PRIVACY POLICY
THE MENIERES RESEARCH FUND INC PRIVACY POLICY
The Menieres Research Fund Inc (“MRF”) is committed to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information. MRF complies with the Commonwealth Privacy Act and other relevant state laws in relation to the management of personal information.
This Policy explains in general terms how MRF protects the privacy of your personal information. The principles described in this policy apply to personal information you provide to us (including via our website) and to personal information we collect about you under any other agreement or arrangement. This policy does not apply to the MRF employee records (if any).
HOW WE COLLECT AND HANDLE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
The MRF is a fundraising body and does not conduct research in its own right. Research is undertaken by employees of the University of Sydney and qualified research staff working for the relevant medical related institutions.
If you deal with the MRF, we will generally collect your personal information directly from you. For example, we may collect personal information about you when we deal with you over the phone or when you have contact with us in person or over the internet. If we collect information about you from a third party and wish to initiate contact with you, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are aware of the purposes for which we are collecting your personal information and give you the option of ceasing that contact as well as advising you of other persons or organisations to which we might give your personal information.
Generally, personal information we collect about you may include your name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail address, donations, event attendance and payment (including credit card) details.
We collect information from our donors and supporters including information about donation history and activities that you have indicated you may be interested in.
We use this information to enable us to send you newsletters and bulletins as well as information about research, education and fundraising events and activities. We may use your information to contact you to seek financial support for research into Meniere’s Disease.
We may also collect personal information when we are canvassing recruitment of committee members, staff and PhD students and applications for research grants. Generally speaking, we will collect personal information that you supply to us as part of this process and use it for the purposes of assessing applications and proposals. We will only collect personal information necessary to conduct our funding raising activities. We will not directly disclose your personal details to a third party except in cases where names and addresses will be provided to external contractors who assist with mailing our communication and sending other information on our activities to you. On such occasions contractors who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this Policy by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for MRF.
PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH FUNDED BY MRF
In order to further our research activities, medical experts advising the MRF may have access to your personal information including health information. In addition to your name and address, this information may also include your medical history including (where clinically relevant) a family medical history. This information is used to record your involvement in research activities funded by MRF and to process the results of research and to contact you regarding participation in future research or fund raising. From time to time we may collate statistical data from the information we have collected. In these cases, the data will be de-identified and aggregated before it is disclosed to third parties.
All research funded by MRF is approved by the relevant ethics committees. Persons enrolled in research will be given information detailing how health information will be handled by the person involved in the research.
SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We take all reasonable steps to ensure the security of the personal information we hold from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We maintain physical security over our paper and electronic data stores and premises, such as locks and security systems. Your personal information may be stored in hardcopy documents, as electronic data, or in the MRF’s software or systems. We use firewalls (security measures for the Internet) and other security systems. Paper records are stored in secure areas.
ANONYMITY
Where lawful and practicable, you will be given the option to deal with us without identifying yourself (eg when inquiring about the fundraising activities or research the MRF provides funds for).
Individuals should be aware that contact details are required in order for the Sydney University to issue a tax deductible receipt. Occasionally we seek to recognise the contributions of our donors and supporters in our publication materials. Individuals wishing to remain anonymous should advise MRF or the Medical Foundation of Sydney University.
GAINING ACCESS TO INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU
The MRF will not, without a lawful request, provide information we hold about you to a third party. You can gain access to the information we hold about and access can only be denied in certain circumstances. Unless there is an exception which applies under privacy laws we will provide you with a photocopy and/or printout of information held within 28 days. No charge will be made for this service.
KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION UP-TO-DATE
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it. If you find that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us immediately and will take reasonable steps to either correct this information or, if necessary, discuss alternative action with you.
OUR WEBSITE
Visiting www.menieresresearch.org.au generates the following statistics:
- Your server address;
- Your top level domain name (.com, .gov, .au, .uk etc);
- The pages you access and documents downloaded;
- Any keywords or search words you enter; and
- The type of browser you are using.
These statistics are gathered so we can improve our website for future visitors. This information does not make it possible for you to be identified.
If you send us an e-mail, your e-mail address (together with any other information you send us) will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, except where you give consent for another purpose. This site does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the internet except where indicated (such as on-line donations). Users should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the internet.
INTERNET
No "cookies" are employed on the MRF’s website except for those generated when you use the search engine. These are destroyed at the end of your browser session. No information about you is stored at the end of your browser session. (A "cookie" is information that a web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time.)
We may create links to third party websites. The MRF is not responsible for the content or privacy practices employed by websites that are linked from our website.
CHANGES TO THIS MRF PRIVACY POLICY
This Policy may be amended from time to time. You can access the most up to date copy by visiting our website.
We will happily address your concerns. If you have a query on how your personal information is collected or used, or any other query relating to this policy please contact:
The President,
Meniere’s Research Fund Inc
PO Box 597
Edgecliff
NSW 2027
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Tel: 02 9363 4707 or fax: 02 9327 6761
We will respond to your query or concern as soon as possible and will try to resolve any complaint within 14 working days. If this is not possible, we will contact you within that time to let you know how long we estimate it will take to resolve your concern.
