Privacy Policy

Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) is committed to upholding every individual’s legal right to privacy.

This policy sets out YACVic’s policies related to the collection, holding, use and disclosure by YACVic of personal information and sensitive information relating to individuals who use our websites and services, as required by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

YACVic’s legal obligations are set out in full in the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Act. You can find these on the Privacy Commissioner’s website — www.OAIC.gov.au.

By using YACVic websites, you accept our Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use and disclosure of certain data by YACVic according to the terms of the Policy.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact our privacy officer.

Personal information and sensitive information

We use the definition of ‘personal information’ set out in the Privacy and Data Act 2014: ‘information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion’.

Personal information could include:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Credit card information
• Email address, phone number or other contact information
• Personally identifiable information – for example, demographic information
• Social media information.

‘Sensitive information’ refers to information such as:

• Medical or health information (including information about mental health or disability)
• Information relating to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or affiliations
• Information that may be used for identity theft (for example, Medicare details, drivers’ licence or passport details).

We will only collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary, and with your consent.

How we collect your information

YACVic collects information fairly, and where possible, directly from the individual.

We collect and store your information when you:

• contact us via the ‘Contact us’ section
• sign up to our newsletters
• become a YACVic member
• contact a YACVic service, including YDAS services
• sign up or apply for a YACVic event, training, grant or opportunity
• complete a feedback or evaluation form
• complete a YACVic survey
• apply for a job at YACVic
• supply goods or services to YACVic.

How we use your information

We only use or disclose your personal information for the purposes for which you gave it to us, or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:

• where you have consented to that purpose;
• where you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your information for that purpose, and where that purpose related to the primary purpose of collection (or, in the case of sensitive information, directly related to the primary purpose);
• where required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order; and
• where a permitted situation exists under the Privacy Act, such as lessening or preventing a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or safety, or locating a person reported as missing.

The purpose for which we will use or disclose your personal information will depend on the purposes for which we have collected it, but may include the following purposes:

• to provide you with services;
• to allow you to obtain access to the interactive elements of our websites;
• to provide you with a more personalised experience on our websites;
• to help you reset or recover your password for our websites;
• to provide you with the information, resources or merchandise you have requested;
• to involve you in programs, campaigns, research, fundraising, activities or other initiatives undertaken by YACVic;
• to process your donation or order;
• to show your name and the amount of any donation or sponsorship you may make in our annual report or on our website (unless you choose a private or anonymous donation);
• for the marketing and research purposes of YACVic, its contractors or service providers;
• for internal administrative purposes;
• to respond to enquiries in relation to our services or educational programs, general website feedback or assistance, or media enquiries;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• for research, advice and information, including for benchmarking purposes;
• to send you communications about our membership, programs, events, campaigns or activities if you have agreed to receive our emails (you will be provided with an opportunity in each email to decline to receive any further emails from us by unsubscribing);
• in the case of marketing automation, to improve the emails that are sent to you and to improve the personalisation, services, programs, content and resources that are offered to you;
• to understand how you interact with us by recording information about you in a Customer Relationship Management system (for example, that you are a member, a volunteer and a donor if that is the case);
• to enable like-minded organisations to contact you with information that may be of interest to you (if you have consented to this);
• to assess any application from you to work with us; and
• if you lodge a complaint or query with us, to process and respond to your complaint or query.

Regardless of where in the world you reside, YACVic may process and store your personal information in Australia.

We do not sell your data.

Interactive areas of our website

YACVic uses Anonymous information your computer sends us about your internet use. This helps make your online experience easier. For example, your site preferences, or which country you're accessing our website from.cookies as a reporting mechanism to improve our website. This tells us about traffic coming in and out of our websites. This enables us to collect information back from your browser each time you visit the YACVic website.

Cookies do not identify individual users. When you visit a YACVic website, our servers may record information about your usage, the time of your visit, your visit’s duration, or the pages you visit.

On our websites and other online communications channels, we may provide links to third party websites that are not operated or controlled by YACVic. This policy does not apply to those websites, and we are not responsible for their privacy or security practices.

We may direct you to third party website links to collect information in a way that makes your experience with us more convenient, for example:

• Ticket purchase and/or registration
• Job applications
• Application forms
• Feedback processes

No YACVic websites host any form of advertising.

If you access the interactive elements of our websites, we recommend that you do not post information online that may identify you or anyone else such as your address, email address or phone number. If you do post personal information online, your personal information may be identified, recovered and displayed by internet search engines.

Disclosure of personal information

We may disclose your personal information to third parties who assist us to provide services or to whom we outsource services, for the purpose of providing services to you. For example, we may disclose your personal information to:

• Our project delivery partners;
• Event organisers and venues;
• Our administrative service providers (such as IT services providers, services providers, telecommunications providers, analytics service providers and payment processors);
• Our marketing service providers (such as email automation providers and mailing houses);
• Our professional advisors (such as accountants, auditors and lawyers) and insurers.

We take every effort to not directly disclose personal information to recipients located overseas without your consent.

Some of our third-party service providers may store personal information overseas when providing support or other services. For example:

• traffic information is disclosed to Google when you visit our websites - Google stores information across multiple countries; and
• when you communicate with us through a social network service such as Facebook or Instagram - the social network provider and its partners may collect and hold your personal information overseas across multiple countries.

While we take all steps to ensure your privacy is protected, in certain circumstances, if your communication with us raises safety concerns, we will try to contact you to check that you and/or others are safe.

If necessary, we may need to pass on your contact information (if you have supplied it) to authorities who can help protect you and/or others, such as a crisis service or the police. Where possible we will work with you openly, letting you know if our concerns reach the point where we need to involve other services.

We are obliged to try to protect you and/or others if the information you submit tells us that:

• you are being seriously hurt by someone else
• you are thinking of seriously harming yourself
• someone else is being, is likely to be, seriously hurt by you or another person.

Security of your personal information

We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information we collect, including that the information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. For example, your personal information is maintained in a secure environment, which can be accessed only by authorised personnel. However, no data transmission over the internet or information stored on servers accessible through the internet can be guaranteed to be fully secure.

In addition, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information once we no longer need it or have been directly instructed by you to permanently remove or suppress your personal information.

Accessing and correcting personal information

You may request access to your personal information collected by us and ask we correct that personal information. You can ask for access or correction by contacting the privacy officer and we will usually respond within 30 days. If we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information, we will notify you in writing setting out the reasons.

Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme

In the event of any unauthorised access or unauthorised disclosure or loss of your personal information that is likely to result in serious harm to you, and where remedial action has not been able to prevent the likely risk of serious harm, we will investigate and notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Changes to this Policy

This Policy may change from time to time. Any updated versions of this Policy will be posted on our websites and will be effective from the date of posting.

This Policy was last reviewed and updated on 7 June 2024.

Complaints about your privacy

If you believe your privacy has been breached or you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us in writing. Our Complaints Policy and Procedure will help you to do this.

We will respond within a reasonable period (usually within 30 days from lodgment).

If you are not satisfied with our response, then you may lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (for more information, please see www.oaic.gov.au).

Contact

Privacy Officer: privacy@yacvic.org.au

Or write to: Privacy Officer, Youth Affairs Council Victoria, Level 2, 235 Queen Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000