Privacy Policy

1. Purpose and Scope

This policy describes how International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) will manage personal information and fulfill its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988. Personal information means information about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. This policy details the personal information collected by IWDA, including why the organisation holds personal information, how it is protected, and the choices individuals can make about their personal information.

2. Our policy

IWDA respects individual privacy and is committed to protecting personal information. IWDA applies the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained in the Privacy Act 1988, and is guided by the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct of the Fundraising Institute of Australia.

Collection and storage of personal information

IWDA collects and retains personal information necessary to assist in achieving our mission, managing our relationships with donors and other supporters, keeping people informed of our activities, strengthening the organisation through fundraising and complying with law.

IWDA will collect personal information only by fair and lawful means. Whenever reasonably possible, we will collect personal information directly from the individual.

The kinds of personal information that we collect and hold about you may include:

  • identifying information, such as your name;
  • contact information, such as your postal address, email address and telephone number;
  • financial information, such as the payment details supplied to us when you make a donation (or to a third party that collects donations on our behalf);
  • details of any services or training we provide; and
  • records of our communications with you, including any messages you send us.

IWDA will collect sensitive information with the individual’s consent when the information is reasonably necessary for the activities of IWDA. For example, IWDA will collect sensitive information, including, but not limited to, information about ethnicity, family planning, health and disability, through the Equality Insights Survey for the purpose of understanding deprivation. Sensitive information means personal information that could identify an individual along with additional information such as their health situation, ethnic origin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. A full list of what constitutes sensitive information is listed under the Privacy Act 1988.

Equality Insights

Where IWDA will collect information through its Equality Insights survey, the APP states that individual respondents should be informed that participation in a survey is voluntary and they can choose to remain anonymous. IWDA will disclose how the information will be shared and used. Informed consent during the Equality Insights Survey will be agreed and recorded and be part of enumerator training. Equality Insights will identify and document strategies to be used by enumerators and supervisors to protect privacy and confidentiality of the respondents and their responses as well as the security of data during the data collection.

IWDA will ensure contractual arrangements with external Research firms include privacy clauses to ensure the consultant firm are also subject to privacy legislation equivalent to that in force in Australia.

Individuals who contact IWDA have the option of requesting anonymity, with the exception of donors who wish to receive tax receipts, from whom we need to obtain limited personal information in order to issue acknowledgement of contributions for tax purposes. IWDA will practice donor confidentiality and will only publicly identify IWDA donors with their advance knowledge and permission.

IWDA will take steps to destroy or de-identify personal or sensitive data where required under the Privacy Act, including on occasions when that data is no longer required. This includes donation and donor data, employee data and other sensitive information.

Online

To improve its website, IWDA collects standard information about website visitors, including cookies provided by a third party. Cookies are pieces of data that a website transfers to a computer’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. This information is accessed by IWDA anonymously and in aggregate in order to track statistics about website usage. This information may also be accessed by Google Analytics; however, IWDA will make no attempt to identify individual users or their browsing activities except where required by law.

Personal information is collected through the IWDA website or other online channels when individuals make a financial transaction; sign up to receive information from IWDA; send a message through our contact form; or submit personal information into our website or the website of a third-party vendor acting on our behalf for any other reason. Credit card details collected through the IWDA website are held securely by our third-party payment gateway, IWDA does not store these details. All other personal information collected by IWDA through the IWDA website is stored securely and only accessible by authorised IWDA representatives.

Offline

Personal information is collected over the phone or in person when individuals provide it to us for any reason, including to make a donation or other financial transaction, or to request information from IWDA. Credit card details collected over the phone or in person are encrypted in our database, and all personal information is stored securely where it is only accessible by authorised IWDA representatives.

Third-parties

Personal information collected by third-party vendors on IWDA’s behalf, either through online or offline channels, will be subject to that vendor’s own privacy policy and practices. Third- party vendors collecting personal information on behalf of IWDA will identify themselves to individuals as such, to enable them to make informed decisions about when and how they disclose their personal information. IWDA will take reasonable measures, contractual and otherwise, to ensure that third-party vendors contracted on our behalf will safeguard personal information to the same standard as IWDA; however IWDA cannot control or be held liable for the business practices of third-party entities to whom personal information is provided.

Use of personal information

As noted, IWDA collects and retains personal information to assist in achieving our mission, managing our relationships with supporters, keeping people informed of our activities, strengthening the organisation through fundraising and complying with law. IWDA will use personal information for these purposes, and for other related purposes for which you would reasonably expect it to be used, with your consent or otherwise as permitted by law.

We may from time to time use your personal information in order to send you marketing materials about our activities, and those of our partner organisations. You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us or following the “unsubscribe” link in the communication.

Occasionally we also allow like-minded organisations to contact you with information that may be of interest to you, including some organisations located outside Australia. Those organisations allow us to do the same and this way we can reach more people with vital information.

 IWDA will not share personal information with third parties unless you consent, the sharing is with our contractors and is necessary for them to perform specific functions required by IWDA (e.g. donor name and contact details may be shared with an external marketing provider in order to contact donors for direct marketing purposes), or the sharing is otherwise permitted or required by law. When sharing information with contractors, IWDA will take contractual measures to ensure that our contractors safeguard personal information as well as we do, and that personal information is only kept for as long as is necessary to fulfil the required function.

Overseas disclosure

IWDA may disclose personal information to overseas recipients in limited circumstances and only as required by the nature of our work. Circumstances where IWDA may disclose personal information overseas include where arranging travel for a contractor engaged by IWDA or supporting professional networking between contacts in Australia and overseas.

IWDA will only disclose personal information to overseas recipients in countries where we are actively engaged, including those listed on our website.

Accessing and correcting personal information

Individuals have the right to request access to and correct personal information we hold about them, subject to exceptions listed in the Privacy Act 1988. Upon request, and within the parameters of the legislation, IWDA will provide individuals with access to this information. To protect the integrity and security of the information we hold, we may ask that you follow a defined access procedure, which may include steps to verify your identity. In certain cases we may charge you an administration fee for providing you with access to the information you have asked for, but we will inform you of this before proceeding. There may be cases where we are unable to provide the information you request, such as where it would interfere with the privacy of others or result in a breach of confidentiality. In these cases we will let you know why we cannot comply with your request.

3. Privacy Enquiries and Complaints

IWDA is committed to working with individuals to obtain a fair resolution of any privacy concerns. If you are concerned about the way in which we are managing your personal information and think we may have breached the Australian Privacy Principles, or any other relevant obligation, please contact us using the contact details set out below. We will deal with the matter within a reasonable time, and will keep you informed of the progress of our investigation. If we have not responded to you within a reasonable time or if you feel that your complaint has not been resolved satisfactorily, you can contact us to discuss your concerns.

Please contact us by calling (+61 3) 8373 2500 or alternatively write to:
The Privacy Officer
IWDA
PO Box 64, Flinders Lane
Victoria, Australia, 8009

You are also entitled to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). You can obtain further general information about your privacy rights and privacy law from the OAIC by:

The Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042

 

4. References and Related documents