Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

a) Piper Alderman has a commitment to privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). We are bound by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act. We only collect personal information as required or authorised by law. In particular, the Privacy Act authorises us to collect personal information in various ways and in certain circumstances. This Privacy Policy is provided to make you aware of how we collect, use and manage personal information. It also provides you with information about how you can access your personal information.

b) personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

i. whether the information or opinion is true or not, and

ii. whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

c) We view the privacy of personal information as an important issue.

d) In making this Privacy Policy, we do so on the basis that this policy does not replace or limit the requirements of the Privacy Act.

2. Manner and purpose of collection of personal information

a) The type of personal information we collect, and how it is collected, includes, but may not be limited to:

i. information you provide to us at our request, your name and address and, when you use our web site, your domain name, e‑mail address, and information on what pages you access;

ii. information that may be provided to us by a credit reporting body and information relating to payment of our accounts;

iii. details of applications such as contact information, covering letter, CV and resumes, history of your employment and any volunteer work you have undertaken (including details of your previous employers and organisations for which you volunteered), academic results and any other information you provide to us as part of an application for employment; and

iv. information we collect in the course of acting for clients.

b) We will only use your personal information for the purpose of:

i. providing and marketing our services to you (including assessing your credit worthiness);

ii. conducting our business of a legal services provider;

iii. sending you publications and inviting you to seminars and functions which we think may be of interest to you, unless you have consented to us using your personal information for other purposes or its use for another purpose is required or permitted by law (such as to comply with obligations under the Privacy Act in relation to mandatory data breach notification).

c) Without collecting personal information we may be unable to provide our services to you. If you do not wish us to use your personal information in any of the above ways, please contact us (see addresses under paragraph entitled “Accessing your personal information”).

3. Accuracy and completeness of personal information

a) While we will endeavour to ensure that the personal information collected from you is up to date and complete, we will assume that any personal information provided by you is free from errors and omissions, is not misleading or deceptive and complies with all relevant laws.

b) We rely on the personal information provided by you. We will not check or verify the accuracy of any personal information we obtain from you or other persons.

c) You should provide us with details of any changes to your personal information as soon as reasonably practicable following such change.

4. Disclosure of your personal information

a) We do not permit the personal information we hold to be disclosed to third parties unless:

i. we consider it necessary to be disclosed in order that services we provide to you can be properly carried out; or

ii. you have consented (expressly or impliedly) or requested your personal information to be provided to a third party; or

iii. we are required or permitted by law to provide information to a third party.

b) Third parties to whom we may disclose personal information include:

i. courts, tribunals, regulatory authorities and government departments;

ii. third parties engaged to assist us in connection with providing services to you such as barristers, external lawyers, consultants, experts and agents;

iii. our insurers and service providers such as in relation to IT, document production and archiving services, talent management and applications for employment; and

iv. parties and their representatives with whom we are required to engage in relation to your matters.

c) In the course of us fulfilling the purpose(s) for which we collected your personal information, we may disclose some or all of your personal information to recipient(s) that are neither us nor you (or your authorised representative or agent). In particular, if you choose to apply for employment with us whereby you provide us with personal information, we may disclose your personal information to third party service providers as part of your dealings with us. Personal information disclosed in this way may be disclosed to third parties located outside Australia, including recipients located in the United Kingdom, countries within the European Union, Ireland, the Philippines and the United States of America. When you provide your personal information to us, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information outside of Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that the overseas recipients treat that personal information in compliance with the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. We will, however, take reasonable steps to ensure any overseas recipient we deal with will treat the personal information to which they have access in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles.

5. Disclosure to credit reporting bodies

a) We may disclose certain information about you to credit reporting bodies (CRBs), for example if you fail to meet payment obligations.  The CRB may include such information in reports provided to credit providers to assist them in assessing your credit worthiness.

We disclose information to the following CRBs:

Equifax
Phone:                1300 850 211
Web:                    www.equifax.com.au

Illion
Phone:               1300 734 806
Web:                   www.illion.com.au

Experian
Phone:                1300 784 134
Web:                    www.experian.com.au

b) You have the right to request the above CRBs not to:

i. use credit reporting information for the purposes of pre‑screening of direct marketing by a credit provider; or

ii. use or disclose credit reporting information if you believe on reasonable grounds that you have been, or are likely to be, a victim of fraud.

c) If you would like more information about how the above CRBs manage credit related information you can contact them directly.

6. Protecting your personal information

a) We are committed to ensuring the security of your personal information. We store information in either hard copy or electronic form. We protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure including through restricted access and secure off-site storage.

7. Cookies

a) A cookie is a data file that a website transfers to your hard drive. This enables the website to track the pages you have visited. A cookie only contains information you supply. It cannot read data on your hard drive. Our website uses cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, however, this may mean you are unable to take full advantage of our website. We also collect data relating to the number and frequency of clicks on links and pages of our website.

8. Accessing your personal information

a) If you wish to

i. access your personal information held by us, or

ii. seek correction of such information, or complain about possible breaches of this policy, the Privacy Act or the Australian Privacy Principles, you should direct your enquiry to:

Chief Operating Officer, Piper Alderman
E‑mail:      [email protected]

b) We will deal with your inquiry or complaint in accordance with the Privacy Act. You can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by visiting oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy complaints.

9. Variation of privacy policy

a) We may vary the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time.