Privacy

Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Ltd (ANZSBT; the Society) is committed to ensuring the privacy of individuals, in accordance with applicable privacy principles, such as the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and the Information Privacy Principles within the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993.

The Privacy Policy outlines our obligations with respect to how the Society manages personal information and gives guidelines for access to any personal information retained by the Society, particularly in relation to its members.

2. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to communicate clearly the personal information handling practices of the Society, in accordance with relevant legislation.

The Privacy Policy establishes how the Society protects personal information and informs members of the following:

  • why the Society needs your personal information and the types of personal information collected
  • how the Society protects your personal information
  • who can access your personal information
  • how you can contact the Society to find out more about or correct your personal information
  • what to do if you have concerns about your privacy.

This Policy applies to all personal information, collected, stored, used and disclosed by the Society.

3. What is personal information, why is it collected and how is it used?

“Personal information” is information or an opinion about you, or from which you are reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not; and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

The Society will at all times, try to only collect personal information from you that is relevant to and reasonably necessary for the Society to fulfil its core functions or activities:

  • admission of members to the Society, membership administration and records and communication;
  • promoting best practice in transfusion medicine;
  • engaging with stakeholders through communication, representation and advocacy;
  • promoting and supporting education and research;
  • procuring funding, donations or other support for the activities of the Society;
  • internal administration, training, assessments and reviews;
  • Standing committees, special interest groups.

The personal information the Society collects when you apply for membership is used to create your ‘Member Profile’. This not only enables us to communicate with you but also to understand the nature of your professional background and interests so the Society can ensure you are appropriately represented in our interactions with external partners and stakeholders.  The Society also uses personal information to provide a ‘Members Directory’ in the secure ‘Members Area’ of its website. As part of your profile you may choose to have some or all of your details visible to other members.

The Society may also use your personal information for secondary purposes closely related to our primary purpose, for other purposes authorised by you, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect the Society use or disclose such information or which is required or authorised by law.

When the Society collects personal information it will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why the information is being collected and how the Society plans to use it. The Society may also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else. For example, the Society may collect anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how users use our website.

You may unsubscribe from the Society’s mailing list(s) at any time by contacting the Society in writing.

4. What personal information does the Society collect and hold?

In general, the basic personal information the Society collects is: name, residential and/or work address and contact details (including a phone number and/or email address).

In addition, as part of your member profile, the Society also collects the following:

  • gender
  • year of birth
  • current position and professional group (medical, laboratory or research scientist, nurse or other profession)
  • areas of expertise or roles
  • number of years of experience
  • current position
  • photographs
  • curriculum vitae or biography

5. How is your personal information collected?

The Society will normally only collect personal information directly from you. Other personal information the Society does not actively collect or solicit but nevertheless receives in the course of its business is held in accordance with the applicable privacy legislation or as otherwise required by legislation or regulation.

The Society collects personal information in a variety of ways including:

  • when you complete a membership application
  • through your access and use of our website
  • applying or offering expressions of interest for membership of the Society’s Council, committees or other representative roles on behalf of the Society
  • during conversations between you and our secretariat or other representatives

The Society also receives personal information from both members and non-members applying for the Society’s grants or awards and submitting abstracts for our annual scientific meeting.

Cookies

When you visit the Society’s website, some information about your visit is collected. The Society may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, track users movements, and gather broad demographic information. This statistical data about the visitors to the website, such as number of visits, pages viewed, types of transactions conducted, time online and documents downloaded shows which areas of the website are the most popular or useful and this data can be used to monitor and improve the Society’s online presence.

Some of this information is collected by using “cookies” which are electronic tokens that are passed to your browser, which passes them back to the server whenever a webpage is sent to you. WordPress (the website content management system) uses cookies for registered access so members can log in to the Members Area of the website and remain logged in. Google Analytics also uses cookies for reporting and web site usage trends. Cookies do not collect personal information because they do not reveal your identity. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

6. Sensitive information

Sensitive information is defined in the Australian Privacy Act 1988 to include information or opinion about such things as an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union or other professional body, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health information.

The Society may collect sensitive information from time to time with your consent or in accordance with applicable laws. The Society may also receive unsolicited sensitive information, for example contained in a CV or biography provided in support of a membership, grant or ward application.

Sensitive information will only be used, with your consent, for the purpose for which it was obtained or where required or authorised by law.

Sensitive information will be securely stored in accordance with section 11 of this Privacy Policy.

7. Third parties

Whilst the Society will normally collect your personal information only from you, in some circumstances information may be provided by third parties. In such cases the Society will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided by the third party.

However, in some situations the Society may need to confirm personal information from a third party; such as when a new applicant for membership has been proposed or seconded for Society membership.

8. Disclosure of personal information

Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

The Society may share personal information amongst its Executive Officer, Council standing committees where appropriate to better achieve a primary, secondary or ancillary purpose.

On occasion, your personal information may be disclosed in a limited number of other circumstances including the following:

  • Third parties where you consent to the use or disclosure; and
  • Where required or authorised by law.

The Society will not use or disclose personal information without taking reasonable steps to check it is accurate, complete, relevant, up to date, and not misleading.

9. Direct marketing

The Society does not provide your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing.

10. Does the Society disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?

The Society may in some situations disclose your personal information to organisations based overseas such as in Australia (for members based in New Zealand) or in New Zealand (for members based in Australia) or any country in which the Society’s members may be located or countries where appropriate organisations (for example international transfusion societies) are hosted .

The Society will ensure all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that such overseas organisations will abide by Australian or New Zealand privacy laws, as applicable, when dealing with personal information.

11. Security of personal information

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. The Society maintains security of its information and computer technology (including backups, encryption, firewalls, anti-virus software and login and password protection) and secure office access to protect your personal information.

The Society stores personal information securely either electronically or in hard copy (in a locked drawer in a secure office space). The Society may store electronic information on remote servers or in the cloud directly, or through contracted agencies, as permitted by privacy legislation. Our website is hosted by an Australian company in a secure data centre located in Melbourne.

When no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained or where the Society is not legally required to retain the information, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information.

Protecting your privacy online   

Because our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted by a third party while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk. If you are concerned about sending your information over the internet, you can contact the Society by telephone or post. If you become aware of any security breach, please let us know as soon as possible.

Links

Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

Payment security and financial information

Membership subscription payments are processed through the third party provider eWAY and therefore the Society does not hold any of your financial details. Our policy is to ensure that all transactions processed on our behalf meet industry security standards to ensure personal and payment details are protected.

12. How can you access and correct your personal information?

You can view the personal information held in your member profile by logging into the Members Area of our website. Otherwise you may request in writing, access to your personal information at any time by contacting us (see details below). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). We will not charge any fee for your access request, or for making any corrections to your personal information, however we may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your personal information.

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If this happens, we will provide you with an explanation for the reason we are unable to disclose the information requested .

The Society seeks to maintain the accuracy of personal information. It is important to us that your personal information is correct, complete and accurate. Individuals are encouraged to contact the Society if the information in your member profile is not up-to-date, or is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate. Changes to personal details can be made on the ANZSBT website http://www.anzsbt.org.au by the individual via personal log in access into the Members Area of our website and choosing the “Edit Member profile” option. Alternatively, if you are unable to access or correct the information, or there is other personal information that you believe may need correcting, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records.

In order to protect your personal information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

13. Policy updates

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.

14. Privacy policy complaints and enquiries

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please use the contact link on our website or contact us using the details below.

We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. We will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how it may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in timely and appropriate manner.

Please contact our Executive Officer at:

Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Ltd

Email: anzsbt@anzsbt.org.au

Phone:

15. Associated documents

Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law.

New Zealand’s Information Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner at https://privacy.org.nz

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Limited complies with the new Australian Privacy Principles; The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, effective 12 March 2014.

Personal information provided by Members, or that has been provided prior to 12 March 2014, will only be used or disclosed by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Limited in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles for purposes directly related to membership of the Society.

The Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Limited will not disclose personal information to third parties except for purposes directly related to membership of the society.

In such circumstances the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion Limited will use all reasonable efforts to ensure that the recipient handles such personal information in accordance with appropriate privacy principles and only for the purpose for which it was provided.

**Future requests for any Member to provide or update personal information will be accompanied by a request for the Member’s consent for any disclosure of that information in accordance with the privacy principles.

Please ensure that you indicate clearly on your subscription renewal form or new membership application that you have read this document and agree to disclosure of your personal information by the ANZSBT in accordance with this policy