Privacy policy
Last updated 27 August 2026
TorqueDesk answers the phone for trade businesses. That means we handle two different kinds of information, and it matters which one you are.
- If you rang a business and we answered — we took down what you told us so the business could follow up your booking. Section 1 is about you.
- If you are a business using TorqueDesk — we hold your account and billing details. Section 2 is about you.
We do not record calls. No audio is captured, stored, or kept for any period. What exists is a written note of the conversation, and nothing else. This is a design decision, not a setting — there is no audio store to turn on.
1. If you called a business that uses TorqueDesk
We tell you at the start
Every call opens by saying that the call is being noted down so your booking can be followed up. You hear this before you say anything.
What we write down
Only what you tell us, and only what the business needs to do the job:
- Your name and the phone number you called from
- Where the work is needed
- What you are driving, where that is relevant
- What the problem is, in your words
- The time you agreed to
A written transcript of the conversation is kept alongside those details.
Who it is for
The business you called. We are answering their phone on their instructions — they decide what happens with your booking, and you are their customer, not ours. We do not sell it, rent it, share it for advertising, or use it to contact you about anything other than the job you rang about.
How long we keep it
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Call transcripts and booking details | 12 months, then deleted |
| Technical system logs | 90 days maximum |
| A small number of transcripts kept to check and improve how the receptionist handles calls | Longer than 12 months — see below |
That last row is a real exception and we would rather write it down than have you find it. A small sample of calls is retained beyond the normal 12 months so we can measure whether the receptionist is getting things right — hearing an address correctly, understanding what is wrong with a vehicle. If you would prefer your call was not used this way, tell us and we will remove it.
SMS
If a text message is part of following up your booking, we send it to the number you called from. We do not add you to a marketing list.
2. If you are a business using TorqueDesk
We hold what you give us to run the service: your business name and contact details, your phone number and hours, your service area and pricing, and the settings that tell the receptionist how to answer.
Your calendar
With your permission, TorqueDesk connects to your calendar so it knows when you are free and can write bookings into it.
We do read the events already in your calendar, and we are not going to pretend otherwise, because it is the whole reason the booking works. If we could only see our own bookings we would cheerfully offer a customer three o'clock while you were already at the dentist. Knowing what is in your day is how we avoid booking on top of it.
- Google Calendar — we request
calendar.events.owned, which lets us see, create, change and delete events on calendars you own. It is the narrowest scope that can still see a real working day. It does not reach calendars that belong to someone else and are merely shared with you, and it does not let us delete or share the calendars themselves. We do not request access to your email, contacts, or anything else in your Google account. - Apple Calendar and other CalDAV calendars — we use an app-specific password you generate, which is encrypted before it is stored. We read the calendar you nominate to see when you are free, and write the bookings we make for you into it.
We look at your existing events to answer one question — are you free then? — and for nothing else.
Disconnecting is available at any time and removes our access immediately. Calendar data is never used for advertising, never sold, and never used to train a general-purpose AI model.
Payments
Subscription payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe directly and are never held by us — we see only the last four digits and the outcome of the charge.
3. Where your information lives
In Australia. The database and the servers that answer your calls are in Sydney.
4. Who else touches it
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Telnyx | Carries the phone calls and text messages, converts speech to text, and runs the language model that holds the conversation |
| DigitalOcean | Hosts the servers and the database, in Sydney |
| Stripe | Processes subscription payments from businesses |
| Google / Apple | Only where you have connected a calendar, and only for that |
Each of these does one job for us and nothing else with what passes through it.
5. Keeping it safe
- Every connection is encrypted in transit.
- Each business's data is isolated from every other business's at the database level.
- Credentials are encrypted at rest and are never displayed back, even to us.
- Access to production systems is restricted to keys held by the operator.
6. Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to the address below and we will respond within 30 days.
If you called a business and want your details removed, we will pass the request to that business as well, since they hold their own copy of the booking.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
7. Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. We will not quietly broaden what we do with information already collected.
8. Contact
TorqueDesk
ABN 68 620 762 606
privacy@torquedesk.com.au
That address reaches the person responsible for privacy at TorqueDesk. For anything else, contact support@torquedesk.com.au.