Last updated: 16 September 2026

Our Commitment to Privacy

Robotics Coding Challenge (RCC) handles personal information in accordance with applicable Australian privacy requirements. Because many participants are children, RCC minimises identifying information and requires an authorised adult, participant, parent/guardian, teacher or school representative to provide the permissions required for registration and submission.

What We Collect

• participant name, year or grade level, school, category and team information;
• participant, parent/guardian, teacher or school contact information;
• registration, consent, payment and award-delivery information;
• optional Project Note text, code files and presentation or robot-operation videos;
• account, submission, security and audit records needed to operate the competition; and
• technical information normally produced when using a website, such as IP address, browser and server logs.

Payment card details are handled by the applicable payment provider and are not stored in full by RCC. The dedicated registration-consent record stores a keyed hash rather than the registrant’s raw IP address.

How We Use Information

• to register participants, manage individual and school accounts, and accept submissions;
• to confirm participation and Robotics Finals qualification, conduct judging and evaluation, manage appeals, and issue certificates or awards;
• to communicate essential registration, learning, submission, deadline, system, result and award information;
• to publish official individual and team participant, finalist and awardee results subject to the limits below;
• to provide registered RCC eLearning students with appropriate project reference material;
• to protect the integrity, security and availability of RCC services; and
• to improve future RCC education and competition programs.

Required operational communications are not marketing consent. RCC does not sell participant personal information or share it with third parties for their independent marketing.

Unlisted YouTube Videos and Limited Access

Eligible finalised submission videos are uploaded by RCC to the official RCC YouTube channel using YouTube API Services and set to Unlisted. They are not normally displayed in YouTube search results or on the channel’s public video list.

RCC uses these videos only for judging and competition administration; display with results or awards on the official RCC website; direct-link sharing with relevant teachers, students, parents/guardians and RCC personnel; and reference viewing within RCC eLearning by registered students. Registration does not authorise unrelated advertising, press, sponsor promotion or general social-media use. RCC must obtain separate explicit permission for those uses.

Unlisted is not private access control: anyone who receives the link, or visits an RCC page where it is embedded, may view and share it. Associated information is limited to details reasonably needed for entry identification and recognition, such as submission number, approved participant/display name, category, year or grade, school, team name, project title and result or award. RCC does not intentionally place direct contact details, dates of birth, parent/guardian details or other sensitive information in public or linked video metadata.

By finalising a submission, the authorised submitter reconfirms the required permissions and accepts this limited use. An authorised person may later request removal; removing the required video may withdraw the entry or make it ineligible for continued judging, qualification, awards, results display or registered-student reference access.

YouTube’s handling of information is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube Terms of Service. The RCC upload service uses only the permissions needed to upload videos and confirm their processing status. It does not read participant viewing histories, subscriptions or private YouTube account activity. The organiser can review or revoke RCC’s Google account authorisation through Google security permissions.

Storage, Processing and Disclosure

RCC uses contracted service providers to operate the competition, including website and infrastructure providers, Cloudflare R2 for private temporary submission storage, Google/YouTube for Unlisted video hosting, email providers and payment processors. Judges and authorised RCC staff may access submission materials only for competition operations. These providers may process or store information outside Australia under their own security and privacy arrangements.

RCC may also disclose information where required or authorised by law, to investigate misuse or security incidents, or to protect participants and the competition.

How Long We Keep Information

• After YouTube processing and Unlisted publication are confirmed, the R2 copy of a video is retained for a 14-day safety period and then automatically deleted unless an authorised hold is required.
• Code files are retained through judging and the 30-day appeal period, then become eligible for deletion unless a legitimate operational, safeguarding or legal hold applies.
• Unlisted YouTube videos and associated RCC results or awards records remain available for the permitted competition and registered-student reference purposes unless RCC removes them following an authorised request, policy decision or legal requirement.
• Registration, consent, judging, award, financial, security and audit records are kept only for as long as reasonably required for competition administration, accountability and legal obligations.

When information is no longer required, RCC takes reasonable steps to delete it or de-identify it.

Protecting Young Participants

RCC collects only the participant information reasonably needed to run the competition. For entrants under 18, the person registering or finalising the submission must be authorised and must have obtained any required parent/guardian or school permissions. Published or linked metadata is deliberately limited, and direct contact, account and sensitive information is kept out of YouTube metadata and RCC results or awards pages.

How We Protect Information

RCC uses role-based access, private object storage, time-limited signed upload and download links, audit records, restricted service credentials and automated retention controls. No online service can guarantee absolute security, but RCC takes reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Access, Correction and Removal Requests

A participant, parent/guardian or authorised representative may request access to or correction of personal information, ask a privacy question, make a complaint, or request removal of a submission video or associated YouTube API data. Contact [email protected] and identify the participant or submission. RCC may request reasonable evidence of identity and authority before acting, particularly where a child is involved.

RCC will respond within a reasonable period. Where a request cannot be fulfilled because of a legal, safeguarding, integrity or recordkeeping obligation, RCC will explain the reason and available next steps.

Changes to This Policy

RCC may update this policy when services or legal obligations change. The current version and update date will remain published on this page. Material changes affecting a finalised submission will be communicated where reasonably practicable.