Privacy Policy
Your privacy is important to Biyani House Revesby Women’s Shelter (“Biyani House”). We are committed to protecting your privacy and using any personal information responsibly and in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Act”).
This Privacy Policy sets out why and how we collect personal information (“Information”) and the ways in which we use that Information as well as what you can do if you have any questions, concerns or complaints.
This Policy applies to personal information for individuals that are external to Biyani House such as donors, clients, and suppliers.
By providing your personal information to us, you consent to the use, storage and disclosure of the personal information you provide to us as described in this Policy.
What Information We Collect
The Information that we collect may include:
Personal information that you provide. This may include name, address, contact number, and email address when we add you to our database which holds records for individuals, communication preferences, and information about how you may have interacted with Biyani House. In most cases we will ask you for this information directly either through the website, email, via phone, or in person.
Information about your use of our website through analytics tools. This does not collect your personal information.
It is your choice how much Information you provide to us but we may not be able to fulfil a request if you do not provide the Information.
Data Collection
We will only collect Information about you that is reasonably necessary for our core work as outlined below. This may include:
your name, address, contact and bank and credit card details for clients, volunteers, suppliers and donors;
your image, video and sound recordings;
information associated with web browsing, email, text messaging, phone calls or other electronic interaction with you including your phone number and user name;
for donors, details relating to your donations and information relevant to the purpose of better identifying donor sources;
for others, other information relevant to the purpose of providing services such as family and living circumstances, education qualifications, employment history, financial information, interests, feedback preferences, guardianship, service feedback and complaint details;
sensitive information about you that may include your gender, age, date of birth, health, disability, mental health, racial or ethnic origin, criminal convictions, religious affiliation, tax file numbers, and other particulars required as part of our funding obligations and/or that are relevant for the proper provision of the services that we provide;
survey and questionnaire responses.
This website may use analytics programs to collect information about you and your behaviours using cookies in order to help us improve the user experience.
Why We Collect Information
We collect the Information for the purposes of our core work including: growing our subscriber base; engaging with the public; raising awareness of domestic violence issues; and to operate fundraising and charitable activity in support of our objectives.
We collect, hold and use Information only for the primary purposes for which it was collected or as set out below including:
to provide services which may include case management, housing support, counselling, education, volunteering, learning and development, and fundraising;
to comply with the requirements of funding bodies as part of a funding agreement with us;
to operate fundraising and charitable activity in support of our objectives;
to provide customer service functions, including handling enquiries, complaints and feedback;
to facilitate proper governance processes such as risk management, incident management, internal audit and external audits;
to gather feedback from you and other individuals about the quality of services that we provide so that the services we provide can be continuously improved;
to undertake marketing, fundraising and promotional activities, including activities to better identify donor sources, events and conferences organised and held by us;
to satisfy legal obligations, comply with applicable laws and meet the requirements of bodies which regulate the services we provide;
to understand, through aggregated information, trends and patterns which we use for fundraising, research and advocacy;
to fulfil other purposes which you have consented to.
Where possible, Information is collected directly from you with your consent at the time of your interaction with us.
We may ask for Information to help us engage with you, such as a subscription to our email newsletter and electronic mailouts and marketing, processing donations, issuing receipts, managing purchase and delivery process through our online store. For example, we will use the Information to keep you updated on events and opportunities to support Biyani House, or to notify you of volunteering opportunities if you have nominated yourself as willing to be a volunteer.
How we secure and store your Information
We keep the Information secure in our database and we protect your Information from unauthorised access or use by:
securing all Information;
limiting access to those people within Biyani House, including board members who need access; and
using firewalls and other internet security measures (such as identification codes and passwords to control access to our computer systems).
Any physical copies of your Information are kept securely and destroyed if not needed.
If you believe that the Information we hold about you is inaccurate or out of date please let us know so that we can promptly correct it. You can email us at info@biyanihouse.org.au.
Disclosure to Third Parties
We will not disclose your Information to other external organisations except:
as required by funding agreements;
as required by law;
for transfer to another service provider in accordance with funding agreements;
where we have your consent to do so through your acceptance of this Policy and the disclosure relates to the goods or services we provide to you
for a purpose permitted by this Policy; or
if you request us to do so.
Examples of organisations and/or third parties that your Information may be provided to include:
external service providers where you are transferring to a service provider that is not part of Biyani House;
a government agency, as required by our funding agreements;
third party service providers who assist us with the delivery of services or who provide services to or partner with us to enable us to deliver services including by providing IT services, or in undertaking quality assurance of our services, some of which may be overseas;
third party service providers who assist us with fundraising activities or strategy, identifying donor sources or analysis of our fundraising activities, strategy or patterns (including data collectives);
third parties who assist us with co-ordination of volunteers, community activities, and advocacy;
government or non-government agencies where we have a reasonable concern regarding your safety or wellbeing;
third parties who collate and/or analyse information for the purposes of research and advocacy; or
third parties for the electronic storage of information, some of which may be overseas.
Whilst we seek to ensure through our contracts with external parties that they comply with the Act regarding the use of your personal information, we have limited control around how some external parties (for example, government agencies) use your personal information.
Online activity and social media
When you access our website or connect with us through social media, we or our third-party service providers, may use “Cookies” (small data files placed on your device that do not identify individuals personally but do identify devices). We may also use software such as Java script, or similar technology.
This allows us to:
Remember your details and preferences when you return;
Maintain the continuity of your browsing session;
Use analytics to collect information such as demographics and interests, visits to our websites, length of visit and pages viewed; and
Tailor our advertising through advertising networks on other websites.
You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a Cookie and this will provide you with an opportunity to either accept or reject it in each instance. Please note that if you do this, it may affect some of the functions on our website.
We take great care to protect your personal information on our website and whenever you communicate with us. Once we receive your personal information, we take reasonable steps to protect its security.
Our website may contain links to websites of third parties. We provide these links for convenience and assistance and you should be aware that the privacy policies and information practices of these may differ from ours and you should refer to privacy policies of those websites to see how they handle your information.
You can also engage with Biyani House through social media, like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You can always control how you receive content through each website’s settings. Occasionally, we may get in touch with you via social media if you aren’t a follower by using the details on your record, such as email address.
Resolving Your Concerns
If you believe that your Privacy has been compromised or you have a privacy complaint by email us at info@biyanihouse.org.au. We will then acknowledge receipt of your complaint and when you can expect a response from us.
If the complaint remains unresolved you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The contact details for OAIC are:
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 2999
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
Phone: 1300 363 992
Fax: 02 9284 9666
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
Biyani House may update this policy from time to time and the date of the most recent update is set out at the bottom of this page.
Contact Biyani House
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or Biyani House’s treatment of your personal information, please write:
-by email to info@biyanihouse.org.au
or
-by post to Biyani House, PO Box 637, REVESBY NSW 2212, AUSTRALIA
Last updated December 2023