Privacy Policy
Effective date: 1 November 2026
Find a Dentist (findadentist.com.au) is a trading name of JR Marketing Group Pty Ltd (ABN 90 606 960 721). Some listed practices are clients of JR Marketing Group. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean JR Marketing Group Pty Ltd (ABN 90 606 960 721), trading as Find a Dentist.
Privacy contact: hello@findadentist.com.au
We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This policy explains what we collect, how and why we collect it, who we share it with (including overseas), how you can see or correct it, and how to complain.
In short
• Please don't type your name, phone number, email address or other personal details into the search box. You don't need to. We try to remove obvious personal details automatically, but automated removal can miss things.
• Our search is a search tool, not medical advice, and it can be wrong. In an emergency call 000.
• Our search log doesn't store your IP address, cookies, name, email or phone number.
• We don't pass your search or personal details to dental practices.
1. Who we are and what this site does
Find a Dentist helps people in Australia find a dental practice that suits what they're looking for. Practices can be listed, and some choose a paid Premium listing. We are not a dental practice or health service provider. We don't give dental or medical advice or diagnose anything.
JR Marketing Group, which operates Find a Dentist, also provides marketing services to some of the practices listed here. Section 10 explains how this relates to search results.
2. What we collect and how
| Type | What it includes | How and when |
|---|---|---|
| Search information | What you type in the search box, such as a suburb, "toothache" or "nervous patient" | When you search. Our server removes obvious personal details first (section 4). |
| Search summary | A short summary of what you were looking for, such as location, type of care and urgency | Created from your search and kept in our search log (section 5) |
| Session ID | A random ID created for the browser tab you are using. It is kept in your browser's session storage, not in a cookie, and is cleared when you close the tab. | Used only to group searches in our search log. It isn't linked to your name or contact details. |
| Waitlist details | Your email address, suburb and consent | Only if you join our waitlist, which we offer when we don't yet cover your area |
| Practice details | Practice and practitioner names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, business email addresses, opening hours, services and payment options | From the practice, from the practice's website and other public sources, and when a practice registers or contacts us (section 7) |
| Practice registration form | Practice name, your name, email, phone, suburb, the option you are interested in, your message and your consent | When you use the form on our page for dental practices |
| Investor enquiries | Name, company, email, phone, investor type, investment range, message and consent | When you use our investor form |
| Emails | Emails you send us and our replies | When you email us |
| Technical information | Your IP address, browser type and request details | Received automatically by our hosting provider to deliver and protect the site. We also use a scrambled, short-lived code made from your IP address to limit abuse (section 5). |
Health information. We don't ask for health information, and you don't need to give any for the search to work. Some words you type can reveal health information, such as "dental anxiety" or "pregnant". If you include them, we use them only to understand your search, as described in this policy. We don't use them for advertising or profiling, we don't sell them, and we don't give them to practices.
Cookies and analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, such as which pages are visited and roughly where visitors are (city or region level). It sets cookies in your browser and receives your IP address, device and browser details, and the pages you view. We've set it up so it doesn't receive your name, contact details or what you type into the search, and we've turned off Google's advertising features (Google signals and ad personalisation). We don't use advertising trackers. You can block analytics cookies in your browser settings or with Google's opt-out add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). Our fonts are hosted on our own website.
3. Why we collect and use information
- to understand your search and show matching practices, with a short explanation of why each one matches;
- to improve search quality and fix faults, using our search log;
- to reply to messages, and to run the waitlist, practice registration and investor forms (including automatic replies and a notice to us);
- to list and manage practice listings and Premium listings;
- to contact dental practices about listing on Find a Dentist (section 8);
- to keep the site secure, limit abuse and meet our legal obligations.
4. How search works
- Emergencies first. If your search sounds like an emergency, we show an emergency notice and our own rules handle the search. Your search isn't sent to the AI service.
- Personal details removed. Our server removes obvious personal details from your search text, such as email addresses, web addresses, dates, street addresses, names introduced with "my name is", phone numbers and long numbers such as Medicare numbers. Four-digit postcodes are kept.
- AI-assisted search. When AI-assisted search is switched on, we send the cleaned text to an AI service provided by OpenAI. With it, we send a list of candidate practices identified only by anonymous codes, together with their stored details (such as suburb, services, hours and languages). We don't send practice names or contact details, and we don't send your IP address or device details. The AI service works out what you are looking for and how well each candidate fits. When AI-assisted search is off or unavailable, our own servers use keyword matching instead.
- Our software decides the order. Our own software, not the AI service, chooses and orders the practices using fixed rules. See How results are ranked.
- Explanations. The "Why we recommend" sentence is written by our software from the practice's stored details only.
We use OpenAI's business API service, not a consumer chatbot. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through the API isn't used to train its models by default, and OpenAI may keep it for a limited period to monitor for abuse.
Automated decisions. Our search uses automated processing to decide which practices to show you and in what order. It uses the cleaned text of your search and the details we hold about each practice. For Premium listings, it also uses whether the practice has a Premium listing. We don't use it to refuse you a service, set a price or build a profile of you.
5. Search log and abuse protection
After each search, our server writes an entry to our search log, which is kept in a Google Sheet. Each entry contains only:
• the date and time;
• the search text after personal details have been removed, cut to 200 characters (left empty for emergency searches);
• a short summary of what the search understood, such as location, type of care and urgency;
• the number of results, how the search was handled and any error;
• which Premium listings were shown, as practice codes and positions;
• technical details such as the AI model used and the response time;
• the random session ID and the name of the website that sent you to us (not the page address).
We don't log your IP address, cookies, browser details, name, email, phone number or the uncleaned search text. We don't link the log to your name or contact details.
Abuse protection. To stop abuse, we count how many requests each visitor makes. To do this, our server turns your IP address into a one-way scrambled code using a secret that changes every day. The code can't be reversed or matched from one day to the next. The counters last between about a minute and an hour. We don't store your raw IP address.
Hosting logs. Our hosting provider, Vercel, receives your IP address and request details to deliver the site and keeps standard logs under its own policies.
6. Who we share information with
We don't sell personal information, and we don't give practices your searches or personal details. We share information only with service providers that help us run the site, under their terms of service:
| Provider | What for | What they may receive |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosting the website and running our servers | Website requests, including IP address |
| Google Analytics | Measuring how the site is used (live site only) | Pages viewed, device and browser details, IP address (used for approximate location), and cookie identifiers |
| OpenAI | Understanding searches when AI-assisted search is on | Cleaned search text, and candidate practices' stored details as anonymous codes |
| Google (Workspace, Sheets, Apps Script, Gmail) | Our search log, form submissions, email notifications, automatic replies and our mailbox | Search log entries, anything you submit in a form, and email content |
We may also share information with our professional advisers and insurers, with a buyer of the business on a confidential basis, and with government agencies or regulators where the law requires it.
7. Information about dental practices
Sources. Practice information comes from: the practice itself; the practice's own website and other public sources (such as business directories), including the source and date we found it; and public registers such as the AHPRA register, which a person may check to confirm a practitioner's registration. We don't publish patient reviews or ratings.
Correction and removal. If you represent a practice, or you are a practitioner named in a listing, you can ask us at any time to correct or remove your listing or any personal information in it. Email hello@findadentist.com.au with the practice name and website. We'll confirm that you are authorised and act as soon as practicable. We keep a record so that we don't add the practice again unless you ask us to.
8. Contacting dental practices
We contact dental practices in Australia about being listed on Find a Dentist. We use only business contact addresses that the practice has published for business purposes, or that the practice has given us. We don't buy email lists, and we record where and when we found each address.
Each message identifies JR Marketing Group Pty Ltd (ABN 90 606 960 721), trading as Find a Dentist, includes our contact details and has a working unsubscribe. We act on unsubscribe requests within 5 business days. To opt out, click unsubscribe, reply "unsubscribe" or email hello@findadentist.com.au. We keep opted-out addresses on a list so that we don't contact them again. You can ask us where we got your details.
We don't use patients' searches or messages for marketing.
9. Overseas disclosure
Some of our service providers store or process information outside Australia, mainly in the United States. When AI-assisted search is switched on, OpenAI processes search text in the United States. Vercel is based in the United States, and its logs and infrastructure may be outside Australia. Google may store our search log, form submissions, email and Google Analytics data outside Australia, including in the United States. Before sending information overseas, we take reasonable steps to protect it: we use providers with written terms that require privacy and security protections, and we keep what we send to a minimum (cleaned search text, anonymous codes for practices, and no IP address to the AI service).
10. Paid placement and our relationships with practices
Some practices pay for a Premium listing. Premium is available by application; we approve each Premium listing before it goes live. Some Premium practices are clients of JR Marketing Group. Premium listings are labelled "Premium" with this note: "This is a paid Premium listing. Premium listings are shown above other matching results and are ordered by how well they match your search, using each practice's stored details." We don't share your search text or other personal information with practices, whether or not they have a Premium listing. Phone, email and booking links on a listing go straight to the practice. Once you contact or book with a practice, that practice's own privacy policy applies to what you give it.
11. Security
We use reasonable safeguards, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, keeping secrets out of the browser, and abuse protection. 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, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.
12. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or as long as the law requires, and then delete or de-identify it. For example:
• search log entries are kept only as long as we need them to run and improve the search;
• waitlist, practice registration and investor form entries are kept only while they are needed to respond to you or to manage your listing;
• business records are kept as long as tax and other laws require;
• opted-out addresses are kept so that we don't contact them again;
• abuse-protection counters last between about a minute and an hour.
Google Analytics. Google Analytics keeps detailed visit data for 2 months. Data linked to the identifier in its cookie is kept for up to 14 months after your last visit, and that period restarts each time you come back. Summary reports that don't identify individual visitors may be kept longer. Analytics cookies stay in your browser for up to 2 years unless you clear them.
13. Children
The service is meant for adults. Parents and guardians can search on behalf of a child. Please don't enter a child's personal details.
14. Access, correction and complaints
You can ask to see, correct or delete personal information we hold about you by emailing hello@findadentist.com.au. Because our search log isn't linked to names, we can only find a search entry if you tell us the exact search text and roughly when you searched. We'll respond within 30 days.
If you have a complaint about how we've handled your personal information, email hello@findadentist.com.au and we'll look into it. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): www.oaic.gov.au, phone 1300 363 992.
15. Links to other sites
Practice listings link to websites we don't control. Their own privacy policies apply.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The current version is always at findadentist.com.au/privacy with its effective date. If we change our AI provider or add new analytics or tracking tools, we'll update this policy first.
17. Contact
JR Marketing Group Pty Ltd (ABN 90 606 960 721), trading as Find a Dentist Email: hello@findadentist.com.au