Privacy

The Association collects your personal information in order to conduct its activities of advocating for, and representing, the interests of its members related to the profession of nursing and midwifery and the employment of nurses and midwives.  We also collect information to inform you or provide you with products and services.

This policy is to let you know what information is collected about you, how this information is used, to whom it is disclosed or shared and your ability to have any incorrect personal information amended.

This policy also applies to personal information the Association collects about you from any other third party.

NSWNMA online includes NSWNMA websites, social media and membership online.

Personal information means information/opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable – whether or not the information or opinion is true or recorded in a material form.  This may include sensitive information which means information or an opinion about such matters as an individual’s membership of a trade union, identity as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander or racial or ethnic origin.  The Privacy Act allows the Association with your consent to collect sensitive information where it relates to the Association’s activities.

The Association collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information to enable it to carry on its functions and purposes of advocating for, and representing, the interest of its members for activities including but not limited to:

• assist you with industrial relations and employment queries
• inform you about industrial, social, professional and political issues and campaigns
• inform you about your rights at work and legislative changes
• refer you to a legal practitioner or other professional as required
• improve our service delivery and manage our relationship with you
• conduct surveys and research
• provide educational services and professional development
• record attendance at events such as Committee of Delegates, Annual Conference, rallies, branch/workplace meetings and training and education seminars
• provide you with information about new products, services and promotions either directly from us, or directly from third parties, which may be of interest to you
• provide you with relevant journals, newsletters, news publications and circular letters, either directly from us, or directly from third parties
• conduct union elections and branch e-voting

By providing your personal information to the Association, you consent to the Association collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information (whether obtained directly from you or from a third party) for these purposes.

The Association collects personal information in a number of ways including via:

• NSWNMA online;
• telephone, email or fax;
• in person and/or in writing.

The Association only collects your personal information that is necessary to perform our functions and/or activities.

In addition, we use online tools to gather information about you to make it easier and more rewarding for you to use our sites:

• Cookies
  When an individual visits or uses a website of the Association, personal information may be collected automatically through cookies including: IP address and/or domain name; operating system (type of browser and platform); and the date, time and length of the visit to the website.  This information primarily is used for the compilation of statistical information about the use of the website.  Cookies may also be used to assist the Association and our third party service providers present targeted and customised advertising to an individual on our website and/or on third party websites.
• Website traffic
  The Association uses Google Analytics to track visits to our website. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website.  Google Analytics customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so they can improve it.  Types of data collected include visits, viewed pages and the technical capabilities of our visitors. Google Analytics collects information anonymously, however once you have registered your membership online these statistics will identify you.  For more information read Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Links to other websites
  The Association’s website may contain links to third party websites and social media pages including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These websites and social media pages may also have links to the Association’s website.  This Privacy Policy does not apply to external links or other websites.  These third party websites may collect your personal information.  The Association encourages individuals to read the privacy policies of any website you link to from the Association’s website(s).

The Association may disclose personal information to other organisations, in connection with, or to further, its objects and purposes, provided that reasonable steps are taken to ensure that each organisation to which the personal information is disclosed is committed to protecting privacy and complies with the APPs, or is subject to a law or scheme that is at least substantially similar to the way in which the APPs protect information.

By providing your personal information to the Association, you consent to the Association disclosing personal information to such other organisations:

• for the purpose for which you provided it;
• as otherwise outlined in this policy; or
• as otherwise permitted by the APPs.

By providing personal information to the Association you consent to your information being stored and processed on a data server or data servers (such as cloud services) owned by a third party or third parties that may be located outside of Australia.

The Association is committed to complying with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).  Generally the Association sends you factual messages that are not commercial, making them exempt from the Spam Act.  When sending you messages the Association will make every endeavour to:

• have your consent;
• identify the sender; and
• include an unsubscribe option.

Payments made to the Association online are processed in real time using a secure payment gateway.

Individuals may request to deal with the Association anonymously or through a pseudonym. We will accommodate your request if it is lawful, possible and practical to do so.

The Association takes all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information collected, held, used, disclosed, stored and handled is complete, accurate, relevant and up-to-date.

You have the right to request access to your personal information and either update it yourself online or request that it be updated or corrected by contacting the NSWNMA Privacy Officer at:

NSWNMA
50 O’Dea Avenue,
Waterloo, 2017
or gensec@nswnma.asn.au

Verification of your identity will be sought before disclosing any personal information.

The Association may refuse to provide access if permitted to do so by law or under the APPs.

You may elect to unsubscribe or opt out to certain communications at any time directly yourself via logging onto and editing your member profile, or by contacting us by phone, mail or email directed to the NSWNMA Privacy Officer.

All reasonable steps are taken to ensure the security of personal information by storing it in a secure environment.  Personal information kept electronically is handled with care and secured by user identifiers, and passwords accessed only by authorised personnel.  The Association’s internal databases are secured by a firewall and anti-virus software to ensure, so far as practicable, that they are not accessed by unauthorised parties.

If third party providers are used in connection with the storage of personal information it is standard practice to require these third party providers, through agreements with them, to comply with the Association’s security guidelines and this Privacy Policy.  The Association requires our employees, contractors and third party service providers to respect and protect the confidentiality of personal information held.

NSWNMA online has security measures designed to protect against the loss, misuse and/or alteration to personal information under the Association’s control.  Secure pages on the Association’s website are protected by a 128-bit SSL certificate.  However, because of the nature of the internet, security of personal information cannot be guaranteed.  All unencrypted information exchanged via the internet may be accessed and used by people other than those for whom it is intended.

The Association’s security arrangements are monitored and reviewed regularly and all staff made aware of organisational systems for the processing, storing and transmitting of personal information and the protective security policies associated with this.

The Association will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to apply appropriate record retention periods for personal data and destroy or de-identify personal information in line with those retention periods.

Personal information provided to the Association in relation to a job application will only be collected, held, used and disclosed for the purposes of considering potential employment with the Association.  By applying to the Association you consent to your records being retained securely for up to 12 months for future recruitment purposes, thereafter your records are deleted.

Employee records are exempt from the operation of the Privacy Act.

Please contact the Association if you become aware of any breach of security.  If reasonable grounds establish there has been a personal information security breach, we will comply with all our obligations and responsibilities under all relevant privacy laws in Australia, including any obligation to notify you of any security breach and take effective remedial action to protect your personal information.

Queries or notices about data breaches should be made to the NSWNMA Privacy Officer at:

NSWNMA
50 O’Dea Avenue,
Waterloo, 2017
or gensec@nswnma.asn.au

To make a complaint about an alleged breach of the APPs please write to or email the NSWNMA Privacy Officer at:

NSWNMA
50 O’Dea Avenue,
Waterloo, 2017
or gensec@nswnma.asn.au

Please provide all details in writing about your complaint together with all supporting documentation.  The Association will seek to deal with any privacy complaints confidentially, seriously and promptly.

Complaints will be investigated by the NSWNMA Privacy Officer; and the outcome of an investigation will be provided to the complainant where the complainant has provided proof of identity.

The Association will seek to respond within 30 days of receipt of a valid complaint.

Alternatively, the Association may refer the concern or complaint to an independent mediator or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

This Policy may be varied from time to time and an updated version will be posted on NSWNMA Online. Please check regularly to ensure that you have the most recent version of the Policy.