Privacy policy.

For the purposes of this Privacy Statement, the term ‘personal information’ has the same meaning as provided in the Privacy Act 1988, that being:

“…information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

(a)  whether the information or opinion is true or not; and

(b)  whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.”

We may request a range of information to assist us to fulfil our mission. This information may include your:

• name
• mailing or street address
• email address
• telephone number/s
• any other contact details you wish to provide
• age or birth date
• profession, occupation or job title
• details of the products and services you have accessed or have enquired about, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services and to respond to your enquiries
• any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise; and
• information you provide to us through customer surveys or online contacts.

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 information about how users use our website.

If you wish to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with Guide Dogs Australia, we will attempt to fulfil your request. For example, if you wish to donate anonymously, we can use certain payment mechanisms to facilitate this such as a bank cheque.

Anonymity may not always be practicable depending on the nature of your request from Guide Dogs Australia.

Guide Dogs Australia will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep personal information accurate and up to date. We ensure this information is securely stored to protect it from loss, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure or modification. Information is destroyed or permanently de-identified when it is no longer required for any purpose for which it was collected.

Guide Dogs Australia will only use and disclose personal information with your consent, unless such uses are permitted by law, including without limitation those prescribed by the APP.

Guide Dogs Australia employees, volunteers and data processors are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by the organisation.

Donor information within the Guide Dogs Australia database is required to be stored with a high level of security to prevent unauthorised access. Additional protections are required to be in place for confidential and financial information including:

·       enforcement of user-based permissions to restrict access to confidential donor information, ensuring only employees whose jobs require access to this information are granted permissions; and

·       secure encryption of all donor credit card and bank account details.

Guide Dogs Australia will use mailing houses, consultants and data cleansing agencies. Such service providers are only used where a confidentiality agreement is in place that upholds the APP to ensure that donor and Client privacy is protected.

The online facility for donations to Guide Dogs Australia and the purchase of online shopping products via the Guide Dogs Australia website is secure and encrypted. Transmissions over the internet are never 100 percent secure or error-free. However, Guide Dogs Australia and its service providers take reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, andunauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

We will only record your e-mail address if you send us a message. It will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided – for example seeking further information about our services or making a referral for yourself or another individual. It will not be added to a mailing list unless you request that this be done. We will not disclose your e-mail address without consent.

By using our web site, and voluntarily providing us with personal information, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in the manner described in this Privacy Statement.

We use Google Analytics to track visits to our website, and use this information to track the effectiveness of our website, including number of visits, length of visit, viewed pages and the technical capabilities of our visitors. While this data is mostly anonymous, sometimes we will connect it to you, for instance in personalising a webpage, or pre-filling a form with your details. For more information on our analytics tools, read Google’s Privacy Policy.

We also use tools that tell us when a computer or device has visited or accessed our content, which allows us to tailor advertising both on our websites and through advertising networks on other websites based on your visits or behaviour through cookies on your device. You can control how cookies are used by accessing the settings on your chosen browser.

You can also engage with Guide Dogs through social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can always control how you receive content through each website’s settings. Occasionally, we may get in touch with you via social media if you are not already a follower by using the details on your record, such as your email address. If you prefer we don’t do this, please let our team know.