Overview
The National Centre for Childhood Grief (the “NCCG”) values and respects the privacy of the people we deal with. The NCCG is committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other applicable privacy laws and regulations. This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, and how we maintain the quality and security of your personal information. If you are the parent or guardian of a child or young person under the age of 16 years who utilises the NCCG’s services, this policy applies to you and that child and any reference to “you” or “your” in this policy includes a reference to that child.
What is personal information?
“Personal information” means any information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. In general terms, this includes information or an opinion that personally identifies you either directly (e.g. your name) or indirectly.
What personal information do we collect?
The personal information we collect about you depends on the nature of your dealings with us or what you choose to share with us.
The personal information we collect about you may include:
- Name;
- Mailing or street address;
- Date of birth;
- Email address;
- Phone number
- Family history
The NCCG may also need to collect sensitive information about you. This might include any information or opinion about your health and well-being and the health and well-being of your family members or close associates, your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, marriage status and other sensitive information.
If we collect your sensitive information, we will do so only with your consent or, in the case of a child with the consent of your parent or guardian, or if it is necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to life or health, or as otherwise required or authorised by law, and we take appropriate measures to protect the security of this information.
You do not have to provide us with your personal information. Where possible, we will give you the option to interact with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. However, if you choose to deal with us in this way or choose not to provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with our services or otherwise interact with you.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect your personal information directly from you when you:
- Interact with us over the phone;
- Interact with us in person;
- Interact with us online;
- Participate in surveys or questionnaires;
- Attend an NCCG event;
- Subscribe to our mailing list; or
- Apply for a position with us as an employee, contractor or volunteer.
Collecting personal information from third parties
We may also collect your personal information from third parties or through publicly available sources, for example from social media accounts and news media articles. We collect your personal information from these third parties so that we can help to ensure our services and promotions to you best reflect your needs and interests.
How do we use your personal information?
We use personal information for many purposes in connection with our functions and activities, including the following purposes: • to provide you with information or services that you request from us;
- To provide bereavement-related counselling to you or persons in your care;
- Deliver to you a personalised experience and service offering;
- Improve the quality of the services we offer;
- Internal administrative purposes;
- Marketing and research purposes; and
- Fundraising purposes.
Disclosure of personal information to third parties
We may disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with this Policy in circumstances where you would reasonably expect us to disclose your information. For example, we may disclose your personal information to:
- Our professional services advisors;
- Where it is mandatory to do so, police and/or child protection services;
- With your prior consent, our marketing providers;
- Our third-party service providers (for example, our IT providers, cloud storage providers, impact evaluation providers); and
- With your prior consent, other organisations for the purpose of research or evaluation of our services.
We will never sell your information to a third party.
How do we protect your personal information?
NCCG will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we hold about you is kept confidential and secure, including by:
- Maintaining physical security of our premises and databases / records;
- Taking measures to safeguard confidential information and to restrict access to only personnel who need that personal information to effectively provide services to you or to the NCCG; and
- Having technological measures in place (for example, anti-virus software, fire walls).
Online activity
Cookies: The NCCG’s website may use cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers the website puts on your device if you allow it. These cookies recognise when your device has visited our website(s) before, so we can distinguish you from other users of the website. This improves your experience and the NCCG website(s).
We do not use cookies to identify you, just to improve your experience on our website(s). If you do not wish to use the cookies, you can amend the settings on your internet browser so it will not automatically download cookies. However, if you remove or block cookies on your computer, please be aware that your browsing experience and our website’s functionality may be affected.
Website analytics: Our website may use analytics services to help us better understand visitor traffic, so we can improve our services. Although this data is mostly anonymous, it is possible that under certain circumstances, we may connect it to you.
Direct marketing: We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services, opportunities, or events that we consider may be of interest to you if you have requested or consented to receive such communications. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You consent to us sending you those direct marketing communications by any of those methods. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.
You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by following the instructions to “unsubscribe” set out in the relevant communication or by contacting us using the details set out in the “How to contact us” section below.
Retention of personal information
We will not keep your personal information for longer than we need to. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your personal information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations.
How to access and correct your personal information
The NCCG will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date. If you wish to make a request to access and / or correct the personal information we hold about you, you should make a request by contacting us and we will usually respond within five (5) days.
Links to third party sites
NCCG website(s) may contain links to websites operated by third parties. If you access a third party website through our website(s), personal information may be collected by that third party website. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party provider or website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party provider or website. Third party providers / websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.
Inquiries and complaints
To make an inquiry or complaint about how the NCCG handles, processes or manages your personal information, please contact the NCCG’s Clinical Director. Note we may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we can process your complaint.
Please allow up to five (5) days for the NCCG to respond to your complaint. It will not always be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with NCCG’s response to a complaint, you have the right to contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (at www.oaic.gov.au/) to lodge a complaint.
How to contact us
If you have a question or concern in relation to our handling of your personal information or this Policy, you can contact us for assistance as follows:
Email [email protected]
Phone 1300 654 556
Post Attention: Clinical Director 98 Balmoral Street Hornsby NSW 2077
Document details
Name of document Privacy Policy
Inception date 1 January 2023
Version 1
Approved by NCCG Board
Date of approval 31 January 2023
Assigned review period 12 months
Date of next review January 2024
This policy is due for review by the date shown above, after which it may be superseded. Policy users should ensure that they are consulting the currently valid version of the document