These are new requirements under the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, which amends the Privacy Act 1988. This Amendment commences on 12 March 2014.
HMW Group are committed to protecting the privacy of Client information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the above Acts and Amendments. The Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection Statement are both current from 12th March 2014. From time to time, we may make changes to our policy, processes and systems in relation to how we handle your personal information. We will update the Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection Statement to reflect any changes. These changes will be available on our website and through each office.
Privacy Collection Statement
Protecting your privacy
This Privacy Collection Statement should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy which contains detailed information on how we protect your privacy, including the way in which we may collect, use and disclose your information. A copy of our Privacy Policy is available on our website or at our offices. We will provide a copy of our Privacy Statement to you, before we start providing services.
Collection of information
We collect personal information about individuals directly from the individual or from their legal representative. We will only collect information for a purpose that relates directly to our functions and activities as Accountants. We understand that you may not want to provide information to us. The information we request of you is relevant to providing you with accounting services. If you choose not to provide us with some or all of the information we request, we may not be able to provide you with the services you require. For more detailed information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Use and disclosure
We will use and disclose your personal information only for the purpose for which it was collected (the primary purpose) or for any other purpose that it is otherwise directly related to our functions or activities as Accountants or otherwise be permitted by law (secondary purpose). Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more detailed information.
Access and correction of information
The HMW Group Privacy Policy also contains detailed information on how you may access the personal information we hold about you and how you can seek to have your personal information corrected.
Overseas recipients
HMW Group may disclose your information to overseas recipients but it will only be for the purpose for which it was collected and we will take all steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles.
Privacy Policy
Introduction
HMW Group is committed to treating the personal information we collect in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). This policy sets out how HMW Group handles personal information.
This privacy policy does not apply to personal information collected by HMW Group that is exempted under the Privacy Act, for example employee records.
Our privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to take account of changes in legislation, technology, and our operations and practices. We aim to ensure the policy is appropriate to the changing environment. We will inform you of any changes we make to this privacy policy as necessary.
Our privacy policy is based on openness about how we use and protect your information.
Our privacy policy is available by following links to the policy on our website. However, on request, we may be able to provide you with a copy of the policy in an alternate format. If you have any enquiries or would like to make a request for a copy of the policy, please contact our Privacy Officer (refer to contact details below).
1. Purposes for which HMW Group collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information
We only collect, hold, use and disclose personal information which is reasonably necessary to ensure that we are able to provide you with the products and services that are appropriate to your needs. We will outline to you when you engage our services the purposes for which we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information.
2. Kinds of personal information HMW Group collects
Due to the nature of the products and services we provide, and the requirements of legislation and regulations, we ask for a range of personal information from our clients.
The types of personal information we may collect can include details such as:
- Names, employment titles, contact details;
- Date of birth and gender;
- Information in identification documents (eg. passport, driver’s licence;
- Tax file numbers and other governments related identifiers;
- Assets and liabilities;
- Educational qualifications and employment history;
- Personal income;
- Visa and work permit status;
- Bank account details;
- Superannuations details;
- Tax and financial statements;
- Information regarding insurance;
- Personal information about your spouse and dependants.
It may be necessary in some circumstances for HMW Group to collect sensitive information about you in order to provide specific services. The types of sensitive information we may collect include:
- Health status;
- Ethnic origin;
- Details of any membership/s to professional associations;
- Criminal record.
You have a right to refuse to provide us with your personal information or to anonymity or the use of a pseudonym. However, if you do refuse to provide such information, or request the use of anonymity or a pseudonym we may be unable to complete or fulfil the purpose for which such information was collected, including providing you or our clients with the services we were engaged to perform.
3. Collection, holding, using and disclosing of personal information
a) Collection – General:
When we collect, hold, use and disclose personal or sensitive information it must be done through lawful and fair means. Consent must be obtained to collect, hold, use and disclose personal information. We are not required to obtain your consent to collect, hold, use of disclose your personal or sensitive information if the collection is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order. There are other exceptions to the requirement of obtaining your consent in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. If you would like more information on these requirements, please contact our Privacy Officer.
b) Methods of collection:
HMW Group use a variety of formats for the collection of personal and sensitive information. These include:
- Requiring clients to complete a Client Profile or other forms;
- Receipt of emails, letters and other correspondence;
- Telephone calls;
- Appointments in person;
- Publicly available records;
- Through a customer’s personal representative;
- Through use of our website, (see more information about ‘web analytics’ in Clause 2).
In every circumstance we will attempt to obtain such personal and sensitive information directly from you. If that is unreasonable or impracticable, we will attempt to obtain such information from other sources in accordance with Clause 3(a) above.
c) Collection of someone else’s personal information:
You should only provide us with someone else’s personal information where you have their express consent to do so and it is for the purpose of us providing services to you. Matters in this policy should be communicated to any person whose information you collect and provide to us.
Unsolicited personal information
There may be circumstances where we are provided with personal information which we did not actively seek. An example may be misdirected mail, or an excess of documents provided to us by clients.
In such situations, our Privacy Officer will make a determination on whether we could have obtained the information lawfully in accordance with the APPs. If the information was not lawfully obtained it will be destroyed or de-identified. We will try to notify the relevant person, whose information has been mistakenly received, if this situation arises.
4. Security of personal information
Safeguarding the privacy of your information is important to us. We hold personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities and paper based files, and take steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, interference, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
HMW Group trains its employees carefully on handling personal information and confidentiality of such information.
Once we have no purpose for holding your personal information, we will take all reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify the information.
5. Disclosure of personal information overseas and sharing personal information amongst and within the HMW Group network
a) Disclosure amongst and within the HMW Group:
The HMW Group has related corporations and entities within the group. To meet the purposes for which your personal information has been collected we may disclose your information to others in the HMW Group. Example Quintessential Financial Planning Limited
b) Dislosure overseas:
We may disclose your personal information to these providers from time to time. Such overseas disclosure would be to India or another country as advised.
When required, your personal information will only be disclosed to an overseas person or business in the following circumstances:
- Where the overseas recipient has signed a contract with us which creates legal obligations to comply with Australian Privacy Law (i.e. the APPs);
- If the recipient is subject to similar privacy law as Australian privacy law, and you are able to personally access avenues to enforce the protection of those laws;
- If you provide written consent for HMW Group to disclose the information after we provide you with full information; or
- If the disclosure is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order.
On collection of your personal information, we will inform you whether it is likely we will disclose the information to an overseas recipient and, if so, where those recipients are likely to be located.
6. Privacy on our websites
The types of personal information that we collect from you will depend on how you use our website. You can be certain that the information we receive about you will be treated as strictly confidential.
We do not collect or use any personal information on visitors to our website, through the use of “cookies” or other software or hardware techniques.
We look at the number of unique site visitors, hits the website receives and keep track of the domains from which our website is accessed.
To determine what our users are interested in, we may also look at the frequency of search words used in connecting you to this website.
The names of persons who request information from or about us by emailing us are added to our database as members. Each member is given a user name and password. Members who do not wish to receive emails from our website, can unsubscribe via our website or unsubscribe via received profiled mails, or notify us by email, and we will stop emailing you.
The personal information we collect when you log onto this website, how we do it and what we do with it
If you log onto the website and read or download information our Internet Service Provider/Hosting Provider, will record your server address, domain name, the date and time of your visit to our website, the pages viewed and the information downloaded. This information is used for statistical and website development purposes only.
We can determine the number of times that you have visited our website, the date of last visit, if you have updated your details/interests, and if you have clicked on the hyperlink contained on emails that have been sent to you. The information collected will be used to send you emails when content relevant to your areas of interest are added to the website.
We can determine if you emailed any articles of interest to a friend using our ’email a friend’ functionality, and if your friend has clicked on the hyperlink contained on the email that was sent by you. We record the email addresses of these recipients which may be used for our own marketing purposes.
The circumstances under which we disclose information about you
It is our policy not to sell or pass on any personal information that you may have provided to us unless we have your express consent to do so. An exception to this is where we may be required by law to disclose certain information.
How we handle emails
We will preserve the contents of any email message that you send us if we believe that we have a legal requirement to do so. Emails sent to or from us are routinely monitored for quality control, systems administration and legal compliance purposes.
The HMW Group website uses Google Analytics to analyse aggregate user behaviour. Google Analytics uses first party cookies, which are text files placed on your computer for the purpose of anonymously identifying your session. These cookies are not used to grant HMW Group access to your personally identifiable information. Non-identifiable information (such as the pages you visit) may be tracked. By directing your browser to delete your cookies, this data will be erased. For more information about Google Analytics, please follow the links provided on our website.
The information is collected using first party cookies, meaning that only HMW Group is able to access your information. Your information may be aggregated with information from other users for the purpose of improving our website and offerings. We will not associate any data gathered from our website with any personally identifiable information, unless you explicitly submit that information (e.g. your email address) via our online information form.
Any links to third party websites on HMW Group website are not covered by our privacy policy.
7. Direct marketing
HMW Group may engage in direct marketing to you from time to time.
When required, your personal information will only be used or disclosed for direct marketing where the information is not sensitive information, is collected directly from you and there is an easy means to opt out of such marketing (and such an opt out request has not been made) in the following circumstances:
- Where you would expect HMW Group to use or disclose the information for direct marketing purposes; or
- You have consented to the use or disclosure of the information for direct marketing purposes.
8. Access to personal information
You have the right to access any personal information regarding you that HMW Group holds. This is subject to some limited exceptions, which the Privacy Officer can provide further information on.
Such requests should be made in writing to the Privacy Officer. We will acknowledge your request within 14 days and respond to it within a reasonable time.
HMW Group may charge a fee only to cover the cost of locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested. We will not charge any fee to make the request or to for us to give effect to the request.
Responding to your request
If your request is approved, we will provide you with access to the information in the manner requested if it is reasonable and practicable to do so.
9. Correction of personal information
HMW Group endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate and up-to-date.
You are able to make a request to correct the information by contacting our Privacy Officer, or by telephoning or emailing us with your corrected information. In some limited circumstances your request may be refused or partially refused.
10. Procedure if your request to access or correct is denied
There may be limited circumstances where your request is refused or partially refused.
If this occurs we will give you a written notice that sets out:
- The reasons for the refusal, including the reasons why access cannot be granted in an alternative way (except where it would be unreasonable to provide those reasons);
- How to make a complaint about the refusal;
- Any other matter as prescribed by the regulations.
If your request to correct is refused you have the option of submitting a statement associated with your personal information. For more information contact the Privacy Officer.
11. How to make a complaint
If you consider that any action of HMW Group breaches this policy or the Australian Privacy Principles, you are able to make a complaint. Once we have received your complaint, it will be assessed and acted upon within a reasonable time.
To make a complaint please contact our Privacy Officer. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.