Privacy and confidentiality

Objective

This Policy sets out the commitment of BrainLink Limited to protecting the privacy of the personal information of clients and employees, and the way in which that commitment is put into practice.

Scope

This Policy applies to all BrainLink Services users, board, employees, volunteers and agents.

Policy statement

BrainLink recognises and respects your right to privacy. We are committed to protecting your privacy during all interactions.

Specifically:

  • Protection from inappropriate public attention or intrusion;
  • Be treated equally, respectfully and with dignity;
  • Confidence that written and spoken information is protected from access and use by unauthorised persons.

BrainLink complies with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (theAct). This policy sets out how we collect, use, manage and store personal information in accordance with the Act.

In this policy, "we" "us" and "our" are reference to BrainLink Services. “You” and “your” means anatural person whose personal information we have knowingly collected.

A person has the right to:

  • know why we are collecting your personal information;
  • know what information we hold about them;
  • know how we use that information;
  • know who we share the information with;
  • see the information we hold about them;
  • know if their personal information will be disclosed overseas; and
  • correct this information if it is wrong.

BrainLink only collects information that is relevant to the effective service delivery and management of BrainLink Services Inc. The information we collect includes contact details, personal details, tax file numbers, any other personal information you or a person ostensibly authorised by you submits to us and other information that is reasonably necessary to be able to perform our functions and provide you with our services.

BrainLink may also collect sensitive information, which includes health information, criminal records(from prospective employees, volunteers or directors only) and an individual's race and religion.

How we collect your information depends upon how you interact with us. We may collect personal information directly from you or if you have authorised us to do so, other sources such as your doctor or other service providers. We may collect information in person, or via telephone, mail, fax, email or internet contact. Where we collect, use and disclose sensitive information about you, we will only do so where it is reasonably necessary to conduct our business and we have either obtained your consent, or it is permitted by law.

We will, at the time of collecting the information (or if not practicable, as soon as practicable after)notify you that we are collecting personal information about you, why we are collecting that information and any consequences for you if we do not collect that information.

If you do not wish for your personal information to be collected in a way anticipated by this Privacy Policy, we will use reasonable endeavours to accommodate your request. If BrainLink does not comply with your request, or you provide us with inaccurate or incorrect information, we may not have sufficient information to conduct our business and we may be limited:

  • in our ability to provide our services;
  • in our ability to keep you informed of company updates and services information;
  • in considering your application for employment with us; and
  • in our ability to respond to an inquiry or request.

We collect, use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose of conducting our business, which includes:

  • providing you with services you may need;
  • monitoring the progress of our services to you and tailoring the services to suit your needs;
  • carrying out planning, service development, research and analysis;
  • improving our services;
  • responding to an inquiry or request;
  • working together with our service providers to properly operate our business;
  • assessing a person's application for employment with us;
  • compiling and maintaining mailing lists and communicating with persons on those lists;
  • fulfilling our funding agreements with Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH), Home and Community Care (HACC) and Department of Education andTraining (DET) or to other funding bodies;
  •  disclosing statistical information about our services to the DH and DFFH, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare or to other regulators;
  • where disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen serious threat to the life or health of a client, employee or another person;
  • fulfilling other obligations to government authorities;
  • doing something that one would reasonably expect us to do using the information; and
  • where you otherwise provide your consent, whether express or implied.

In conducting our operations, we may share some of your personal information with third parties such as outsourced service providers and contractors. Unless you have agreed (or the consent of a parent or guardian has been obtained), these parties are not allowed to use your personal information for any other purpose except to assist in conducting our operations.

Although we take all reasonable measures to secure your information, we are not responsible for third party circumvention of security measures on our electronic databases or at any of our premises.Please note that third party recipients of personal information may have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for their actions, including their handling of personal information.

BrainLink will not:

  • Disclose or use your personal details in any way than those permitted by law and required to carryout our work on your behalf;
  • Incorrectly store data we collect about you; or
  • Disclose your personal information without your express and informed consent, or without theconsent of a legal guardian or advocate if you are unable to make that decision.

BrainLink will use modern techniques and processes which meet current industry standards to ensure that your personal information is kept secure and confidential.

Only BrainLink employees are authorised to access and handle your personal information and such access is restricted according to role and network. All information collected by BrainLink will be kept accurate, complete, up to date and stored securely as reasonably practicable.

When you provide your personal details to us, you consent to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes (for an indefinite period). From time to time, we may contact you with information for the purpose of fundraising, newsletters, surveys or about products and services offered by us which we think may be of interest to you. When we contact you, it may be by mail, telephone, email or SMS. Where we use or disclose your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing, we will:

  • allow you to ‘opt out’ or in other words, allow you to request not to receive direct marketing communications; and
  • comply with a request by you to ‘opt-out’ of receiving further communications within a reasonable time frame.

We will only contact you if you have consented to direct marketing, and you can ask to be removed from our marketing lists at any time by directly contacting us. If you don't wish to receive new information, just contact our Information Officer using the details set out below.

BrainLink will not retain any of your information any longer than is legally required.

If you wish to have your personal information deleted, please let us know in writing and we will delete that information wherever practicable.

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you by contacting our Information Officer using the details set out at the bottom of this policy. If we determine, having regard to theAPPs, that it is either not lawful or not required by law to provide you access to the personal information we hold, we will provide you with a written response within a reasonable period, setting out our reasons. If we are otherwise obliged or permitted to give you access to that personal information, we will do so within a reasonable time. We reserve the right to charge you a fee for giving access.

If personal information we hold about you is incorrect, we will, on your request to correct it or where we are satisfied that the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the information is corrected.However, if you request us to correct personal information that we hold about you and we refuse todo so, we will, to the extent reasonable, provide you a written response as to our reasons.

Privacy and confidentiality guarantee

We at BrainLink recognise and respect your right to privacy. We will protect your privacy during all interactions.

If you have a concern or complaint regarding the collection or use of your personal or private information, please refer to the BrainLink Complaints Procedure.

Sign up to keep informed
Sign up to keep informed