Australia Regulatory Compliance

The Australian regimes DECTIFY operates under beyond privacy and cyber — consumer law, surveillance devices, aviation, procurement and modern slavery.

1. Corporate status

DECTIFY has no Australian incorporated entity. Australian customers contract with DECTIFY Technologies Private Limited, incorporated in India. The consequences run through everything on this page:

• We are a foreign supplier carrying on business in Australia, and are bound by the Privacy Act through section 5B and by the Australian Consumer Law as a supplier of goods and services in Australia.
• Personal information given to us is disclosed to an overseas recipient under APP 8; we remain accountable for it under section 16C. See Australia Privacy and Data Protection s.6.
• Governing law for Australian customers is New South Wales, with the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the NSW courts, under clause 16.2 of the Terms and Conditions.
• Where registration as a foreign company under Part 5B.2 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) becomes required, or an ABN or ACN is obtained, we will publish it at Legal Notice.

2. Australian Consumer Law

Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) applies to our supply in Australia and cannot be contracted out of.

• Consumer guarantees. Goods must be of acceptable quality, fit for purpose and match their description; services must be rendered with due care and skill and be fit for purpose. Nothing in our terms excludes, restricts or modifies these.
• Who is a consumer. The threshold in section 3 captures acquisitions under the prescribed amount, and goods or services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, regardless of price. Business acquisitions of our systems will often still be covered.
• Permitted limitation. Where goods or services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, section 64A permits us to limit liability for breach of a guarantee to resupply or the cost of resupply, or to replacement, repair or the cost of it. Clause 18.2 of the Terms and Conditions does exactly that and no more.
• Misleading conduct. Sections 18 and 29 govern our performance claims. Our practice is at Australia AI and Responsible Technology s.6.
• Unfair contract terms. Part 2-3 applies to standard form small business contracts, and since November 2023 a court may impose civil penalties for proposing or relying on an unfair term. Our terms have been drafted with that in mind: the suspension right is limited and proportionate, the liability cap is mutual, and unilateral variation is limited by the thirty-day notice and next-renewal rule in clause 2.4.

3. Surveillance devices and workplace surveillance

Each State and Territory regulates surveillance devices independently of the Privacy Act, and the prohibitions are criminal. The Acts are tabled at Australia Privacy and Data Protection s.5.

The points that most often catch a deployment:

• Audio. Recording a private conversation without the consent of the parties is an offence in every jurisdiction. Audio capture is disabled by default on DECTIFY hardware supplied to Australian sites.
• Optical devices and private activity. Several Acts prohibit recording a private activity without consent, which can extend beyond obviously private spaces.
• Workplace surveillance. The Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 (NSW) and the Workplace Privacy Act 2011 (ACT) require at least 14 days' prior written notice to employees, signage at entry points for camera surveillance, and a magistrate's authority for covert surveillance. Victoria restricts surveillance in toilets, washrooms, change rooms and lactation rooms.
• Tracking devices. Fitting a tracking device to a vehicle without consent is separately regulated and is relevant to fleet deployments of DriveCheck and DriveLink.

Compliance is the customer's obligation under clause 18.2 of the Terms and Conditions. We will not configure a deployment we are told would breach these Acts, and our Acceptable Use Policy independently prohibits the prohibited settings.

4. Aerial operations — SkyResponder / AERION

• Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (Cth), Part 101, administered by CASA, governing remotely piloted aircraft.
• Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operator's Certificate (ReOC) for commercial operation, and a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) for each pilot, where the operation exceeds the excluded categories.
• Standard operating conditions — visual line of sight, below 120 metres AGL, day only, 30 metres from people, one aircraft at a time, not over populous areas — with any departure requiring a CASA approval.
• Beyond visual line of sight operation only under a specific CASA approval following an operational risk assessment.
• Airspace authorisation for controlled airspace and near aerodromes; compliance with the Air Services Australia framework.
• Drone registration and accreditation as required.
• State and Territory surveillance devices law applies to what the aircraft records, independently of CASA's safety jurisdiction.

Unless the Order Form records DECTIFY as operator, the customer is the operator for regulatory purposes and holds the certificates. Product conditions are in the Product-Specific Terms.

5. Roads and vehicles — DriveLink and Traffic Detection

• Road traffic law is State and Territory based. Authority to use a device for enforcement, and any requirement for device type-approval, calibration and certification, sits with the relevant road authority and police service.
• Where a customer uses outputs for enforcement, the customer holds the statutory authority. DECTIFY supplies the technology and the evidentiary record, not the power.
• DECTIFY holds no access to any Australian vehicle registration database and does not resolve a plate to a registered operator. Any such lookup is the customer's own act under its own authority.
• Heavy vehicle deployments may engage the Heavy Vehicle National Law, including chain of responsibility duties, where DriveCheck outputs inform fatigue or safety management.

6. Employment and workplace

Where DECTIFY engages personnel in Australia, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), the National Employment Standards, applicable modern awards, work health and safety legislation, and superannuation guarantee obligations apply.

Where a customer deploys DECTIFY systems to observe its own workforce, that customer's obligations — including consultation duties under work health and safety law and any enterprise agreement, and the notice requirements in section 3 — are the customer's own. Our Acceptable Use Policy prohibits productivity monitoring and automated disciplinary action.

7. Modern slavery

The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) requires entities with consolidated revenue of at least AUD 100 million to report annually on modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains.

DECTIFY is below that threshold and is not a reporting entity. We nonetheless: assess suppliers for modern slavery risk before engagement, particularly hardware and component suppliers; impose the obligations at Vendor Terms, including a right to audit and a right to terminate for a substantiated finding; and will support a customer that is a reporting entity by furnishing the supply chain information it needs for its own statement. If we cross the threshold we will publish a statement in the Modern Slavery Statements Register.

8. Government procurement

Accessibility conditions applying to government supply are at Australia Accessibility and Inclusion s.4. Security assurance status is at Compliance and Security Updates.

9. Environmental and product compliance

• Regulatory Compliance Mark for electrical safety, EMC and radiocommunications, administered by the ACMA and the electrical regulators.
• Radiocommunications Act 1992 (Cth) device compliance for any radio-equipped hardware.
• National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme and State e-waste obligations for hardware placed on the market.
• Product Emissions Standards and applicable energy efficiency requirements where relevant to powered equipment.

10. Keeping this current

Reviewed at least semi-annually and on any material change of law, with changes recorded at Compliance and Security Updates. If a regime that applies to us is missing here, tell us at legal@dectify.in.