CouchHub is a social marketplace for buying and selling couches. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. Last updated 10 October 2026.
CouchHub is operated by The Hartin Group. For any privacy question, email thehartingroup@gmail.com.
Account & identity: your name, email address, phone number (used for SMS verification and account security), how you signed in (Google, Facebook, email, or SMS), and whether your identity is verified. We use your email as the key that links your activity across CouchHub.
Public profile: the display name, avatar, banner, bio, suburb/city, state, and timezone you choose to show. Verified and Premium sellers may display a custom business name.
Buyer preferences: budget range, preferred couch types, fabrics, colours, purchase timeline, suburb, and search radius you set during onboarding or in your profile.
Learned taste profile: we automatically build a taste profile from your swipes, saved listings, and conversations — the categories, materials, colours, conditions, deal types, and price ranges you engage with. This is how we match you to couches you'll love.
Activity data: swipes, saves, searches, listing views, clicks, message opens, and your last-active timestamp. We use this to power recommendations, insights, and presence indicators.
Messages: the content of conversations between buyers and sellers, including auto-follow-up messages sent on a seller's behalf, so the conversation flows correctly.
Location: suburb and radius you enter for nearby searches. We geocode your suburb via a third-party service to calculate distances; precise device GPS is only used if you opt in.
Ratings & reviews: star ratings and comments you leave or receive after a sale.
Payments & billing: when you subscribe as a seller, Stripe processes your payment and we store your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, subscription tier, billing status, and renewal dates. We never see or store your full card details — Stripe holds those.
Referrals: if you join via a seller's referral link, we record the referring seller's code and your email so the referral can be attributed. Referring sellers can see that you signed up via their link (email only) and whether you later became a paying seller.
Device & usage: browser type, and preferences stored locally on your device (such as your theme choice) via your browser's local storage. We also use the Meta (Facebook) Pixel to measure the effectiveness of our advertising on Facebook and Instagram; Meta receives limited device and activity data for this purpose and uses it under its own policies.
Broadcast replies: if you reply to an admin broadcast email via the in-app reply page, we store your reply text, your name, and your email so it can be forwarded to The Hartin Group team for follow-up.
Referral data: if you share your seller referral link, we track the referral code used and the signup's email so referrals can be attributed and verified.
Deep-link data: when you click a link in one of our emails, we may store the intended destination page temporarily in your browser so we can redirect you there after you sign in.
Matching & recommendations: your preferences and learned taste profile are combined to rank listings in your feed, generate new-listing match alerts, and compile your daily swipe digest.
Buyer discovery for sellers: when you opt in (see Seller-contact consent), verified and premium sellers can see your buyer signals in the Buyer Directory and receive taste-match suggestions so they can push you relevant listings.
Push & alerts: we notify you about price drops on saved listings, saved-search matches, similar listings after a sale, and listings a seller has pushed to you.
Auto follow-up: Premium sellers may enable automated follow-up messages to re-engage inactive buyers in their threads.
Hot Buyer Score: we calculate a buying-intent signal from your activity; this is shown only to verified/premium sellers you've allowed to contact you.
Insights: sellers receive aggregated analytics (views, saves, enquiries, revenue) about their own listings; platform-wide insights are internal and admin-only.
Communications: transactional emails and in-app notifications about your account, listings, and conversations. When you register, we send an internal notification to The Hartin Group team (including your email and the current total user count) so the team can administer and grow the platform. You can turn off non-essential email notifications in your profile.
Safety & moderation: listings are reviewed by our AI moderation agent and, where flagged, by our admin team to keep the marketplace trustworthy.
AI-assisted features: we use AI to generate smart reply suggestions in conversations, write Deal of the Day and Daily Picks descriptions, and moderate listings. AI-generated content is based on listing data and conversation context — we do not use your private messages to train external models. Smart reply suggestions are drafts you choose to send or discard.
Reply reminders: if a buyer messages you about a listing and you haven't replied within 24 hours, we may send you a nudge email so buyers aren't left waiting.
Daily digest: if you have email notifications enabled, we may send a daily summary of fresh listings that match your swipe feed preferences.
Broadcast emails: The Hartin Group may send promotional or informational broadcast emails to buyers, sellers, or all users. Copies of these broadcasts are also sent to The Hartin Group's own email for record-keeping. If you reply to a broadcast via the in-app reply page, your reply is forwarded to The Hartin Group team.
CouchHub lets verified and premium sellers discover and contact buyers whose preferences match their listings. This is optional and off by default.
You control it with the "🤝 Allow sellers to contact me" toggle in your profile and during sign-up. Turning it on lets matched sellers view your buyer signals and push you relevant listings. We record when you last set this consent for audit purposes. You can switch it off at any time; sellers will no longer see you in their directory or be able to push listings to you.
We keep your account and activity for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we schedule your personal data (profile, preferences, taste profile, saved listings, and conversations) for permanent removal after a 30-day grace period, during which you can cancel the request. Some records — such as completed sales, ratings you've received, and messages you've sent to another user — may be retained where needed for the other party or for legal, tax, and audit obligations. Subscription and billing records are retained for as long as required by tax law.
Access & update: view and edit your profile, preferences, and consent settings anytime from your Profile page.
Notifications: toggle email notifications off in your profile; push and in-app alerts can be managed in your device settings. You can unsubscribe from broadcast emails and the daily digest at any time via the link in the email or by toggling notifications off in your profile.
Withdraw consent: turn off seller-contact consent at any time — you'll immediately stop appearing in seller directories.
Delete data: you can delete saved listings, conversations you're part of, and your profile. You can request full account deletion from the Danger Zone in your Profile page — your personal data is then permanently removed after a 30-day grace period.
Object or restrict: you may ask us to limit certain processing of your data — email us and we'll respond within a reasonable timeframe.
External links: our app and emails may contain links to third-party sites (such as Stripe, Meta, or the OAIC). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites — please review their policies before providing personal information to them.
Access to your data is restricted by role-based controls — you only see records meant for you, and sellers only see buyer signals when consent is given. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never store full card numbers. While we use reasonable safeguards, no system is perfectly secure, so we minimise what we collect and who can reach it.
CouchHub is operated by The Hartin Group and complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in relation to the personal information we hold about you.
Spam Act 2003: commercial electronic messages (such as broadcast emails and the daily digest) are only sent to users who have consented to receive them, include our sender identification, and provide a functional unsubscribe mechanism. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email or by toggling email notifications off in your profile.
Do Not Call Register: we do not make telemarketing calls. SMS messages sent via Twilio are limited to verification codes you request and transactional alerts you opt into — never marketing.
Overseas disclosure: where your information is handled by a service provider outside Australia (such as Stripe, Twilio, or Meta), we take reasonable steps to ensure they handle it in accordance with the APPs, as required by APP 8.
Complaints: if you believe we have breached the Privacy Act, you can complain to us first by emailing thehartingroup@gmail.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
CouchHub is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a minor has registered, contact us and we'll remove the account.
We may update this policy as CouchHub evolves. We'll revise the "last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify you in-app or by email.
For privacy questions, requests, or to delete your account, email thehartingroup@gmail.com or start a support chat from the Help & Support menu.
CouchHub is operated by The Hartin Group and aligns with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988.