Minda Housing is committed to protecting the privacy of personal and health information which is collected and stored by Minda Housing. This is undertaken in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you about the way we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, including:
1. Management of People We Support Personal Information
2. What Types of Information Do We Collect
3. How We Collect Personal Information
4. How We Use and Disclose Personal Information
5. How We Protect Your Personal Information
6. Your Right to Access and Correct Information
7. Anonymity
8. Overseas disclosure of your personal information
9. About Our Website
10. Changes to our Privacy Policy
11. Contact Details
1. Management of Tenant(s) Personal Information
Our mission is to maximise choice and inclusion for people with intellectual disability to achieve their aspirations by creating the environment for individuals to pursue opportunities to lead valued and meaningful lives in supportive communities. To fulfil our mission, we need to collect certain personal information.
We recognise and respect each of the people we support's right to privacy, dignity and confidentiality in all aspects of his or her life. We ensure that all the people we support and their families enjoy:
- freedom from intrusion and public attention
- being treated with honour, respect and dignity thereby reflecting their culture, community and providing a positive influence for their self esteem
- an assurance that written and spoken information is protected from access and use by unauthorised persons.
2. What Types of Information Do We Collect
We may request a range of information to assist us to fulfil our mission. The types of personal information we collect about you, and our use of that information, depends on your dealings with us. Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you, and will generally include:
- your name and date of birth
- contact details, including name, address, telephone number and email address
- financial information,
- employment information
- health information, such as information about your physical or mental health, disabilities or health services received or information collected in the course of providing health services
- information about your dealings with us and the products and services you may be interested in
If you do not provide all of the personal information we require, we may be unable to provide you with the products or services you are seeking.
We do not collect any sensitive information, such as information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade association or union membership, sexual orientation or practices or criminal record, unless:
- the individual has consented (e.g. police background checks on potential volunteers and staff who will be working with clients, or details required to provide effective service to clients), or
- the collection is required by law, or
- the collection is necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person, or
- the collection is required or permitted by law.
3. How We Collect Personal Information
We collect personal information from a variety of sources, such as when individuals:
- make an application for housing
- attend a fundraising event or activity
- respond to our mailing program
- submit a form or enquiry through our website
- use our web-based tools
- respond to a telemarketing call
- voluntarily provide us with personal information, in person or by telephone, email or other means
- make a donation to us
- become staff members or volunteers of Minda Inc.
- become a student of the South Australian Learning Centre (SALC)
We will collect personal information directly from you, where reasonable and practicable to do so. In addition to collecting personal information directly from you, we may also obtain personal information:
- from family members, guardians, carers and advocates, or other third parties with your consent
- from publicly available sources, to help us develop our donor, sponsorship and membership programs
- from third party sources such as government funding bodies, our training providers, and other service providers
If you provide us with information about a third party, you warrant that the third party consents to us collecting and using their personal information in accordance with this Policy.
4. How We Use and Disclose Personal Information
By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using and disclosing your personal information for the following purposes:
People living in Minda Housing
- offering and arranging the provision of a service in line with our mission
- providing non-binding quotes for services in accordance with your NDIS plan
- liaising with NDIA in relation to your NDIS plan
- responding to enquiries and providing information that has been requested to support our service users, clients and aged care residents
- providing information about the services we provide, and marketing purposes
General
- improving our business and making changes to our website and online tools we offer
- managing employee, volunteers, and the services they provide
- fundraising and marketing activities
- understanding more about you so that we can tailor our communication to you and your needs.
- for statistical purposes, so we can tailor the information we provide to our supporters
- keeping a record of our shareholders
For secondary purposes such as if:
- you would reasonably expect us to so use or disclose such information
- you have given us specific consent to do so
- we are required to do so by law
- it is necessary to prevent a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person, or
- it is a necessary part of an investigation of unlawful activity
We treat personal information which we collect from individuals in the same way we treat our other confidential information and do not sell to anyone the information we collect.
We will not otherwise disclose to a third party the information we collect, except where it is necessary for consultants or contractors performing services for Minda Housing, or to external agencies under information sharing guidelines (e.g. SAPOL, DCSI, NDIA). In such circumstances consultants or contractors must have given an appropriate confidentiality undertaking or have a privacy policy which complies with privacy legislation.
We may provide statistical information to government departments or our sponsors without identifying any individuals.
5. How We Protect Your Personal Information
We take reasonable steps to securely store your personal information to ensure it is protected from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or unauthorised access, disclosure, interference or modification.
This includes using industry recognized security safeguards on our website and in our web-based tools, such as site monitoring, secured networks and servers, firewalls and encryption. Our data management systems and procedures ensure that personal information is handled in a way that is consistent with this Policy.
Unfortunately, no method of transmission over the Internet is completely secure. Therefore, while we and the third-party providers we have chosen, strive to protect your personal information within industry standards and the appropriate legislation, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
6. Your Right to Access and Correct Information
Individuals have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about them, by making a written request to our Privacy Officer. You may need to verify your identity before we allow you to access your personal information. Generally, we will provide you with access except in limited circumstances where we are required or permitted by law to refuse access (including where a treating medical practitioner agrees that access would prejudice the individual's physical or mental health or put another person at harm).
We may charge a reasonable fee for providing access, which will not exceed our reasonable expenses incurred in responding to your request, including photocopying and administrative expenses. Access may be provided by hard copy or by allowing you to view the relevant records.
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information which we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete, relevant and up to date. If you believe information we hold about you is incorrect, please let us know and we will verify and where applicable correct the information.
If we refuse your request to modify our records, we will write to you stating clearly why we believe that the personal information we hold should not be amended.
7. Anonymity
If you wish to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us as a donor, we will attempt to fulfil your request. However, it may not be practicable to assist you depending on your need. For example, if you wish to donate anonymously, we can use certain payment mechanisms to facilitate this such as a bank cheque.
8. Overseas disclosure of your personal information
We will not transfer personal information overseas unless we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information which is being transferred will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information inconsistently with the legislation.
We may disclose your personal information outside Australia where necessary in the course of providing you with our services, for instance use of third party service providers to conduct surveys and facilitate information collection. We may also store and process your personal information at offshore locations, including offshore storage and cloud facilities provided by third parties. By providing your personal information to us you consent to your personal information being transferred offshore for back-up, data security, and storage purposes (including to the United States of America).
9. About Our Website
Our website at www.mindahousing.com.au uses cookies, to enable us to measure the effectiveness of our communications and how visitors use our website. If you visit our website after clicking on a link, we are able to understand how you interact with our website through the combination of cookies and tracking pixels. This allows us to learn your journey through our website, the pages you spent time on and the pages you accessed immediately prior to leaving our site; and ultimately, improve our website.
We do not use the information stored in those cookies to collect information about you, or disclose your website journey or any other information we collect from cookies or pixels to any third party. We do use this information for statistical purposes.
Our web site may contain links to other sites. Minda Housing is not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites and their operators, or for their use and protection of your personal information on those websites.
10. Changes to our Privacy Policy
We may amend, modify or replace this Privacy Policy at any time. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to be informed of how Minda Housing are protecting your information.
11. Contact Details
Minda Housing welcomes your questions and comments on our Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or comments about privacy, to access or change your details, or to register an issue in relation to the way Minda Housing has dealt with your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Mail: PO Box 5, Brighton SA 5048
Tel: 08 8422 6270
Fax: 08 8422 6330
Email: privacy@minda.asn.au
We will refer any complaints for prompt investigation by our compliance team and provide you with a written response as soon as possible (which, generally, will be within 14 days of receiving a written complaint).
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint you can then refer the matter to the Privacy Commissioner (Commonwealth Government Office of the Privacy Commissioner) via telephone on 1300 363 992 or via the website www.privacy.gov.au