This Privacy Policy describes the personal information that may be collected by Bloke2Bloke Counselling(also ‘We‘ or ‘Us‘), the choices you can make about your personal information and how we protect your information. If you would like a printed version of this policy, you can print this page using your browser, or contact us for a copy. Our contact details are listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.
To meet your expectations about privacy and confidentiality We have operational processes and procedures to comply with: Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988; Spam Act 2003 in relation to electronic marketing; and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 where we engage in telemarketing. Should there be any inconsistency between this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and other Acts mentioned above, this policy shall be interpreted to give effect to and comply with the legislation. This policy includes examples but is not intended to be restricted in its application to such examples. Where the word ‘including’ is used, it shall mean ‘including without limitation’.
If you have any questions not addressed in this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us using the methods at the end of this policy.
By using this website, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Please note that this policy does not extend your rights or Our obligations beyond those defined in the legislation listed above.
Our website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of those other websites or organisations. We recommend you review the privacy policies of each site you visit.
‘Personal information’ means information we hold about you where your identity is either clear or can be reasonably determined. When you give us your personal information, it imposes a serious responsibility on us. Protecting your privacy when handling your personal information is very important to us.
Collection of Information
Generally, we will collect personal information directly from you, and only to the extent necessary to provide the product or service (including our agency functions if we have any) you requested or to carry out our internal administrative operations or meet relevant regulatory requirements. An ‘agency function’ means a service that we provide to you on behalf of another organisation. We may also collect personal information for the purpose of enhancing our ability to improve service delivery to you and other customers in the future.
Personal information may be collected from you when you fill in an application form; deal with us over the telephone or over web chat; purchase a product or service in one of our retail or wholesale outlets or on-line; when you register for or use our online products and services; you e-mail us or when you create an account with us. It may also be collected where you participate in an online promotion; provide us with feedback; complete online surveys; you contact, register with, post to, like or follow any of our social media websites, pages, forums or blogs or you ask us to contact you after visiting our website. We will collect personal information from you by lawful, transparent and fair means.
If you choose to not provide your personal information when requested, we may not be able to deliver the product or service that you have requested. We will endeavour to make this as clear as possible for each product or service. In some cases, where it makes sense and is lawful, you can interact with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym (an alias). We will endeavour to make this option clear when it is available to you.
We will only collect personal information from you that is necessary to provide the product or service or to carry out internal administrative functions, or any other personal information you submit to us. We collect different personal information depending on the product or service that you have requested.
We may also collect personal information from third parties such as retailers, other individuals or any other third party in order to provide our products or services to you. In such instances, we assume the person providing the information is authorised to provide us with your personal information. There may be occasions when we collect information about you from a third party where it is reasonably necessary or normal business practice to do so, for example from payment gateways relating to payments made through third party providers.
Unsolicited Information
“Unsolicited” personal information is personal information about an individual that an organisation has unintentionally received. This is an uncommon occurrence for Us, but when it does happen, we will protect your personal information with the same rigor as we treat personal information that we intended to collect. If we could not have collected this information through our normal processes, we will de-identify that information as soon as we can.
Uses and Sharing of Information
We use the personal information you provide only for purposes consistent with the reason you provided it, or for a directly related purpose. We may also use your personal information where required or permitted by law or where you have provided us with your express or implied consent.
We may also use your personal information, or aggregate your personal information with the personal information of other customers (so that the aggregated information is no longer personal) for the purposes of:
(a) Analysis to help us better understand the needs of our customers so that we and third parties can better develop products and services for you;
(b) Providing information that is tailored to what we believe are your areas of interest; and
(c) Analysing your product and services to improve your experience and to enable us to develop new or enhanced functionality for you.
We do not share your personal information with other organisations unless you give us consent, or where sharing is otherwise required or permitted by law, or where this is necessary on a temporary basis to enable our contractors to perform specific functions.
We may contact you periodically to advise you of new or enhanced functionality which is available in connection with our products and services. You will not be obliged to adopt any such functionality.
When we temporarily provide personal information to companies who perform services for us, we require those companies to protect your personal information as diligently as we do. Strict contractual and other quality assurance measures are used to ensure your personal information is protected.
We have a strict duty to maintain the privacy of all personal information we hold about you. However, certain exceptions do apply. For example, where disclosure of your personal information is:
(a) Authorised or required by law (for example, disclosure to various government departments and agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office, CentreLink, Child Support Agency, or disclosure to courts under subpoena);
(b) In the public interest (e.g. where a crime, fraud or misdemeanour is committed or suspected and disclosure against the customer’s rights to confidentiality is justified); or
(c) With your consent, which consent may be implied or express and it may also be verbal or written.
Personal Information and Subsidiaries
We can disclose personal information (excluding sensitive information) with subsidiaries and controlled entities as long as the purpose for sharing is related to the reason the personal information was originally collected. This excludes subsidiaries that are outside of Australia.
Overseas Use and Disclosure
We may transfer personal information to countries outside Australia (for example when you send correspondence overseas). We will only do so in compliance with all applicable Australian data protection and privacy laws. We will take reasonable steps to protect personal information no matter what country it is stored in or transferred to. We have procedures and data transfer contracts as appropriate to help ensure this.
We may also use your personal information, or aggregate your personal information with the personal information of other customers (so that the aggregated information is no longer personal) for the purposes of analysis to help us better understand the needs of our customers so that we and third parties can better develop products and services for you; providing information that is tailored to what we believe are your areas of interest; and analysing your product and services to improve your experience and to enable us to develop new or enhanced functionality for you.
Accessing Your Personal Information
From time to time We may use the personal information We collect from you to identify particular products and services which We believe may be of interest to you. We may then contact you to let you know about these products and services and how they may benefit you. We will generally only do this with your prior consent (where practical) and We will always give you a choice to opt out of receiving such information in future.
Every directly addressed marketing contact sent or made by Us will include a means by which customers may unsubscribe (or opt out) of receiving further marketing information. Additionally, you may instruct us at any time to remove any previous consent you provided to receive marketing communications from us.
You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you. This right is subject to certain exceptions allowed by law. We will, upon your request, and subject to applicable privacy laws, provide you with access to your personal information that is held by us. However, we ask that you identify, as clearly as possible, the type (or types) of information requested. We will deal with your request in a reasonable time, usually within 30 days.
Your right to access your personal information is not absolute. In some circumstances, the law permits Us to refuse your request to provide you with access to your personal information.
Updating Your Information
It is inevitable that some personal information which we hold will become out of date. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information which we hold remains accurate and, if you advise us of a change of details, we will amend our records accordingly. Where your information has been disclosed to a third party, We will take reasonable steps to notify the third party of the correction. Where we are unable to update your information, we will provide an explanation in writing as to why the information cannot be corrected.
Information Security
We are committed to protecting and securing your personal information. We employ appropriate technical, administrative and physical procedures to protect personal information from unauthorised disclosure, loss, misuse or alteration. We limit access to personal information to individuals with a business need consistent with the reason the information was provided. We keep personal information only for as long as it is required for business purposes or by the law.
We protect your personal information by complying with Information Security Standards, Industry Schemes and Statutory obligations. We regularly conduct targeted internal and external audits on our security systems to validate the currency of our security practices.
We understand that you may be concerned about the security of the personal information we collect from you online. Accordingly, we have systems in place to ensure our online dealings with you are as secure as your dealings with us in person, or on the telephone.
We employ security programs and services to monitor network traffic in order to identify attempts to breach our security.
Information Collected on Our Website
We may collect non-personal information from you such as browser type, operating system, and web pages visited to help us manage our web site.
We use cookies and other internet technologies to manage our website and certain online products and services. We do not use these technologies to collect or store personal information unless you have opted in to such a feature. Where you have logged into our website we may reflect the products and services you use with your on-line behavior to provide content that is of more interest to you.
Our internet server logs the following information which is provided by your browser for statistical and content optimisation and personalisation purposes. This may include the type of browser and operating system you are using; your Internet Service Provider and top-level domain name (for example – .com, .gov, .au, .uk); the address of any referring website (for example – the previous web site you visited), and or your computer’s IP (Internet Protocol) address (a number which is unique to the machine through which you are connected to the internet).
All this information is used by Us for aggregated statistical analyses or systems administration purposes only. No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities, except where required by law.
Other Sites Links
Our site contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. We encourage you to read and understand the privacy policies on those websites prior to providing any information to them.
Some of the content appearing on Our website may be supplied by third parties, for example, by framing third party websites or the incorporation through “framesets” of content supplied by third party application service providers. In such cases, We will ensure that our contractual arrangements with these third parties protect your personal information in compliance with privacy laws.
Searches
Search terms that you enter when using our search engine may be collected, but are not associated with any other information that we collect. We may use these search terms for the purpose of aggregated statistical analyses so we can ascertain what people are looking for on our website, and to improve the services that we provide.
We may use external companies to provide us with detailed aggregate statistical analyses of our website traffic. At no time is any personal information made available to these companies, nor is the aggregate information ever merged with personal information such as your name, address, email address or other information you would consider sensitive or would compromise your privacy.
Loss of Personal Information
Despite our every effort to protect your personal information, there remains the possibility that a breach of our security could occur. In the event of loss of personal information, We will:
(a) Seek to rapidly identify and secure the breach to prevent any further breaches;
(b) Engage the appropriate authorities where criminal activity is suspected
(c) Assess the nature and severity of the breach including the type of personal information involved and the risk of harm to affected individuals;
(d) Notify the affected individuals directly if appropriate and where possible;
(e) If appropriate, put a notice on our website advising our customers of the breach;
(f) Notify the Privacy Commissioner (at the OAIC) if the breach is significant.
Resolution of Complaints
We are committed to working with its customers to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. To contact us with a compliment or complaint or a privacy question, you can write to us at:
Further information on privacy
You can obtain further general information about your privacy rights and Commonwealth privacy law from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling their Privacy Hotline on 1300 363 992; visiting their web site at http://www.oaic.gov.au/ or writing to the Australian Information Commissioner,GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.