Privacy Policy

 

Statewide advice number

1300 744 263

Tenants Queensland manages the QSTARS program and provides statewide advice services for Queensland renters.

Tenants Queensland only collects information that is necessary to provide services to clients. We treat all information we collect as confidential.

Information supplied by you will only be used for the purpose of providing services to you or in accordance with specific consent given by you.

Tenants Queensland will not make personal information supplied by you available to a third party unless required by law or where you consent to the disclosure.

Tenants Queensland may distribute aggregated statistical information for reporting purposes but only in a form that will not identify any person individually.

Tenants Queensland complies with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act. A full copy of Tenants Queensland’s Privacy Policy is available here.

TQ Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY

1. Purpose

The purpose of this privacy policy is to communicate clearly the personal information handling practices we follow when we collect and deal with your personal information, including how you can contact us if you wish to correct or access personal information we hold about you.

2. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)

We are committed to the protection of personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). The Privacy Act regulates the manner in which personal information is handled throughout its life cycle, from collection to use and disclosure, storage, accessibility and disposal.

The Privacy Act can be viewed at
https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2015C00279

3. Our personal information handling practices

3.1 What is personal information

Under the Privacy Act, personal information means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

3.2 What is sensitive information

Under the Privacy Act, sensitive information means personal information about an individual’s:

  • health (including predictive genetic information)
  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • membership of a political association, professional or trade association or trade union
  • religious beliefs or affiliations
  • philosophical beliefs
  • sexual orientation or practices
  • criminal record
  • biometric information that is to be used for certain purposes
  • biometric templates.

Special provisions apply to the collection of personal information which is sensitive information. In this Privacy Policy, a reference to personal information includes sensitive information.

3.3 Collection of personal information

The types of personal information that we may collect include:

  • identifying and contact information such as your name, date of birth, contact details including telephone number, residential, postal and email addresses;
  • gender;
  • primary language used;
  • employment status and income source;
  • country of birth
  • complaint details; and
  • sensitive information such as
    • your medical history (including your history of any chronic diseases, disabilities, mental health and any hospitalisations); and
    • your racial or ethnic origin.

If you elect not to provide any information requested by us, or provide inaccurate information, we may be unable to provide you with our products and services.

If you access our website, we may collect additional information including your IP address, date and time of pages accessed, and the information downloaded. The information that we collect about your visit may not be personal information because it does not reveal your identity or make you reasonably identifiable. We may use this information in anonymous and aggregated form, for statistical purposes only, to assist us in improving the quality and usability of our website and communications.

We may collect personal information directly from you, generally by way of written application, verbal communication or via electronic means such as our website, our social media platforms or email correspondence.

Where we are required to obtain information about you indirectly, we will notify you in advance, or as soon as practicable upon receipt of the information.

3.4 Purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We only collect, hold, use and disclose personal information that is directly related to and necessary for our dealings with you in respect to Tenants Queensland’s activities and functions, including for the following purposes:

  • assessing your eligibility for, and providing you with information about, our programs and services;
  • providing information you have enquired about or in responding to a query or issue you have raised;
  • tenancy advice and casework delivery;
  • assisting you in disputes with third parties, including communicating with those third parties on your behalf;
  • maintaining membership records;
  • managing our relationship with you and contact you for follow up purposes;
  • referral to other assistance agencies;
  • data collection;
  • compliance with laws;
  • auditing and monitoring; and
  • research, quality assurance and evaluation.

If you do not want to receive information about our programs and services, you can withdraw your consent by contacting us (see our details below).

4. Use and disclosure of personal information

In order to provide our products and services to you, we may need to disclose your personal information to various third parties including (but not limited to) service providers who assist us in our business (such as insurers, ICT providers and CIM services), subcontractors (Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre, Mackay Regional Community Legal Centre, Suncoast Community Legal Centre, Enhance Care, Community Plus+, TASC, IRASI), our related entities, and any purchaser of our businesses assets and operations.

We may also store, process or back-up your personal information on servers that are located overseas (including through third party service providers) via the use of “cloud” based storage platforms or third-party servers located at multiple sites.

Personal information will not be sold to any other person or organisation.

Our website may contain links to other websites. Those other websites contain their own privacy statements and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those other websites.

We may use social media networking services and other third party platforms to communicate with the public about our activities.  We may provide your email address to third parties platforms that you use, such as Facebook, for these purposes and the third party platforms may handle your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies and practices.

5. Data quality

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose about you is accurate, up to date and complete. These steps include maintaining and updating personal information when we are advised by you that your personal information has changed.

6. Data security

We take steps to protect the personal information we hold against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure and against other misuse. These steps include password protection for electronic files, hard copy files in locked cabinets and utilising physical access restrictions. If you choose to join our email lists, complete online forms or lodge enquiries, your contact details are stored on password-protected databases.

7. Notifiable Data Breaches

A data breach occurs when any of your personal information provided to us is accessed or disclosed without authorization. We understand that a data breach can have serious consequences for you and for us.

Accordingly, we are committed to having robust systems and procedures in place to identify and respond effectively to any data breaches.

In the event of any data breach that is likely to result in serious harm and which we have been unable to remedy, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Further information relevant to Australia’s notifiable data breach scheme can be located on the OAIC website at www.oaic.gov.au.

8. Deletion of data

We generally retain personal information we hold for as long as it is necessary to perform the function in relation to which the information was collected. We may also retain personal information for longer periods to comply with legislative requirements for document retention. After that time, we securely destroy and dispose of your personal information.

You can request that your personal information be deleted at any time. You may request us to delete any personal information we hold about you by emailing our contact person whose details are below. You may choose to opt out of further contact from us by sending us an email containing the word ‘unsubscribe’ in the title of the email.

9. Access, correction or making a Privacy complaint

If you have submitted details about yourself to us, you may request access to or a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, or request that we change that personal information.  We may ask you to put your access request in writing.  Before providing you with access to the personal information that we hold about you, we may require that you first provide us with documentary evidence verifying your identity.  In some cases, in accordance with the Privacy Act, we may refuse to give you access to personal information that we hold about you.  Where this occurs, we will provide a written explanation of our decision.

We will endeavor to respond to your access request or enquiry as soon as reasonably possible.

You may submit a complaint if you are unsatisfied about the way we have handled your personal information.  We will review the complaint and consider what action (if any) should be taken to resolve the complaint.  We will provide a written explanation of our course of action following the complaint being made.

If you are unsatisfied with the outcome, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au, enquiries@oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

You can obtain further information about how to request access to the personal information we hold about you and seek correction of that information by contacting us (see details below).

10. How to contact us

If you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at mail@tenantsqld.org.au

11. Variation of this privacy Policy

We may vary the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time, but our current Privacy Policy will be the version contained on our website. You should review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you are updated on any changes.

12. Further Information

For further information, you can visit the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au