01Who we are
Steady Chapter ("Steady Chapter", "we") is an Australian software service operating at steadychapter.com. We are based in Sydney, New South Wales.
We are not a law firm and we do not provide legal advice. We are not a clinical, counselling, or crisis service.
02What this covers
This policy applies to your use of the Steady Chapter marketing site, matter workspace, mailbox import, and AI companion. It is intended to align with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
03What we collect
Information you give us
- Account information: your name, email address, phone number (if you provide one), and a password.
- Matter context: the parties involved, the type of matter (separation, divorce, parenting, property, child support, family violence, de facto), what is in dispute, your goals and your red lines.
- Matter content: documents, letters, emails, court orders, financial records, photos, and any text you type into the platform.
- Drafts and revisions: the AI's reading of inbound correspondence, drafts of replies, your edits, and the version history of each draft.
- Mailbox connection information: the mailbox address, provider scopes, sync status, and an encrypted refresh token when you choose to connect Gmail or Outlook.
Information we collect automatically
- Technical: IP address, device type, browser, operating system, language, and timestamps of requests.
- Usage: broad page, screen, and feature-use events. These exclude matter content and are used only to understand whether the product is helping.
- Errors: stack traces and error context, scrubbed of matter content before they reach us.
Information from third parties
- Connected mailbox providers: correspondence and attachments returned by Gmail or Outlook within the access you approve.
04Why we collect it
We collect information for the purposes you would reasonably expect, and only those purposes:
- To run your matter workspace and let the AI read and draft against your case.
- To import correspondence from a Gmail or Outlook account you choose to connect.
- To keep the platform secure, prevent abuse, and meet our legal obligations.
- To improve the product. We never use the content of your matter to do this; we use aggregated, de-identified usage signals only.
- To contact you about your account, security or material changes to the service.
We do not sell personal information. Ever.
05Where it's stored
Live matter content is stored encrypted at rest in Sydney, Australia. Access to matter content is controlled at the database row level and tied to your authenticated session.
Steady Chapter keeps encrypted recovery backups of the database and uploaded files, separately from the live workspace. Access is limited to authorised operators. There is no backup browser or individual restore option in your account.
07AI processing
Steady sends only the matter context needed for the AI task you request to our AI processing service. AI requests may be processed outside Australia to provide availability and capacity.
Your matter content, questions and AI responses are not used to train AI models. Automated abuse monitoring may temporarily retain and review content flagged as potentially abusive. This means AI processing is not subject to zero data retention.
We do not log AI prompts or responses to any third-party analytics or observability service. If we need to debug a model interaction, we do so in our own database, with the same protections as the rest of your matter.
Limitations to be candid about: AI models can be wrong. They can misread a deadline, miscount a date, or hallucinate a citation. The 12-hour cooling-off exists because the AI is not a lawyer and is not a substitute for one.
08Analytics & cookies
We use the minimum necessary cookies to keep you logged in. Inside the authenticated product, we use a first-party anonymous identifier to count broad product screens and a fixed set of product actions. These analytics are sent only to Steady Chapter's own application endpoint, not to Google or another third-party analytics provider. We do not store IP addresses, user agents, account ids, matter ids, document ids, free text, or anything you typed in product analytics. Browser "Do Not Track" is respected before a product event is sent.
On the public Steady Chapter website only, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand broad public page navigation. Google Analytics is not loaded in the authenticated product. Google may receive online identifiers, browser and device information, a sanitized public page path, and limited public-site event names. We do not send matter content, names, email addresses, account ids, matter ids, document ids, mailbox addresses, searches, drafts, chats, or other text you enter.
Google signals and ads personalisation are disabled. We do not use Google Analytics for advertising, remarketing, or audience sharing.
09How long we keep it
- Matter content: for as long as your account is active. You can delete a matter or your whole account from settings; see Section 11.
- Account information: while your account is active. Your live profile and login are removed when account closure completes. Recovery copies may remain as described below.
- Backups: encrypted recovery copies can remain after deletion from the live service. Scheduled recovery copies expire after 30 days. Operator-held copies are retired manually and are not erased immediately when an account is closed. Infrastructure providers may also retain disaster-recovery copies under their own controls.
- Logs: application error counts are kept for 30 days. Server and security logs are kept for up to 90 days, scrubbed of matter content.
10Your rights
Under the Privacy Act and the APPs, you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct anything that is inaccurate.
- Request that we delete your information (subject to limited legal exceptions).
- Withdraw any consent you previously gave us.
- Make a complaint about how we have handled your information.
You can exercise most of these rights from the platform's settings page. For anything else, write to contact@steadychapter.com.
11Export & deletion
From settings, you can:
- Export your data as a ZIP downloaded directly from settings. It contains a readable matter brief, JSON data, and the original attachment and raw-mail files Steady still holds.
- Delete a matter or close your whole account. Closure removes your live matter data, files, mailbox tokens, profile, and login after a typed confirmation. Deletion is irreversible.
The deletion flow removes the records and files available to Steady Chapter from the live service. Encrypted operator backups and infrastructure-provider recovery copies may remain as described above.
12Security
- All traffic to the platform is over HTTPS with modern TLS.
- Matter content is encrypted at rest with AES-256.
- Access to matter content is enforced by row-level security tied to your authenticated session.
- Service-role keys are never exposed to the browser; matter access only happens through authenticated server actions.
- We do not have a "view as user" mode for staff. There is no internal admin path that reads your matter without your explicit consent.
- If you suspect your account has been compromised, write to contact@steadychapter.com. If we ever experience a notifiable data breach, we will notify affected users and the OAIC in the timeframes required by law.
13International transfers
Live matter content is stored in Australia. Encrypted recovery copies may be held outside Australia, with access limited to authorised operators. Our AI processing service may process requests outside Australia for the limited purpose of generating the response you requested. Limited flagged content may also be processed for abuse monitoring as described in Section 07.
Our bot protection service may process IP addresses and browser signals outside Australia when you use account access forms. It does not receive matter content.
If we ever change AI providers or regions, we will update this policy and notify existing users before the change takes effect.
14Children
The platform is for adults (eighteen and over). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has created an account or that a parenting matter contains a child's information that should not be on the platform, write to contact@steadychapter.com and we will investigate.
15Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that materially affects how we handle your information, we will email you and post a banner on the platform at least thirty days before the change takes effect. Minor wording changes (typo fixes, clarifications) we will publish without notice; the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent change.
16Contact & complaints
For privacy questions or to exercise any of the rights above, write to contact@steadychapter.com. We aim to respond within seven days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
For formal correspondence, contact us by email and we will provide the appropriate postal details.