Terms of Use

EthicalHub is operated by EthicalHub Pty Ltd, a company registered in Victoria, Australia (ABN: 87 677 816 732).

We build and maintain a food safety compliance platform for Australian food businesses — food manufacturers, restaurants, cafés and caterers, and hospital and aged care kitchens — and for the food safety consultants who support them. The platform helps you record daily food safety checks, prerequisite programs (PRPs) and critical control point (CCP) monitoring, manage supplier certificates, track corrective actions, and prepare audit-ready records under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, the Food Act 1984 (Vic), and certification schemes such as SQF, BRCGS and FSSC 22000.

What EthicalHub is

A practical daily compliance tool. A secure record-keeping system. A way to walk into an audit or inspection with your records ready, instead of spending hours pulling them from binders and inboxes.

What EthicalHub is not

A replacement for your food safety supervisor, your HACCP plan or your food safety consultant. A legal advice service. An auditor, certification body or regulator. A guarantee that you will pass an audit or inspection.

These Terms of Use apply to everyone who accesses or uses any part of EthicalHub, including:

• Business owners, managers and administrators who hold an EthicalHub subscription
• Staff members given access by an account holder, such as QA staff, kitchen and production staff, and food safety supervisors
• Food safety consultants who use EthicalHub to support their clients
• Suppliers who upload certificates or documents through a link we or a customer send them
• Anyone browsing or interacting with ethicalhub.co

By creating an account, starting a trial, accessing the platform, or continuing to use EthicalHub after these terms take effect, you agree to be bound by them.

If you use EthicalHub on behalf of a business, group or consulting practice, you confirm that:

• You have authority to accept these terms on that organisation’s behalf
• The organisation agrees to these terms as a condition of accessing the platform
• You will make sure everyone you give access to complies with these terms

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not access or use EthicalHub.

When we use the following terms in this document, here is what we mean:

Registration

To use EthicalHub, you must create an account with accurate, complete and current information, and keep it up to date. Providing false information — including false details about your business, its registration or licensing, or your compliance records — is a breach of these terms.

Login security

Keep your password and login details confidential and don’t share them with anyone. Each person who needs access should have their own login under your subscription.

If you suspect someone has accessed your account without permission, tell us immediately at hello@ethicalhub.co and we’ll help you secure it. We are not liable for loss or damage caused by unauthorised access that results from a failure to protect your login details.

Account responsibility

You are responsible for all activity under your account, including the actions of staff you give access to. Make sure they understand and follow these terms.

Accurate business information

Your account should reflect your business’s current details, such as its sites, registration or licence status, and nominated food safety supervisor. If these change, update your account promptly.

EthicalHub is built for one purpose: helping food businesses manage their food safety compliance accurately, efficiently and honestly. Use it for that.

You agree to use the platform lawfully, ethically and in good faith. You are responsible for everything you do on the platform and all content you enter or upload.

The following conduct is strictly prohibited

Reporting misuse

If you become aware of anyone using EthicalHub in a way that could compromise food safety, please contact us at hello@ethicalhub.co. We treat all reports confidentially.

This section matters. Please read it carefully.

Compliance is still your responsibility

EthicalHub helps you meet your obligations under the Food Standards Code, the Food Act 1984 (Vic) and any certification scheme you choose. Those obligations belong to you and your business — not to us.

Information, templates and default settings in EthicalHub (such as default check frequencies) are provided in good faith as general guidance. They are not legal, regulatory or professional advice. Regulations change and your circumstances matter, so confirm critical compliance decisions with your food safety supervisor, consultant, certifier, council or a qualified professional.

No warranty on regulatory outcomes

We make no warranty, express or implied, that using EthicalHub will lead to a satisfactory outcome at any audit, inspection or certification. Outcomes depend on many things, including how your business operates day to day, the actions of your staff, and the judgment of the auditor or officer.

Ownership

The records, logs, certificates, corrective actions and other data you enter into EthicalHub belong to you. We do not claim ownership of your content.

Licence to us

By entering content into EthicalHub, you give us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, process, back up and display it — only to provide and improve the platform for you. We will not use your content for marketing or any other commercial purpose without your explicit consent.

Your responsibility for accuracy

You are responsible for the accuracy, completeness and lawfulness of the content you enter. EthicalHub cannot verify that records you upload are authentic. Entering false records breaches these terms and may have serious regulatory and legal consequences for you and your business.

Exporting your data

You can export your compliance records from within the platform. We recommend doing this regularly and before making any changes to your subscription.

Data retention after account closure

If you cancel your subscription or your account is terminated, we will keep your data for 60 days, during which you can request an export. After 60 days, your data will be permanently deleted from our systems, except where we are required by law to keep it.

We are not liable for loss arising from your failure to export your data before account closure or the end of the 60-day period.

De-identified data

We may use anonymised, aggregated data that cannot identify you, your business or any individual (for example, trends in how often checks are logged) to improve EthicalHub and to publish industry insights.

EthicalHub lets a business connect with a food safety consultant, usually by accepting the consultant’s invite link.

If you are a business

• When you connect a consultant, they can view the records of the sites you connect and carry out actions the platform allows, such as reviewing records, signing off corrective actions and generating reports.
• You decide whether to connect a consultant. To remove a consultant’s access, contact us or use the account settings where available.
• Your consultant’s advice and professional services are between you and them. EthicalHub is not responsible for their advice or work.

If you are a consultant

• Only access, use or share a client’s data for the purpose of providing your services to that client.
• Keep client data confidential and comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
• Your professional obligations, including any independence requirements of a certification body you work with, remain your responsibility.

We take the security of your data seriously.

What we do to protect your data

• Data is encrypted in transit using TLS and encrypted at rest
• Your compliance records are stored on servers located in Australia (Sydney)
• We maintain regular automated backups
• Access to production systems is restricted to authorised personnel
• We monitor for unusual access and security threats

Some service providers we use — for example, for payment processing and email delivery — may process limited information outside Australia. Our Privacy Policy explains which providers we use and where.

What you must do

• Use a strong, unique password for your EthicalHub account
• Don’t share logins between staff members
• Remove access promptly when a staff member leaves or a consultant engagement ends
• Tell us without delay about any suspected breach or unauthorised access

If there is a data breach

If a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected users as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), explain what happened, and tell you what we are doing about it.

EthicalHub is offered on a monthly or annual subscription, priced per site. Current plans, prices and inclusions are set out on our pricing page. Prices are in Australian dollars (AUD) and [inclusive / exclusive] of GST unless otherwise stated.

Billing cycle

Subscriptions are billed in advance for each monthly or annual period, starting when you subscribe or at the end of any free trial. Payments recur on the same date each period until you cancel.

Payment methods

We accept major credit and debit cards through our secure third-party payment provider. By providing your payment details, you authorise us to charge your nominated payment method for your recurring subscription fees.

Failed payments

If a payment fails, we will email you. You will have a 7-day grace period to update your payment details before your access is suspended. If payment is not received within 14 days of the failure, we may end your subscription. You remain liable for amounts owed up to the date your subscription ends.

Price changes

If we increase the price of your plan, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email before it takes effect. If you don’t accept the new price, you can cancel before it applies.

Taxes

If you are registered for GST, you may be entitled to claim an input tax credit. Please check with your accountant.

From time to time we may offer a free trial. Any trial’s length, included features and whether a payment method is needed will be shown when you sign up.

• One free trial per business. Creating multiple accounts to extend a trial breaches these terms.
• Trials are for genuinely evaluating EthicalHub.
• We may end a trial early if we reasonably believe it is being misused.

If you don’t subscribe at the end of a trial, your account will be paused and your data kept for 30 days so you can pick up where you left off.

Cancelling your subscription

You can cancel at any time through your account settings or by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and you keep full access until then.

Refund policy

We don’t issue refunds for part-used billing periods. Exceptions may apply for:

• A material platform failure we can’t resolve within a reasonable time
• A billing error on our part
• Circumstances covered by your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

To request a refund, email hello@ethicalhub.co within 14 days of the relevant billing event. We’ll respond within 5 business days.

Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. If a consumer guarantee applies and we fail to meet it, you may be entitled to a remedy regardless of this policy.

We work hard to keep EthicalHub available and performing well, and we back up your data regularly.

Planned maintenance

Where possible, we schedule maintenance during low-use periods and give you advance notice by email or in the app.

Unplanned outages

We can’t guarantee EthicalHub will always be available, error-free or uninterrupted. If an unplanned outage happens, we’ll keep you informed by email and restore access as a priority.

No uptime guarantee

We don’t currently offer a formal service level agreement. If your organisation needs one, contact us to discuss options.

We may give you early access to features that are still in development (“beta” features). Beta features are provided as-is, without warranty, may change or behave unexpectedly, and may be discontinued.

Don’t rely on a beta feature as your only way of managing a critical food safety task until it is generally available. If we remove a beta feature, we’ll give you reasonable notice.

What we own

The EthicalHub platform — its design, features, code, templates, interface, documentation and brand — belongs to EthicalHub Pty Ltd or our licensors. These terms don’t transfer any intellectual property rights to you.

What you can do

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use EthicalHub to manage your business’s food safety compliance (or, for consultants, your clients’) during your subscription. This licence does not allow you to:

• Copy, reproduce or distribute EthicalHub’s code, design or content
• Create derivative works based on the platform
• Use EthicalHub’s name, logo or branding without our written consent
• Resell, sublicense or transfer access to a third party

Your feedback

If you share feedback or ideas, you give us a perpetual, royalty-free licence to use them to improve EthicalHub. We’re not obliged to act on feedback or pay for it.

Your data is confidential

We treat your records, supplier relationships, audit history and operational data as confidential. We won’t disclose them except:

• Where you authorise it — for example, by connecting a consultant or sending a supplier an upload link
• Where required by law, court order or a lawful demand from a regulator
• To our service providers, who are bound by equivalent confidentiality obligations
• In connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of our business, in which case we’ll notify you in advance

Our confidential information

If you learn non-public information about our roadmap, pricing, technology or business, please keep it confidential.

Regulatory demands

If a regulator or court lawfully requires us to disclose your data, we may have to comply. Where legally allowed, we’ll tell you first so you can seek legal protection.

Third-party services

EthicalHub relies on third-party services such as payment processing, hosting, email delivery and analytics. They operate under their own terms and privacy policies. We choose them carefully but are not responsible for their acts or failures.

Supplier certificates and documents

Supplier certificates and documents in EthicalHub are uploaded by you or by your suppliers. EthicalHub does not verify that supplier certificates, claims or product information are accurate, current or genuine. You remain responsible for approving your suppliers. We recommend:

• Checking supplier certificates with the issuing body when in doubt
• Keeping your own records of supplier approval decisions
• Not relying only on documents in EthicalHub as proof of a supplier’s compliance

Third-party links

Links to other websites are provided for convenience only. We don’t endorse or control third-party content.

Food safety records exist to protect the people who eat your food — including patients, aged care residents, children and people with allergies. That’s the reason EthicalHub exists, not a legal formality.

Our commitment

We will never knowingly help a business create the appearance of compliance while its practices fall short. If we have reasonable grounds to believe EthicalHub is being used to create false records that could put people at risk, we may:

• Suspend the relevant account immediately, without prior notice
• Notify the relevant regulator, such as the local council, the Victorian Department of Health, Dairy Food Safety Victoria or PrimeSafe
• Cooperate with any investigation

Who can use EthicalHub

EthicalHub is designed for adults managing food safety in a business setting. It is not intended for use by children.

How we collect, use, store and disclose personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

• We collect only what we need to provide the platform
• Your compliance records are stored in Australia
• We never sell your personal information
• You can ask to access, correct or delete your personal information

We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, you can complain to us, and then to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Staff, patient and resident information

You may enter personal information about your staff (such as names and training records) and, in some features, about patients’ or residents’ dietary requirements or allergies. Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act. You are responsible for having the right to collect it, obtaining any required consent, and meeting your privacy obligations. We process it only to provide the platform and in line with our Privacy Policy.

We try to do right by our users, but we need to be clear about the limits of our legal responsibility.

What we are not liable for

To the fullest extent permitted by law, EthicalHub Pty Ltd is not liable for:

• Regulatory penalties, fines, enforcement action, recalls or licence conditions arising from your business’s food safety obligations
• An unsatisfactory outcome at any audit, certification, customer audit or regulatory inspection
• Loss or corruption of data caused by events outside our reasonable control (see Section 22)
• Any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, including lost revenue, lost contracts or reputational damage
• The acts or omissions of suppliers, consultants or third-party service providers
• Your reliance on information in EthicalHub as legal, regulatory or professional advice

Cap on liability

Where our liability cannot be excluded, our total liability to you for any claim under or in connection with these terms is limited to the lesser of:

• The subscription fees you paid us in the 3 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or
• AUD $500

Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

You agree to indemnify EthicalHub Pty Ltd, its directors, employees and contractors against claims, losses, damages and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• Your breach of these terms
• Your unlawful use of the platform, or use that harms a third party
• Content you upload that infringes someone else’s intellectual property, privacy or other rights
• False or misleading records entered by you or anyone using your account
• Regulatory or legal action arising from how your business operates

This indemnity does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of these terms.

We are not liable for delay or failure to perform our obligations caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control, including natural disasters, power or internet failures, cyberattacks, government action, public health emergencies, and failures of third-party hosting providers.

If such an event stops us providing the platform for more than 30 consecutive days, either of us may end the affected subscription by written notice, and we will refund prepaid fees for the affected period on a pro-rata basis.

Termination by you

You can cancel at any time (see Section 12).

Termination by us with notice

We may end or suspend your access with 14 days’ written notice if you haven’t paid within the grace period, if we discontinue the platform or a significant part of it, or if the law requires it.

Immediate termination

We may end or suspend your access immediately if:

• You materially breach these terms and the breach can’t be fixed, or you don’t fix a fixable breach within 7 days of our notice
• We reasonably believe you are using the platform fraudulently or to create false records
• Your use of the platform poses a risk to food safety or to other users
• You become insolvent or enter administration

Effect of termination

When your access ends, your data is held for 60 days as described in Section 7. Sections 7, 15, 16, 20, 21 and 26 continue after termination.

We may update these terms, for example when we launch features that change how the platform works, when the law changes, or to clarify existing wording.

For material changes, we will email you at least 14 days before they take effect, show a notice in the platform, and update the date on this page. If you don’t agree with a material change, you can cancel before it takes effect without penalty. Continuing to use EthicalHub after the effective date means you accept the updated terms.

Minor changes, such as fixing typos or updating contact details, may be made without advance notice.

Entire agreement

These terms, our Privacy Policy and any order form or subscription confirmation form the entire agreement between you and EthicalHub about your use of the platform.

Severability

If any provision is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be severed and the rest of these terms will continue in effect.

Waiver

If we don’t enforce a provision at a particular time, we haven’t waived our right to enforce it later. A waiver must be in writing.

Assignment

You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of our business, and will notify you if we do.

No agency

Nothing in these terms creates an agency, partnership, joint venture or employment relationship between you and EthicalHub.

Notices

Formal notices must be sent by email. Notices to us go to hello@ethicalhub.co; notices to you go to the email address on your account.

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and the courts of Victoria have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

Talk to us first

Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us at hello@ethicalhub.co with a clear description of the issue. We’ll acknowledge it within 2 business days and aim to resolve it within 14 business days.

Mediation

If we can’t resolve a dispute directly, either of us may refer it to mediation through the Resolution Institute before starting court proceedings.