FOUR PAWS feels strongly about protecting our supporters’ privacy and is committed to upholding the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Our Privacy Policy sets out how we manage your personal information and protect your privacy.
1. Definitions
For the purpose of this Privacy Policy,
a) "FOUR PAWS", "we", "our" and "us" mean:
FOUR PAWS Australia (Animal Welfare) Limited
b) "personal information" has the same meaning as defined in the Privacy Act 1988, and generally means any information about you that identifies you or from which your identity reasonably can be determined.
2. Why do we collect personal information?
FOUR PAWS carries out activities and provides services and programs across Australia for or related to the purposes of promoting animal welfare and preventing or relieving unnecessary suffering of animals. We collect personal information from you when it is reasonably necessary to enable us to carry out these activities, services and programs and for secondary purposes for which you reasonably expect us to use or disclose your personal information.
Other reasons we collect personal information include:
Fundraising to enable us to fund our activities, programs and services;
Collecting and managing donations;
Keeping our supporters and donators informed as to our activities, programs and services in different ways, for example, by way of newsletters, social media etc;
Developing or evaluating our activities, services and programs to better achieve our purposes and mission;
Managing our business, including website; and
Complying with our legal obligations.
3. What kinds of personal information do we collect?
The type of information we may collect and hold varies depending on the purpose for which it is collected (see above). FOUR PAWS may collect personal information like your name, title, address, email address, date of birth, gender, occupation, contact details, payment details, financial information (including credit card data), information about when and how you have donated to us, participated in our activities or used our services and programs.
The type of information we collect might also depend on your relationship to us, including (amongst others):
a) Donors and supporters: as a supporter of FOUR PAWS’ mission and activities, we may need to collect your name, date of birth, contact details and details relating to other fundraising appeals or your contact history with us. As a donor or participant of our fundraising activities, we may also need to collect your bank account and/or credit card details in order to process your donation or set up a direct debit system for recurrent donations. We may also record information relating to your gender, affiliated website (private or business), social media information, information relating to your work, relationship information (for example, your marital status and information about your friends and family) when you provide such information to us.
b) Service recipients: as a recipient of, or participant in, one of our activities, services and programs, we may need to collect your name and contact details and information about your work, such as your qualifications, work history, company/employer and your job title/description.
c) Employees and volunteers: as an employee or volunteer for FOUR PAWS, we may need to collect information about your name and contact details, bank account and taxation details, qualifications, previous experience and emergency contact details.
d) Website user: FOUR PAWS’ website uses cookies and other digital identifiers. These may include:
site performance identifiers: these give us information about how our website is used. This helps us provide you with a more user-friendly experience.
analytics cookies: we use these to gather statistics about our website. For example, Google analytics help us monitor how many users are on the site and what sections are most popular.
It's important to know that you can clear or disable cookies or digital identifiers from your device by changing the security settings on your web browser. However, doing this might mean that you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
You can always choose not to provide your personal information to us or you may just want to deal with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. If this happens, we may not be able to provide you with the information you asked for or give you the level of service you expect.
4. How do we collect your personal information?
We collect information from you in different ways. The usual procedure is when you provide your personal information directly to us. For example, you might:
fill out a form, subscribe to our newsletter or sign a petition on our website;
correspond with us via social media messages or conversation;
participate in one of our fundraising campaigns in which you give your personal information to us by mail, online, or to one of our representatives in person or on the phone; or
participate in one of our off-line campaigns, such as offline-petitions or sign-up lists in which you will give your personal information to one of our representatives in person.
In most cases, we require you to consent specifically to any collection, use or disclosure of your personal information by us. Your consent may be explicit, such as in writing or verbally, or may be implied by conduct.
At or around the time your personal information is collected, we will take reasonable steps to bring this Privacy Policy to your attention. Generally, however, having made you aware of our Privacy Policy, we will assume that you have read and agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy unless you inform us of any specific objections or your non-consent in writing.
We may also collect personal information from other parties, including:
companies that are able to disclose it to us, if it's not practical to collect it from you. For example, we buy or obtain personal information from trusted sources to help us identify people who might be interested in learning about and supporting our cause and mission in relation to animal welfare and related activities; or
our supporters and donors, who may be a friend or family member of yours who decide to supply us with your personal information because they think you might be interested in supporting our cause.
We will take reasonable steps to make sure that you know we have your personal information, how we obtained it and how we'll handle it.
5. How do we handle your personal information?
Storage
The personal information we hold may be stored in many forms of media, including the following:
your written correspondence to us;
audio and/or visual data containing your personal information;
receipts and/or transaction or donations records in relation to your financial support of our fundraising activities; and
legal documents and information you provide to us in connection with your volunteering for or employment with FOUR PAWS or as a recipient of, or participant in, one of our activities, services and programs.
We may keep copies of the above documents (in physical or electronic form, at our election) as is necessary to carry out our functions and activities and provide our services and programs.
Security
FOUR PAWS takes the security of your personal information seriously. Security measures we take include, but are not limited to, the following:
all personal information is securely stored at all times by us or an authorised external service provider;
frequent use of virus scanning tools;
our fundraising database is protected by secure user IDs and passwords, to help protect it from misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure; and
only authorised people who need to have access to your personal information will have access to it.
As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any guarantee regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online – despite our best efforts. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.
6. How do we use/disclose personal information?
Use by FOUR PAWS
Normally, we would use your personal information for the purpose(s) that it was collected, for any secondary purposes directly related to that primary purpose(s), or to comply with our legal obligations. The personal information will be used internally within FOUR PAWS by authorised officers and will also be used to contact you directly from time to time for such purposes.
Disclosure to third parties
If necessary to carry out our functions and activities and provide our services and programs, we may need to disclose your personal information to external service providers (such as information technology service providers, legal service providers, mailing houses, call centres, fundraising agents and companies, etc) and likeminded not-for-profit organisations.
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that external service providers and third parties only use your personal information that we provide for the purpose(s) for which you have given us your personal information (for example, we may need to disclose your personal information to a fundraising agent to enable them to do their job of fundraising for us) and that they do not share it further with another party unless it is necessary to do so.
In order for us to find new supporters, like-minded not-for-profit organisations may allow us to contact their mailing list. In return we allow these organisations to contact our supporters with information we believe may be of interest to our supports or donors. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are aware of and agree to abide by Australian privacy laws when handling your personal information.
We may also disclosure your personal information when we are legally required to do so.
Disclosure to advocacy targets
At times you may choose to sign one of our petitions or use our online tools that will send your personal information (usually your name, email and/or contact details you provide in the form or tool) directly to the targets of certain advocacy campaigns. For example, you may use our online tool to send an email directly to a campaign target, such as a Minister or company, as if it came from your email program. This tool sends your name and email address to the campaign target. Please be aware that the recipients will then be able to reply directly to you. We would not have any control over how your personal information will be handled by these advocacy targets.
Advocacy targets may be located in Australia or overseas. If your information is to be sent to an advocacy target overseas, we will disclose the location of the target on the petition.
International disclosure
FOUR PAWS is part of an international charity with offices in many countries, all sharing the objective to help animals around the world. Our international entity, Vier Pfoten International, is based in Austria. In order to carry out our functions and provide our programs and services we may need to disclose personal information to our international entity, Vier Pfoten International, from time to time.
Your personal information may also be sent overseas in the following limited circumstances:
we may engage external suppliers such as mailing houses and telemarketers that we contract with to assist with fundraising and the administration and management of FOUR PAWS;
we may engage contractors located overseas for the limited purposes of storing personal information (including the storage of financial information in a cloud-based accounting program) and ensuring that such information remains accessible upon demand; and
we may also liaise with overseas not-for-profit organisations for the sharing of mailing lists to enable these organisations to contact our supporters with information we believe may be of interest to our supports or donors.
The countries to which we may disclose your personal information include but are not limited to Austria.
We will make every reasonable effort to ensure that overseas recipients only use your personal information as part of the primary purpose for which it was provided (or for any secondary purposes directly related to that primary purpose) and that such recipients are either:
aware of and agree to not breach the Australian Privacy Principles before we disclose any information to them; or
we reasonably believe that they are subject to a law that has the effect of protecting your personal information in a way that is substantially similar to the Australian Privacy Principles.
Otherwise we will obtain your consent before any such disclosure.
It is important to know that you can instruct us how we are allowed to use your personal information or if you want us to delete your personal information from our records.
Information provision to you and Opting Out
FOUR PAWS may use your personal information to send you information about our work and promotional or marketing material from time to time. We may send you material that we believe would be of interest to you by mail, phone, email, text, and online via the internet and in apps, unless you tell us not to.
We'll make sure that any such emails, texts and letters that we send to you clearly tell you how to opt out.
You can opt out of receiving online promotional or marketing material at any time by following the opt-out instructions on the materials you received or by contacting us via the contact details in section 8 below.
There are some types of advertising and communication that we can't control on an individual basis, like online ads that are not targeted specifically to you.
7. Access to your personal information
You have a right to access your personal information held by FOUR PAWS.
Furthermore, as we aim to hold accurate, up-to-date and complete records of your personal information, you are encouraged to contact us to update your personal information should it change.
We will always confirm your identity before giving access to your personal information.
There are circumstances under Australian privacy laws where we may not give you access to the personal information we hold about you. For example, we can't give you access if it would unreasonably affect someone else's privacy or if giving you access poses a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety.
8. Contact Us
If you need to contact us for any reason in relation to this Privacy Policy or your personal information (whether it be if you need to update your information, access your information, ask a question about how we handle your personal information, make a comment about this Privacy Policy or to make a privacy complaint), you can contact us via the methods set out below.
Address:
FOUR PAWS Australia
GPO Box 2845
Sydney NSW 2001
T: 1800 454 228
If you make a complaint about privacy, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, and try to investigate and respond to you within 30 days. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
9. Changes to this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy was last updated on: 7/08/2018
If this Privacy Policy changes, the revised Policy will be posted on our website. Please check back periodically, and especially before you provide any personal information. Your continued use of the website following any amendments to it will confirm your acceptance of such amendments.