Privacy policy

The Ferrier Hodgson Group is committed to respecting your privacy.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (the Act) and the National Privacy Principles (NPPs), which sets out a number of principles concerning the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information. You can see the full text of the NPPs online at www.privacy.gov.au. This Website Privacy Notice explains our policy for dealing with personal information.

Website privacy notice

Throughout this Policy, we refer to your "personal information" which means information that identifies you as an individual or from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained. Your name and address are examples of personal information.

We will post any changes to this Website Privacy Notice on the Websites, so we encourage you to check this Website Privacy Notice from time to time.

Information collected

The information about you, which we may collect through the Websites includes:

• your contact details and other information collected when you register for the Online Subscription Service;
• any messages or comments you submit to us via the Websites, eg. through an email or "Contact FH" form;
• information you provide such as your name, contact details and employment history, where you have used the Websites to apply for a position with FH.

You may browse some information-only areas of the Websites without providing any personal information, however we may not be able to provide the full range of services through the Websites or process an application for employment if we are not provided with the information we require.

In common with many commercial websites we may also collect aggregated information that tells us about visitors to the Websites but not the identity of those visitors. For example, we may collect information about the date, time and duration of visits and which pages of the Websites are most commonly accessed. This information is used by us to help to administer and improve the Website.

No cookies

The Websites do not use 'cookies', small text files which are placed on your hard drive by some websites to store information.

Use and disclosure of information

We may collect your personal information for a number of reasons, including:

• to administer and operate our Online Subscription service;
• to collect feedback and comments on us or the Website;
• to accept applications for employment

We may disclose information to anyone acting on our behalf such for the purpose of providing electronic newsletters to our subscribers.

Sensitive Information

We may need to collect sensitive information (as defined in the Act) about you or others for a particular dealing or in relation to proceedings.

Under the Act 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, we will seek your consent before collecting your sensitive information and inform you of the purpose for collection at the same time.

Links

The Websites may, from time to time, contain links to the websites of other organisations, which may be of interest to you. Linked websites are responsible for their own privacy practices and you should check those websites for their respective privacy statements.

Security

The protection of personal information is a priority for Ferrier Hodgson.

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 information

In most cases, individuals have the right to access their personal information. If you wish to request access to any personal information which we hold about you as a result of our information collection practices outlined in this Website Privacy Notice, please contact us using the "Contact details" set out below. Please provide as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek, in order to help us retrieve it.

Charges for access

An individual will incur no charges for lodging a request to access personal information. However, we may levy a reasonable charge for providing the access. 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 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; or
• we are given consent by the individual concerned to do so, expressly or by implication; or
• we are contractually required to do so; or
• the transfer is for the benefit of the individual concerned and it is not practicable for FH 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.
  

Updating personal information

To help us ensure that the personal information we collect, store, use and disclose in accurate, complete and up-to-date, we ask that you tell us of any changes to your personal information that we hold. You can notify us at any time of any errors in the personal information that we hold about you and to update your personal information.

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)
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042
Facsimile: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: privacy@privacy.gov.au

Contact details

If you have any questions or feedback about privacy issues, or wish to make a complaint about the way in which we have handled your personal information, you may contact us as set out below:
Email: webmaster@fh.com.au