Emen8 is produced as a partnership between ACON and Thorne Harbour Health. Emen8’s Privacy Policy is governed by ACON. This policy can also be found online at ACON’s website.
ACON Health Limited trading as ACON
“Protecting the privacy of health information is an integral part of providing quality health care” (WHO)
This policy applies to the whole of ACON, the Board, staff (including all levels of management), volunteers and contracted service partners.
Client confidentiality has been an underpinning philosophy and foundation of ACON’s work since our inception in 1985. ACON supports the spirit of intent and complies with and where possible strives to exceed the requirements of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.
ACON’s Privacy Policy outlines what happens to personal information collected by ACON, how it is used and how you can find out what information ACON holds about you. It also explains how you can have it changed or altered if it is incorrect or out of date.
Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000
The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 which amends the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988, sets out your rights and ACON’s responsibility relating to any personal information held about you as an individual who uses ACON’s services. This policy does not apply to information held by ACON about staff or volunteers. Different legislation applies to staff and volunteer records.
The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (hereafter referred to as the Act) which includes the National Privacy Principles sets out how private sector organisations such as ACON should collect, keep, use and disclose personal information. ACON complies with and wherever possible strives to exceed the requirements of the Act. ACON complies with all of the National Privacy Principles.
The Act provides you as an individual with the right to know why ACON holds your personal information, what information is held about you, how ACON will use that information and under what circumstances your personal information may be divulged to others. You have the right to ask to see your personal information and for it to be changed or altered if incorrect or out of date. Under special circumstances ACON may refuse to allow you to see information held about you, in doing so, ACON in accordance with the Act is required to explain why. The Act stipulates that you may make a complaint if you think your information is not used or held appropriately and in accordance with the Act.
Personal information includes such things as your full name, date of birth, gender and address and other contact details. The Act recognises that information of a more sensitive nature may be collected by organisations such as ACON in order to provide you with, or refer you to particular services. Sensitive information is a subset of personal information. It means information or opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health information about an individual
Collection
ACON will collect only the information, which is necessary to provide you with the highest standard of service.
- We will only collect information about you with your consent and by lawful means.
- When we collect your information you will be told what we will do with it and to whom it may be disclosed.
- Information about you will not be used in any way without your consent or other than for the reasons for which it was collected.
Where we have obtained information about you from someone other than yourself, we will take all reasonable steps to inform you about who we are, what we intend to do with your information, how you may access it and to whom it may be disclosed.
In other words where possible we will inform you of what will happen to your information as if we had collected it from you ourselves.
Use and Disclosure
Information about you will only be used or disclosed to others by ACON in ways which meet your expectations or are required by law. We will only use or disclose your personal information for a purpose other than the primary purpose for which it was collected if:
- the secondary purpose of collection is related to the primary purpose, and
- you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose information for that secondary purpose, or
- you have given permission for its use or disclosure
We will only use your information for the purpose of service promotion such as newsletters, pamphlets or fundraising providing you have given us permission to do so.
We will only use or disclose your information without your consent, when:
- it is in the interest of an individual’s health, life or safety, or
- in the interest of public health or safety, or
- we are required or authorised to do so by law
We may disclose health information about you to a person responsible for you such as a legally appointed guardian.
Data Quality
ACON will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information collected, used or disclosed about you is as appropriate, accurate and as current as possible.
Data Security
ACON undertakes to ensure that all personal information is kept in a secure place or manner. We will take all reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, loss, unauthorised or unnecessary access, alteration or disclosure. ACON undertakes to destroy or de-identify your personal information when it is no longer required for any purpose by you or by law.
Openness
ACON’s Privacy Policy is available to you or anyone who requests it. Copies of this Policy may be obtained through the contact details provided at the end of this document.
ACON has a complaints procedure for anyone who believes their information is not being handled properly or in accordance with this policy. A copy of ACON’s complaints procedure may also be obtained through the contact details.
Access and Correction
The only staff or volunteers who may access your information can do so only in the performance of their duties in the provision of a service to you or specifically at your request. Staff or volunteers may not divulge any identifying information about you to each other except that, which is necessary for them to do so in the performance of their duties.
ACON will provide you with access to personal information it holds about you upon your request. In some circumstances it may be inappropriate for ACON to comply with your request, such as where someone else’s privacy may be seriously breached, or where the request poses a threat to an individual’s health or safety. In such case, if we withhold access we will provide you with the reason for doing so.
At your request we will correct any out-of-date or inaccurate information. We will do this either over the phone or face-to-face. You may arrange an appointment to view your personal information or you may request a written copy.
To obtain access to, or copies of, or to correct or up-date your personal, sensitive, information you will need to complete the ‘Personal Information Inquiry’ form. To change just your contact details you will need to complete the ‘Change of Address’ form. Copies of both of these online forms are available here.
Our contact details are at the end of this document.
Identifiers
ACON does not use identifiers or reference numbers assigned by other organisations or government departments or services. Nor does ACON assign identifiers or reference to personal information records except where we have obtained your approval to do so, such as membership numbers or client case file numbers.
ACON does not release membership or client case file numbers to other organisations. Nor do we divulge any information that may in any way identify a particular individual to other organisations, or to ACON staff or volunteers.
Anonymity
Wherever practicable and lawful, and if you want to, we will provide you the option of interacting with ACON anonymously.
Transborder Data Flows
ACON will only send your information to a third party in a foreign country with your prior consent or if the information about you has protection substantially similar to the National Privacy Principles outlined in the Act.
ACON will not collect sensitive information about you without your consent unless, the collection is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to health or life, or the collection is required by law. ACON in some instances may collect information without an individual’s consent if the person concerned is physically or legally incapable of giving consent. ACON may also collect sensitive information without consent in accordance with rules established by competent health or medical bodies that deal with the obligations of professional confidentiality eg client case notes kept about counselling sessions with professionally recognised psychotherapists or session case notes kept by enhanced care project staff.
Complaints Management
ACON has a Complaints Management Policy. A copy of this policy is available by emailing complaints@acon.org.au or telephoning ACON Reception on (02) 9206 2000.
ACON is committed to supporting, and applying the key principles of an effective complaints procedure, and ensures that:
- Complaints are carefully considered to ensure procedural fairness and natural justice and are resolved as quickly as possible.
- The confidentiality of the complainant and related parties are respected throughout the complaint resolution process.
Complaints can be made via telephone, face to face, by email or letter and email it to complaints@acon.org.au. You can also complete the electronic Complaint Registration Form here.
For any questions about ACON’s Privacy Policy contact our media officer by telephone (02) 9206 2000, e-mail online@acon.org.au, fax Attn ACON Media Officer (02) 9206 2069.
ACON Sydney – (02) 9206 2000
Northern Rivers – (02) 6622 1555
Hunter/Mid North Coast – (02) 4962 7700
The Privacy Commissioner’s web-site contains detailed information on privacy obligations including a copy of the Privacy Act http://www.privacy.gov.au and the Guidelines On Privacy In The Private Health Sector https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/guidance-and-advice/guide-to-health-privacy/ set out the standards for collecting, storing, using and disclosing personal information.
Disclaimer
Copyright
ACON materials may be reproduced in part or in full with acknowledgment to ACON. Commonwealth and NSW government information and materials on this website, including data, pages, documents, graphics, images and webpages, audio and video are protected by copyright, unless specifically notified to the contrary.
Use of material and information
You may download, store in cache, display, print and copy a single copy or part of a single copy of information or material from this site only for your personal, non-commercial use and only in an unaltered form.
Information or material from this site may be used for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and may only be reproduced as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (a copy of the Act is available at SCALEplus the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney General’s Department, at http://scaleplus.law.gov.au).
Any permitted reproduction made must acknowledge ACON source of any selected passage, extract, diagram or other information or material reproduced. Any reproduction made of the information or material must include a copy of the original copyright and disclaimer notices as set out here.
Commercial and other use
You are not permitted to re-transmit, distribute or commercialise the information or material without full acknowledgement to ACON or by seeking prior written approval from ACON. For written permission to use the information or material from this site, please contact the ACON Online + New Media Producer (02) 9206 2000. You may not use this website to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your website for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales.
Please contact the ACON Online + New Media Producer (02) 9206 2000 with any questions you may have about our website programs or policies, or to provide feedback on this website.
Linking the site
You may link to this site. Permission is not granted to reproduce, frame or reformat the files, pages, images, information and materials from this site on any other site unless express written permission has been obtained from the ACON Online + New Media Producer on (02) 9206 2000.
Disclaimer Provision
This website is presented by ACON for the purpose of disseminating health information. This website is not a substitute for independent professional advice. Nothing contained in this site is intended to be used as medical advice and it is not intended to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any sexually transmitted infection (STI), HIV or hepatitis A, B or C or mental health conditions, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for your own health professional’s advice. ACON does not accept any liability for any illness, loss or damage incurred by use of or reliance on the information contained in this website.
Quality of Information
ACON makes every effort to ensure the quality of the information available on this website and updates the information regularly. Before relying on the information on this site, however, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. ACON cannot guarantee and assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information.
Links to other Websites
This website contains links to external websites. ACON takes due care in selecting linked websites. It is the responsibility of the user to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external websites.
Linkage to external websites should not be taken to be an endorsement or a recommendation of any third party products or services offered by virtue of any information, material or content linked from or to this site. Users of links provided by this site are responsible for being aware of which organisation is hosting the site they visit.
Views or recommendations provided in linked sites do not necessarily reflect those of ACON.
Security
Every endeavour is made to ensure that this site is secure. However, users should be aware that the World Wide Web is an insecure public network that gives rise to a potential risk that a user’s transactions are being viewed, intercepted or modified by third parties or that files which the user downloads may contain computer viruses or other defects.
ACON accepts no liability for any interference with or damage to a user’s computer system, software or data occurring in connection with this website. Users are encouraged to take appropriate and adequate precautions to ensure that whatever is selected from this site is free of viruses or other contamination that may interfere with or damage the user’s computer system, software or data.
ACON makes every effort to comply with the Information Privacy Principles (1 –3, and 10 and 11) contained within the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 in the collection and privacy protection of its website users. A copy of the Act is available at SCALEplus the legal information retrieval system owned by the Australian Attorney General’s Department at http://scaleplus.law.gov.au).
If you have any privacy concerns, you should direct them to the ACON Online + New Media Producer: (02) 9206 2000.
Your email address
ACON will only record your email address in the event that you send us a message by email or if you register requesting notifications. Registration for notifications may be made initially by email, postal mail or fax. Your email address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and will not be added to any mailing lists without your prior consent by way of a specific request in writing. We will not use or disclose your email address for any other purpose, without your prior written consent.
Cookies and clickstream
When you visit, access, or use the website, mobile site, application, electronic newsletter or widget that links to this Cookie Policy (collectively “Site”) ACON entities (“us,” or “we”) use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver and improve the Site, and to display relevant content, products, services and advertising.
This Cookie Policy explains these technologies, including cookies, local storage, pixels, web beacons, and flash cookies, and how you can control them. In this policy, we will refer to all these technologies as “Cookies”.
We hope that this Cookie Policy helps you understand, and feel more confident about our use of Cookies. If you have any further queries or requests, please contact us at online@acon.org.au.
By using the Site, you agree that we can use these Cookies as described in this Cookie Policy. We may change this Cookie Policy at any time. Please take a look at the Last Updated date at the start of this policy to see when this Cookie Policy was last updated. Any changes in this Cookie Policy will become effective when we make the revised Cookie Policy available on or through the Site.
What is a cookie?
Cookies and other tracking technologies (such as browser cookies and local storage, pixel beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies) are comprised of small bits of data or code that often include a de-identified or anonymous unique identifier. Websites, apps and other services send this data to your browser (on your computer or mobile device) when you first request a web page and then store the data on your computer so that such websites, apps and other services can access information when you make subsequent requests for pages from that service. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work in a better, more efficient way. For example, they can recognise you and remember important information that will make your use of a website more convenient (e.g., by remembering your user preferences).
What Cookie do we use?
We use a variety of different types of Cookies on our Sites. Different Cookies have different specific purposes but in general they are all used so that we can improve your experience in using our Sites and interacting with us. Some of the purposes of different Cookies we use are described below.
- (A) Some Cookies are essential to the Site in order to facilitate our log-in process and enable you to move around it and to use its features. Without these Cookies, we may not be able to provide certain services or features, and the Site will not perform as smoothly for you as we would like.
- (B) We may use Cookies to allow us to remember the choices you make while browsing the Site, and to provide enhanced and more personalised content and features, such as customising a certain webpage, providing relevant advertising or editorial content, remembering if we have asked you to participate in a promotion and for other services you request, like watching a video or commenting on a blog.
- (C) We may use Cookies to receive and record information about your computer, device, and browser, potentially including your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Site from a mobile or other device, we may collect a unique device identifier assigned to that device (“UDID”), geolocation data, or other transactional information for that device.
- (D) We may use analytics Cookies, which are sometimes called performance cookies, to collect information about your use of the Site and enable us to improve the way it works. Analytics Cookies collect information about how you use the Site, for instance, which pages you go to most. The information allows us to see the overall patterns of usage on the Site, help us record any difficulties you have with the Site and show us whether our advertising is effective or not.
Personal Information
Information provided through the ACON website will comply with Information Privacy Principles (see Glossary below), and particularly principles 1 to 3 and 10 and 11. Stated simply these principles are:
- Principle 1 – Collection of information must be lawful and fair
- Principle 2 – Informing people why information is collected
- Principle 3 – Ensuring personal information collected is of good quality and not too intrusive
- Principle 10 – Limiting the use of personal information to the purposes for which it was collected
- Principle 11 – Preventing the disclosure of personal information outside the agency.
If you have any queries, concerns or require further information relating to privacy and ACON’s website, contact the ACON Online + New Media Producer (02) 9206 2000.
How can you opt out of cookie setting?
Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, but you can change your settings to notify you when a cookie is being set or updated, or to block cookies altogether. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information. Please note that by blocking any or all cookies you may not have access to certain features, content or personalisation available through the website.
For more information about targeting and advertising cookies, please visit Your Online Choices.