Villa Maria Society ("Society") is committed to protecting personal information. As a provider of Health and Aged Care Services, the Society is bound by the National Privacy Principles (in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988) and the Health Privacy Principles (in accordance with the Health Records Act 2001).

Use, Collection and Disclosure of Information

The Society will only collect personal or health information from or about people with their prior knowledge and consent, and in a lawful and fair manner. Society will disclose personal information to its employees or contractors whose duties require such a disclosure. Such employees and contractors are required to protect and handle your personal information in accordance with the Acts and any other applicable legislation regulating the collection, use, disclosure, storage and destruction of personal information.

Society will not use or disclose personal information for any purpose not connected with our functions and activities under the Health Records Act 2001 unless:

• consent for the disclosure has been obtained from the individual;
• it could be reasonably expected that we would use or disclose the information for a secondary purpose;
• the use or disclosure is required or permitted by law
• we believe that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary to assist a law enforcement agency or an agency responsible for national security in the performance of their functions; or
• denying access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of any individual.

In the case of health information, the specific requirements of the Health Records Act apply. Should an individual refuse to provide personal information required by the Society, they should be aware that this may impede the Society’s ability to provide the services requested by the individual.

If it is lawful and practicable, the Society will give individuals the option of not identifying themselves when they contact us.

Access to and correction of personal information

the Society will allow individuals to access personal or health information that we hold about them and will provide details of how we collect, hold and use that information, at least to the extent provided for under legislative requirements upon request.

Collection of personal information

It is intended that a user can use the Society’s website at www.villamaria.com.au ("Website") anonymously. However, for some functions of the Website the collection of personal information is necessary or unavoidable.

There are two reasons why the Society might obtain information about someone other than from the individual themselves. These two exceptions are:

• Where someone else provides the Society with your personal information. While the Society cannot prevent this from happening, you are entitled to access and correct any personal information where the information is wrong.
• Where the Society collects statistics using software techniques such as Cookies.

• The Society uses standard web analytics software packages to analyse its web server log files to track web site usage.
• The Society uses cookies to assist us to make your experience of our website easier and more efficient. Cookies are created by a website other than the one you are currently visiting. These cookies collect information such as the number of visits, unique visits, documents viewed, browser type, how the site is navigated, the type of search engine used, the sections of the website visited and other website usage information.
• Web beacons may also be used. These capture every visit, and measure interactivity at the browser-level. This technology helps measure what is actually viewed on the Website. While the anonymous statistical data the Society collects may be aggregated and used in broader statistical analysis by either the Society or its web monitoring service provider to improve our services, at no time can the Society personally identify an individual as the source of that data.

Maintenance

The Society will remove or destroy personal information where it is no longer required (except where archiving is required), however health information will be retained unless:

• the deletion is permitted, authorised or required by the law; or
• the deletion is not contrary to the law.

Sensitive Information

An organisation must not collect sensitive information unless the individual consents, the collection is authorised by law, or the information is required to prevent or lessen a serious threat to an individual's life.

• Sensitive information is an opinion about an individual's
• racial or ethnic origin; or
• political opinions; or
• membership of a political association; or
• religious beliefs or affiliations; or
• philosophical beliefs; or
• membership of a professional or trade association; or
• membership of a trade union; or
• sexual preferences or practices; or
• criminal records.

Transferring information oversea

The Society will only send personal information about an individual to a person in a foreign country if:

the Society reasonably believes that the recipient of the information is subject to a law which is substantially similar to the National Privacy Principles; or the individual consents to the Society transferring the information.

Changes to the Website

Any changes to the Society’s privacy statement will be published on the Website. When disclosing information using the Website (eg. via email link) an individual is deemed to have consented to the Society collecting, using, disclosing and handling any personal information or health information collected in accordance with our privacy policy.

The Society does not warrant the security of any information transmitted to the Website and such information is transmitted at the individual's own risk in respect of errors in transmission. Our website home page can be accessed and our site can be browsed without disclosing personal information.

Requests for further information and enquiries regarding the way that the Society handles personal information and health information should be directed to:

Privacy Officer 6 Studley Park Road Kew Victoria 3101 Telephone: (03) 9855 7600.