The Energy Charter Ltd Privacy Policy
Privacy matters. We are committed to ensuring that your personal information is protected when you support and participate in our work.
Our privacy obligations
We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and we comply with all of the Act’s requirements in respect of the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information.
‘Personal information’ means any information that can be used to identify you. Our Privacy Policy applies to personal information we collect and/or hold.
We will review this policy regularly, and we may update it from time to time.
The types of personal information we collect and hold
We may collect personal information about you, as part of our routine activities. We may also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else. For example, we may collect anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how people use our website.
The types of personal information we may collect about you includes:
- Name and contact details
- Business type
- Service area
- Donation records
- Membership details
- Email subscription details
- Profession, occupation or job title
- Attendance records of our events
- Website activity via cookies
- Participation in our online activities, e.g., signing a petition or letter
- Preferences you have indicated about what you want to hear from us about
- Any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly or indirectly through our websites or online presence, including social media accounts, through our staff and volunteers, or other means
- Records of enquiries about our work
We also collect personal information about our staff, contractors and suppliers, professional associates and personal contacts.
How we collect personal information
We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.
Information that you specifically give us
We may ask you to provide us with certain types of personal information if you wish to receive updates about or work, volunteer with us, make a donation or join us as a member. This might happen over the telephone, through our website, by filling in a form, or meeting with us face-to-face. We will explain how we will use the personal information we are asking for at the time.
Information that we collect from third parties
If you apply for a job or contract with us, we will collect personal information about you from your referees. With your consent, we may also use a third-party service to ensure your employment, educational and identity records are valid. We may also check some details about our suppliers from publicly available sources, such as the Australian Business Register and ASIC databases.
You might also provide your personal information to us without us directly asking for it by engaging with us on social media and the use of other third-party platforms.
Information that we generate ourselves
We may maintain records of the interactions we have with you, including the communications we have delivered to you.
Information generated from website use
In some cases, we may also collect your personal information through the use of cookies. When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. We use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure patterns in the aggregate. We use this to understand our users’ habits so that we can improve our website. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.
We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, track users movements, and gather broad demographic information.
How we use personal information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to provide you with the information or service you have requested
- to provide technical or other support to you
- to answer your enquiry about our services, or to respond to a complaint
- to manage our employment or business relationship with you
- if otherwise permitted or required by law
- for other purposes with your consent, unless you withdraw your consent
- to promote our other programs, products or services which may be of interest to you (unless you have opted out from such communications)
Broadcast Communications
With your consent, we may send you direct communications including information, news, research and our activity that we consider may be of interest to you. In our communications we may also invite you to events, to view our publications, to volunteer, become a member or donate to support our work.
These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
At any time you may opt-out of receiving communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using the unsubscribe button provided at the bottom of our emails.
We do not provide your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing.
When we disclose personal information
Third-party service providers
Your personal information may be held on our behalf outside Australia, including ‘in the cloud’, by some of our third-party service providers based in the US. Our third-party service providers are bound by contract to only use your personal information on our behalf, under our instructions.
Other disclosures and transfers
We may also disclose your personal information to third parties for the following purposes:
- if necessary to provide the service you have requested
- if otherwise permitted or required by law; or
- for other purposes with your consent.
Security
We will take reasonable steps to ensure personal information is stored securely, not kept longer than necessary, and disposed of appropriately.
We will take reasonable security measures to protect personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure.
Website Analytics
To improve your experience on our site, we may use ‘cookies’. Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them. A cookie is a small text file that our site may place on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
Our website may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. When you go to other websites from here, we advise you to be aware and read their privacy policy.
www.theenergycharter.com.au uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.
By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google’s Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.
Our website may also utilise other third-party analytics software to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.
www.theenergycharter.com.au also uses interfaces with social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and others. If you choose to “like” or “share” information from this website through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a social media site, the interfaces may allow the social media site to connect your visits to this site with other Personal Information.
Accessing or correcting your personal information
You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you. Unless an exception applies, we must allow you to see the personal information we hold about you, within a reasonable time period.
You also have the right to request the correction of the personal information we hold about you. We will take reasonable steps to make appropriate corrections to personal information so that it is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Unless an exception applies, we must update, correct, amend or delete the personal information we hold about you within a reasonable time period.
To access, correct, or erase the personal information we hold about you, please contact us at director@theenergycharter.com.au.
Get in touch if you have any concerns
If you have a question or complaint about the way we handle your personal information, or to seek to exercise your privacy rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you, you may contact us at director@theenergycharter.com.au.
While we endeavour to resolve complaints quickly and informally, if you wish to proceed to a formal privacy complaint, we request that you make your complaint in writing to us by email as above. We will acknowledge your formal complaint within 10 working days.