Cornwall Stodart respects people's privacy. All our staff are
required to read this policy and understand their responsibilities
when dealing with personal information.
In this Policy
- 'Personal information' refers to any information or any
opinion, whether true or not, from which an individual's identity
is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained.
-
'Sensitive information' refers to information about a person's
racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or associations,
religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, trade and
professional memberships, sexual preferences or practices, criminal
record or health information.
Our Privacy Principles
We are bound by the National Privacy Principles
(NPPs) in the Privacy Act 1988
(Act). We have adopted internal policies and
procedures to ensure that personal information we collect, store,
use and disclose is dealt with in accordance with the NPPs. You can
see the full text of the NPPs online at www.privacy.gov.au/law/act/npp.
Collecting Personal Information
We may need to collect personal information about you and others
including names, addresses, phone numbers and other contact
details. We may also collect details about you or others such as
age, sex, hobbies and other personal information.
We may need to collect personal information so we can:
- identify our clients, potential clients and their
representatives;
- identify parties with whom our clients have dealings or who are
in some way involved in proceedings involving our clients;
- identify any actual or potential conflicts of interest in
acting for particular clients;
- inform you or others of any initiatives we think may be of
interest to you or them;
- inform you or others of developments in the law and relevant
business markets;
- provide or offer you or others services or benefits;
- conduct our business and provide our services in a professional
and efficient manner; and/or
- develop and implement initiatives to improve our services.
If we are not provided with all the personal information we
request, we may be unable to act for or do business with you or
others.
Where possible we will collect personal information directly
from the individual concerned. However, an individual's
representatives may hold personal information (eg, financial or
bank account details or a credit reference) that we may need to
access for particular dealings, legal proceedings or other
purposes. Where we are at liberty to do so, we will use our best
endeavours to seek an individual's consent before obtaining their
personal information from third parties.
Personal information may be collected by us:
- when we are contacted about our services, in person or over the
telephone or Internet;
- during the course of a dealing or proceedings involving a
client;
- when we negotiate and enter into dealings; or
- when we respond to an inquiry, where we consider personal
details are required or appropriate to fulfil the query.
The personal information of our clients or their representatives
will usually be recorded or updated on our computer database.
Otherwise, personal information will be kept on the file concerning
the matter in which the individual is involved or for which the
personal information was collected.
Any additional purpose for which the information is collected
(not included in this policy) will be identified when we collect
the personal information or as soon as practicable afterwards.
Collecting Sensitive Information
We may need to collect sensitive information about you or others
for dealings or in relation to proceedings.
Under the NPPs, we are entitled to collect sensitive information
about you or others for a number of reasons, including where the
collection is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence
of a legal or equitable claim.
Where we are required to and it is practicable to do so, we will
seek your consent before collecting your sensitive information and
inform you of the purpose at that time.
Use of Personal Information
We will use personal information:
Disclosure of Information
Except where indicated above, we will not disclose personal
information to a third party unless:
- the disclosure is for a primary purpose for which the
information was collected;
- the individual concerned has consented to the disclosure;
- the third party is our agent or contractor, in which case we
will require them to disclose and use the personal information only
for the purpose for which it was disclosed;
- the third party is a person involved in a dealing or proposed
dealing (including a sale) of all or part of our assets and
business;
- there are reasonable grounds to believe that disclosure is
necessary to prevent or lessen a threat to your life or health or
that of another person;
- the disclosure is to a related body corporate;
- the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the establishment,
exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim; or
- the disclosure is permitted, required or authorised by or under
law.
Information Collected via our Website
To ensure we are meeting the needs and requirements of our
website users, and to develop our online services, we may collect
aggregated information by using cookies.
Cookies are unique identification numbers like tags that are placed
on the browser of our website users. The cookies do not in
themselves identify users personally, but are linked back to a
database record about them.
We may use cookies to track the use of our website, and to
compile statistics on visits to the site in an aggregated form and
log anonymous information such as:
- the address of a user's server;
- a user's top level domain (such as .com or .au);
- the date and time of a user's visit;
- the pages a user accessed and downloaded;
- the search engine a user used;
- the type of browser that was used.
When a user visits our site a cookie may be placed on their
machine. Where a user has visited us before, the cookie may be read
each time they re-visit the site.
We do not use this technology to access any other personal
information of a user in our records and a user cannot be
personally identified from a cookie.
If a user chooses not to have their browser accept cookies from
our site, they are still able to view the text on their
screens.
Marketing
We may use personal information to advise the individual
concerned of new services and marketing initiatives that we think
may be of interest to them. This may include newsletters,
invitations to seminars or business functions and general
information about Cornwall Stodart.
Those who prefer not to receive information about our services
or seminars can contact our Privacy Officer and request to be
removed from the relevant circulation list. Contact details for our
Privacy Officer appear at the end of this policy.
We do not disclose personal information to a third party to
enable that party to direct market their products or services to an
individual, unless individuals have expressly consented to that
disclosure. We may require written confirmation of a request to be
removed from our circulation list, for example where legislation
requires us to provide particular communications to the individual
concerned.
Updating your Information
We ask that you tell us of any changes to the personal
information we hold about you. We can be notified at any time to
update personal information or to be told that the personal
information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete. We will
then take reasonable steps to correct the information in the manner
requested.
If we consider that the personal information we retain does not
require amendment, we will annotate the request on our
files.
Security
The protection of personal information is a priority for us.
We are committed to maintaining:
- safeguards to protect personal information against unauthorised
use, disclosure, access, alteration, destruction and accidental
loss. All personal information we hold is dealt with in accordance
with the NPPs;
- industry standards for the security and protection of
information. Personal information is stored securely and access is
restricted to authorised personnel only. Our computer systems
require access passwords and these are kept secure by our
personnel; and
- internal policies on management of personal information and
staff training to ensure compliance with these policies. All our
staff are required to read this policy and understand their
responsibilities in relation to personal information.
Access to Personal Information
We will generally allow an individual access to any personal
information that we hold about them on request - subject to any
restrictions on access. We will try to give the individual
concerned access in a form and manner that suits their needs.
To request such access please contact our Privacy Officer. Contact
details for our Privacy Officer appear at the end of this
policy.
Restrictions on Access
We are entitled to restrict access to personal information in
accordance with the NPPs.
You may not be allowed access to personal information we hold where
access would reveal evaluative information generated by us in
connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process.
Instead, we may give you an explanation for the decision, rather
than direct access to the information.
If we have given you such an explanation and you believe that
direct access to the evaluative information is necessary to provide
a reasonable explanation of the reasons for the decision, we will,
at your request, review the decision. Personnel other than the
original decision-maker will conduct the review.
Wherever direct access by you is impractical or inappropriate,
we should consider together whether the use of a mutually agreed
intermediary would allow sufficient access to meet both our needs
and concerns.
Other instances where it may not be appropriate to provide you
with access to the personal information we hold include where:
- providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to
the life or health of any individual;
- providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the
privacy of others;
- the request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or
- the information relates to an anticipated or existing legal
dispute and disclosure would compromise our position or the
position of others.
Charges for Access
An individual will not incur charges for lodging a request to
access personal information. However, we may levy a reasonable
charge for providing access to that information. We will provide an
estimate of any charge on request, or if it appears to us that the
work will be onerous or otherwise warrants a charge.
Transferring Information Overseas
We may transfer personal information overseas if necessary for
the conduct of a legal matter or for a business transaction or
other dealing.
Otherwise, we will not transfer personal information outside
Australia unless:
- we reasonably believe that the recipient of the information is
subject to legal obligations that uphold principles for the
protection and fair handling of personal information that are
substantially similar to the principles contained in this
policy;
- we are given consent by the individual concerned to do so,
expressly or by implication;
- we are contractually required to do so; or
- the transfer is for the benefit of the individual concerned and
it is not practicable for us to obtain their consent and if they
were able to grant consent, they would be likely to give it. In
this instance we will advise the individual concerned to whom their
information has been disclosed as soon as
practicable.
Changes to our Policy
We may update or change this policy. When we do so, we will
publish the current policy on our website. Please check our website
to review this policy regularly.
If you have any suggestions or concerns that are not addressed
in this privacy policy, please contact our Privacy Officer. The
contact details of the Privacy Officer are listed at the end of
this policy.
Complaint Resolution
We are committed to constantly improving our procedures so that
personal information is treated appropriately.
If you feel that we have failed to deal with your personal
information in accordance with the NPPs or this policy, please
speak to us so that we have an opportunity to resolve the issue to
your satisfaction.
The person to contact is our Privacy Officer, whose contact
details appear at the end of this policy.
Our Privacy Officer will manage the following process for us
to:
- listen to your concerns and grievances regarding our handling
of personal information;
- discuss with you the ways in which we can remedy the situation;
and
- put in place an action plan to resolve your complaint and
improve our information handling procedures (if appropriate).
If this process does not result in an outcome that is
satisfactory to you, you may contact the Privacy Commissioner's
Office. We will work together with the Privacy Commissioner's
Office to resolve the issues between us.
The contact details for the Privacy Commissioner's Office are as
follows:
Street address: Level 8, Piccadilly Tower, 133
Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: 1300 363 992 (for the cost of a
local call anywhere in Australia)
TTY: 1800 620 241
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Facsimile: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: privacy@privacy.gov.au
Further information about privacy and your rights can be
obtained at the Federal Privacy Commissioner's website at www.privacy.gov.au.
Contact Information
If you wish to access any personal information that we hold
about you, or have a query about this policy, please contact our
Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer
Cornwall Stodart
Level 10
114 William Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Phone: +61 3 9608 2133
Facsimile: + 61 3 9608 2222
Email: privacy@cornwalls.com.au