Privacy Policy

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services recognises the importance of the right to privacy for all persons. This privacy policy sets out the key elements of how we comply with the Australian Privacy Principles particularly in relation to the treatment of personal information that we collect and/ or hold. Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services understands that we must comply with the Australian Privacy Act, and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services Privacy Principles

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services must comply with the relevant legislation including:

  • Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
  • Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.
  • Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) Scheme.
  • Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Acknowledgement of Our Privacy Policy

Our obligations under the privacy amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 is to comply with the Australian Privacy Principle 1.4 which requires us to set out our policies on the management of personal information in a clearly expressed document which is free of charge to anyone who asks for it.

We respect your personal information and right to privacy. This privacy policy describes the information that may be collected by us and how we protect your personal information.

Children and Minors.

All reasonable steps will be taken that personal information will not be collected by any person who is known by the organisation to be under the age of fifteen (15 years) without the consent of a parent or Guardian. Persons under the age of fifteen will only provide personal information with the consent and involvement of their parent or Guardian.

The Type of Information We Collect and Hold

The personal information we collect and hold is used by Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services to operate and conduct services. The personal information we collect about you is primarily used to conduct professional and clinical services, billing, identification, authentication, and for maintaining contact with you as required. This information can include your name, gender identity, date of birth, country of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and credit and banking details.

Where reasonable and relevant, we collect any special or personal data about you. This can include details about your race or ethnicity, religious or other beliefs, sexuality and sexual orientation, political opinions, criminal history or activity, information about your health, and genetic and other medical and information.

Personal information means information that we hold about you from which your identity is either apparent or can be reasonably determined. We may also collect non personal information from you including browser type, operating system and web pages visited in relation to our website.

Many of our services, consultations and meetings including case meetings are recorded via notes. On occasion videocalls may be recorded. Any images of people attending and participating in our services and/or meetings, or other recordings, for example as above, will not be used or shown in part for promotional purposes, resource material or for commercial purposes.

We will use your personal data to deliver service and to assist you with inquiries. We may also use data to analyse trends, to administer and review Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services, to monitor usage and traffic patterns or to gather demographic information. Data may also be used to prevent misuse of services or resources or to prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal.

How we Collect and Hold Personal Information

We directly collect personal information when you send an enquiry to us from our or another website or get in touch with us by other means including phone or email. We may also collect personal information if you engage with us by a mutual associate referral.

We use cookies and other internet technologies to manage our website and other relevant online products and services. We do not use these technologies to collect or store personal information unless you have opted in to such a feature.

Our internet server logs the following information which is provided by your browser for statistical purposes only:

  • The type of browser and operating system you are using.
  • Your Internet Service Provider and top level domain name.
  • The address of any referring website.
  • Your computers IP address.

When you access our website, we send you a temporary or ‘session cookie’ that gives you a unique identification number. A different identification number is sent each time you use our website. Cookies do no identify individual users, although they do identify a user’s internet browser type and your Internet Service Provider. Shortly after you end your interaction with our website, the cookie expires. This means it no longer exists on your computer and therefore cannot be used for further identification or access to your computer.

Links to Other Sites.

The Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services website may contain links to other external sites. We are ultimately not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such external websites. We encourage you to read and understand the privacy policies on other websites prior to providing information to them.

The Purposes for Which We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Personal Information

We use personal information you provide only for the purposes consistent with the reason you provided it, or for a directly related purpose. We do not share your personal information with other organisations unless you give us consent, or where sharing is otherwise required or permitted by law, or where this is necessary on a basis to enable specific functions.

Generally, Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services will collect personal information directly from you, and only to the extent necessary to provide a service or to carry out our internal administrative operations.

We may collect personal information from you when:

  • You fill in an application or enquiry form or register for a service or event.
  • Acquire good or services through our website.
  • Have contact with us or other personnel at the service location over the telephone.
  • Email us.
  • Ask us to contact you after visiting our or other websites (Australian Psychological
  • Society, for example).
  • Have contact with us in person including in sessions.

We will use your personal information only for the particular purpose that you provided it, or for a directly related purpose. We may otherwise use your personal information where that other use is:

  • Required or permitted by law; or
  • With your express or implied consent.

We also on occasion indirectly collect personal information when someone uses our services to record data about someone other than themselves. This information can include names, gender identity, dates of birth, countries of birth, residential addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, a person’s emergency contacts, medical and health insurance numbers, and patient treatment notes and records. This can include sensitive information such as health records.

Videos/ Photographs

Images of individuals in photographs or film are treated as personal information under the Privacy Act where the person’s identity is clear or can reasonably be worked out from that image. We uphold that all photographs and video footage will be used solely for Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services related purposes. In accordance with the Privacy Act, an individual’s consent will be sought if images are taken or used in engagement with services.

Information Sharing

We have a duty to maintain the privacy of all personal information we hold about you. However, certain exceptions do apply. For example, where disclosure of your personal information is:

Authorised or required by law (For example, disclosure to various government departments and agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office, Child Safety services, Centrelink, Child Support agency or disclosure to courts if required under subpoena.

  • In the public interest (For example, where a crime, fraud, or misdemeanour is committed or suspected, and disclosure against the customer’s rights to confidentiality is justified.
  • With your consent. This may be implied or express, verbal or written.
  • Use of Third Party Service Providers
  • When we provide personal information to companies who perform services for us, such as
  • specialist information technology companies or other contractors or parties we require those
  • companies to protect your personal information as diligently as we do.
  • Updating Your Information

It is inevitable that some personal information which we hold will become out of date. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold remains accurate and, if you advise us of change of details, we will amend our records accordingly.

Access to Your Personal Information

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services will, upon your request, and subject to applicable privacy laws, provide you with access to your personal information that is held by us. You can request access to your personal information via email.

If you think there is a problem with the personal information we hold about you, you can request a correction. Should you require to move your data to another service, your may request the transfer of your data (including personal information) to you or a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable format.

Exceptions

Your right to access your personal information is not absolute. In certain circumstances, the
law permits us to refuse your request to provide you with access to your personal
information, such as circumstances where:

  • Access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of any individual.
  • Access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others.
  • The request is frivolous or vexatious.
  • The information relates to a commercially sensitive decision-making process.
  • Access would be unlawful; or
  • Access may prejudice enforcement activities, a security function or commercial
  • negotiations.

Security

All reasonable steps will be take to keep secure any personal information, which is held or transmitted. Security measures are taken to protect your information from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services will conduct technical and nontechnical evaluation that establishes the extent to which security policies and procedures meet the security guidelines of the Office of Australian Information Commission for the Australian Privacy Principles. Please note that the public internet is not a secure method of transmitting information. Accordingly, no responsibility is accepted for the security of information you send to or receive from us over the internet or for any unauthorised access or use of that information.

Should Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services discover a breach of data held, reasonable steps will be taken to notify those affected by the breach as soon as possible including information about how the breach occurred, possible effect and data effected, time of breach/es and remedies taken in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme.

If Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services transfers personal information to countries outside Australia, we will only do so in compliance with all applicable Australian data protection and privacy laws. We will take all reasonable steps to protect personal information no matter what country it is stored in or transferred to. We will have procedures and data transfer contracts as appropriate to help ensure this.

Complain About a Breach of the Australian Privacy Principles

Sunshine Coast Therapy and Assessment Services is committed to working to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. You can contact us at reception.sc.therapyandassessment@outlook.com with any feedback including concerns
and complaints and we will contact you by phone at the earliest possible time to respond to
your contact.

You can also contact:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) by calling 1300 363 992 or in
writing to GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This policy is current from January 2024. If we make any changes to our Privacy Policy it will
be announced on our website.