Privacy Policy

POLICY STATEMENT

This Policy applies to Schools Ministry Group Incorporated (referred to as SMG, ‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’) and extends to and covers all operations and functions of the organisation.

SMG recognises the importance of protecting privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information. This document is our privacy policy and it tells you how we collect and manage your personal information.

We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 and we comply with all the Act's requirements in respect of the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information.

Collection of Information

Some information provided to us by clients, customers, contractors and other third parties might be considered private or personal. Without these details we would not be able to carry on our business and provide our services to you. We will only collect such personal information if it is necessary for one of our functions or activities.

In particular, personal information is collected from people by SMG in the following situations:
  • if you contact SMG, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
  • when you submit your e-mail address to our website mailing list.
  • when you donate or purchase goods or services from our website.
  • when you use our services.


At or before the time the personal information is collected by us we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of who we are, the fact that you are able to gain access to the information held about you, the purpose of the collection, the type(s) of organisations to which we usually disclose the information collected about you, any laws requiring the collection of the information and the main consequences for you if all or part of the information is not collected.

What personal Information do we collect and hold?

We may collect the following types of information:
  • personal and contact information
  • religion and/or church affiliation
  • communication information
  • profession, occupation or job title
  • details of the services you have received from us or which you have enquired about, or which you have observed us providing to someone else, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those services and to respond to your enquiries;
  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise; and
  • information you provide to us through our head office, customer surveys or visits by our representatives from time to time.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:
  • through your access and use of our website
  • during conversations between you and our representatives
  • when you make a donation
  • when you complete an application to become an employee or volunteer


We may also collect personal information from third parties including but not limited to credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies, governments, (Federal, State, Local) and government entities.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?

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 the requested services to you, either to the same standard or at all
  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful
  • we may not be able to provide you with appropriate documentation for donations or fees received by us   

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of service.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
  • to provide services to you and to send communications requested by you
  • to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about existing and new service
  • to provide you with access to protected areas of our website
  • to assess the performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website
  • to meet our legal obligations in terms of child safety and other requirements
  • to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our service providers or other third parties
  • for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, program or service development, quality control and research purposes of SMG or its service providers
  • to provide your updated personal information to our contractors or service providers
  • to update our records and keep your contact details up to date
  • to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
  • to comply 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).


Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented, or disclosed other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

Links

Our web site may contain links to other web sites and those third party web sites may collect personal information about you. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other businesses or the content of web sites that are linked to our web site. SMG encourages users to be aware when they leave the site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information.

Security and storage

SMG places great importance on the security of all information associated with our customers, clients and contractors. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal information under our control. Personal information is de-identified or destroyed securely when no longer required by us.

SMG retains the information you provide to us including possibly your contact and credit card details to enable us to verify transactions and customer details and to retain adequate records for legal and accounting purposes. This information is held on secure servers in controlled facilities.

Information stored within our computer systems can only be accessed by those entrusted with authority and computer network password sanctions.

No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100 per cent secure. As a result, while we strive to protect user's personal information, SMG cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to it or from its online products or services, and users do so at their own risk. Once SMG receives your transmission, it makes every effort to ensure its security on its systems.

Ultimately, you are solely responsible for keeping your passwords and/or account information secret. You should be careful and responsible whenever you are online.

Cookies

SMG collects information from the site using "IP files". When you visit an SMG site to read, browse or download information, our system will record/log your IP address (the address which identifies your computer on the internet and which is automatically recognised by our web server), date and time of your visit to our site, the pages viewed and any information downloaded. This information will only be used for the purpose of site analysis and to help us offer you improved online service. We may automatically collect non-personal information about you such as the type of Internet browsers you use or the site from which you linked to our Web Sites. You cannot be identified from this information and it is only used to assist us in providing an effective service on our web sites.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

SMG is committed to maintaining accurate, timely, relevant, and appropriate information about our customers, clients and web-site users.

So long as your request for your personal information is in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles, then we will give you access to that information.

Inaccurate information will be corrected upon receiving advice to this effect from you. To ensure confidentiality, details of your personal information will be passed on to you only if we are satisfied that the information relates to you.

If we refuse to provide you with access or correct the personal information held about you by us, then we will provide reasons for such refusal.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about our Privacy Policy or the collection, use or safe disposal or destruction of your personal information, your complaint should be directed in the first instance to us at privacy@smg.asn.au

We will investigate your complaint and attempt to resolve any breach that might have occurred in relation to the collection, use or destruction of personal information held by us about you in accordance with the Australian Privacy legislation. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of this procedure, then you may request that an independent body (usually the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) investigate your complaint.

Changes to Policy

We may amend this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this policy will be posted on our website.

Contact details

If you require further information regarding our privacy policy, please contact us by phone: (08) 83786800 or by email: mail@smg.net.au or privacy@smg.net.au.