Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Sacred Heart Mission is committed to protecting the privacy of all who use this website.

This Privacy Statement applies to personal information about our clients, carers, contractors, consultants, supporters, job applicants and members of the public. It does not apply to personal information about employees of Sacred Heart Mission. Employees can see our Privacy Policy (available on the shared files).

References to "Sacred Heart Mission", "us", "we" and "our" are references to Sacred Heart Mission (ABN 62 843 874 179).

2. Application of privacy laws

Sacred Heart Mission is bound by a number of laws which protect your privacy. Depending on the context, these may include the National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Information Privacy Principles under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic). Sacred Heart Mission sometimes handles personal information relying on exemptions under these laws, for example in relation to:

• related bodies corporate;
• provision of services to government authorities; and
• operations outside Australia relating to personal information of non-Australians.

Any permitted handling of personal information under such exemptions will take priority over this Privacy Statement to the extent of any inconsistency.

3. Personal information collected

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, as well as from publicly available sources and third parties such as those identified in the "use and disclosure of personal information" section below.

We only collect personal information that is necessary for our work. We never disclose the personal information of our clients or supporters to third parties, unless they are working directly on our behalf or we are required to do so by law. Nor do we publish personal information in publications or on our web-site, without explicit/express consent. We never sell, rent, lend or give away our supporter list. Supporters may choose not to receive some or all of our supporter communications.

Sacred Heart Mission also actively seeks to ensure that all personal information we collect is protected from misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We have internal data protection and electronic data transmission procedures and all donations and communications made on-line via our web-site are secure.

4. Use and disclosure of personal information

We may collect, use and disclose your personal information for purposes including:

• for clients and prospective clients, assessing what services you require, whether we can provide those services and evaluating ongoing services provided to you;
• assessing any application made by you to become a volunteer, contractor or employee;
• for supporters (including donors, sponsors and referring agencies) who provide their personal information, to process and record donations, provide receipts and - unless you opt out or we are prohibited by law - to contact you about Sacred Heart Mission, our activities and to provide our newsletters, reports, invitations and requests for support; and
• research, internal reviews, analysis and production of consolidated statistics.

We may not be able to do these things without your personal information. For example, we may not be able to contact you, provide services, issue receipts or offer employment to you.

We may also outsource certain tasks involving your personal information to third party service providers, including organisations that provide mail and delivery, auditing or technology services.

If you have applied for a position with Sacred Heart Mission, we may exchange some or all of your personal information with your referees, police, Centrelink and recruitment consultants, for appropriate purposes relating to considering your application including checking your criminal record where permitted by law.

5. Accessing and updating your personal information

If at any time you wish to view or alter your personal information, please contact the relevant program or service. We ask that you provide us with as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek, in order to help us retrieve it. An access fee may be charged where permitted by law. In certain circumstances, we may not be required by law to provide you with access or to correct your personal information. If that is the case, we will give you our reasons for that decision.

6. Security of personal information

Irrespective of whether personal information is stored electronically or in hard copy form, we take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

7. Additional information for users of our Website

If you visit www.sacredheartmission.org to read, browse or download information, our system may record information such as the date and time of your visit to the Website, the pages accessed and any information downloaded. This information is used for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes only.

Like many websites, our Website may use "cookies" from time to time. Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser. Cookies may also be used to record non-personal information such as the date, time or duration of your visit, or the pages accessed, for website administration, statistical and maintenance purposes. Any such information will be aggregated and not linked to particular individuals. The default settings of browsers like Internet Explorer always allow cookies, but users can easily erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please note that some parts of the Website may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.

While we take great care to protect your personal information on our Website, unfortunately no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you send to us or receive from us online. This is particularly true for information you send to us via email. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your personal information, we take reasonable steps to protect its security.

The Website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites.

8. Credit Card Transactions

If applicable, credit card transactions may incur service fees on certain services such as declined transactions or cancellation fees. If so charges will be advised to you. Sacred Heart Mission accepts no responsibility for any breaches of security or misrepresentation in relation to credit card transactions.

Before entering into a transaction, the onus is on you to check carefully whether any cancellation fee or charges applies, and/or you are bound by any Sacred Heart Mission refund policy.

9. Email Addresses

Email addresses provided via this site will be used to respond to specific user queries. Your email address will not be disclosed to any other party without your knowledge and consent and as intended, unless required by law.

10. Subscriptions

This internet site provides the facility for users to subscribe to our supporter newsletter. To subscribe to this, service users must provide a valid address.

Sacred Heart Mission follows the National Privacy Principles. Be assured your details remain confidential and are not supplied to other organisations.

11. Further information

For information about privacy generally, or if your concerns are not resolved to your satisfaction, you can contact the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or via http://www.privacy.gov.au.