PRIVACY POLICY

Connect Christian Church Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Privacy

When dealing with your personal information, we as a church are required to observe our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and comply with the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as other relevant State legislation.

This policy sets out how we will collect, use, store, disclose and de-identify your personal information.

The types of information we collect

The types of personal information we collect include:

  • contact details (name, address, telephone numbers, email, etc);

  • educational qualifications;

  • complaint details; and,

  • donation history (if not anonymous)

The types of sensitive information we collect include records of communication between you and us, which may include, from time to time, information you provide us or we collect from others. This includes, but is not limited to, the following types of information:

  • professional and practice information;

  • health information;

  • religious information (including attendance, denominational details)

  • personal credit card data and/or bank account details ; and

  • any idiosyncratic or personal information we obtain from you or others about you.

Why we collect private information about you

Connect Christian Church is a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to communicating the message of the Gospel in Australia and throughout the world. This means we embark on a number of different ways to develop and implement Christian services into communities which are in need of a healthy, loving local church to reach out and be the hands and feet of Jesus and in the furtherance of the promotion of the Gospel. This would include implementing new church campuses and services, conferences, resource dissemination, further investing into our innovative kids and youth programs and being involved in our local and international aid initiatives to help people with acute needs from many different countries and cultures.

We collect information about people so as to allow us to communicate with them, introduce them to our organisation, promote the Gospel to them, pray and provide other Christian services to them, and inform them of the work we do.

We do not use the information in any way other than in the furtherance of our objects and purposes. We might also use your information for the following purposes:

  • for the immediate reason for which you have provided it to us (for example, to enable us to process your request, payment, registration, subscription, etc);

  • to maintain contact with you about our work, to report to you about our work, or to encourage you to learn about what we do; and

  • any other purpose directly related to our work and for which you have provided consent (where it is reasonably required by law).

We do not rent, sell or exchange your information. The types of organisations to whom we normally disclose your personal information include those who help us administer our technology information systems. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations when handling your personal information.

If you do not want your personal information disclosed to another organisation and, your information has not been collected digitally where you have signed the privacy statement, please let us know either at the time we collect your information, or by other means at any later time. Sometimes we may be legally required to disclose your information, for example, to government departments.

We may also sometimes share non-personal, non-sensitive and de-identified information with research organisations.

How we collect your information

We may collect information from you either directly or from third parties. Information we collect from third parties may be by formal or informal means. Where we collect information from third parties and it is not personal information that is contained in a Commonwealth record, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify the information as required by law.

We collect personal information about supporters, donors, volunteers, employees, contractors and visitors to our events. We collect your information in the following ways:

  • face to face contact;

  • electronically including through our website and online surveys;

  • via social media messages or conversation;

  • during phone calls;

  • voice or image recordings;

  • whilst delivering and administering services at our facilities or other facilities; and from forms and other correspondence (both in writing and electronically).

How we use your information

We only use your personal and sensitive information for the reason we collect it as set out above and for the purpose(s) for which it was collected, or as otherwise permitted by law. We will not disclose the above information that we collect to affiliates or third parties without your consent.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

You can access your information by asking us. Occasionally, we may need to refuse your request to access information, for example, where granting you access would infringe someone else’s privacy.

When you request access, we'll ask you to provide some form of identification so that we can ensure that you are the person to whom the information relates. In some cases, we may also ask you to pay a reasonable fee to cover the cost of access.

If you have a question about this privacy policy or want to access your personal information you can contact us by email at: info@connectcc.com.au. We will aim to respond to you within 7 days of receiving your request. If we are not able to help with your request, you will receive a written explanation as to why.

Complaints about a breach of your privacy

If you are concerned about how we have collected or managed your personal information we request you follow the procedure set out below.

Contact us by email at info@connectcc.com.au

In order to effectively address your complaint, we may request further information from you about your complaint and the reasons behind it.

After we receive all the information we need from you, allow us approximately 28 days to address your complaint. If you’re not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on http://www.oaic.gov.au/. The OAIC is a government body independent of us. It has the power to investigate complaints about possible interference with your privacy.

Disclosing your personal information overseas

Occasionally we may use overseas facilities or contractors to process or back-up information or to provide other services. As a result, we may disclose your personal information to our overseas facilities or contractors for these purposes. Any disclosure of your personal information overseas does not change our commitment to safeguarding your privacy. We do not otherwise disclose or transfer your personal information overseas. Countries in which we store information either directly or with third parties as previously described include Brazil, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Securing your information

We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of personal and sensitive information we hold and to protect it against loss, misuse or unauthorised access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure. Our IT systems are password protected and comply with applicable security standards. Only authorised personnel are permitted to access these details.

It is our policy to: permanently de-identify personal information where reasonable and possible; and destroy personal information once there is no longer a legal or business need for us to retain it.

Anonymity

It is your right to be dealt with anonymously, provided that is it lawful and practicable. We will try to accommodate a request for anonymity wherever possible, however we note that in some circumstances, this may prevent us from practically and effectively communicating with you.

If this is the case we will notify you.

Health information

As part of our services, we may collect health information (such as your medical history to determine your eligibility to participate in certain initiatives).When collecting health information from you, we will obtain your consent to such collection and explain how the information will be used and disclosed. If health information is collected from a third party (such as from your doctor), we will inform you that this information has been collected and will explain how this information will be used and disclosed.

We will not use health information beyond the consent provided by you, unless your further consent is obtained or in accordance with one of the exceptions under the Privacy Act or in accordance with another applicable law. If we use your health information for research or statistical purposes, it will be de-identified if practicable to do so.

Cookies and links to other websites

COOKIES

When you visit this website a record of your visit is logged. The following data is supplied by your browser:

  • Your IP address and/or domain name;

  • Your operating system (type of browser and platform);

  • The date, time and length of your visit to the website; and

  • The resources you accessed and the documents you downloaded.

This information is used to compile statistical information about the use of our website. It is not used for any other purpose. If you do not want ‘cookies’ to be used please adjust your browser settings to disable them.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may contain links to third party websites, and third party websites may also have links to our website. Our privacy policy does not apply to external links or other websites. The operators of other websites may collect your personal information.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any website you link to from our website.