of outside services to run the site. Each one only receives what it needs.
- Brevo — our email provider. It stores the email list and sends the emails. Brevo is based in France, so your email address is stored outside Australia.
- Google — Analytics and Search Console. Data is processed on Google servers, including in the United States.
- Our web host — stores the website itself and its server logs.
Because two of those are overseas, your information may be stored or processed outside Australia, and the privacy laws of those countries are not the same as ours. We chose established providers with published privacy commitments, but you should know that this is the case before you join the list.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share your email address with advertisers, product companies or anyone else for their own marketing.
How long we keep it
- Email list: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete you. If you unsubscribe, we keep a record that you unsubscribed so that we do not accidentally email you again.
- Emails you send us: as long as we need them to deal with what you wrote about, then deleted.
- Server logs and analytics: according to the retention settings of the host and of Google, typically a matter of months.
Comments
Comments are switched off across this site, so we collect nothing through them. This is deliberate: a comment thread on a dog health article turns into people describing sick animals and asking what to do, and we are not able to answer that.
Children
This site is written for adults who own dogs. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has given us their details, email us and we will delete them.
Security
The site runs over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), access to the email list is protected by strong passwords and two-factor authentication where the provider offers it, and we keep the software up to date. No website can promise perfect security, which is one more reason we deliberately collect as little as possible.
Seeing, correcting or deleting your information
You can ask us at any time to tell you what we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Email info@naturaldogsaustralia.com.au and we will respond within a reasonable time, normally well inside 30 days. There is no charge.
If you only want the emails to stop, the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email is faster.
If you are not happy with how we handled it
Email us first — most things are a misunderstanding and can be fixed the same day. If you are still not satisfied, you can raise it with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle information — a new email provider, a new analytics tool — we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant and you are on the email list, we will tell you by email rather than quietly editing the page.