3. Personal information collected

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, as well as from publicly available sources and third parties such as those identified in the “use and disclosure of personal information” section below.

We only collect personal information that is necessary for our work. We never disclose the personal information of our clients unless we are required to do so by law. Nor do we publish personal information in publications or on our web-site, without explicit/express consent.

We follow the Privacy Principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), in the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and in the Privacy Act 1988 including the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.

FOTCF also actively seeks to ensure that all personal information we collect is protected from misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We have internal data protection and electronic data transmission procedures and all donations and communications made online via our website are secure.

Irrespective of whether personal information is stored electronically or in hard copy form, we take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

4. Use and disclosure of personal information

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information for purposes including:

• for clients and prospective clients:
• assessing what services you require,
• whether we can provide those services, and
• evaluating ongoing services provided to you;
• for prospective volunteers, contractors or employees:
• assessing any application made by you;
• Marketing: to communicate with you about donations, products, services, campaigns, causes and events.
• to process and record donations,
• provide receipts, and
• to contact you about FOTCF, our activities and to provide our newsletters, reports, invitations and requests for support, unless you opt out or we are prohibited by law.

We may not be able to do these things without your personal information. For example, we may not be able to contact you, provide services, issue receipts or offer employment to you.

We may also outsource certain tasks involving your personal information to third party service providers, including organisations that provide mail and delivery, auditing or technology services.

If you have applied for a position with FOTCF, we may exchange some or all of your personal information with your referees, Centrelink, the HECS authority and recruitment consultants, for appropriate purposes relating to considering your application, including undertaking criminal record and Working with Children checks, where permitted by law.

5. Accessing and updating your personal information

If at any time you wish to view or alter your personal information, please contact the FOTCF Secretary. We ask that you provide us with as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek, in order to help us retrieve it. An access fee may be charged where permitted by law. In certain circumstances, we may not be required by law to provide you with access or to correct your personal information. If that is the case, we will give you our reasons for that decision.

To contact FOTCF Secretary, please e-mail to secretary@fotcf.org.au

6. Security of personal information

Irrespective of whether personal information is stored electronically or in hard copy form, we are compliant with all data security legislation and standards to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

7. Additional information for users of our Website

If you visit www.friendsofthechildren.org.au to read, browse or download information, our system may record information such as the date and time of your visit to the Website, the pages accessed and any information downloaded. This information is used for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes only.

Like many websites, our website may use “cookies” from time to time. Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser. Cookies may also be used to record non-personal information such as the date, time or duration of your visit, or the pages accessed, for website administration, statistical and maintenance purposes. Any such information will be aggregated and not linked to particular individuals. The default settings of browsers like Internet Explorer always allow cookies, but users can easily erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please note that some parts of the Website may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.

While we take great care to protect your personal information on our Website, unfortunately no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you send to us or receive from us online. This is particularly true for information you send to us via email. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your personal information, we take reasonable steps to protect its security.

Any contact you receive requesting full credit card details, including your CVV number, should be considered a hoax and reported to www.scamwatch.gov.au.

The Website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites.

8. Credit Card Transactions

If applicable, credit card transactions may incur service fees on certain services such as declined transactions or cancellation fees. If so, charges will be advised to you. FOTCF accepts no responsibility for any breaches of security or misrepresentation in relation to credit card transactions.

Before entering into a transaction, the onus is on you to check carefully whether any cancellation fee or charges applies, and/or you are bound by any FOTCF refund policy.

9. Email Addresses

Email addresses provided via this site will be used to respond to specific user queries. Your email address will not be disclosed to any other party without your knowledge and consent and as intended, unless required by law.

10. Subscriptions

This internet site provides the facility for users to subscribe to our supporter newsletter. To subscribe to this, service users must provide a valid address.

FOTCF follows the Australian Privacy Principles and the Victorian Information Privacy Principles. Be assured your details remain confidential and are not supplied to other organisations.

11. Complaints/ Feedback

If you have a question/feedback about our privacy policy or wish to lodge a complaint about our compliance you may contact us on secretary@fotcf.org.au or (03) 9564 8228. We will resolve all complaints/feedback as soon as we can.

For information about privacy generally, or if your concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact the Privacy Victoria on 1300 666 444 or via enquiries@privacy.vic.gov.au or the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or via http://www.privacy.gov.au.

Further information

It may be necessary for FOTCF to amend or modify this website privacy policy, without notice. The modified Privacy Policy will be posted to the FOTCF website.

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