Grove Central app: privacy policy

Grove Central is the work app for Grove's employees, subcontractors, suppliers and other internal and external operational stakeholders. It is run by a variety of Grove-owned businesses as an internal management tool. You can use it on an iPhone or Android phone, or in a browser at central.grovegroup.com.au. This page explains what the app collects, why, who sees it, and what you can do about it.

This page is the privacy policy for the app. Grove's website has its own privacy policy, which covers the website only.

Who can use the app

Only people that are Grove employees, subcontractors, suppliers or other parties that Grove has invited and accepted access to. There is no public sign-up. The app is for adults who work with Grove and is not meant for children.

What the app collects, and why

• Your account details: your name, email address and username. We use them to sign you in and to attach work records to you. Grove sets up your account using details from our own records or, if you work for one of our subcontractors, from your employer.
• Your contact details: your phone number and, if you add one, an emergency contact (their name, relationship to you and phone number). You enter and change these yourself. Grove uses them to reach you, or to call your emergency contact if something happens to you at work. Please let your emergency contact know you have given us their details.
• Your exact location, only while you use the app. The app reads your location while a sign-on, clock or driver screen is open, and sends it to Grove only when you tap to sign on to a site, clock on or off, or record a step of a delivery job. We use it to confirm you were at the site or the delivery, and to check that sign-on and timesheet records are accurate. The app never tracks you in the background or when it is closed.
• Photos and files you add: for example a photo on a site form, an induction, your licences and tickets, or a load or delivery photo. We use them for the job or safety record they belong to.
• What you fill in and sign: answers to site forms and inductions (including whether you are fit for work), your signature on SWMS and forms, notes on a job, and your licence and ticket details such as expiry dates. We use them for safety and compliance records, and to check you hold the licences the work needs. Your answers about fitness for work can include health information. You consent to us collecting it when you answer, and we use it only to manage safety at work.
• Your work records: when you sign on and off a site, clock on and off, and take breaks, and your timesheets. We use them for site safety records, payroll and invoicing.
• Details about someone else, for deliveries: when a driver delivers a load, the app records the name and signature of the person who receives it. Apart from emergency contacts, this is the only information the app collects about people who are not using it.
• A notification address, only if notifications are switched on: the address Apple or Google gives your phone, so your own alerts reach you (for example, that you were clocked off automatically, or that a licence is about to expire). It is removed when you sign out.

Who sees it

• Grove staff who need it for their role, such as your manager, site and safety staff, payroll and transport.
• For a delivery, the delivery record (including the receiver's name and signature) may go to the customer who ordered it.
• The builder or client in charge of a site you sign on to, where they need sign-on, induction, licence or safety records for that site.
• Your employer, if you work for one of our subcontractors, for records such as your sign-on times and timesheets.
• Our insurers and advisers, if there is an incident, claim or dispute.
• Companies that run our systems for us, under contract. The main one is Microsoft, which hosts Grove Central in Australia (Microsoft Azure) and sends our emails (Microsoft 365). Apple and Google deliver notifications to your phone if they are switched on. Notifications pass through Apple's and Google's systems, which may be outside Australia. Apart from that, we do not send your information overseas.
• Government bodies and regulators, such as a work health and safety regulator or the police, when the law requires or allows it.

On the website (not the phone app), Grove also records errors and page loads with Microsoft Application Insights, so we can find and fix problems. This includes technical details such as your browser type and IP address.

Where it is kept, and for how long

Grove Central's data is stored in Microsoft Azure data centres in Australia and sent over encrypted connections. Only people who need it for their role can see it, and everyone signs in with their own account. Work records such as timesheets are kept for at least 7 years, because Australian workplace law requires it. Other information is kept while you work with Grove, and afterwards only as long as Grove needs it for its records or the law requires. After that we delete it or remove your name from it. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will tell you and the privacy regulator.

Your choices

• You can turn off location, camera or notifications for the app in your phone's settings at any time. Signing on to a site and clocking on need your location at that moment, so those steps may not work without it.
• You can change your phone number and emergency contact yourself, under Profile.
• You can ask Grove for a copy of the information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. Use the contact details below. It costs nothing to ask and we will reply within 10 days.
• You can ask us to close your account, using the contact details below. We then stop your access and delete what we no longer need, but we keep work records for as long as the law requires.

Contact us

If you have a privacy complaint, contact us first. We will look into it and reply within 10 days. If you are not happy with how we handle a privacy question or complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Automatic decisions

The app clocks you off automatically at 8pm if you are still clocked on, and signs you out of a site at the end of that site's working day if you have not signed out. The time it used shows in your timesheet, and if notifications are switched on, the app tells you. You can ask your manager to correct the record. A person checks timesheets before anyone is paid.

Changes to this policy

If the app starts collecting something new, we will update this page and the date at the top before that change reaches your phone.