Busly connects you with bus operators. To do that we have to handle a bit of your information — but only what the job actually needs. This page tells you what that is. We follow the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs); the formal stuff is here, just written so you can actually read it.
What we collect
- Who you are: your name, email, phone number, and (if you give one) your organisation.
- Your trip: pickup and destination addresses, dates, times, how many people, and any notes you add (e.g. accessibility needs).
- Your location — only if you use the voice feature and tap “allow”. We use it once, to match the places you mention to the right spot near you. We don’t track you or store a location history.
- What you say — if you use “describe your trip out loud”, your speech is turned into text so we can fill the form. More on where that goes below.
Why we collect it
One reason: to get you quotes. We use your trip details to find suitable operators, pass them what they need to quote, show you the responses, and (if you book) help confirm it. We use your contact details to send you your quotes and updates. That’s it — we don’t build advertising profiles or sell your data. Ever.
Who we share it with
To run Busly we rely on a few trusted services. Here’s every one that touches your data, and why:
- The bus operators we invite to quote on your trip. They see your trip details (pickup, destination, dates, passenger numbers, notes) so they can price it. They don’t get your email or phone unless you book.
- Cloudflare — hosts the app and stores our data. Servers may be outside Australia.
- Resend — sends our emails (your quotes, sign-in links, confirmations). Based in the US.
- Mapbox — turns addresses into map locations and works out travel times. Receives the addresses you enter and, if you use voice, your approximate location. Based in the US.
- Anthropic — powers the voice feature. If you use the mic, your spoken description (as text) is sent to Anthropic’s Claude to pull out the trip details. Based in the US.
Because some of these are overseas (APP 8), your information may be handled outside Australia. We pick reputable providers with their own privacy commitments, and we only send them what each one needs to do its job. If you’d rather not use the voice or location features, you don’t have to — typing works exactly the same.
How long we keep it
We keep your account and trip information for as long as you have an account, plus a reasonable period after, so we have a record of bookings. Sign-in links expire fast (they’re single-use). You can ask us to delete your account and data at any time — see below.
Keeping it safe
We take reasonable steps to protect your information (APP 11): data is held on managed infrastructure, access is restricted, and sign-in is passwordless (no password for anyone to steal). No system is perfectly secure, but if something ever goes wrong in a way that could seriously affect you, we’ll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.
Your rights
You can, at any time:
- See or correct your details — edit them in your account, or email us (APP 12, 13).
- Delete your account — from your profile page, or ask us to do it.
- Ask what we hold about you, and why.
- Complain — to us first (we’d like the chance to fix it), and to the OAIC if you’re not happy with how we respond.
Kids
Busly is used by adults (schools, clubs, businesses) to arrange transport — including for students. We don’t knowingly collect information directly from children. If a trip involves students, the person booking is responsible for having the right to share the trip details with us.
Changes
If we change how we handle your data, we’ll update this page and the “last updated” date. Big changes, we’ll tell you directly.