PRIVACY POLICY
Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
I really value your privacy. I take reasonable steps to protect your personal information. I abide by the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Act”) in relation to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information and comply with other applicable laws protecting privacy including State and Territory health information legislation.
By engaging our services or providing personal information to me, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of that information on the terms of this privacy policy (Privacy Policy) and any other contractual or other arrangements (if any) that may apply between us.
2. Scope of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how your privacy is respected and protected in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. It applies to all information I collect about you through the use of my services. This includes l information collected in person, in forms completed by you or on your behalf, by telephone, through our website, via other service providers and by other electronic communication channels (e.g. desktop, laptop, mobile phone or other consumer electronic device) to access our services.
3. Agreeing to these terms
Your continued use of our website and/or our service indicates that you accept the conditions of this Privacy Policy, consent to the collection and use by us of any personal information you provide while using our services or our website site.
4. What is personal information?
Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information I collect personally identifies you or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.
5. Why do I collect personal information?
I collect personal information that is necessary for me to undertake and provide my services and activities. Due to the nature of my services, this may include sensitive information, including health information.
De-identified information may also be used for reporting, benchmarking and academic or industry research
6. When do I collect personal information?
Examples of personal information I may collect, and when I may collect it, include (but is not limited to) the following:
Providing services – I collect information that may include date of birth, other information about your needs and circumstances (such as living arrangements), records of communication and as otherwise required in order to provide our services and as disclosed to me during therapy. This information may include health information about them. The specific information will depend on the type of service provided and will be collected from the client before and during the provision of services.
Assisting with your queries - you may choose to provide us with your name or other contact details when you call us by phone or write to us so that I can respond to your requests for information about our services. If you choose to remain anonymous I may not be able to provide the full range, or any, services to you.
Conducting our general business activities - I collect personal information about individuals for our general business operations. From time to time, I may collect, use and disclose your personal information for quality assurance, risk management, billing and administrative purposes.
Research - If you agree to be contacted about research opportunities for which you may be eligible, I may place your name and contact details onto our internal research database. You may opt-out of participation in research activities at any time by contacting me).
Sensitive Information: I may collect sensitive information if it is relevant to the provision of my services. That information will be treated in accordance with requirements of the Privacy Act and any state and territory health information legislation.
7. How do I collect your personal information?
It is our usual practice to collect personal information directly from you. I collect information from an authorised representative if you have consented for me to collect the information in this way, or where it is not reasonable or practical for us to collect this information directly from you (such as in an emergency.
If you choose not to provide certain personal information to us, I may not be able to provide you with the services you require or communicate with you.
In addition to the means of collection set out above, I may also collect personal information:
when you provide information through our website;
from publicly available sources of information;
from third parties, where it is a reasonably necessary or normal business practice, so that I can continue to provide you with our services.
I also collect limited information about all visitors to our online resources which is used only to identify generic behavioural patterns. I may use cookies, Google Analytics or other technology to track visits to our website to monitor its effectiveness, maintain our server and improve our services. Types of data collected include:
server address;
top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, etc.);
the date and time of your visit to the site;
the pages you accessed and documents downloaded during your visit;
the previous site you visited;
if you've visited our site before; and
the type of browser used.
These statistics will not identify you as an individual.
8. How do I use your personal information?
I use and disclose personal information I collect:
to provide my services to you, including to:
identify and provide services required including those offered by third parties;
allow exchange of information between service providers with whom I deal with on your behalf
to verify your identity;
to communicate with you
to undertake our general business activities, including interacting with contractors and service providers, billing and administration;
to administer and manage our services including charging and billing you for those products (as applicable);
to conduct appropriate checks for fraud;
to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems; and/or
for other purposes with your consent or as permitted by law.
9. When will I disclose your personal information?
I will not share any of your personal information with third parties without your consent except in accordance with this Policy and:
if I am required by law or I believe in good faith that such action is necessary in order to comply with law, cooperate with law enforcement or other government agencies, or comply with a legal process served on the company (including other service providers or insurers) or court order; if the disclosure of the information will prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to somebody's life or health;
to our contractors, service providers and volunteers only to the extent necessary for them to perform their duties to us;
to our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;·
if you are not able to provide us with consent, I may use and disclose your personal information with the consent of a responsible person (as defined under the Privacy Act)
as otherwise permitted by law.
If I retain any sensitive information, that information will not be used, shared or disclosed without your express consent that is current, voluntarily given and obtained in accordance with the Privacy Principles.
Security of your personal information
I regard the security of your personal information as a priority and implement a number of reasonable physical and electronic measures to protect it.
I remind you, however, that the internet is not a secure environment and although all care is taken, I cannot guarantee the security of information you provide to us via electronic means.
10. Data quality
I take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information I collect is accurate, up to date and complete. This includes maintaining and updating personal information when I am advised it has changed and at other times as necessary.
11. Cross border data transfer
I operate only within Australia and will not provide your information to parties in any other country. I do from time to time, however, use web-based programs for particular activities such as email broadcast which may be hosted offshore, or cloud service providers but only when the supplier agrees with us to be bound by privacy laws or where the jurisdiction in which the data is located has laws that are equal to or better than Australian privacy laws.
12. What if there is a data breach?
I take all reasonable steps to prevent data breaches. However, if I suspect that a data breach has occurred, I will undertake a reasonable and expeditious assessment to determine if the data breach is likely to result in serious harm to any individual affected. If so, I will:
take all reasonable steps to contain the breach;
where possible, taking action to remediate any risk of harm;
notify individuals and the Commissioner where an individual is likely to suffer serious harm (or if otherwise required by law); and
review the incident and consider what actions can be taken to prevent future breaches.
13. Accessing and correcting your information
You are entitled to view the information I hold about you and reasonable requests for access and correction will be responded to as quickly as possible. Access to a large amount of information or information from various sources may take time before I can respond. If you wish to view the information I hold about you, please contact me. If I refuse to give you access to your personal information or to correct your personal information, I will give a reason for this decision. Generally, if requested, I will amend any personal information which you demonstrate is inaccurate, incomplete or not current, and will remove any information that is not relevant. If I disagree with your view on these matters I will keep a note on the file setting out your view of the information held.
14. On-line transactions
Our website may be enabled for online transactions using a certified secure payment gateway. However, despite the security on the site, you should be aware that there are inherent risks in transferring information across the internet and I cannot accept liability for any breaches. When an internet payment is made, your credit card number is used only to make a debit and not retained by us.
15. Security measures for online payments
Payments made online on our website are processed in real time using a secure payment gateway. Payments are processed in Australia (and for all other countries) in Australian Dollars. Our website has security measures designed to protect against the loss, misuse and/or alteration to your personal information under our control.
16. Links to other websites
Our websites may contain links to third party websites, and third party websites may also have links to our websites. I do not endorse any of those websites or links. This Privacy Policy does not apply to external links or other websites who may also collect your personal information. I encourage you to read the privacy policies of any website you link to from our website.
17. Effective date and updates
This is our current Privacy Policy. I may at any time vary this Privacy Policy by publishing an updated version on our website. You accept that by using the website or continuing to use our services, provided you with sufficient notice of the variation.
18. Changes to this Privacy Policy
I reserve the right, as it may be necessary, to review, revise or make changes to our Privacy Policy and will notify you of those changes by posting those changes on our website.
19. More Information
If you would like more information about our Privacy Policy or the way I manage your personal information, please email Maria at info@mariahancock.com.au
Alternatively, additional information on the Australian Privacy Principles can be obtained from http://www.oaic.gov.au/