Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Australian Companion Animal Health Foundation (ACAHF) is strongly committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au

What is Personal Information and how do we collect it?

‘Personal information’ is any information or opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, regardless of whether the information or opinion is true or not or whether it is recorded in a material form or not.

‘Sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information that is given a higher level of protection because of its sensitive nature. It includes health information, as well as personal information that is about an individual’s:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • membership of a political association, a professional or trade association, or trade union
  • religious beliefs or affiliations
  • philosophical beliefs
  • sexual orientation or practices, or
  • criminal record.

ACAHF usually collects Personal Information directly from the individual or a person authorised by the individual from:

  • a direct enquiry from an individual;
  • a Grant application from an individual; or
  • donations made.

Australian Companion Animal Health Foundation may collect your personal information when you interact with us in person, via the telephone, email or via our online forms. On occasions information may be collected from third parties who, in the ordinary course of business provide goods or services to ACAHF or its members.

We collect your Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our services to you, providing information to our clients and marketing. We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing.

When we collect Personal Information we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

What personal information do we collect?

We may collect and store your personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, address, and donation history. Without this personal information, we may be unable to process your donation, verify legitimate enquiries, send you a receipt or offer you employment/volunteer opportunities.

What do we do with your personal information?

Your personal information is held and used to:

  • acknowledge donations that you may make to ACAHF
  • contact you about ACAHF from time to time, including by sending you newsletters (via post or email) or telephone calls
  • process any application you make for employment or volunteering opportunities.

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • third party service providers who work with us or provide services to us
  • third parties where you consent to the use or disclosure
  • other organisations which partner with us to help our cause such as The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA)
  • Where required or authorised by law

Cookies

ACAHF uses cookies. A cookie is a small string of information that a website transfers to your browser for identification purposes. Depending on the surrounding circumstances, the cookies used by ACAHF may or may not identify individual users who log into the website. If they do reveal your identity, they constitute personal information, and thus are the subject of the Privacy Act.

Most internet browsers are set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive them, you can adjust your internet browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when they are being used.

There are also software products available that can manage cookies for you. Rejecting cookies can, however, limit the functionality of our website (such as preventing users from logging on and making donations).

Visitor Analytics

Visitor Analytics is a simple website analytics service which measures the traffic and visitors' general details of our website. Collecting these statistics, we can make our website visitors' experience better (e.g. which pages they visit and when, where they are approximately located, where does a user land first or if they are coming from a specific referral).

Basically, as a website owner using Visitor Analytics, we are using cookies to collect data about our visitors' device type and screen size, approximate location, browser, OS, IPs, page visits, bounce rate, conversions and popular content on the website. All this data is pseudonymized and Visitor Analytics will never use the collected data to identify individual users or to match it with additional information on an individual user. Each visitor has control over the placement of cookies.

Security of Personal Information

Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information. However, most of the Personal Information is or will be stored in electronic files which will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years.

We are committed to ensuring the privacy of all Personal Information we collect. Certain compulsory obligations have been placed on organisations under the Privacy Act to notify specific types of data breaches (Notifiable Data Breaches “NDB”) to individuals affected by the breach as well as to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).  An NDB is one that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual to whom the information relates.  ACAHF are committed to ensuring the protection of all Personal Information and we will comply with the NDB obligations.

In the event of a data breach of Personal Information, ACAHF will notify the party(s) affected within 7 days of ACAHF becoming aware of the breach, and provide:

  • our identity and contact details;
  • a description of the data breach;
  • the kinds of information that is suspected of being obtained;
  • recommendations about the steps you should take to limit the impact of the breach; and
  • advice as to whether we have contacted the OAIC about the breach.

Change of contact details

ACAHF takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information it collects about you is accurate, up-to-date and complete, and also when using and disclosing it, that it is relevant for the purposes of the use or disclosure. If we are satisfied that any of the information should be corrected we will also take reasonable steps to correct that information.

Opting out of direct marketing

If you no longer wish to hear about ACAHF or other organisations which partner with us to help our cause, you can opt out at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer on the details below or by following the instructions in the communication you receive.

Keeping your information safe and up to date

ACAHF takes your privacy seriously. We have security measures in place to protect your information stored by physical and electronic means. This includes the secure storage of any electronic documents within Australia and storage of paper files in secure locations such as locked filing cabinets.

It is an important to us that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you

Access to your personal information

You can apply to access the personal information held by ACAHF about you. To do this, please contact us on the details below.

We will respond to your request promptly, but may need to verify your identity before providing access to your information.

We will generally provide access where a request is made, unless a relevant exception under the Privacy Act applies, such as where giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where we are required or authorised by law to deny access. If we refuse your request, we will give you written notice of our decision, including our reasons and how to complain if you are not satisfied with our decision.

Links

Content on this website may contain links to other sites. ACAHF does not necessarily sponsor, endorse or approve of any material on such sites or the operators of such sites. ACAHF makes no warranties or representations regarding the quality, accuracy, merchantability or fitness for purpose of any material on other websites to which website content is linked.

Queries and complaints

If you would like to contact ACAHF about your personal information or would like to make a complaint, contact us via: [email protected]

We will investigate and respond to any complaint, query or privacy question within a reasonable period and within 30 days. We may need to request more information from you and we may propose a resolution to your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on the details below.

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Phone: 1300 363 992
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Online form: www.oaic.gov.au (Privacy Complaint Form)

Changes to this privacy policy

ACAHF may, from time to time, update or change this privacy policy to ensure that it reflects the acts and practices of our organisation as well as any changes in the law.

Last updated: 12 May 2021