Your Privacy Is Important To Us
Tick Legal Services Pty Limited (ABN 29 137 698 367) Trading As
Countrywide Legal & Business Services
Countrywide Strata Management
Prepared: August 2021
Policy Number: 08/2021A
YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT TO US
Tick Legal Services Pty Ltd is committed to providing our clients with a high standard of accounting and legal advice as well as strata management services.
This includes taking steps to protect the confidentiality of clients and stakeholders.
Tick Legal Services Pty Ltd is also required to comply with the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act), setting out the Australian Privacy Principles which concern the protection of your personal information. This is outlined in our Privacy Policy below.
From time to time, we may be obliged to review the terms and references included in our policy to ensure it remains pertinent and relevant. A copy of the latest version can be accessed via our website or by writing to:
The Privacy Officer
PO Box 166
MOONBI NSW 2353
WHAT SORT OF INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Personal Information is any information or opinion about an individual who is already identified or could reasonably be identified.
We only collect information that is necessary to assist us in providing our services. We do not collect personal information unless we first ask you for it, you provide it to us or authorise another party to provide it to us, or the information is publicly available.
Examples of the types of information we collect include:
• Your individual and/or organisation identity and contact details;
• Financial and income information, including government identifiers like tax file numbers;
• Share portfolio and other asset information;
• Creditor information;
• Personal health information for insurance applications and claims management purposes
• Details of your dependants
• Details required for your legal matter
• Details of your estate planning
• Other information as required by taxation or other laws
WHAT IF YOU DO NOT GIVE US THE INFORMATION WE REQUEST?
You are not required to provide information we request of you. You may also, in some circumstances, elect to be identified by pseudonym or remain anonymous. It is not an offence to decline to provide your government identifier like your tax file number, however it may adversely impact our ability to provide our services to you, for example:
• Our advice may be different or be less relevant to your circumstances if additional facts or events are not disclosed when requested
• The provision of (some of) services may be delayed; and/or
• In certain circumstances failure to provide some information may result in documents being submitted to the ATO, ASIC, Court or other statutory bodies late, or not being able to be submitted at all, possibly incurring penalties
What about unsolicited information?
If we receive personal information that we did not request, or you did not authorise us to receive, we must determine if this is information, we could reasonably have requested from you. If it is not, then we are obliged to destroy the information or ensure it is de-identified (so you cannot be identified from it) as soon as practicable. If we decide that the information is something we could have collected, we are obliged to keep this in the same manner as if you had provided it to us yourself.
How do we collect information?
We collect information about you and your associates (individuals and organisations) in a number of different ways including:
• From you, when you engage our firm so that we may provide you with tax consulting / legal advice / business services / training / information technology / administration / corporate secretarial services
• From external sources, with prior consent from you, including the Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Australian Business Register, Revenue NSW, etc. We ensure that external sources are permitted under the Australian Privacy Principles to disclose the information to us, or have received prior consent from you to release the information to us.
• You may provide this consent when we are appointed by you, in writing, as your:
Tax agent;
Registered office for a company;
Legal advisor
Strata Manager; or
Agent for other purposes (for example power of attorney)
• When you make contact with us to enquire about our services
• When you e-mail us:
We will use your e-mail address for the purpose for which you provided it and to raise awareness about recent developments that may be of relevance or interest;
Your e-mail address will not be added to a commercially available mailing list; and
We will not disclose it without your consent
• Other personal information:
Will be collected by us by lawful and fair means
Will be used for a lawful purpose
Will be collected by us with your consent
Will be collected for a clear and explicit purpose; and
Will be collected in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles
Why do we collect your information and how do we use it?
We will only collect and use your personal information to provide you with a specific service such as:
• Government body and regulator reporting requirements (under taxation, personal assistance or superannuation law)
• Provide other services you require;Administer and manage those services, including charging, billing and collecting debts
• Inform you of ways the services provided to you could be improved
• Advising events, business opportunities and service provision available to clients
• Providing you with news and information relevant to you
• Research and develop our services; and
• Maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure
Your personal information is also collected to promote and market other services provided by our company which we consider may be of interest to you. You may notify us at any time that you do not wish to receive marketing or promotional material by contacting our Privacy Officer.
There may be circumstances where we are required or authorised by law, court or tribunal order to collect and/or release information about you or your organisation, including your government related identifiers. Other sensitive information such as religion; race; political opinion; membership of a political association; religious beliefs or affiliations; sexual preferences or practices; criminal records; or health information will only be collected and/or used where this is required by law or by the service, we are providing to you.
Who can we disclose your personal information to?
We may provide your information to various organisations and/or parties in order to fulfil our client services and legal obligations, including, but not limited to:
• Your legal representative
• Professional bodies, such as the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), Law Society of New South Wales and Strata Community Australia, for quality control purposes or to satisfy our membership obligations
• Banking, financial and insurance institutions and their associated service providers
• Superannuation bodies
• Fund managers
• Government, regulatory and other statutory bodies
• Law enforcement agencies
• Your professional advisers, or entities who have referred you to us; and
• Auditors
Tick Legal Services Pty Limited will not sell, exchange, trade or otherwise supply to third parties any personal information obtained from you without your prior consent.
Help us ensure we hold accurate information
We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of the information we hold depends to a large extent on the information you provide.
If you believe that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, or incomplete, please ask us to correct it. We may need you to put your request in writing but will never charge you a fee for updating your information.
How will we keep your personal information secure?
To protect the quality and integrity of personal information kept about you, Tick Legal Services Pty Limited has implemented appropriate industry standard techniques, technological and organisation measures to protect against loss, misuse, unauthorised access to and/or alteration of the information under our control.
We may use a third-party service provider to provide hardware or software services that hold your personal information. Where we do so, we rely on our third-party selection processes, strict confidentiality clauses in agreements and those parties’ own privacy and security measures.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information transmitted via email or our website is stored securely. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from our online products or services. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security.
We have an obligation to report data breaches to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in certain circumstances. In the unlikely event that we have to notify the OAIC we will also notify the individuals and organisations affected.
Countrywide Legal & Business Services and Countrywide Strata Management and other websites accessed through our site may use “cookies”. These are small files a web site can transfer to your computer hard drive for record keeping, to make web sites easier to use by storing information about your preferences. Parts of our web site may use cookies to store basic statistical data, to help us understand how it is used. We make no attempt made to identify individual users in any way. On each use, a session cookie may be temporarily placed on your computer, used to maintain navigation information during your site visit and automatically deleted from your computer at the end of each Internet session. Most Internet browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive them, adjust your browser to refuse cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used.
Other web sites that may be accessed through our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. The information practices of those third-party web sites are not covered by this policy.
How can you access the information we hold about you?
You can request, at any time, for us to give you access to the personal information we hold about you. We are obliged to give you access within a reasonable period of making the request. The making of requests for access is at no cost to you, however, we may charge a reasonable fee to cover costs associated with providing you access. The APPs set out instances where we are not required to give you access. Where we decide that we cannot give you access, we are obliged to inform you and tell you why.
How long can we keep your personal information?
Various laws impose different requirements on the retention of information. Depending on the context, we are required to maintain your information for a period ranging from seven years to permanently.
When your personal information is no longer used, needed or required to be retained by Tick Legal Services Pty Limited, we will destroy or permanently de-identify personal information. Our ability to destroy information is limited by legislative requirement to retain records for a period of time.
What can you do if you are not happy with our handling of your information?
If you believe that we have mishandled your personal information and breached the Australian Privacy Principles, you may lodge a complaint with our Privacy Officer. We will endeavour to resolve this within 30 days to allow us enough time to respond in writing in accordance with s36(3) of the Privacy Act.
Complaints should be addressed to:
The Privacy Officer
PO Box 166
MOONBI NSW 2353
In the event we are unable to resolve your issue, you may lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner. You can do this by submitting a form online through the Information Commissioner’s website www.oaic.gov.au, obtaining the hard copy form from the website and sending it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or you may call their Enquiries line on 1300 363 992.
What can you do if you are not happy with our handling of your information?
TAMWORTH
Street Address:
2 Barton Lane
TAMWORTH NSW 2340
Postal Address:
PO Box 166
MOONBI NSW 2345
DX Address:
6121, TAMWORTH
Phone: (02) 6761 2507
Fax: (02) 6761 3028
Email:reception@countrywidelegal.com.au
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