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Pro Active Strategies Pty Ltd (ABN 70005653421) is a pre-employment screening service provider.
Pro Active Strategies Pty Ltd (PAS, we, us, our) is committed to respecting the privacy of your personal and sensitive information. We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) and other applicable laws.
Data protection and information security is of the utmost importance to PAS, so you can have trust and confidence in dealing with our organisation.
We want to be transparent in explaining how and why we gather, store, share and use your personal information. Accordingly, this document provides a clear set of guidelines so that you can understand how we manage your personal information, the steps we take to protect your privacy as well as how, when and where we may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information. It covers all personal information provided by you or your job applicants and employees, as well as other individuals who have given their written consent to us to conduct a police history check or to otherwise use or services.
'Personal Information' and 'Sensitive Information' Defind
Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and recorded in a material form or not.
Sensitive information means information or an opinion about, amongst other things, an individual's criminal record that is also personal information or health information about an individual.
References to personal information in this policy include sensitive information except where indicated otherwise.
We will reasonably ensure that personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.
As a user of our system, you will be able to confirm that the information that you or your applicants have provided is true and correct prior to submitting the data.
What personal information do we collect and hold?
The personal information we collect and hold about you or your applicants includes information that you or your applicants choose to provide us in the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check Application and Informed Consent Form, or which you or your applicants otherwise provide to us (including by way of forms and other documents or information you submit to us (whether in paper or electronic form).
When you request us, directly or through an organisation, to conduct a police check on you, we will ask for identification information. This will include your:
- name, including aliases;
- address & previous addresses;
- gender;
- date & place of birth and
- details that you provide to verify your identity (such as details of your driver's licence, passport and the like).
The personal information collected by us will also include your consent to undertake a police check and the police check results.
We also collect some other personal information that is not your identification information. This includes information that we ask for in the police check application form, such as the organisation that requests the search on your behalf, and content of the consent form that you complete.
If you or the organisations requesting the check on your behalf do not provide us with your personal information, we will not be able to conduct the police check.
Sensitive information we may collect and hold about you or your applicants is criminal history information.
We use this sensitive information to create a police check for you or your applicants. Where we receive unsolicited sensitive information from the third party Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, we will destroy the information in a prompt and timely manner in accordance with our legal requirements. Under no instance will we keep unsolicited sensitive information.
What other additional sources of information may be sought and used?
Employers or prospective employers engage PAS to verify the information and responses provided by applicants or employees as part of determining the individuals suitability for employment, engagement and/ or Fit & Proper Person designation pursuant to their legal obligations and/or their internal policies.
In these cases, PAS will collect Personal Information (including but not limited to information relating to background, character and personal reputation) from the employer or prospective employer, directly from the applicant, or from third parties the applicant has referred us to.
If necessary, we may use some or all of the collected Personal Information to collect additional Personal Information from various other entities or sources, including but not limited to -
government agencies
law enforcement bodies
publicly available records
public registries
court or tribunal records
insolvency
educational institutions
current and/or previous employers
regulatory and licensing bodies
education institutions
PAS may report the findings of its investigations to the employer or prospective employer via a secure means.
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Why and how do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?
We generally collect personal information about you or your applicant by way of a consent form or other documents or information you submit to us (whether in paper or electronic form), correspondence you provide to us and telephone calls or meetings with you.
Where we collect personal information, we will only process it:
to perform a contract with you;
where we have legitimate interests to process the personal information and theyre not overridden by your rights;
in accordance with our legal obligations; or
where we have your consent.
We collect, hold, use and disclose you or your applicants personal information for the following purposes unless otherwise required or permitted by law:
to be able to lodge an application for and receive the results of a police check through the National Police Checking Service;
to conduct a Visa Entitlement Verification Online check through the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection;
to conduct a Bankruptcy Register Search through the Australian Financial Security Authority;
for proof of identity purposes;
to process payments for our services;
to provide the results of a police check to any person you or your applicants authorise us to;
to allow third parties who you have agreed to allow access to the results of these searches for the purposes of verifying the contents of a police check;
to comply with our obligations under any agreement we have with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission regarding the National Police Checking Service;
for any other purpose we explain when the personal information was collected, including the uses and disclosures outlined in this privacy policy; and
for any purpose that is related to these purposes (or, with respect to sensitive personal information, directly related to these purposes) that would reasonably be expected by the individual concerned.
We may disclose personal information to the following kinds of entities for the relevant purposes mentioned above:
our contractors, consultants, advisers, associates and related entities;
any industry body, tribunal, court or otherwise in connection with any complaint made by you about us;
other entities or third parties with your consent (such as third parties who you have agreed may access the results of the police check searches for verification purposes) or as permitted or required by law.
We only collect personal information about an individual where the information is reasonably necessary for one or more of the above functions.
You consent to us using and disclosing personal information for these purposes or any other purpose we obtain consent for (Secondary Purpose). Without limitation, such a Secondary Purpose which you consent to us taking reasonable steps to de-identify your personal information, such as by removing your personal identifiers, (De-identified Data) and disclose such De-identified Data to third parties or otherwise use the De-identified Data.
All personal information will be collected lawfully, fairly and not in an intrusive way. If we are unable to collect your personal information, we may be unable to provide you with all our services, and some functions and features on our website may not be available to you.
How we hold and protect your personal information.
We are committed to protecting your personal information. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect the security of your personal information; however, please note that no system is ever completely secure. We have implemented various policies including encryption, access, and retention policies to guard against unauthorised access and unnecessary retention of personal information in our systems.
We store personal information we collect in relation to you or your applicants in various ways, including in electronic form using third party data storage providers. All information that is stored electronically is password protected on secure servers.
Our aim is to ensure that all personal information is securely protected from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by way of maintaining:
physical security by preventing unauthorised access to our premises;
computer network security, including password security to prevent unauthorised access;
communication security; and
limiting access to authorised staff and contractors of PAS.
When personal information is no longer needed we will take reasonable steps to destroy and/or de-identify that information (see also the Retention section below).
Why will we disclose information to another organisation?
We will disclose your information only in accordance with the professional services we provide as set out in this privacy policy.
We will disclose personal and sensitive information, including information contained in a police check result, to a thrid party where you have authorised us to by consenting to disclosure to a nominated third party.
Where you disclose personal information to a third party by giving them a copy of your police check (either in electronic or hard copy) you also consent to us also disclosing your personal information to that third party through a verification functionality or feature.
You acknowledge and agree that such disclosure through a verification functionality or feature is appropriate and necessary to maintain security and integrity of the personal information contained in police checks.
International Data Transfers
When we share personal information, it may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country you live in, which may have laws that are different to what you are familiar with. You can be comfortable that where we disclose personal information to a third party in another country, we put safeguards in place to ensure your personal information remains protected.
For further information, please contact us using the details set out below.
Data Protection Officer
Pro Active Strategies Pty Ltd
PO Box 340
Eltham Vic 3095
Our Data Protection Officer can also be contacted on:
Email: pes@proactivestrategies.com.au
Phone: 1300 13 30 73
Retention
We retain your personal data only as long as necessary to provide you with our services and for legitimate and essential business purposes (such as maintaining the performance of our services), complying with our legal obligations, and resolving disputes.
Your personal information is destroyed or de-identified when no longer needed. We are required to keep your consent form for 12 months.
Unsubscribe
Should you not wish to receive communications from us, you will have the option to unsubscribe on any email you receive from us or to indicate your communication preferences to us. Alternatively, you can contact our Data Protection Officer, set out above, to unsubscribe from our communications.
How can I access and make a correction to my personal information?
You have the right to access your personal information held by PAS. If you wish to update your personal information you may ask us to correct it. Before granting access or making any corrections to your personal information, we will need to verify your identity.
If you wish to access or update information we hold about you, please call us on 1300 13 30 73 or send us an email at pes@proactivestrategies.com.au with your request.
You have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you, including the police check results. You can also ask us for corrections to be made, and there is no fee for simply making the request or for making corrections to your personal information before results are received from the National Police Checking Service.
We cannot correct the results of a Nationally Coordinated Police History Check once results have been released unless a Results dispute is lodged and amended results are released by ACIC.
There are circumstances in which we cannot grant you access to your personal information. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality.
If we refuse access your personal information we will give you a notice explaining the refusal. In addition, we will provide you with information on how you can complain about the refusal.
If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you have the right to request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.
Your rights to resolving your privacy concerns and complaints.
Under the APPs and/or the IPPs, you have certain rights to resolving privacy concerns and complaints. As a first step, please contact us about them so that we can investigate.
We request that complaints about breaches of privacy be made in writing, so we can be sure about the details of the complaint. Any complaints should be directed to our Privacy Officer using the contact details below. We will attempt to confirm with you, as appropriate and necessary, your understanding of the conduct relevant to the complaint and what you expect as an outcome. We will acknowledge your complaint as soon as we can after we receive it. We will resolve complaints as quickly as possible, generally within 10 working days. However, some complaints may take longer to resolve. In those cases, we will inform you and give you an estimate of when an outcome can be expected.
After we have completed our enquiries, we will contact you, usually in writing, to advise the outcome and invite a response to our conclusions about the complaint. If we receive a response from you, we will assess it and advise if we have changed our view.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or seek advice from the
Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
GPO Box 2999
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
The Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner can be contacted at:
GPO Box 5057
Melbourne Victoria 3001
Australia
Telephone: 1300 666 444
Email: enquiries@privacy.vic.gov.au
How can you lodge a complaint?
If you have a complaint in relation to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal information, or privacy matters generally, contact are as follows:
Privacy Officer
Pro Active Strategies Pty Ltd
PO Box 340
Eltham Vic 3095
Our Privacy Officer can also be contacted on:
Email: pes@proactivestrategies.com.au
Phone: 1300 13 30 73
If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction you can then refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au
What are cookies and how do they work?
Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small data files that are downloaded from our web servers and stored on your hard drive.
A cookie is a string of letters and numbers that uniquely identify the computer you are using and the Username and password you may have used to register at the site. This enables the website to track the pages you have visited.
Most browsers can be configured to refuse to accept cookies. You can also delete cookies from your hard drive. However, doing so may hinder your access to valuable areas of information within our site.
We will not be responsible for any damage to your computer or hard drive from cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, however, this may mean you are unable to take full advantage of our website.
We respond to all requests that we receive from individuals who wish to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can contact us by sending an email to pes@proactivestrategies.com.au
What if I have a complaint?
If you have a complaint about our dealings with personal information, this policy or an alleged breach of the Australian Privacy Principles you have the right to expect that we will handle it in a friendly and professional way.
When we receive a complaint we look on it as valuable feedback that may help us to improve the services we offer and to ensure your needs are met in a satisfactory and appropriate manner.
If you wish to complain at any time about the handling, use or disclosure of your personal information just write to us at the following address:
Data Protection Officer
Pro Active Strategies Pty Ltd
PO Box 340
Eltham Vic 3095
Our Data Protection Officer can also be contacted on:
Email: pes@proactivestrategies.com.au
Phone: 1300 13 30 73
We will make all efforts possible to investigate your complaint within 14 days and advise you of the outcome as soon as possible within 28 days of you making the complaint.
If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction you can then refer your complaint to the Director of Compliance (Investigations) at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change, modify or update this privacy policy from time to time to take into account of any new laws and technology, changes to our functions and activities, and to make sure it remains appropriate. Where we make changes to this privacy policy we will update the policy by posting the revised version on our website. The revised version shall take effect immediately upon posting. You should therefore refer to this privacy policy on our website regularly.
Dispute handling policy
Disputes help to identify incorrect police records and/or data integrity issues.
Our dispute process reflects the avenues that the ACIC provides for individuals to raise concerns regarding the accuracy of their police records.
We will accept and escalate a dispute to the ACIC, on behalf of an individual on whom we have conducted a police check in the following circumstances
when the applicant claims that the police information released does not belong to them
when the applicant claims that part of the police information released does not belong to them
when the applicant claims that the police information belongs to them, but that the details are inaccurate
when the applicant claims that the police information belongs to them, but should not have been released
Resolving a police check dispute can involve the applicant being required to provide additional identity documentation, and can take up to several weeks depending on the number of police, court or other agencies involved.
PAS will manage the communication between the ACIC and the applicant regarding the outcome of the dispute.
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