privacy statement

overview

McGrathNicol respects and is committed to maintaining the privacy of any information given to it by its clients.  This Statement sets out McGrathNicol’s practices in relation to the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information that is collected by McGrathNicol from its clients.  It also sets out those matters which we are required to disclose to individuals when collecting their personal information under National Privacy Principles 1.3 and 1.5.

Throughout this Privacy Statement, the terms “we”, “our” and “us” refer to McGrathNicol and its related entities.

We would recommend that you read this Statement carefully.  If you have any queries, or would like to provide us with your feedback in relation to the matters raised in this Statement, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@mcgrathnicol.com  or on (03) 9038 3100.

collection of information

McGrathNicol will only collect personal information from you when it is necessary to enable McGrathNicol to respond to your queries or to provide you with its products and services.

Generally, the type of personal information we will collect will include your name, gender, address and other contact details such as your telephone and facsimile numbers.  We will also collect financial and personal details relevant to the services provided to you, such as your income, expenses and financial circumstances.

We will collection this information from you in a number of different ways including over the telephone, in person, via our website or in a written application form completed by you in relation to services offered by McGrathNicol.

McGrathNicol will endeavour to collect your personal information directly from you.  However, in certain situations it may not be possible to do this and we may collect information about you from third parties.  McGrathNicol will take all reasonable steps to ensure that these parties collect information in accordance with their responsibilities under the Privacy Act (Cth) 1988 (“the Act”) and the National Privacy Principles.

It is not our policy to collect sensitive information about you.  However, in the event that we do so, we will collect this information in accordance with the National Privacy Principles.

information collected via our website

As noted above, McGrathNicol may also collect personal information when you visit our website and complete a contact form.  The information submitted will only be used for the purposes of contacting you in response to your request.

Our website host may also collect personal information for statistical, reporting and maintenance purposes.  This information will not be used to identify you and may include:

§         The number of users visiting the website and the number of pages viewed;

§         The date, time and duration of the visit; or 

§         The path taken through the website.

Our website host uses this information to administer and improve the performance of the website.

cookies

Cookies are small text files that are transferred to a user’s computer hard drive by a website for the purpose of storing information about a user’s identity, browser type or website visiting patterns.  The McGrathNicol website does not use cookies.

web beacons

Web beacons are images that originate from a third party site to track visitor activities.  McGrathNicol does not currently, but may in the future, use web beacons to track the visiting patterns of individuals accessing its website.

third party websites

McGrathNicol’s website may contain links to other websites.  When you access these links we recommend that you read the website owner’s privacy statement before disclosing your personal information.  We do not accept responsibility for inappropriate use, collection, storage or disclosure of your personal information collected outside our website.

use and disclosure of your personal information

McGrathNicol will only disclose and use your personal information in accordance with the National Privacy Principles.

Information collected by McGrathNicol will, save as may be consented to by you, only be used for the purposes of:

§         Providing you with professional services;

§         Providing you with information about our services;

§         Managing and administering the services we offer;

§         Receiving services from you or the organisation that employs you; and

§         Disclosure to the third parties mentioned below.

McGrathNicol may also collection personal information from you for the purposes of conducting client surveys or for promoting its services.  If you do not wish to receive any marketing or promotional material in relation to our services or to participate in client surveys please let us know this in writing or by contacting us via our website at www.mcgrathnicol.com .

In order to provide you with its products and services, McGrathNicol may share information with, or acquire information from the following third parties:

§         Other McGrathNicol related entities;

§         Various third parties whom we ask to perform services for us or to whom information must be disclosed to in the course of providing services to you;

§         Our professional advisers, for example our auditors and lawyers; and

§         Government, regulatory or other agencies to whom McGrathNicol is required to disclose your personal information by law.

McGrathNicol where necessary will enter into arrangements with these entities to keep your personal information confidential and to ensure that they use the information solely for the purpose of providing the relevant services to you.

McGrathNicol may also be required by law to disclose the information collected from you.  In such circumstances, only information that McGrathNicol is required to disclose as a matter of law would be divulged.

McGrathNicol would like to assure you that your personal information would not be divulged save as set out above.

independent contractors

McGrathNicol may engage the services of independent contractors to provided skilled personnel for the purposes of discharging services to clients of McGrathNicol.  Appropriate arrangements have been put in place to prevent any unauthorised disclosure of personal information by such personnel.

Where McGrathNicol collects your personal information from third parties such as independent contractors, it will handle that information in accordance with, and will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of, the matters presented in this Statement.

how you would gain access to your records

You can request access to your personal information that we hold about you by contacting us via our website or by making a request when you next visit our offices.  You should be aware that we will only grant access in accordance with the Act and that certain exceptions may apply to your request to access your personal information.

If we do not provide you with access to your personal information, we will inform you in writing of our decision and will advise you of any exceptions under the Act that we have relied upon.

We may also recover from you our reasonable costs in providing you with access to your personal information.

McGrathNicol takes all reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date each time we collect or use it.

If your personal information has changed or you become aware that information we hold about you is no longer accurate, complete or up to date, we request that you immediately contact us so that we can update our records.

security

McGrathNicol realises the importance of client information and treats this as confidential.

Your personal information may be stored in hard copy documents and our computer systems.

In order to ensure the security of your personal information and to protect it against unauthorised access, misuse or loss we maintain the following security measures:

§         Hard copy documents are stored at our office premises whilst undertaking work for you.  Following completion hard copy documents are stored in a secure offsite location until they are destroyed in accordance with McGrathNicol policies and statutory requirements;

§         Electronic information is stored in McGrathNicol’s Information Technology environment.  Access to the different Information Technology systems is restricted based on internal criteria and requirements.  These controls ensure that McGrathNicol meets its statutory and ethical obligations.  Electronic information is backed up and archived to secure offsite storage facilities in accordance with McGrathNicol policies and statutory requirements.

your rights

While information is being sought from you for the sole purpose of providing services to you, you have the right to refuse to provide certain information.  Of course, this may not always be possible as some of our services can only be provided if we are able to adequately identify you.

If you are not completely satisfied with anything which is set out in this Statement, you are entitlement to either query this practice or lodge a complaint with our Privacy Officer or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.  All such inquiries or complaints would be handled with impartiality and discretion.

You can obtain further information relating to McGrathNicol’s privacy policies.

Contact: Privacy Officer, McGrathNicol, Level 8 IBM Centre, 60 City Road, Southbank VIC 3006.  Email: privacy@mcgrathnicol.com .  Phone: (03) 9038 3100.