Privacy policy

We at Forrisk Pty ltd are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of information we collect from you, whether you are a client, service provider or contractor. Apart from our legal and ethical commitment to compliance with the law, we value and respect our professional relationships with our clients, staff and other individuals with whom we deal and we respect their desire for privacy. Further, in the conduct of this practice, we are bound by the “Privacy Act 1988” (Cth) and therefore must comply with the National Privacy Principles which govern the collection, use and disclosure, data quality, security of and access to personal and/or sensitive information.

This policy does not extend to employment records which we may hold in respect of our staff, as these records are not covered by the Act or the Principles.

Collection of information
We will not collect personal information about you as a client unless it is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. The information will be collected lawfully and fairly, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that when collecting personal information about you, you are aware of:

1. Our identity (Forrisk Pty Ltd)
2. The purpose for which we are collecting the information;
3. The fact that you are able to gain access to the information collected
4. The organisations to which that information may be disclosed
5. Any law that requires the information to be collected;
6. The consequences (if any) for you if the information is not provided.

We will, insofar as is reasonably possible, collect the information directly from you. If this is not possible, and the information is collected from someone else, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the details listed above, unless specific exemptions apply. If you are engaged by us as service provider, contractor or agent, the only information we will collect is your name, contact details and any relevant information which concerns your dealings with us.

With respect to the collection of sensitive information we can only do this with your consent. (For the purposes of this Policy, sensitive information relates to the details of your racial or ethnic origins, religious beliefs and political opinions, trade union, association or professional memberships, sexual preferences and/or criminal record. It also covers information about your health).

However, there are exceptions to the requirements listed above, for instance when we are required to collect information by law; for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim; or where it is necessary for the prevention of or to lessen a serious threat to the life or health of an individual. In these circumstances, we are not required to advise you that we are collecting information about you.

Use and disclosure of information
Forrisk only uses the information collected for the relevant client’s needs or its internal professional business needs. These business needs may include using information we have about you in order to send you details about our wide expertise or publications about recent developments in law that we believe may be of interest to you.

Some times we are required by law to disclosure your personal information. For example we may disclose your personal information to a court in response to a subpoena.

We may also disclose information about our clients to our service providers where we contract out certain management functions in connection with the conduct of our client’s affairs, for example, courier deliveries and file storage. As a general rule, all such providers must comply with the same National Privacy Principles to which we are bound.

An exemption applies to the above in that we may sometimes be required by law to disclose information about you to Government Departments, regulatory authorities, courts or other parties and advisers. We do not need to seek your consent before we make such disclosure, neither do we need to do so in a situation where there could be a serious threat to life or health of any individual.

Accuracy and security of information held about you
We make every effort to ensure that the information we hold about any one with whom we have dealings is accurate and up to date. For that reason, it is very important that personal information received from you is also accurate, complete and up to date.

We may hold information about you in a variety of media, be it paper, scanned documents, discs, hard drives or other day to day electronic records (eg stored emails). The National Privacy Principles require us take reasonable steps to protect that information from this use, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

To comply with those principles, we employ a number of means to protect your personal information, including -

• Strictly limited and controlled access to information by staff;
• A permanent block on storage of information for any person that accesses our website.
• A general privacy disclaimer on all email correspondence;
• All our personnel being bound by the Common Law duty of confidentiality.

Access to information
You may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you.

All requests for access will be handled as quickly as possible but may depend on whether such information is located in archives.

However, there may be situations in which we are prevented from allowing you access, such as when to do so would be unlawful; where there could be serious threat to life or health of an individual; or to provide access might have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual.

In the event that we do deny you access, we are obliged to provide you with the reason for that denial.

Sending Information Overseas
Forrisk would generally only send personal information overseas if it is authorised by law at your specific request.

Amendments to this policy
Forrisk has the right to make changes to this policy from time to time. Any such changes will be published on our website http://www.forrisk.com.au by means of posting an updated version. This will also indicate the date of that update.

Privacy Officer
Forrisk has appointed a privacy officer who is responsible for overseeing all matters relating to privacy compliance, including the processing of any requests and complaint resolution.

Contacting us concerning privacy matters
If you have any queries, concerns or complaints regarding any aspect of this policy, please contact our privacy officer by writing to Forrisk Privacy Officer, PO Box 617, Goodwood, South Australia 5034.