Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 August 2024

This is the Privacy Notice of the Shepherd Centre ABN 61 000 699 927. Please contact our Privacy Officer (as detailed below) if you require any further information regarding our Privacy Policy.

The National Privacy Principles

The Australian Government introduced new legislation that came into force on 21 December 2001 to protect the privacy of individuals. This legislation comprises 10 National Privacy Principles that apply to private sector organisations. You can find out more about these principles by calling the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on 1800 36 39 92 or through their website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy

The Shepherd Centre respects and upholds your right to privacy protection under the National Privacy Principles in regulating how we collect, use, disclose and hold your personal information. We have a detailed policy and set of procedures to ensure that only authorised staff have access to your personal information and that it remains safe, confidential and is only used for appropriate purposes and in accordance with this notice.

Personal information we collect, hold and use and why we collect it

Your personal and sensitive information, including health information, is only collected as is necessary for a function or activity, or to enable the Shepherd Centre to carry out its work and deliver services. Specific information is contained in privacy collection notices at entry points into our service centres.
The types of personal information we may collect depends on your relationship with us. Please note, this is not an exhaustive list of the breadth of information that may be collected.

Families and individuals receiving a clinical service: health information such medical history/reports, allergies, hearing status, developmental milestones etc are collected to provide an informed clinical service. This is in addition to basic demographic information about the client receiving a service such as name, date of birth, address and information for funding purposes such as NDIS number.

Employees, Volunteers, Contractors: personal information such as name, date of birth, address, emergency contact numbers, worker checks and vaccination status are examples of information that is collected.

Donors: Personal information such as your name and address are recorded on our database and we may use it to contact you in the future. We may use your personal information to send you information about our programs, research funding, special events and fundraising programs. Each time we send you a direct marketing communication we will provide you with a simple way to ‘opt out’ of receiving similar future communications. You can also let us know that you do not wish to receive any further communications by contacting our Privacy Officer as detailed below. The Shepherd Centre is very grateful to the thousands of people around Australia who provide financial support to allow us to continue our important work, these communications enable us to continue our fundraising efforts.

The Shepherd Centre will not collect sensitive information about health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade association or union membership, sexual preferences or criminal record unless you have consented to give this information and it is relevant to the work of The Shepherd Centre. If collected, we will always collect such information in a non-intrusive, lawful and fair manner.

How we collect and hold personal information

We collect your personal information when you provide it to The Shepherd Centre in several ways, including but not limited to when you:

Enquire about and/or receive a clinical service

Place a call to our toll-free number, 1800 020 030

Participate in one of The Shepherd Centre’s many community fundraising and/or information events

Respond to any of our fundraising campaigns.

We may also collect your personal information in other ways, for example through the purchase of commercial lists, from publicly available sources, such as the telephone directory and from other like-minded organisations.

Occasionally we may collect information about you from third parties, that have a right to disclose it to us, when it’s not practical to obtain it from you. For example, we obtain personal information from third parties to help us identify people who might be interested in supporting us with significant donations. To help us conduct our activities, we may also collect information about you which is already available in the public domain. For example, through articles in the newspapers and public information on the internet.

When do we disclose personal information

The Shepherd Centre will not provide your personal information to any other individuals or organisations without your prior consent, except where required by law to do so or where that information is provided on an agreed confidential basis. Only relevant information is disclosed. Examples include:

Families and individuals receiving a clinical service: with other service providers involved in your care on consent via a signed exchange of information or a government agency regarding funding of the service. We will always gain your consent and notify you if we are required to by law. The Shepherd Centre is also very thankful to people who are willing to share their personal stories of hearing loss with others through media stories, campaigns, social media and in our newsletters. We will only use your personal information for publicity purposes or as features with your express written permission.

Employees, Volunteers, Contractors: Various government agencies where required by law such as Safework or the NDIS Commission.

Donors: The Shepherd Centre may, from time to time, include selected messages from The Shepherd Centre event sponsors, collaborators or third parties. We may also provide information on a confidential basis to contractors who provide services to The Shepherd Centre, such as database management, printing and mailing. From time to time, we may also share your information with other like-minded organisations. In these cases, we ensure that our contractors or other like-minded organisations are also bound by the National Privacy Principles to keep your personal information confidential. From time to time The Shepherd Centre may contact donors directly to update or confirm their personal or credit card details. The Spam Act 2003

The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited emails, SMS and MMS messages for commercial purposes from or within Australia or to people in Australia, and bans the supply and use of software designed to harvest email addresses. While charities do have some exemptions from this Act, The Shepherd Centre will be guided by the best practice guidelines developed on responsible electronic messaging practices by the Australian Direct Marketing Association in conjunction with industry and consumer representatives and administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

How to access your personal information or request changes

If you would like to access the information we hold about you, you can write to the Privacy Officer at the address below. We will endeavour to give you access to that information within two weeks. In order to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to come into The Shepherd Centre office nearest you with your identification documents before we give you access. If it is not practical for you to visit our office, we will arrange an alternative arrangement to check your identification before sharing the information with you.

If the information that we hold about you is incorrect or not up to date, we will update it as soon as possible after you have shown us how and why it is incorrect. In the unlikely event that we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information for legal reasons as specified in the Privacy Act, we will provide you with reasons for denying access.

If you want to change any information that you have previously given us, or if you want to opt out of future communications, please contact our Privacy Officer as detailed below.

Concerns about a breach of your personal information (including how to make a complaint)

If you have any complaints, questions or concerns about what information The Shepherd Centre holds or about the accuracy of that information, please contact our Privacy Officer as detailed below. You can also make a general complaint or provide feedback through The Shepherd Centre’s broader feedback and complaints mechanisms, including [email protected] or on our website https://shepherdcentre.org.au/contact-us/

The Shepherd Centre takes its obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme very seriously and has embedded the OAIC guidelines for data breaches within its corporate policy and procedures. TSC is committed to a 4 step action plan for health services providers as set out by the OAIC in responding to data breaches: Contain, Evaluate, Notify and Review.

Security of Information - Does your data or personal information ever go overseas.

If you provide us with information, it is stored securely in our databases and only accessed by staff authorised by The Shepherd Centre. The Shepherd Centre uses a range of hardware and software security measures to protect our information and ensure that only authorised staff are granted access.

The Shepherd Centre’s website may contain links to other websites of interest. The Shepherd Centre does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of those websites. Please check the Privacy Policies on other websites before you provide your personal information to them.

The Shepherd Centre will not transfer your personal information overseas unless we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information being transferred will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information inconsistently with the National Privacy Principles. Transfer of information overseas would normally only occur for data processing purposes, for example third party payment facilitators may process data off-shore.

The Shepherd Centre will sometimes use third party service providers to conduct surveys and facilitate information collection and event registration. Some of these service providers conduct all or part of their business overseas, so your personal information may be transferred overseas as a result. The Shepherd Centre conducts a due diligence process before entering into any agreement with service providers and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is not used in a manner inconsistent with the National Privacy Principles.

Visiting our website

When visiting our website, The Shepherd Centre uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and provide personalised content and advertising services that are tailored to you. We may also use tracking cookies from third parties such as Facebook, Google, Taboola and others which provide information about your usage of our website to tailor your advertisement experience and personalised content on their systems and websites.

Additionally, we may in some cases send cookie or provided information such as your email address and name to the Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) to improve our advertisements and to provide more personalised content experiences. We want to assure you that we take your privacy seriously and have implemented measures to protect your data. By using our website, you consent to our use of cookies and or CAPI in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Forwarding credit card numbers or other sensitive information via email or facsimile is not safe. We suggest that you do not send information to us in either format. Certain sections of The Shepherd Centre website are secured using SSL technology to encrypt data between your browser and the website. If you are entering any payment or credit card information on the internet, you should confirm that the page is secured (padlock symbol in your browser) before entering any information. We make every effort possible to ensure your donations and transactions within our site are as secure and safe as possible for you.

By using our website you acknowledge and agree that the internet is inherently insecure and that you use the internet at your own risk. You acknowledge that you do not hold The Shepherd Centre liable for any security breaches, viruses, Trojans or other malicious software that may infect your computer, or any damages, loss of data, revenue or otherwise that may occur as a result of using our website/s.

We recommend the use of the latest version of widely used and maintained browsers, for example Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

The Shepherd Centre may, without notice, amend or modify its Privacy Notice by posting the amended Privacy Notice to The Shepherd Centre’s website.

Contact details

The Privacy Officer can be contacted by:

Phone: 1800 020 030

In writing: The Privacy Officer, The Shepherd Centre, PO Box 871, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

Email: [email protected]

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