Public Privacy Statement

The National Privacy Principles

The Australian Government introduced new legislation that came into force on 21st 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 1300 363 992 or through their website at www.privacy.gov.au.

COTA (NSW) respects and upholds your rights 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 confidential and only used for appropriate purposes and in accordance with this policy.

Why we collect your personal information

Your personal and sensitive information, including health information, is only collected as is necessary for a function or activity to enable COTA (NSW) to carry out its work and deliver services to the community.

COTA (NSW) is very grateful to the many people who provide financial support to allow us to continue our important work. When you give us personal information such as your name and address, we record it on our database and use it to contact you.

We may use your personal information to send you information on ageing issues or to let you know about our special events and programs. Each time that we send you a direct marketing communication we will provide you with a simple way to OPT OUT of receiving similar communications in the future.

You can also let us know that you do not wish to receive any further mail by contacting us.

Occasionally COTA (NSW) may allow third parties to mail you with information that we believe may be of interest to you. These organisations usually allow us to do the same and this way we can reach more people with vital information. However whenever we contact you, we will always give you an opportunity to opt-out of receiving such offers. We also do not give these organisations your details. Instead these mailings are arranged through an independent party, which is strictly compliant with privacy legislation. However if you do take advantage of any offer from a third party organisation, they may send further offers to you directly.

COTA (NSW) 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 COTA (NSW). We will always collect such information in a non-intrusive, lawful and fair manner.

Opting out of modifying your information

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 us.

How we collect your personal information

We collect your personal information when you provide it to COTA (NSW) in a number of ways including:

through a call to our information service
by participating in one of COTA (NSW)'s many community events
when you respond to our fundraising mail.

We may also collect your personal information from publicly available sources such as the telephone directory.

How we keep your personal information secure

If you provide us with your personal information, it is securely stored in our database, which is accessed only by authorised staff at COTA (NSW). Our computer system is kept secure. Each user has security level access and must provide a username/password to gain access. In addition, our external access to e-mail and the Internet is protected by a Firewall/Router.

Disclosing your personal information

COTA (NSW) will not provide your personal information to any other individuals or organisations except on a confidential basis to contractors who provide database management, printing and mailing services to COTA (NSW). In these cases, we ensure that our contractors are also bound by the

National Privacy Principles to keep your personal information confidential.

COTA (NSW) is very thankful to people who are willing to share their personal stories with others through media stories and in our newsletter. We will only use your personal information for publicity purposes or as stories in our newsletter with your express written permission.

COTA (NSW) will not provide your personal information to any overseas organisation without first asking your permission. In such a case, we will also ensure that such organisations are bound by privacy laws at least as strict as those in Australia.

Visiting our website

When you visit our website, you can browse at your leisure. COTA (NSW) does not use "cookies" to track your movements through the information section of our website or your visits to other websites. COTA (NSW) will only place a "cookie" on your computer for (a) the purposes of tracking navigation and/or (b) to track items added to the e-commerce facility when you make an online donation to COTA (NSW) or purchase a Heart Foundation product.

We will only record your email address if you send us a message and your email address will not be used for any other purpose without your consent and will not be passed on to any other organisation.

COTA (NSW) website contains links to other sites of interest. COTA (NSW) does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of those websites. Please check the Privacy Statements on other websites before you provide your personal information to them.

By using COTA (NSW)'s Internet site, you agree that the Internet is inherently insecure and accordingly, COTA (NSW) cannot provide any definitive assurance regarding security or personal information. COTA (NSW) will not be liable in any way in relation to any breach of security or any unintended loss or disclosure of that information.

Our Website Security

Our web site is secured by a VeriSign SSL certificate. All forms used within this website are encrypted. We make every effort possible to make your donations and transactions within our site as secure and safe as possible for you. All information that leaves any form (including your credit card number) is encrypted automatically by your browser until it reaches our servers.

The Spam Act 2003

The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited emails and SMS 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, COTA (NSW) will abide by the best practice guidelines, which will be developed on responsible electronic messaging practices by the Australian Communications Authority.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

COTA (NSW) may, without notice, amend or modify its Privacy Policy by posting the amended Privacy Policy to our website.

How to access, correct or update your personal information

If you have any complaints, questions or concerns about what information COTA (NSW) holds or about the accuracy of that information, please contact us

If you would like to access the information that we hold about you can contact us. 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.