Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2 August 2026
Web Cat Hosting (“Web Cat”, “we”, “us”) provides web hosting and domain registration services to customers in Australia. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can do about it.
We are a small Australian business based in Melbourne, Victoria. Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less are generally exempt from the Australian Privacy Principles. We have chosen to follow the Australian Privacy Principles anyway, because we think you deserve the same protections regardless of how big your provider is.
Who we are
Our website is https://webcat.com.au. Our client portal, where accounts and billing are managed, is at https://webcat.com.au/client/.
Trading name: Web Cat Hosting
Legal entity: Web Cat Hosting Pty Ltd
ABN: 91 690 564 508
Contact: hello@webcat.com.au
What we collect
Account and billing information. When you sign up we collect your name, email address, postal address, phone number, and — where applicable — your business name and ABN. We need this to create your account, issue tax invoices, and meet our record-keeping obligations.
Payment information. Card payments are processed by Stripe. Your full card number never reaches our servers and we cannot see it. We store only what Stripe returns to us: the card type, the last four digits, the expiry date, and a token that lets us charge the card for renewals you have authorised.
Domain registration details. Registering a domain requires us to pass your registrant details to our domain wholesaler and, through them, to the relevant registry. This is a requirement of domain registration, not a choice we make. See “Domain registrations” below.
Content you host with us. Your website files, databases, and email pass through and are stored on our servers. We do not read, analyse, or use this content. We access it only when you ask us to (for example, to help with a support request), when we need to for maintenance, or where we are legally required to.
Support communications. Support tickets, emails, and any information you provide in them.
Technical logs. Our servers and website automatically record IP addresses, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. We use these for security, abuse prevention, and diagnosing faults.
Cookies
Our website and client portal use cookies for essential functions: keeping you logged in, remembering your cart, and page caching. If you leave a comment on our site you may opt in to a cookie that saves your name and email so you do not have to re-enter them.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser, but the client portal will not work properly without session cookies.
How we use your information
- To provide, maintain, and support the services you have purchased
- To bill you and to send invoices, receipts, and renewal notices
- To contact you about your account, including outages, maintenance, and security issues
- To register and manage domains on your behalf
- To detect, prevent, and investigate abuse, fraud, and security incidents
- To meet our legal and tax obligations
We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not use your hosted content to train anything.
Marketing
We may send you occasional emails about service changes, new features, or offers. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect promptly, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
Service and billing messages — invoices, renewal notices, outage and security notifications — are not marketing, and you cannot unsubscribe from them while you hold an active service with us.
Who we share your information with
We share personal information only with the providers we need to in order to deliver our services:
- Verpex — our hosting infrastructure provider, whose Australian facility hosts your sites and data.
- Synergy Wholesale — our domain wholesaler, an auDA-accredited Australian registrar.
- Stripe — payment processing.
- Domain registries — including auDA for
.com.auand equivalent registries for other extensions. - Professional advisers and regulators — our accountant, and any authority we are legally required to disclose information to.
We may also disclose information where required by law, or where necessary to protect our rights, our customers, or the public.
Where your data is stored
Your websites, databases, email, and backups are stored on servers in Sydney, Australia. Your data stays onshore.
We want to be straightforward about one detail: our infrastructure provider, Verpex, operates the Australian facility but is not an Australian company. Similarly, Stripe is a global payment processor. This means that although your data is stored in Australia, personnel or systems located overseas may in principle be able to access it in the course of operating those services. Backups are held off-site by our infrastructure provider.
Domain registrations
Domain registration is governed by the policies of the relevant registry, and those policies override our preferences.
When you register a domain, your registrant details are provided to our wholesaler and to the registry, which maintains them in its registration database. For .au domains, auDA requires accurate registrant contact details and requires you to meet Australian presence and eligibility rules. Registrant information for individuals in the .au namespace is generally withheld from public WHOIS results, but registry and regulator access remains.
If you provide inaccurate registrant details, the registry may suspend or cancel the domain. We cannot prevent that.
How long we keep it
We keep billing and transaction records for seven years, as Australian tax law requires.
Hosting content and backups are deleted after your service is terminated, in line with our backup rotation — typically within 30 days. Support tickets are kept while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards. Server logs are retained for a short period for security purposes.
If you close your account and ask us to delete your personal information, we will do so except where we are legally required to retain it.
Security
We protect your information with encrypted connections (SSL/TLS) across our website, client portal, and hosting services; server-level isolation between customer accounts; malware scanning and firewalling; and restricted administrative access.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach occurs that is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and, where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- Give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- Correct anything that is wrong or out of date
- Delete your personal information, subject to our legal retention obligations
- Explain how a particular piece of information is being used
Email hello@webcat.com.au and we will respond within 30 days. There is no charge for a reasonable request. We may need to verify your identity before releasing information.
Third-party websites
Our site links to other websites, and pages you host with us are yours to control. This policy covers only Web Cat Hosting. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any other site — including sites hosted on our own platform by our customers.
Children
Our services are intended for businesses and adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. If the change is significant, we will tell active customers by email.
Contact and complaints
Questions or complaints about privacy go to hello@webcat.com.au. You will reach the person who runs the platform, not a queue.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992.