At HR Legal protecting your privacy and personal information is important to us. HR Legal is subject to the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The following Privacy Policy explains how HR Legal manages and protects the privacy of your personal information under the APPs.
What is Personal Information?
Personal information is any information or an opinion, whether true or not, which identifies you. When personal information concerns certain matters it is considered sensitive information.
Sensitive information is information or an opinion about your:
- racial or ethnic origin
- political opinions
- membership of a political association
- religious beliefs, affiliations or philosophical beliefs
- membership of a professional or trade association or membership of a trade union
- sexual preferences or practices
- criminal record
- health or disability.
How HR Legal Collects Your Personal Information
This section explains how HR Legal may collect your personal information in the general course of its business and on HR Legal’s website.
Generally, HR Legal will collect personal information directly from you. HR Legal usually collects information such as your name, address, contact number and email address. HR Legal may also collect sensitive information about you, such as information about membership of an association or health information. HR Legal only collects sensitive information with your consent.
Where necessary, to provide you with legal services, HR Legal may collect personal information about you from someone else. For example, HR Legal may collect personal information from:
- another client to ensure that no conflict of interest arises;
- a company for whom you work; and
- other organisations with whom you have any dealings.
If HR Legal collects personal information about you from someone else, HR Legal will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of why the information is collected, how it will be used and to whom it will be disclosed.
Collection on Our Website
When you visit our website, we may collect personal information you provide to us:
- in completing forms on our website (e.g. to register for an HR Legal event, sign-up for a newsletter or contact HR Legal on the “Contact Us” page); and
- in expressing your interest in having a career at HR Legal (e.g. by providing a resume).
How HR Legal Uses Your Personal Information
HR Legal may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- to provide you with legal services (if you are a client of HR Legal)
- to provide you with information and services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you as permitted under applicable law
- to invite you to events (if you register to attend HR Legal events)
- to measure the popularity and effectiveness of our services such as newsletters (in order to improve what we offer to you and other recipients), and
- to maintain and develop our relationship with you.
What Happens if You Don’t Provide Personal Information?
If you do not provide the personal information HR Legal requests, HR Legal may not be able to provide you with prompt and effective legal services or be able to provide you with the other information or services you request from us.
HR Legal May Disclose Your Personal Information
As is its legal duty, HR Legal will maintain the confidentiality of its clients’ affairs including personal information. This duty of confidentiality applies except where disclosure of your personal information is with your consent. Your consent may be given either expressly or may be implied from your conduct. Where providing legal services to you requires disclosing your personal information to a third party (eg. barristers and expert witnesses) your consent would be implied when you engage HR Legal unless you tell HR Legal otherwise.
HR Legal may also disclose your information to third parties where compelled by law (eg in response to a subpoena) or for any other purpose permitted by the APPs.
If HR Legal engages a third party contractor to perform services which involves handling personal information, HR Legal will take reasonable steps to prohibit the contractor from using personal information except for the purposes for which it was supplied.
Direct Marketing and Your Privacy
As outlined above, HR Legal may use the personal information it collects about you to identify particular services and/or information which it believes may be of interest and benefit to you. HR Legal may then contact you to let you know about these services and information and how they may benefit you. If you advise that you no longer wish to be contacted about these matters, we will no longer use your personal information in this way.
Careers and Recruitment
If you apply for a job or work placement at HR Legal, you may need to provide us with your personal information. By providing HR Legal with a resume or a job application, you consent to our use of this information to assess your suitability for employment at HR Legal.
Accuracy of Your Personal Information
If HR Legal has accurate personal information about you, it enables HR Legal to provide you with the best possible service. HR Legal takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information HR Legal collect, uses and discloses is accurate, complete and up to date.
Please contact HR Legal immediately if you find that the personal information HR Legal holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. HR Legal will take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is corrected.
Security of Your Personal Information
HR Legal protects your personal information from loss, misuse, modification and disclosure. HR Legal safeguards the security of your personal information through physical, electronic and managerial procedures. For example:
- security monitoring of premises;
- code only access and alarm systems to prevent outside access to your personal information; and
- electronic and computer systems to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information.
Access to Your Personal Information
You may request access to any of the personal information HR Legal holds about you. HR Legal will, on request, provide you with access to the personal information HR Legal holds about you, unless there is an exemption which applies under the Privacy Act.
Your request for access will be dealt with in a reasonable time. HR Legal may charge you a fee to cover the reasonable cost of retrieval and the supply of the information to you. If HR Legal refuses your request for access, it will provide you with reasons for the refusal.
Transferring Your Personal Information Overseas
Except as described in this section, HR Legal does not transfer your personal information overseas unless HR Legal is authorised by law to do so or you have consented to it as part of the legal services HR Legal provides to you. HR Legal stores its clients’ personal information on a customer relationship database provided by a third party vendor whose database is located (or can be accessed) overseas. By providing your personal information, you consent to this overseas transfer of your personal information, and you accept that the privacy laws of the jurisdictions in which this database may be accessed may not be as stringent as the APPs.
Acceptance
Technologies and information governance practices are constantly developing. We may therefore need to revise this Privacy Policy in future. You should therefore review this page regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes to its terms.
How to Contact Us
If you wish to gain access to or correct your personal information or make a complaint about a breach of your privacy, you should contact the Privacy Officer:
Dan Feldman
Managing Partner
32 Garden Street, South Yarra 3141
dfeldman@hrlegal.com.au
+613 9948 2450
