Veterans Compass
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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 July 2026

1. Introduction

This document sets out the privacy policy of Blake Toscan (ABN 15 908 938 833) trading as Veterans Compass (referred to in this privacy policy as ‘we’, ‘us’, or ‘our’).

We take our privacy obligations seriously and have created this privacy policy to explain how we store, maintain, use and disclose personal information.

We provide an online platform that helps current and former members of the Australian Defence Force prepare claims for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA). Because of the nature of this service, we collect and handle sensitive information, including health information and military service information. This privacy policy explains how we handle that information.

We are committed to preventing serious invasions of privacy and ensuring the protection of your personal information, so you can contact us using the details below if you have any questions or concerns.

Our services are intended for individuals aged 18 years and over.

By providing personal information to us, you consent to our storage, maintenance, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time by posting an updated copy on our website and we encourage you to check our website regularly to ensure that you are aware of our most current privacy policy.

2. Types of personal information we collect

The personal information we collect may include the following:

  • your name;
  • your email address;
  • your account login credentials, including any password you set and information provided when you sign in using a third-party authentication service such as Google (and, in the future, we may offer Apple) sign-in;
  • profile information you provide, including your military rank and service history;
  • payment information, noting that payments are processed by our third-party payment processor, Stripe, and we do not collect or store your full card details ourselves;
  • documents and records you upload to prepare your claim, such as medical documents, service records and similar evidence, and the health-related information contained in or extracted from them (see ‘Sensitive information’ below);
  • technical and analytics data, including your device identity and type, IP address, geo-location information, page view statistics and standard web log information; and
  • any other information you provide to us through our website or web application, or that is otherwise required by us or provided by you.

3. Sensitive information

Some of the information we collect is ‘sensitive information’ under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). In particular, we collect:

  • health information, including diagnoses, symptoms, conditions, relevant dates and exposures, which you provide directly or which our systems extract from the medical documents and other evidence you upload; and
  • information about your military service, including your service records and related details.

We collect sensitive information only where you have consented to us doing so and the information is reasonably necessary for us to provide our services. By uploading documents or entering information for the purpose of preparing your claim, you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing that sensitive information as described in this privacy policy.

We use your sensitive information solely to prepare and organise your own claim materials. We do not use it for marketing, and we do not sell it or disclose it to any third party except the service providers described in ‘Disclosure of your personal information’ below, who help us deliver our services to you.

4. How we collect personal information

We may collect personal information either directly from you, or from third parties, including where you:

  • create an account or sign in, including using a third-party authentication service such as Google sign-in;
  • upload documents, records or other evidence within our web application;
  • enter information into your profile or claim forms;
  • make a payment, which is collected by our payment processor, Stripe, at checkout; or
  • communicate with us via email or otherwise.

We may also collect personal information when you use or access our website or web application through web analytics tools, ‘cookies’ or other similar tracking technologies that allow us to track and analyse your usage. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, mobile phone or other device and enable and allow the creator of the cookie to identify when you visit different websites. If you do not wish information to be stored as a cookie, you can disable cookies in your web browser.

We currently use Cloudflare, which is integrated with our front-end platform, and we are in the process of implementing Google Analytics. We may use Google Analytics to collect and process data, including when you use third-party websites or apps. To find out more, see https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

5. Use of your personal information

We collect and use personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide our services to you, including preparing and organising your DVA Initial Liability claim by matching your conditions and evidence to the relevant Statements of Principles and generating a readiness report;
  • to create and manage your account and verify your access;
  • to process payments through our payment processor, Stripe;
  • to send you administrative and transactional messages, including service communications, reminders, notices, updates, security alerts and other information you have requested;
  • for record keeping and administrative purposes;
  • to maintain, improve and optimise our service offering and user experience;
  • to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce our agreements; and
  • where you have not opted out, to send you product updates, news and other marketing communications that may be of interest to you, in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We may use email to send these communications, and you can opt out at any time using the unsubscribe facility provided.

We use your health and military service information solely to prepare your own claim materials. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes.

6. Disclosure of your personal information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to third parties for their own purposes. We do, however, disclose personal information to service providers who help us operate our business and deliver our services to you. These include:

  • our cloud hosting and infrastructure providers;
  • our payment processor, Stripe, which processes payments on our behalf;
  • our artificial intelligence provider, which processes the documents and information you upload to extract relevant facts and prepare your claim materials (see ‘Artificial intelligence and automated processing’ and ‘Overseas disclosure’ below); and
  • our professional advisers, and other parties where required or authorised by law.

We require these service providers to handle your personal information consistently with this privacy policy and only for the purpose of providing their services to us.

7. Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers are located, or store or process data, outside Australia. In particular, the documents and information you upload are processed by our artificial intelligence provider, Anthropic, whose processing occurs in the United States. This is the only circumstance in which your information leaves Australia; our databases are otherwise held in Australia.

Because this involves disclosing personal information (including sensitive health and service information) overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient handles your information in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. These steps include putting in place contractual protections and a zero data-retention arrangement, so that the data you upload is not retained by the provider after it has been processed. Before any document is processed, we let you know that an artificial intelligence provider will be used and obtain your consent.

8. Artificial intelligence and automated processing

We use artificial intelligence to help prepare your claim materials. When you upload documents, our systems (with the assistance of our artificial intelligence provider) extract relevant facts, suggest possible conditions, match your conditions and evidence to the relevant Statements of Principles, and generate a readiness report and related guidance.

This processing is used to support the preparation of your claim. It does not diagnose any condition or provide medical advice, and any condition it suggests is for you to verify. You remain responsible for reviewing the materials we generate and for deciding whether and how to lodge your claim with the relevant authority. We are not affiliated with the DVA, and the materials we generate do not constitute legal, medical or financial advice.

9. Security

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is secure and protected from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Our information technology systems are password protected, and we use a range of administrative and technical measures to protect these systems. Given the sensitive nature of the information we handle, we apply additional safeguards to health and service information. However, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

We retain personal information only for as long as is necessary to provide our services and to meet our legal obligations, after which we take reasonable steps to delete or de-identify it.

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual whose personal information we hold, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

10. Links

Our website may contain links to other websites. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those linked websites and we suggest you review the privacy policies of those websites before using them.

11. Requesting access or correcting your personal information

If you wish to request access to the personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the contact details set out below including your name and contact details. We may need to verify your identity before providing you with your personal information. In some cases, we may be unable to provide you with access to all your personal information and where this occurs, we will explain why. We will deal with all requests for access to personal information within a reasonable timeframe.

If you think that any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, please contact us using the contact details set out below and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected.

12. Complaints

If you wish to complain about how we handle your personal information or believe your privacy has been seriously invaded, please contact us using the details provided below with your name and contact details. We will investigate your complaint promptly and respond within a reasonable timeframe.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.

13. Contact us

For further information about our privacy policy or practices, or to access or correct your personal information, or make a complaint, please contact us using the details set out below:

Name: Veterans Compass

Email: privacy@veteranscompass.com.au

Our privacy policy was last updated on 1 July 2026.