Privacy Policy Migration

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the use of Participate Australia’s website.  Participate Australia respects your privacy and recognises the importance of protecting your personal information. The _Privacy Act 1988_ (Cth) informs and guides how we do this. This policy explains how we collect, store, use and disclose your personal information.

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Privacy Act.  In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you.  This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation.  If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

Why do we collect information and what sort of information do we collect?

Participate Australia collects your personal information so that we can perform our activities and functions and provide best possible quality of service and support

We collect, hold, use and disclose your performance information for the following purposes:

• to help us understand what services and supports you need;
• to provide supports and services that you have requested to meet your needs;
• to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about our supports and services;
• to assess the performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website;
• to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• to contact you directly for marketing purposes with information and material that we believe may be of interest to you;
• to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country.

The information that we collect will depend on your relationship with us. It may include your name, address, contact details, your services and activities history, and payment details in connection with paying for a service, activity or donation.

We may also collect medical history, behavioural details and other information like language spoken at home, religious beliefs, ethnic origin etc. to support you adequately and respectfully. We will only collect such information with your consent.

Photographs or video may be taken and used only with your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

Direct marketing materials

Direct marketing involves communicating with you directly for the purpose of promoting goods and services to you. From time-to-time, we (or our service providers) may use your personal information to provide you with marketing information or materials through various forms, including by post, email or telephone in accordance with applicable marketing laws. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. At any time, you will have an opportunity to opt-out of receiving direct marketing materials by contacting our Privacy Officer or by using the opt-out facilities provided in the marketing materials.

How is your personal information collected?

In most cases, we collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. In cases where it is impracticable, we may then collect your personal information from your family or other people or organisations that you have given us permission to contact. We might obtain the information verbally, in writing or electronically via email or through your access and use of our website, or interaction with any of our social media presence.

Cookies and web analytics

In some cases we may also collect your personal information through the use of cookies and other website analytics tools.  Please refer to our website terms and conditionshere.

Who do we share your personal information with?

To co-ordinate a better service, we may disclose your personal information to health, education or other third-party service providers for any authorise purposes, where required or authorised by law, or with your consent.

What happens if you do not want to share your personal information with us?

If you request a service or support from Participate Australia, and you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with our services, or we may only be able to do so in part.

Supporters and donors have the right to remain anonymous or to use an alias when dealing with us. Supporters who wish to receive a tax-deductible receipt for a financial donation must provide some personal data under Australian tax law.

How secure is your personal information?

Participate Australia considers the security of your personal information a priority. We have a range of measures in place to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Electronic data is stored in a secure network which is password protected. Paper based files are used where it is unavoidable or required.  Personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed.

If your service or relationship with Participate Australia ends, we follow any records management rules prescribed by our funding contracts and any relevant state and commonwealth legislation. This may include the secure destruction of records not required to be archived by law.

Can you access and correct your information?

We take all reasonable steps to keep your personal information accurate, up to date, relevant and complete. We ask that you let us know if you believe your information to be inaccurate or incomplete, so that we may update your record. We will update your record if we consider that the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then, at your request, we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

If you would like a copy of your personal information, please send a request to us in writing so we can confirm your identity. You can do this by email or mail (see below). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. If we cannot give you access to your information, we will explain the reason in writing.  Note that we will need to verify your identity before giving you with access to your personal information.

Please contact us if:

• You have a question about our Privacy Policy
• You wish to access the personal information we hold about you
• You no longer want us to contact you for marketing purposes
• You have a complaint about how we have managed your personal information

You may do so by speaking with one of our staff, calling, emailing or sending a letter to Participate Australia or by sending us a message via the online form.

Privacy Officer

Participate Australia Ltd PO Box 210 Croydon NSW 2132

Phone: 02 9799 4333 Email: enquiries@participateaustralia.com.au

What will happen if I make a complaint?

If you consider that your privacy has been breached, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information above and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it.

We request that our complaints about breaches of privacy be made in writing, so we can be sure about details of the complaint. Our Privacy Officer deals with privacy complaints and any complaints should be directed to our Privacy Officer using the contact details below.

Once we have received your complaint, we will usually contact you within 3 business days to discuss it with you. We may need up to 3 weeks to investigate and resolve your complaint.

However if you are not satisfied with how we handled your complaint, you may complain to Participate Australia’s Chief Executive Officer or the President of the Board, or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by phoning 1300 363 992 or lodging an online complaint through oaic.gov.au

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time.  Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.  Please review it regularly.

This privacy policy was last updated on \[13 October 2021\].

Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions apply to the use of this website and to how Participate Australia (Participate Australia, us, we, our) collects, uses and discloses any personal information you may provide by visiting this website. These Terms and Conditions stand in conjunction with our Privacy Policy. By accessing this website, you accept and agree to these Terms and Conditions. You must not use this website if you do not agree with these Terms and Conditions.

To the extent permitted by law, Participate Australia reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time by updating this document. Your continued use of the website after such update will constitute your acceptance of those changes.

Use of this website

You agree to only use this website in accordance with these Terms and Conditions and any applicable legislation. You may be held personally liable for any unlawful use of this website. You must not bypass any security mechanisms imposed by the website, or interfere with the normal operations of the website.

Content management

All content available from this website is protected by copyright, and is owned or licensed and managed by Participate Australia.

Copying, modifying, reproducing and transmitting any content including trademarks from this website without prior written approval is not permitted.

Any content linked to this website is not owned by Participate Australia. It remains the copyright of the owner of that content. Restrictions on the use of that material may also be in place and Participate Australia has made reasonable effort to identify and label such content and to obtain consent to display it.

Participate Australia has obtained specific consent from parents and principal carers to use images of children, young persons and adults displayed on this website. This consent does not extend to use by third parties and downloading and using these images for any purpose is not permitted unless the consent of the respective parent or principal carer is obtained for each instance.

Booking services and support from website

The website may list various services and activities that Participate Australia may provide or offer to provide from time to time.  All information provided on this website in respect of any services and activities (including fees) does not constitute an offer to provide but an invitation to treat only, and is subject to availability and your eligibility to participate in those services and activities.

Fees and amounts shown on this website exclude GST.  You will be advised of any GST (if any) when you book those services and activities with Participate Australia.  All fees are payable in Australian dollars.

Participate Australia reserves the right to vary or correct the fees and amounts on this website at any time without prior notice.

You will need to follow the booking procedures specified in the website.  Your request for a booking is not guaranteed to be accepted by Participate Australia and is subject to availability.  A booking is not confirmed unless and until Participate Australia confirms in writing.  Once a booking is confirmed, the services and activities will be provided on the terms of the Participant’s NDIS Support Agreement between Participate Australia and you.

Despite a confirmed booking, Participate Australia may, by notice to you, defer or cancel services and activities due to events outside the reasonable control of Participate Australia (including government orders concerning pandemics).

Disclaimers

To the extent permitted by law, Participate Australia does not warrant that access to the website will be uninterrupted, or that the services and features offered on the website will be error-free or available when required.  Participate Australia may block access to the website for security reasons.  Participate Australia reserves the right to change or discontinue any feature on the website, the availability of the website and the software required to access it.

• The information provided on this website is provided for information purposes, general interest and enquiry only. While Participate Australia uses reasonable efforts to ensure that the information on this website is accurate and up to date, the information and content is provided on an “as is” basis to the maximum extent permitted by law. Information may change without notice.

Links to other websites

This website may contain links to other websites for the convenience of users. Participate Australia is not responsible or liable for the content of any such websites and users view those websites at their own risk. Unless expressly stated otherwise, hyperlinks to other websites do not indicate any endorsement or recommendation by Participate Australia.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Participate Australia excludes all liability for any loss or damage, including any indirect or consequential loss or loss of data arising in relation to the use or reliance of any part of this website or any information on this website, whether or not it is caused by negligence, and whether or not the possibility of loss was known to Participate Australia.

Information we collect, and what for

When you communicate with us digitally, for example when you register for a service, pay for a service, participate in an event or engage via social media, we may collect the information that you provide to us.

Please note that when you communicate with us digitally or use links to access our website via search engines or other companies, they may collect information (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Google etc).  Participate Australia has no control over and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these companies. Please review the privacy policies of these providers.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected, which include:

• in response to an enquiry, feedback or a complaint you have made;
• to process payments for supports and services you access:
• to connect you or your family member to the services you require;
• to keep you informed about activities and services that may be of interest to you;
• to process and receipt donations and gifts; and
• to fulfil legal and contractual obligations.

Participate Australia will only provide personal information to third parties if required by law, or with your consent either expressed or implied.

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information about the protocols Participate Australia has in place to protect your personal information, and how you may access and correct the personal information that we hold about you and how to lodge a complaint relating to our treatment of your personal information, and how we will deal with such complaint.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files that a website transfers to an individual’s computer or devices for record-keeping purposes. Cookies allow a website to remember important information that will make your use of the site more convenient.

You can change the settings of your web browser to accept or reject all or some cookies if you do not wish this to occur while you visit the Participate Australia website. Please note that rejecting cookies may deactivate some features of our website.

Google Analytics

Participate Australia may collect and analyse data from our website traffic through Google Analytics. The sole purpose of collecting your data in this way is to improve your experience when using our site.

It allows us to analyse and gain insights in browsing preferences of users, including where they came from and what they did on the site, without revealing who each user is.

Google Analytics anonymously tracks how our visitors interact with our website, including where they came from, what they did on the site. The information generated may be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located outside Australia. For more about how Google collects and processes data, please see Google’s privacy policy and its information at _www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners_

Social Networks, Email Lists, Registrations and Feedback

We will collect information that you provide to us when you communicate with us:

• Using social networks;
• Signing up to mailing lists;
• Registering for our events; _or_
• When submitting feedback on your experience with our website.

Some functionality of this website is not run by Participate Australia, and third parties may capture and store your personal information outside Australia. These third parties include (but are not limited to) Facebook, YouTube, Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey and Google.

Participate Australia is not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties and encourages you to examine each website’s privacy policies.

Security

Participate Australia considers the security of your personal information a priority. We have a range of measures in place to protect it from unauthorised access, misuse, modification, or disclosure. Electronic data is stored in a secure network which is password protected. Paper based files are used where it is unavoidable or required.

Participate Australia uses a secure, encrypted system to process online payments and donations.  Specific security systems are in place for processing online payments which may include the use of encrypted links, dedicated private connections and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Encryption. However, the internet is not a secure environment and although all care is taken, we cannot guarantee the security of information you provide to us through electronic means.

When using the website, you must take precautions to ensure that you are not exposed to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which may damage your own computer system. We do not accept responsibility for any such interference or damage to your systems which arises in connection with your use of the website.

General

If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is found to be void, unlawful or unenforceable for any reason, then that portion of the provision which creates the invalidity, unlawfulness or unenforceability will be severable from these Terms and Conditions and will not otherwise affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provision.

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New South Wales, Australia.

Please contact us if:

• You have a question about our Terms and Conditions
• You wish to access the personal information we hold about you
• You no longer want us to contact you for marketing purposes
• You have a complaint about how we have managed your personal information

You may do so by speaking with one of our staff, calling, emailing or sending a letter to Participate Australia or by sending us a message via the online form.

Privacy Officer

Participate Australia Ltd PO Box 210 Croydon NSW 2132

Phone: 02 9799 4333 Email: enquiries@participateaustralia.com.au

Complaints are handled in accordance with Participate Australia’s Feedback and Complainant’s Policy. However if you are not satisfied with how we handled your complaint, you may complain to Participate Australia’s Chief Executive Officer or the President of the Board, or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by phoning 1300 363 992 or lodging an online complaint through oaic.gov.au