CONFIDENTIALITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Mitchell Partners has a duty to keep your information confidential. Our duty of confidentiality applies except where we have consent to disclose your information, the disclosure is permitted under the Act, APPs or where it is compelled by law.
Mitchell Partners will only use your information for the purposes for which it was collected (“primary purposes”) or a purpose related to the primary purpose, if this use would be reasonably expected by you, or otherwise, with your consent.
Mitchell Partners may disclose your information to necessary third parties, who assist us to provide, manage and administer our services and products. In which case, your information will be dealt with in accordance with that entity’s privacy policy. No personal details are provided to any other individual or organisation, except with your consent.
People we may disclose your information to include:
- Government and associated bodies for the purpose of statutory reporting on behalf of you or your business;
- Banks and other financial organisations for the purpose of initiating financing for you; and
- Other organisations to arrange services on your behalf.
QUALITY, ACCESS TO & CORRECTION OF INFORMATION
You are entitled to have access to and seek correction of any information that we may hold about you. We require that requests for access to or to update or correct your information to be in writing outlining the details of your request. Such requests should be addressed to the Privacy Officer via the details provided in this Policy in the ‘Contact Us’ section.
Mitchell Partners will take appropriate steps to verify your identity (or verify that you act as a legal guardian or authorised agent of the individual concerned) before granting a request to access your information.
We will respond to your request for access to your information within a reasonable time after you make the request and if access is granted, access will be provided within 30 days from your request. Mitchell Partners will, on request, provide you with access to your information or update or correct your information, unless the Act provides an exception to us granting your request, including if:
- Giving access would be unlawful;
- We are required or authorised by law or a court/tribunal order to deny access; or
- Giving access is likely to prejudice one or more enforcement related activities conducted by an enforcement body.
Where your request for access is accepted, we will provide you with access to your information in a manner, as requested by you, providing it is reasonable to do so.
Your request for correction will be dealt with within 30 days, or such longer period as agreed by you. If we deny your request, we will provide you with a written notice detailing reasons for the refusal and the process for making a complaint about the refusal to grant your request.
Upon accepting a request for correction of your information, we will take all steps that are reasonable in the circumstances, having regard to the purpose for which your information is held, to correct your information.
We may charge a fee for providing information depending on the scope of information required and the resources involved. This fee will reflect the actual costs of providing information, depending on the complexity of each individual’s request.
YOUR CONSENT
By supplying, or having previously supplied, your information to us, you are agreeing to any or all of the uses outlined above. Where reasonable, we will also seek your consent verbally or in writing for use of your information for such uses in the interests of openness. Subject to the Act and APPs, should we want to use your personal information for other uses not related to the above, we will seek your consent to do this.
From time to time we may also use your personal information to communicate with you in regard to offers and promotions for our or related services. You are entitled to request that such communications cease at any time and we make provision in our materials for you to advise us of this.
STORAGE OF COLLECTED INFORMATION
We store your personal information in different ways, including in paper and electronic format. The security of your personal information is important to us. We take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, interference, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These measures include electronic and physical security measures, such as:
- imposing confidentiality requirements on our employees;
- implementing policies in relation to document storage security;
- Securing our premises with an alarm;
- implementing security measures to govern access to our systems including:
- Placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information;
- The use of firewalls, encryption, passwords and digital certificates;
- Using 2 Factor Authentication wherever possible when accessing Office 365 and other online software such as Xero and MYOB;
- Requiring our staff to be aware of the contents of this Policy and the relevant provisions under the Act and APPs which apply to us.
Personal information will be de-identified or destroyed when it is no longer required such that it cannot be re-identified at a later date. The de-identification and destruction process will be in accordance with the APPs. Where practical, we keep personal information only for as long as required, for example to meet Australian Taxation Office record keeping or other legal requirements or our internal needs.
If we store your personal information using a cloud storage service, or are required to disclose personal information outside the jurisdiction from which it was collected we are required to take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is held, managed and accessed in accordance with the standards that apply in Australia.
Except to the extent that liability cannot be excluded due to the operation of statute, Mitchell Partners excludes all liability (including in negligence) for the consequences of any unauthorised access to, disclosure of, misuse of or loss or corruption of your personal information. Nothing in this Privacy Policy restricts, excludes or modifies, or purports to restrict, exclude or modify any statutory rights which you may have under any applicable law including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
Website Cookies
If you access our website, we may collect additional information about you in the form of your IP address or domain name.
Our website uses ‘Cookies’. Cookies are small text files placed on your computer when you first visit the site and are used on some parts of our website. Most browsers now recognise when a cookie is offered and permit you to refuse or accept it. If you are not sure whether your browser has this capability, you should check with the software manufacturer, your company’s IT help desk or your Internet service provider. We sometimes use cookies to analyse statistical data such as the date and time that you accessed the site and the internet address of the site that linked you to our site. We do not and are not able to use cookies to gain personal information.
Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of linked websites and any linked websites are not subject to our Privacy Policy and related procedures. Before disclosing information on any other website you should examine the terms and conditions and privacy policy of that organisation.
