Privacy Policy

About this policy

Vocal Minority provides permission-based marketing services to major charities. We provide a service designed to deliver leads to charities of consumers who have consented to be contacted.

This Privacy Policy relates to our digital publication website Vocal Minority and user engagement products, services and promotions that we provide in conjunction with this website. It applies when you are responding to petitions or surveys, entering competitions, subscribing to our newsletters, or interacting with other users and members through our social media sites.

The Vocal Minority is an APP entity regulated by the Australian Privacy Act 1988. Those requirements apply in relation to personal information about individuals regardless of where they live or are when they engage with us, so all individuals interacting with our websites and otherwise with us are protected by those laws. We implement privacy and data handling and security processes and safeguards that have been designed by us to meet requirements of the Australian Privacy Act 1988, the Spam Act 2003 and other relevant Australian laws. 

Vocal Minority may change the Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and privacy regulation. Any changes will come into effect when an updated Privacy Policy is posted to our website.

What personal information do we collect and what is it used for?

Vocal Minority collects personal information from individuals when they respond to one of our surveys or petitions. We collect personal information about you, your contact details, your interests, subjects about and persons from whom you may like to receive communications and information, your interactions and communications with us including your participation in competitions and surveys. We may also collect information via technology, including cookies from our website when you visit.

We will use this personal information in our interactions with you, including to promote our website and to send you information, surveys, quizzes and petitions about charities or causes that you may be interested in. We may provide your personal details to charities we think may be of interest to you. They may send you direct marketing communications and information about products and services.

These communications may be sent in various forms, in accordance with applicable marketing laws including the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will try to use that method whenever practical.

Other than set out in our Privacy Policy, we will not disclose your personal information without your prior consent.

How do I unsubscribe?

If at any time you don’t want us to use personal information about you to offer to you products or services which we think will be of interest to you, including products and services available from third parties, you can tell us, and we will stop doing this. Please either contact our Privacy Officer at the contact details below or use the opt-out facilities in our marketing communications.

What personal information do we collect?

We will collect personal information about you that you provide to us in response to questions in, for example, surveys, petitions and promotions. In addition, we may collect the following personal information about you from your use of our website:

  • your name (or internet or social media username or handle), address, phone numbers, postcode and email addresses
  • your age, birth date, gender, occupation, profession or job title
  • information that you provide to Vocal Minority directly through our website when entering a survey or indirectly through use of Vocal Minority website or online presence

We may collect personal information:

  • when you engage with our goods or services, including our website and digital media platforms
  • over the phone, in correspondence, in person, via our websites and related social media platforms
  • when you sign up as a community member where registration is made available
  • during conversations between you and our representatives
  • during any written communications between you and our representatives
  • when we engage you to provide us with goods or services
  • when you apply for a position with us or send us an expression of interest, directly or via a third party or third-party service
  • when you register to enter any surveys, quizzes or petitions on our websites, social media sites or via our digital platforms or assets
  • when you register for any of our services, including alerts, blogs, newsletters, or other subscription services

Cookies and other tracking technologies

In some cases, we may also collect personal information or other information about you using cookies or other tracking code. When you use our websites, we may send your device or browser a cookie or other tracking code. Tracking code helps with things like site navigation and user-friendliness. We also use tracking code to see traffic patterns, which areas of our websites are visited most or least, and then improve our online presence and services. Tracking code may also tell us which products or services you view. We may use that information to send you news about and offers of products or services.

We may log IP addresses (the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet), MAC addresses, Bluetooth numbers, NFC numbers, IMEI numbers and other personal information about you to analyse trends, administer our websites or digital platforms, track users’ online movements, and gather broad demographic information.

If tracking code is used, held or disclosed by us so that you are reasonably identifiable as a person associated with information derived through use of that tracking code, this information will be personal information about you under this policy. 

Where tracking code is used, held or disclosed by us so that you are not reasonably identifiable as a person associated with information derived through use of that tracking code, this deidentified information is not treated as personal information under this policy.

Most web browsers accept cookies and other tracking code automatically. You can disable cookies and other tracking code, but it might restrict your ability to access certain areas of our websites.

Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information about you?

Our primary purpose in collecting, using and otherwise handling and disclosing personal information about you is to promote use of our websites and to select and offer to you products or services which we think will be of interest to you, including products and services available from third parties.

As well, we may use, handle and disclose personal information about you for related secondary purposes, such as:

  • processing and responding to any complaint made by you
  • complying with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country (or political sub-division of a country)

What happens if we can’t collect personal information about you?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:

  • we may not be able to provide products or services requested, either to the same standard or at all, or assess any application you have made to us
  • our websites may not work as well as they are designed to
  • we may not be able to provide you with information about products or services that you want, including discounts, sales, special promotions or competitions
  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preference and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful

To whom may we disclose personal information about you?

We may disclose and transfer personal information about individuals for the purposes stated above:

  • to charities and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing and related purposes
  • to our employees, related bodies corporate, members of our online community, contractors, or service providers located in Australia and overseas (in particular New Zealand) including without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants, for the purposes of providing services in connection with the operation of our websites or our business, fulfilling your requests or enquiries, and to otherwise provide products and services to you
  • to our agents, affiliates and related bodies corporate located in Australia, New Zealand and overseas
  • where you have consented
  • as required or authorised by law, including to law enforcement, government or other organisations or where permitted under relevant Australian laws

If a relevant recipient of personal information about individuals is outside Australia, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient complies with Australian privacy laws.

How can you get and correct personal information about you?

You can request to access the personal information we hold about you. If we do, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). We may charge you a reasonable fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing you the information. We will not charge you for making the request, nor for making any corrections to personal information about you.

Sometimes, we cannot grant access to personal information (for example, if it interferes with the privacy of others or would breach confidentiality). If that happens, we will send you the written reasons for any refusal.

If we provide you with access to personal information we hold about you, and you believe the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you may ask us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. Even if we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please email a full description of the issue to our Privacy Officer at the details below. We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our Privacy Officer will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options to resolve them. We take these complaints very seriously and aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in timely and appropriate manner.

Security

We take reasonable steps to ensure personal information about you is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We may hold personal information in either hard copy or electronic form on our servers and secured third party servers. We destroy or deidentify personal information when it is no longer needed.

As our websites are linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the secure transmission of information you communicate to us over the internet. Similarly, we cannot guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted during its transmission over the internet. Because of this, any information you send to us online is at your own risk.

Links

Our websites 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 websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third-party websites. Third-party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do, we will post our updated Privacy Policy on our websites. 

For more information

If you have any questions about the content of this policy, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Vocal Minority
Post: PO Box 369, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, Australia
Tel: 1300 257 528
Email: contactus@thevocalminority.com.au

This policy was last updated on 17 February 2020