General

VSC Consulting recognises that your privacy and the protection of your personal information is important to you. This policy sets out how VSC Consulting collects, uses, discloses and secures your personal information. It also sets out your rights to access and correct your personal information.

At VSC Consulting, we take our privacy obligations seriously and are committed to ensuring that we handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).

What is personal information?

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Collection of your personal information

We collect personal information relating to users of our services and visitors to our website.

VSC Consulting may collect personal information including (but not limited to) the following: your title, name, job title, address, email address, telephone numbers, birthdate, occupation and other information reasonably necessary for us to provide our services to you or which is otherwise reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions and activities.

VSC Consulting collects personal information directly from you when you communicate with us. For example, when we receive an email from you, we are collecting your personal information.

VSC Consulting also collects information about you from third parties or via other methods. This would include where you use one of our services.

VSC Consulting may make a record of information relating to your visit to the websites. Such information includes your server address, domain name, IP address, the date and time of your visit, pages accessed, and documents downloaded. VSC Consulting websites may also use cookies. More information regarding cookies can be found below.

If you send an email to any of our staff, we will record your email address. We will use your email address for the purpose for which it was provided, and for any other purpose for which you would reasonably expect us to use it. In particular, we may include your email address on our mailing lists. We will not use your email address for any other purpose without your express consent.

If we require you to provide personal information when you complete an electronic form on the websites, we will collect that information to assist us in responding to your request. VSC Consulting will not collect personal information in a way that would be unlawful or where such information is unnecessary or unrelated to our functions, activities or business.

Sensitive information

The Privacy Act imposes special obligations where sensitive information (including information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, membership of political bodies, religion or trade unions, sexual preferences or activities, criminal record, state of health or medical history) is collected, used and disclosed. VSC Consulting may collect some forms of sensitive information, including whether you identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and your cultural background, for the purposes of our diversity and related policies. VSC Consulting will not collect sensitive information about you unless you consent (we take your provision of the information to be consent to its collection), and the information is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. If VSC Consulting holds any sensitive personal information about you, that information will only be used and disclosed by VSC Consulting for the purpose that it was provided by you.

Use and disclosure of your personal information

We use the personal information we collect for our business purposes (including as described on our websites), to fulfil our legal obligations and to keep our suppliers and users informed of our activities and the services that we provide. Our business purposes are generally to provide products and related services to our users, to administer our relationships with our users and potential users, and with suppliers, corporate partners and others, and to operate our websites.

VSC Consulting will only use or disclose your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected, for another, related purpose for which you would reasonably expect us to use it, or for any other purpose with your consent (whether express or implied). For example, we may use your personal information to analyse data obtained on our websites to determine the websites’ effectiveness and to modify it to improve its functionality and the service it provides to suppliers and users.

VSC Consulting may from time to time send you marketing material that we consider may be useful to you, including information about our business and activities. If you do not wish to receive this information, you can let us know and we will not send it to you.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes unless we have your permission. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

Depending on the purpose of collection, your personal information may be disclosed to:

(a)          external service providers (on a confidential basis and in circumstances where those service providers may only use your information for the purpose of VSC Consulting’s activities), including institutions which we collaborate with or subcontract to in order to deliver our services to you and specialist advisers that VSC Consulting have engaged to provide us with legal, accounting, administrative, financial, insurance, research, marketing or other services; and

(c)          any other person authorised and specified by you.

Except as set out below, we will only access information contained in data or material, including sensitive information, that users have stored in cloud hosting services provided by us, for the purpose of providing administrative or support services.

VSC Consulting may use or disclose your personal information (including sensitive information):

(a)         where required or authorised by or under an Australian law (including the Privacy Act) or an order of a court or tribunal;

(b)          in accordance with the Privacy Act, including where we hold a reasonable belief that the use or disclosure is required for certain enforcement or health and safety purposes, or that use or disclosure is necessary in relation to certain suspected unlawful activity or misconduct; or

(c)          if reasonably necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim or for the purposes of confidential alternative dispute resolution.

VSC Consulting may at other times notify you about our disclosure practices in respect of specific services that we provide.

You may, in some circumstances, have the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym when you deal with VSC Consulting, such as if you are making a general enquiry about our services. However, if you choose not to provide your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with a service you request.

Cookies and analytics

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. The cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs and preferences by collecting and remembering information about you.

We use cookies to provide the services (for example, to permit you to log in) and to identify which pages are being used and how you use them. This helps us analyse information about web page traffic and improve our website by tailoring it to your needs.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie does not give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you provide to us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. This may, however, prevent you from using the full capabilities of the website.

We may also use third-party analytics tools, including Google Analytics, to provide us with information about how you use our website. These analytics tools may place or access cookies on your device, which allows them to monitor your web browsing activity.

More information regarding the services provided by Google, including its privacy policy and information about opting out is available on its website: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

Storage and security of your personal information

VSC Consulting may hold your personal information in a number of different formats, including software programs (located both onsite and offsite, including in the cloud), databases, filing systems and in offsite backup storage. Personal information held by VSC Consulting may be stored in email accounts that are accessible through mobile devices.

VSC Consulting is committed to ensuring that the information you provide is secure and we take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access, modification, disclosure or misuse. However, we cannot ensure the security of any information that you transmit to us over the internet and you do so at your own risk.

Changes to this policy

VSC Consulting may amend this policy by publishing a revised policy on our website. Any changes will be effective as of the date they are published.

Links to other websites

Our websites may contain links to other websites of interest. Please note that we do not have any control over those websites. We are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such websites and such websites are not governed by this privacy policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the website in question.