Our Privacy Policy sets out how we will manage your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (“the APPs”) established by the Privacy Act 1988 (“the Act”). Your privacy is important to us and we will manage your personal information in an open and transparent manner in accordance with the APPs.
The APPs are available at http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-act/australian-privacy-principles and guidelines and information are available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at http://www.oaic.gov.au/.
The APPs establish standards for the way we must deal with personal information including:
Apart from the APPs, we may have obligations of confidentiality in relation to information provided to us in the course of providing legal services. We will comply with our obligations to keep information confidential.
Personal Information is any information or opinion (whether fact or not) which either identifies you or from which your identity can reasonably be determined.
Personal Information can only relate to human beings and information about companies and other legal entities is not covered by the provisions of the Act.
A higher level of privacy protection is generally afforded to sensitive information, as this is defined. Sensitive Information is personal information that includes information about your:
The main reason that we collect personal information is to provide legal services. These services may be to you, or to a person or entity associated with you, or others.
We also collect personal information for purposes necessary for the conduct of our business, including employment of staff and marketing activities.
If we are providing services to you, we do need to obtain your personal information. We will not collect any information unless the information is relevant to a matter for which you have engaged us or is otherwise reasonably necessary for or directly related to one or more of our functions or activities. We may also collect personal information for employee records, or for applications for employment or work experience.
Sensitive Information
At times, we may request sensitive information, for instance health information if we are assisting you with a personal injury claim. All such requests for information will be relevant and necessary to the matter you have engaged us for.
Marketing Activities
We may also collect and use personal information for direct marketing or other marketing purposes and for publication of information on topics. These communications may include:
You consent to us collecting and using personal information for these purposes, however you may at any time elect not to receive any marketing material by selecting the unsubscribe option on email communications, or by notice to our Privacy Officer.
Should you choose to engage us to provide legal services, or apply for employment or work experience with us, we will require personal information so that we are able to provide services and comply with our obligations as legal practitioners and as an employer.
If you are making initial enquiries in relation to our services or other matters, it may be possible for you to deal with us anonymously or by a pseudonym, but if you wish to engage us to provide legal services, or to obtain employment or work experience with us, it will be necessary for your identity to be disclosed to us.
Generally, and where possible, we will collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes, however, personal information will be collected about you from other sources. If we are providing legal services to you, it is likely that personal information may be obtained from other parties with whom we are dealing or from Government or other records or databases.
Information may be collected from you in face-to-face meetings, or may be submitted by you by email or in writing. In addition, our website offers you an opportunity to submit other personal information which may include, but is not limited to:
When submitting any personal information about yourself on the internet, it is important to note that internet security is not absolute. While we take all reasonable steps to ensure our website is protected from unauthorised external access, we encourage you to ensure your computer is adequately protected.
If you post personal information on our website, we will consider that you have consented to the collection of this information. In all instances, regardless of the method of collection, we will manage your personal information in accordance with this policy.
In certain circumstances it will be necessary to disclose your personal information, for instance:
We will only use or disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which the information has been provided to us, or for a secondary purpose that is related to the primary purpose, or directly related if sensitive information, or for other purposes with your consent. We will also use or disclose information where this is required under an Australian law or by a court or tribunal order, or under other specific situations where use or disclosure is required under the APPs.
In the event you are submitting a job application for employment with us, we limit who is able to access this information within the organisation and will not disclose your personal information to any other organisations unless authorised by you.
Cross-Border Disclosure
Your personal information will not be sent outside Australia unless:
We will take steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, up to date and complete, and to update information where we are advised of changes.
To ensure we can provide you with the best possible service, it is important to ensure your information is accurate, up to date and complete. Should there be any change to your personal information, we ask that you update us as soon as practicable. We will update your details upon receiving instructions from you to do so.
DW Fox Tucker will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information:
Some examples of the steps include:
As a general rule, once a matter is completed, it is our usual practice to securely archive the file for the matter for a period of seven ( 7 ) years. At the conclusion of this period, the file will then be destroyed. If it is not likely that any further reference to the file may be required, a shorter period of two ( 2 ) years may apply, or if it is possible that ongoing reference may be required, a file may be retained for a longer period, subject to periodical review.
There are some variations to these general practices, including:
You may request access to your personal information at any time, and we will provide access to your information unless this is contrary to the APPs. In order to respond to your request we may require the following information to be provided:
This service is usually provided free of charge and we ask that the request be made in writing. Should the information you require be held in our archives, there may be a small administration fee charged to assist with meeting this cost. Prior to acting upon your request we will advise you of any fees which may be payable.
We will act on all such requests as soon as reasonably possible on receipt of the request.
In certain circumstances, we may not be required by the APPs to give you access to your personal information. The circumstances in which we may not be required to give access to your personal information are set out in APP 12.3.
Should your request to access personal information be denied, we will advise you in writing:
including an explanation for any commercially sensitive reasons that require that access not be given.
You may at any time, by notice to our Privacy Officer, request correction of any personal information that we hold about you, and we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to correct the information to ensure that, having regard to the purpose for which it is held, the information is accurate, up to date, complete and relevant and not misleading. If we do not believe that it is reasonable to correct information that you request, we will advise you in writing of:
If we have declined to correct personal information as requested by you, you may also request us to associate with the information a statement by you that you believe that the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, as the case may be.
We will deal with all requests for correction of your personal information as soon as reasonably possible, and will not make any charge for correcting information or associating a statement by you.
There may be times, when information, which is commercially sensitive, is involved. In these circumstances, we may provide you with an explanation of the decision instead of direct access to the information.
Where we are not required to provide you with access to personal information, there may be the opportunity to consider whether a mutually agreed third party would be appropriate to meet both your needs and ours.
If you believe that we have not protected your personal information in line with our Privacy Policy you may lodge a request or complaint with our Privacy Officer. The request or complaint should be in writing or by email and should contain sufficient information in order for us to identify the person or information concerned and any issues that you have in relation to the protection of the information.
We have a dedicated Privacy Officer who can be contacted in relation to any privacy issue or concern you may have. You may contact the Privacy Officer by:
You may obtain a copy of this Privacy Policy free of charge on request to our Privacy Officer.