Privacy statement

The Federation of Community Legal Centres Vic Inc (the Federation) recognises that privacy is a fundamental human right and is committed to proactively preserving your privacy. This Policy Statement in conjunction with our Privacy Policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

The Federation will comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), as well as the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), which govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

The Australian Privacy Principles and information about privacy more generally can be obtained from The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

1. What is personal information?

Personal Information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. Information is considered personal information whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Sensitive information is a sub-set of personal information and may include information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record.

Sensitive Information is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. The kinds of personal information we collect

The Federation collects and stores personal and sensitive information:

From various sources, including from our members and members of the public.
For various reasons, including for member activities, advocacy and community engagement, referrals, communications, fundraising, feedback collection, website use and general operations.

The type of information that we collect and hold will depend on the nature of your involvement with us. You may be asked to provide personal or sensitive information which may include (but is not limited to) name, date of birth, postcode, phone number, and email address.

3. How we collect personal information

The Federation generally collects personal or sensitive information directly when the information is provided to us, such as via:

email
phone call
enquiries on our website

Information is collected in a number of ways including when you:

fill in a form
make an enquiry online
attend a face-to-face meeting
provide email correspondence
phone us

The Federation will only collect personal and sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. We will only collect sensitive information when:

you consent to its collection
if it is necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to life or health
as otherwise required or authorised by law

Before giving us any personal or sensitive information you will be provided accurate information about the way it will be used, and how you can access the information.

In some circumstances, you may have the option to choose not to identify yourself, or to use a pseudonym, when dealing with us in relation to a particular matter. If you choose not to identify yourself or provide information, this will affect our ability to assist you, service your request, or respond to you as fully as we would like.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal and/or sensitive information we collect, use and dispose of is accurate, complete and up to date.

4. Use of 'cookies', analytics, and social media services

Like many websites the Federation website uses ‘cookies’.

Cookies are small pieces of data that may be used for a variety of reasons, such as recognising a computer to remember its preferences.
We do not use this information to identify you and we do not obtain your IP address.
You can disable or change how cookies are used through the settings on your chosen browser.

We use Google Analytics and other web server applications to monitor our website. We will use this information to:

track website visits
view length of visits
track viewed pages
analyse the technical capabilities of our visitors

We use social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to engage interactively with our stakeholders and broader community.

Where you have connected or communicated with us using these services, we may collect personal information about you which is relevant to that interaction (such as your networking name and the content of your comment or action).
We will only collect this information for the purposes of facilitating our communications with you and internally evaluating the effectiveness of our communications strategies.
The social networking services will also handle your personal information for its own purposes, and you can access their privacy policies on their websites.

5. Third party websites

We may provide links in our website content for your convenience and information. The Federation is not responsible for the privacy or security of any third party website, and we recommend you access the privacy policies on their websites.

6. How we use and disclose your information

Information that we collect and store about you through the course of our work will have its intended use disclosed.

Information about you will only be used for the primary purpose it was collected, unless:

you have consented to its use or disclosure
the information is required by law
where you would reasonably expect that we would use or disclose this information for a secondary purpose

7. How you can access and correct your information

At any time, you may:

Contact us in writing if you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. We will respond within a reasonable time after your request is made, and endeavour to correct any information found to be inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete.
Request that your information is no longer used, or request for us to cease contact. We will immediately cease use of your information, including to communicate with you.
Request access to the personal information that we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions. We will respond within a reasonable time after your request is made, and take reasonable steps to provide the information or provide information regarding the reason for our refusal.

8. How we secure and store your information

We may store personal and sensitive information in hardcopy documents, as electronic data, or in Federation software or systems.

We will restrict access to your personal and sensitive information to Federation employees who require access to your information to fulfil their duties.

We will ensure your personal information is kept secure and is protected from misuse, loss, modification or disclosure by unauthorised people. We will do this in ways such as ensuring adequate:

physical access restrictions
password protection for electronic IT systems
audit trails of electronic systems
secure destruction of personal information when data is no longer needed or where legislative storage requirements have passed.

9. How we dispose of your information

We will securely dispose of information we no longer need or, where legislative storage requirements have passed. We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose.

10. Privacy statement updates

This Privacy Statement may change from time to time and updates will be available on our website.

11. Privacy enquiries and complaints

If you have any queries about our Privacy Statement, or wish to see a copy of our Privacy Policy please contact us at:
Mail: 3/225 Bourke St, Melbourne Victoria 3000
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 03 9652 1500

Should you have a complaint about how we manage your personal information or if you have an allegation about a breach of the Privacy Act, please direct this in writing to the CEO using the contact details above.
Complaints and allegations of a breach are taken seriously and will be investigated and responded to in a timely manner.
If you are not satisfied with the resolution provided by us, individuals have the right to contact Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) to lodge a formal complaint.

You can download a pdf version of our privacy statement here.

Privacy statement