PRIVACY POLICY


DIRECT CONNECT - PRIVACY POLICY

This document is the Privacy Policy of Direct Connect Australia Pty Ltd ACN 110 316 973 (Direct Connect, we or us). This policy also applies to the use of the website operated by Direct Connect under the domain name www.directconnect.com.au (website).

We understand that your privacy is important to you. We are committed to respecting your right to privacy and to complying with all of our privacy obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (Principles). The Principles are designed to protect confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals by regulating the way personal information is managed. Personal information is generally, information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, irrespective of whether the information or opinion is true or is recorded in a material form.

This policy sets out how and when Direct Connect collects, uses and discloses your personal information and how you may request access to your personal information.

The types of information we collect may include information about: our customers, our suppliers (and their employees), personal contacts of corporate clients or suppliers, applicants for employment and other people who come in contact with Direct Connect in the ordinary course of business. This information is collected in a variety of ways, including by way of personal contact such as business activities and events, as well as mail, telephone, email and internet and via third parties who provide referrals of customers to us.

Employee Exemption: Direct Connect is not bound by the Privacy Act or the Principles in relation to the handling of its current or former employees’ records, if those records relate directly to the employment relationship.

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT

1.1 We may collect personal information about you from a range of sources (including from you, customers, suppliers, referral partners (such as Real Estate Agents) and their third party intermediaries, employees, personal contacts, third parties, our sponsors, publicly available resources or through the ordinary course of business) and in a variety of ways (such as personal dealings, mail, telephone, email and our website). Where we have collected your personal information from third parties, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are aware that your personal information has been provided to us and of the matters contained in this Policy.

1.2 We may also collect and disclose personal information that is not sensitive information about you from and to our related companies including where you are a customer of ours and also a customer of our related companies. Such personal information about you may include but is not limited to, the utility and other services arranged by us and provided to you by our related companies.

1.3 The types of personal information we collect about you may include your name, addresses, telephone number, other contact details (including email addresses), banking or credit card details, identification details, date of birth, concession or discount entitlements and details of any other interactions that you have with us. We will only collect your sensitive information (as that term is defined in the Privacy Act, including information such as health records and the use of life support equipment at your premises) with your consent or if required by law.

1.4 If you provide us with the personal information of another person, you must make them aware of the matters set out in this collection statement.

1.5 In most cases, you will have to identify yourself when you deal with us (such as when you become a customer of ours or make an enquiry with us). If it is appropriate and practical in the circumstances, you may be able to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when you deal with us.

1.6 You do not have to provide us with your personal information, but if you don’t, we may not be able to provide you with our services, either to the same standard or at all. It is important that your personal information and any other information you give us is correct and that you inform us of any changes.

1.7 By signing up with us or where you provide us with your details, you agree that we (or any of our Australian related companies, service providers or other business partners) may contact you by any means (including by SMS or email) in the future (even if you cease acquiring services from us) to let you know about goods, services, promotions, competitions or special offers which may be of interest to you. We may also disclose your information with other persons or entities who assist us in providing our services or running competitions or promotions or with other companies who provide prizes for competitions. If you do not wish for your personal information to be used for marketing, special offers or promotional purposes, you can opt-out by contacting our Customer Service Team on 1300 664 715, emailing us at [email protected] or visiting our "Contact Us" page on our website at www.directconnect.com.au/contact-us

2. WHY WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

2.1 We will collect (or voluntarily receive) and use your personal information for the purpose of undertaking our business activities, including enabling us to:

(1) provide you with our services, including arranging connection, disconnection and other moving services and products in relation to electricity, natural gas, internet, phone, pay television, cleaning, removalists, truck hire and various other utility services as requested by you;

(2) communicating with our business partners in order to provide you with the services you have requested;

(3) communicate with you to manage our relationship with you;

(4) market products and services, promotions or other services offered by us and third party service providers which we consider may be of interest to you;

(5) update our records and keep your contact details up to date;

(6) respond to any enquiries you make or any complaints that you lodge with us;

(7) conduct, or contact you for the purpose of market research (even if you cease acquiring services from us);

(8) conduct research for the purposes of improving existing products or services, creating new products or services and to understand our customers needs and the needs of customers generally;

(9) provide you with any services you have requested;

(10) undertake other administrative and operational functions, including the administration of our website;

(11) comply with legal and regulatory obligations; or

(12) process any job application.

2.2 We may collect and use your personal information for other purposes not listed above. If we do so, we will make it known to you at the time we collect such information.

3. HOW WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose your personal information to:

(1) our related companies;

(2) your authorised representatives;

(3) Real Estate Agents or other business partners that we have collected your personal information from to confirm whether you have signed up to a service or product from one the business partners listed on our panel;

(4) any of our service providers and business partners, including organisations that assist us with marketing our products or services, market research, technology and security services, including providers of data management services;

(5) our website host or IT service providers in certain limited circumstances, for example when our website experiences a technical problem or to ensure that it operates in an effective and secure manner;

(6) any other third party on a confidential basis in the course of delivering connection, disconnection andmoving services and related services to you and to achieve the purposes specified in section 2 of this Privacy Policy;

(7) government and/or regulatory authorities (where required or authorised by law); or

(8) our professional advisers (including lawyers, business advisers and auditors).

4. OVERSEAS DISCLOSURES

Some of your personal information may be collected, used, disclosed, processed or stored overseas by us, our call centre or by our third party service providers. In particular, as at the date this Privacy Policy was most recently updated, your personal information will be disclosed to recipients in New Zealand, the Philippines, India, The United States Of America and other countries from time to time. This may happen if our related entities are overseas, any of our call centre operations are conducted overseas, if our service providers are located overseas, or if transactions, information, services or products have an overseas connection. Where such parties are located overseas, you may have rights to enforce such parties' compliance with applicable data protection laws, but you may not have recourse against those parties under the Privacy Act in relation to how those parties treat your personal information.

You agree to the disclosure and use of such personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and consent to its disclosure overseas and its use by third parties, including our related entities, any of our call centre operations and our service providers, in New Zealand, the Philippines, India, The United States Of America and such other countries in which those parties or their computer systems may be located from time to time, where it may be used solely for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, without us being responsible for such use (or for any breach).

5. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will take all reasonable steps such as those set out in our Security Policy to ensure that your personal information is kept securely and not misused, interfered with or disclosed unless in accordance with this Privacy Policy. A summary of our Security Policy is available at (www.agents.directconnect.com.au/security-policy). We will destroy your personal information if you request and it is no longer necessary to retain it or to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law.

6. ACCESS, CORRECTION AND COMPLAINTS

6.1 You can request more information about the way we manage your personal information (including access to or correcting your personal information if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, not up-to-date, irrelevant or misleading) or make a complaint by contacting Direct Connect’s Privacy Officer at PO Box 4136, East Richmond, VIC 3121 by emailing [email protected] or by calling 1300 664 715.

6.2 We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially and will contact you to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint and aim to resolve your complaint in a timely and appropriate manner.

6.3 We may deny your request for access to personal information that we hold about you in limited circumstances, in accordance with the Privacy Act. In these circumstances, we will inform you of the reasons for our decision.

6.4 We may also charge you a reasonable fee for accessing your personal information.

6.5 If you are not satisfied with our response to your query or with our resolution of your complaint, then you may make a further complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (see www.oaic.gov.au for more information on how to do this).

7. OUR WEBSITE

7.1 This Privacy Policy also applies to your use of our website and any personal information that you provide to us when using our website.

7.2 We use 'cookies' to provide a secure, personalised experience on our website. Cookies are small data files that a website is able to place on a user’s computer hard drive or in its memory to record aspects of that user’s experience of the website. From time to time we may work with organisations to track non-personally identifiable parts of the website to facilitate digital media activity with them.

7.3 Cookies on this website are used as identifiers, and will not contain or store any information about a user. You will need to enable cookies on your browser to access the signed-in areas of our website.

7.4 Our website uses cookies in two different ways:

(1) when you are browsing any part of our site we will use a cookie that is stored on a computer's hard drive to track which areas of the site are accessed. The cookie does not allow us to identify any individual; and

(2) when you register and sign in to the secure, personalised area of the website, we will send you a secure cookie that will maintain the security of your session. This secure cookie will be stored in your computer's memory rather than on your hard drive, and will only last for the duration of the session.

7.5 This website also uses clear gifs for technical spacing purposes on the website. We do not use clear gifs or web beacons to track user activity.

7.6 Our website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.

8. VARIATIONS AND UPDATES

8.1 We will review our Privacy Policy regularly, and may make changes from time to time. If we do so, we will update the policy on this website to reflect those changes. The updated versions of our Privacy Policy will be effective from the date of posting on our website.

8.2 This Privacy Policy was last updated on 19 November 2020.