Our commitment to privacy

MACS Bid Studio is committed to protecting the privacy of our clients and the individuals whose information is shared with us in the course of providing bid management and proposal services. This policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect personal information, and how we handle the data you share with us when engaging our services.

We operate in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Who we are

MACS Bid Studio is an independent bid management consulting business based in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. We provide AI-assisted bid strategy, proposal production, and bid system implementation services to architecture, landscape architecture, and design firms.

What information we collect

We may collect and handle the following types of information:

Business and project information — including tender briefs, RFP documents, project descriptions, fee proposals, and strategic content provided to us for the purpose of preparing or supporting bid submissions.

Personnel information — including staff CVs, professional profiles, qualifications, project experience records, and photographs, where provided to us by clients for inclusion in bid documents.

Contact information — including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and job titles of client contacts and key personnel.

Correspondence — emails, meeting notes, briefing documents, and other communications related to our engagements.

We do not collect sensitive personal information (as defined under the Privacy Act) unless it is directly relevant to a specific bid requirement and you have consented to its use.

How we use your information

We use the information you share with us solely for the purpose of delivering our services, which includes:

• Preparing, reviewing, and producing bid and proposal documents

• Developing and maintaining bid content libraries and templates on your behalf

• Providing bid strategy advice and go/no-go support

• Coordinating proposal production workflows

• Training and onboarding your team in our systems and processes

We do not use your information for marketing purposes, nor do we share it with third parties for commercial gain

AI tools and data handling

MACS Bid Studio uses AI tools — primarily Claude, developed by Anthropic — to assist with content drafting, research, and proposal production. We take the privacy implications of AI-assisted work seriously.

All clients are required to operate on Anthropic's Claude Team plan. This is a non-negotiable condition of engaging our services. The Claude Team plan provides the following data protections:

• Conversations and inputs are not used to train Anthropic's AI models

• Data is not retained by Anthropic beyond the active session

• Your content remains private to your organisation's workspace

We do not input personally identifiable information into AI tools beyond what is strictly necessary to complete the task at hand. Where possible, we anonymise or generalise sensitive details before use.

We do not use free-tier or personal AI accounts for any client work.

Storage and security

Client files, documents, and content libraries are stored using secure, reputable platforms appropriate to the scope of each engagement (such as Notion, Google Drive, or platforms nominated by the client). We take reasonable steps to protect information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access.

We do not retain client information beyond the period required to deliver our services, unless agreed otherwise in writing.

Sharing your information

We do not sell, rent, or disclose your information to third parties, except:

• Where required by law or a regulatory body

• With your explicit consent

• Where necessary to deliver services (for example, engaging a specialist subcontractor under a confidentiality agreement)

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you

• Ask us to correct inaccurate or out-of-date information

• Request that we delete information we hold about you, subject to any legal obligations

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us directly.

Complaints

If you believe we have handled your personal information in a way that does not comply with the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact us in the first instance. If we are unable to resolve your concern, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

Contact

For privacy-related enquiries, please contact:

MACS Bid Studio Newcastle, NSW, Australia [your email address]

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will always be available on our website, with the date of last update noted at the top of the page.