Legal

Privacy Policy

Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation ("VFFF", "our", "us" and "we") is committed to respecting the privacy of your personal information. This Policy explains how and why we collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information. It covers the following areas:

  • Compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles
  • The personal information that we collect and hold
  • The purpose, use and disclosure of personal information
  • How we collect, store and hold personal information
  • Accessing and updating your personal information
  • Complaints procedure
  • Security of personal information
  • Overseas transfer
  • How to contact us
  • Changes to this policy

You consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this policy.

What is "Personal Information"?

‘Personal Information’ means any information or an opinion about you that identifies you as an individual or from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained from the information or opinion. Information or an opinion may be personal infromation regardless of whether it is true.

Your name, address, email and telephone number are examples of your personal information.

Compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles

VFFF is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs") set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other applicable laws to protect your privacy.

What kind of information do we collect and hold?

We collect information about you and your interactions with us, for example, when you use any of our services, call us, provide us with your contact details or otherwise visit our website. The personal information that we collect from you will depend on how you interact with VFFF.

VFFF collects only personal information that is necessary for our functions and activities. The personal information which we collect and hold about you may include your name, email address, postal address and telephone number, your history of use of our services and details of enquiries or complaints you make.

Generally, we try to collect personal information directly from you, however there are certain situations in which VFFF may collect personal information about you from some other source; for example, our employees, public websites, social media and database of government bodies, courts or tribunals. In either case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are aware of the purposes for which the information is collected.

We may collect information about how you access, use and interact with the website. We do this by using a range of tools. This information may include:

  • the location from which you have come to the site and the pages you have visited; and
  • technical data, which may include IP address, the types of devices you are using to access the website, device attributes, browser type, language and operating system.

We use cookies on the website. A cookie is a small text file that the website may place on your device to store information. We may use persistent cookies (which remain on your computer even after you close your browser) to store information that may speed up your use of our website for any of your future visits to the website. We may also use session cookies (which no longer remain after you end your browsing session) to help manage the display and presentation of information on the website.

You may refuse to use cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.

How we collect your information

We collect your personal information directly from you whenever you interact with us.

We may collect personal information in various ways including when you:

  • visit our website;
  • call or email in relation to VFFF activities or services;
  • lodge grant applications and reports;
  • register to receive the VFFF newsletter; or
  • otherwise submit Personal Information.

If you apply for a grant or other services from us, we may need to assess your eligibility to receive a grant or other services.  This may involve us using some of your personal information to (at our own cost) conduct or retrieve, or obtain from a third party provider by providing your required personal information, searches of databases of government bodies, courts or tribunals, such as national police check, working with children check, litigation search, bankruptcy search and credit check.

We also collect cookies from your computer which enable us track website usage to enhance user experience.

Purpose, use and disclosure of personal information

We collect, hold and use your personal information so that we can:

  • provide you with services (primarily charitable and personal services), assess your eligibility to receive a grant or service from us, and/or manage our relationship with you;
  • contact you, for example, to respond to your queries or complaints, or if we need to tell you something important; or
  • comply with our legal obligations and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with a grant or our services, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.

We may disclose or transfer your personal information to our related companies and advisors.

We may also disclose your personal information to external service providers so that they may perform services for us or on our behalf.

We may also disclose your personal information to others where:

  • we are required or authorised by law to do so;
  • you may have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances; or
  • we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.

Your personal information may also be exposed or accessible from time to time to by database and website maintenance and support personnel acting in the normal course of their duties.

We do not disclose your personal information to recipients which are located outside Australia.

VFFF does not release any information for matters such as direct marketing, and do not sell any mailing lists.

If any information is to be published, or released publicly, we will request your permission for that purpose before doing so.

How do we store and hold personal information?

We store most information about you in computer systems and databases operated by either us or our external service providers. Some information about you is recorded in paper files that we store securely.

We implement and maintain processes and security measures to protect personal information which we hold from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

These processes and systems include:

  • the use of identity and access management technologies to control access to systems on which information is processed and stored;
  • requiring all employees to comply with internal information security policies and keep information secure;
  • requiring all employees to complete training about information security; and
  • monitoring and regularly reviewing our practice against our own policies and against industry best practice.

We will also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for the purposes for which it was collected or for any secondary purpose permitted under the APPs.

Accessing and updating your personal information

If you would like to seek access to, or request correction of, any personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the contact details below. We request you provide us with as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek in order to help us to retrieve it. In certain circumstances VFFF may not be required by law to provide you with access or to correct your personal information. If that is the case, we will give you our reasons for that decision.

There is no charge for requesting access to your personal information, but we may require you to meet our reasonable costs in providing you with access (such as photocopying costs or costs for time spent on collating large amounts of material).

We will respond to your requests to access or correct personal information in a reasonable time and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold about you remains accurate and up to date.

You may unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time.

Complaint procedure

If you have a complaint concerning the manner in which we maintain the privacy of your personal information, please contact us as set out below. We will consider your complaint and determine whether it requires further investigation. We will notify you of the outcome of this investigation and any subsequent internal investigation.

If you remain unsatisfied with the way in which we have handled a privacy issue, you may approach an independent advisor or contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)  for guidance on alternative courses of action which may be available

Overseas transfer

Your personal information will not be disclosed to recipients outside Australia unless you expressly request us to do so. If you request us to transfer your personal information to an overseas recipient, the overseas recipient will not be required to comply with the APPs and we will not be liable for any mishandling of your information in such circumstances.

Contact details

If you have any questions or feedback about privacy, or wish to make a complaint about the way in which we have handled your personal information please contact:

Chief Executive Officer
Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation
GPO Box 1551
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Telephone: +61 2 9291 2700

Changes to this policy

From time to time, we may change our policy on how we handle personal information or the types of personal information which we hold. Any changes to our policy will be published on our website.

You may obtain a copy of our current policy from our website or by contacting us at the contact details above.