This Privacy Policy explains how the Victoria Law Foundation (VLF) (ABN 64 131 425 884) collects, uses, discloses and otherwise handles personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) which are contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).
For the purposes of this policy ‘personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
If you have any questions or feedback about this policy or the way in which the VLF handles personal information or you would like a hard copy, you can contact us on the details below.
Business and Finance Manager
Victoria Law Foundation
Level 5 / 43 Hardware Lane
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
contact@victorialawfoundation.org.au
+61 3 9604 8100
The Victoria Law Foundation only collects personal information necessary to fulfill its statutory functions and activities under the Victoria Law Foundation Act 2009. The main purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information are set out below.
The types of personal information that we collect about you will depend on the type of dealings you have with us. For example, we may hold personal information in the following types of records:
The personal information collected may include the following:
Some personal information, such as information relating to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or affiliations, health information (including mental health information and information about a disability), genetic information and whether or not you have a criminal record is sensitive and requires a higher level of protection under the Privacy Act. We may collect your sensitive information when we have your consent and when the collection is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our research function.
Sensitive Information may be collected via questionnaires, qualitative interviews or other research methods, either by us directly or by a contracted third party (such as a market research company carrying out survey fieldwork) for the purposes of research.
Sensitive Information which could allow individuals to be identified is encrypted and securely stored on our on-site server. Sensitive Information which could allow individuals to be identified we receive from and provide to third party contractors is also secured and encrypted during transmission.
Sensitive Information will generally only be disclosed in an aggregated, de-identified format, in the form of published research findings or presentations. For example, we might explore the relationship between a protected characteristic (such as ethnicity) to experience of legal problems or legal capability. The aim of such work could be to explore groups who get worse justice outcomes, with a view to making policy recommendations that might make access to justice more equitable. Sensitive Information may be published in a case study, but never in a form that would allow individuals to be identified.
Wherever we survey or speak to the public we obtain informed content. This informed consent is ongoing and can be withdrawn at any time.
We collect personal information in a number of ways, including:
In some circumstances people might elect not to identify themselves, or to use a pseudonym - for example, when viewing our website or making general phone queries. This will limit our engagement with you.
We will only send you direct communications, such as newsletters or event information, if you would reasonably expect to receive them or you have consented. If it is impractical to gain your consent, we will always provide a simple means for you to request not to receive the material (‘opting out’). We will not use your personal information for the purpose of direct communications unless you have given us prior consent.
You can opt out of receiving direct communications from us by:
We may share and disclose your Personal Information with our Affiliates and to the following types of third parties for the purposes described in this privacy statement.
Our Affiliates include Mailchimp for our events. Learn more about Mailchimp and its privacy practices.
Sometimes we share your Personal Information with our third-party service providers working on our behalf for the purposes described in this privacy statement. For example, companies we hire to help us provide and support our service or assist in protecting and securing our systems and services and other business related functions.
Other examples of where we may share your Personal Information include:
We may disclose personal information to our contracted information technology service providers which may be hosted off-shore.
We hold personal information in both hard copy and electronic formats. Paper files are stored onsite, and they may also be archived in boxes and stored offsite in secure facilities. Personal information may be collected in paper-based documents and converted to electronic form for use or storage (with the original paper-based documents either archived or securely destroyed). We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
The security of your personal information is important to us and we use the recommended industry standards when storing and dealing with your personal information. The steps we take to secure personal information include:
While the VLF strives to protect the personal information and privacy of users on our website, you disclose information at your own risk and we cannot guarantee its security.
If you are concerned about sending your information over the internet, you can contact the Victoria Law Foundation by phone or post (details under ‘Contacting Us’).
Website visits generate certain information that is automatically stored in log files, including Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp and clickstream data.
We use this information, which in itself does not identify individual users, to analyse trends, administer the site, track users’ movements around the site, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
We may use both session ID cookies and/or persistent cookies. Both kinds are stored on the site visitor’s hard drive.
If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited.
We may use transparent images on our HTML-based e-mails and newsletters to help gauge the effectiveness of our electronic communications. This includes identifying who has opened or clicked on a link in an HTML-based email.
Links to third party websites that are not operated or controlled by the Victoria Law Foundation are provided for your convenience. The VLF is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of those websites. Third party websites should have their own privacy and security policies, which we encourage you to read them before supplying any personal information.
Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including Australian Privacy Principles and the Freedom of Information Act 1982, you have a number of rights you can exercise over your data. Your rights include the following:
We will take reasonable steps to provide you with access to your personal information. We may however if necessary charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of locating the information and providing it to you.
We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information if we are satisfied that it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. If we have provided your personal information to third parties we will also notify them of the correction if you ask us to do so, unless it is impracticable or unlawful.
Requests to access and correct your information should be made by email, post or phone using the details provided under ‘Contacting Us’. Note that we will need to verify your identity before processing your request. We will endeavour to respond to your request within 30 days.
If we do not agree with your request to access or correct your information, we will provide you with written reasons for our decision and available complaint mechanisms.
If you have a complaint about how the Victoria Law Foundation has collected or handled your personal information, please contact our Business and Finance Manager using the details provided under ‘Contacting Us.’
We will ask you to detail your complaint in writing so we can assess it thoroughly. We can assist you with this process if required.
We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within 30 days of receipt of the full information. While complex cases may take longer to resolve, we will keep you updated on the progress of your complaint.
If you are unhappy with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by e-mail, or by means of a notice on our home page.
This Privacy Statement was last updated on 01/03/2023. Please check back regularly to keep informed of changes to this notice.