Privacy Policy
This page describes what personal information Online Pokies collects from visitors, why each item is collected, how long it's kept, who can read it and what rights you have over it. The technical detail of cookies and analytics sits separately on the Cookie Policy page; this privacy policy is the higher-level document about data and rights, while the cookie policy is the lower-level inventory of every storage mechanism on the site.
What this site is, again
Online Pokies is an independent reference resource publishing reviews and guides about online pokies and the casino brands open to Australian players. The site runs no player accounts, takes no deposits, holds no balances and facilitates no gambling activity on this domain. What that means for privacy (the wider description of the site is on the About page): this site never asks for and never holds account credentials, banking details, payment instruments, photo ID documents or proof-of-address documents. Those items are handled by individual operators if you choose to register on their platforms; the operator's own privacy policy governs them, not this one.
What data this site actually collects
Online Pokies collects three categories of data: anonymous traffic measurement, voluntary contact information when you reach out to us, and a minimal set of preferences stored in your browser. Each is described in full below.
Anonymous traffic measurement
Every page visit is logged in aggregate by a privacy-respecting analytics provider (Plausible Analytics, or a self-hosted Umami instance — the deployment varies). The data points logged per visit are: the URL of the page visited, the URL of the referring page (if any), the screen-size category (mobile / tablet / desktop), the browser language preference, the country derived from the IP address at request time, and the timestamp. The IP address itself is not stored. No persistent cross-site identifier is set; no advertising profile is built; no data is sold or shared with third parties.
Aggregate analytics let us see which guides are read most, which inbound search terms send the most readers to which pages, and which outbound links are clicked. That information is used to improve the site — to spot guides that aren't reaching people, to catch broken navigation patterns, to prioritise updates on high-traffic pages — and for nothing else.
Voluntary contact information
If you contact us via the contact form, the email channel listed on the Contact page, or the comment functionality on individual reviews (where it's open), the data you provide is collected and held for the purpose of replying to you. The fields involved are: your name (or chosen handle), an email address for the reply, the message body itself, and any attachments you include. We keep those records for as long as the conversation is active plus two years afterward, for reference if the same query returns from the same address. After that, the record is deleted.
We don't pass contact submissions to operators. We don't sell or trade them to third-party marketing lists. We don't use them to send unsolicited follow-ups; any reply from us is a direct response to your message.
Browser preferences
Three preference items are stored locally in your browser: your cookie-banner choice, your theme preference (dark/light mode), and an accessibility font-size override if you've set one. None of these leave your device; none are visible to us in aggregate; clearing your browser's site storage removes them. The exhaustive list is on the Cookie Policy page.
What this site does not collect
For clarity, the absence of items matters as much as the presence. Online Pokies does not collect: account passwords (none exist on this site), payment-card details, bank account or PayID identifiers, photo ID documents, proof-of-address documents, dates of birth (beyond the 18+ confirmation in the cookie banner), location data more granular than country, contact lists, device fingerprints, biometric data, or behavioural-advertising profiles. If you come across a third-party site claiming to "log into Online Pokies" or asking for credentials supposedly to verify your account, it isn't us. This site has no accounts to log into.
Where the data sits
Aggregate analytics data is stored on infrastructure run by our analytics provider, in a data centre in the European Union. Contact-form submissions are stored on the same infrastructure as the rest of this site, hosted in a data centre in Australia. Backups are encrypted at rest and held for 30 days before rolling expiration. Access to either dataset is limited to named members of the editorial and technical team; access is logged and reviewed quarterly.
Your rights over the data
Under Australian privacy law (the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles), and under equivalent regimes that may apply to overseas readers (the GDPR for EU/UK readers, for instance), you hold a defined set of rights over the personal data we keep about you. The relevant ones here are:
- Access. You can ask what personal data we hold about you. We respond within 30 calendar days with the list and copies of the underlying records.
- Correction. If any data we hold is wrong, you can ask us to fix it. We act within 30 calendar days and confirm in writing.
- Deletion. You can ask us to delete the data we hold about you. We act within 30 calendar days unless an overriding legal reason requires retention (we're aware of none currently applying to this site's data).
- Objection to analytics. You can opt out of aggregate analytics at any time using the cookie banner. The cookie policy explains how.
- Complaint. If you believe we've mishandled your personal data, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au. The OAIC can investigate and, where appropriate, issue determinations.
To exercise any of these rights, use the Contact page and describe what you're asking for. We require no special form, and we charge no fee.
Children
Online Pokies is intended exclusively for adult Australian audiences (harm-minimisation guidance sits on the Responsible Gambling page) (18+). We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has interacted with this site and provided data, contact us via the contact page and the data will be deleted promptly.
Third-party links
Outbound links from this site to operator sites are governed by those operators' privacy policies once you arrive there. Online Pokies can't read, control or delete data held by an operator on your behalf; that request has to go to the operator directly. Where an outbound link is affiliated (as described in the Affiliate Disclosure), the operator will be told by the affiliate-tracking mechanism that the click came from us, but the operator receives no personal data about you from us — no name, no email, no IP address. They learn only that "a click arrived from referring URL X".
Changes to this policy
When this privacy policy changes in any substantive way, the "Last updated" date at the top is moved forward and the change is summarised in the change log at the bottom of the page (added on the first material change after publication). If the change affects what's required for consent under Australian law, the cookie banner resurfaces for all visitors regardless of their previous choice. Trivial wording fixes (handled per the Editorial Policy) trigger none of those.
Questions about this policy that aren't covered above belong on the Contact page. Read the contact page first — it lists the different categories of question and the right person to route each to.