Privacy Policy of Dapto Uniting Church

Policy Summary

Introduction

Dapto Uniting Church has adopted a privacy policy to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in schedule 1 of the Act. The privacy policy ensures the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information.

This section is a summary of our privacy policy, which is available below and a printed copy is available by contacting our secretary from our Contact Page

In the policy, “our”, “we” or “us” refers to Dapto UC and “you” or “your” refers to any person providing personal information to the congregation or its committees or activities.

Personal Information

Personal information that we may collect is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation.

We will collect your personal information directly from you in many ways including when you complete an application, a survey, a form or through our website.

We will only use personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected unless we are given consent from you for its use for another purpose. In most cases, the primary purpose will relate to the spiritual, pastoral, social, educational, and administrative functions of the Church. 

Personal information collected by us may be sensitive information for the purpose of the APPs (i.e., information about a person’s religious beliefs). We will endeavour to seek consent from you if sensitive information about you is sought for something other than our primary purposes described above.

Security

We take all reasonable steps to keep personal information secure and will, subject to the APPs, comply with any request from you to correct or remove your information. We have appointed a Privacy Officer who will be responsible for storing, correcting, and giving people access to personal information collected about them. We may charge fees for access to personal information if a great amount of staff time is required to copy documents or information.

We do not disclose personal information to overseas recipients. However, data hosting facilities and third-party service providers which store or process data outside Australia, may be used by parts of the Church.

Procedures

Our operating procedures (whether they are formalised in a manual or not) will comply with the privacy policy and the APPs and respect your privacy. For example:

Emails sent to groups (other than small, well-defined groups such as committees) will use the “BCC” field for the distribution list not “TO” or “CC.”

Personal details including names and the nature or extent of any illnesses, will remain confidential in Prayer Points in the Congregation Newsletter and for prayers in public worship, and only if permission has been granted by the person concerned or by a close family member.

Photographs will not be used or published in any form, without written permission.

Social media posts or publications of any kind will not contain personal information or photographs without permission.

A Privacy Officer has been appointed and is empowered to receive and deal with privacy queries and complaints.

If you have any questions about our policy, please contact our Privacy Officer Les Smith, who can be contacted at: secretary.dapto@nswact.uca.org.au

Privacy Policy

The Uniting Church in Australia Synod of NSW and ACT, Illawarra Presbytery, and Dapto Uniting Church (we, our, us) recognise the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information. This document is our privacy policy, and it tells you how we collect and manage personal information collected from our website and by the officers of the church and its various entities as part of carrying out operations, activities, and provision of services. We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles found in schedule 1 of the Act. We will comply with all the Act’s requirements in respect to the collection, management, and disclosure of your personal information.

This policy covers the current actions and status of privacy at Dapto UC, and actions/practices that may be implemented in the future.

What is your personal information?

When used in this Privacy Policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This includes but is not limited to information such as your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• name
• mailing or street address
• email address
• telephone number
• age or birth date
• profession, occupation, or job
• Church membership and positions held.
• Working With Children Check numbers, validity dates and police checks.
• Safe Church Awareness Training course completion and validity dates.
• photographs, videos, and news stories in respect of Church-related events and activities.
• dietary requirements, special needs, and mobility access requirements.
• details of the services that we have provided to you or which you have enquired about, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those services and to respond to your enquiries.
• any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise.
• When visitors leave comments on the website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.
• information you provide to us through our activities and services, surveys, or visits by our representatives from time to time.
• information needed when an individual is an employee (or prospective employee), volunteer or clergy.

We may also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else. For example, we may collect anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how users use our website.

We may also collect sensitive information about you (such as health information or religious beliefs) where it is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:

• through your access and use of our website.
• during conversations and via correspondence between you and our representatives.
• when you complete an application or purchase order.
• when you register for our conferences or events and when you participate in Church, Presbytery or Synod activities.
• when you complete our forms for the provision of services or to volunteer your services and assistance to the Church or its various organisations; or
• when you complete a survey or

Some personal information that we collect may also be sensitive information (as defined in the Act), such as health information or information about your beliefs or information that is relevant to the services or assistance you have requested from the Synod, Presbytery or Church.

The most usual form of sensitive information we collect is in relation to religious beliefs. For example, we may seek information about your religious beliefs (including your assent to a statement of faith), whether you have been baptised or confirmed, the church you attend or have attended, and your broader involvement in ministry activities, for the purpose of determining your suitability for election or appointment to a position.

We may also seek to collect information about someone else from you. However, you must not provide us with personal information about another person unless you have consent from that person to do so, have told them that their personal information will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and have told them where they can find a copy of this policy. We may also collect your personal information from publicly available sources.

We may also collect personal information from third parties including from third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and other government entities and specialist agencies that assist us in achieving our objectives. This collection of information from third parties would occur in circumstances such as during recruitment when conducting a criminal record check or verifying a Working with Children Check.

Anonymity

We will generally provide individuals with the option of not identifying themselves when contacting us or participating in activities or obtaining services or assistance from us unless we are authorised by law not to do so or it is impracticable for us to deal with individuals who have not identified themselves or have used a pseudonym (in such circumstances we will only obtain as much personal information as is necessary to provide you with the service or assistance you require). If we do not have your personal information, then we may be limited in our ability to provide you with the services or assistance you request or advise you of information relating to our operations and the activities we carry out.

Cookies – Our Website

In some cases, we may collect your personal information using cookies. When you access our website, we may send a ‘cookie’ (which is a small summary text file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer and greet you each time you visit our website without bothering you with a request to register. It also enables us to keep track of services and products you view so that, if you consent, we can send you news about those services and products. A cookie does not contain any personal information, other than the IP address of your computer.

We may also use Google Analytics to measure traffic patterns to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transactions patterns in the aggregate. We use this to research our user’s habits so that we can improve our online presence, information, and services. Our cookies do not collect personal information. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them. Our use of Google Analytics will not involve the collection of personal information.

We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer our website, track user’s movements, and gather broad demographic information and for security reasons. The logging of IP addresses is not used for identifying users and does not include any personal information.

Social media platforms

You may wish to participate in the various blogs, forums, wikis, and other social media platforms hosted by Dapto UC or on which the church participates. One of the aims of these social media platforms is to facilitate and allow you to share content. However, Dapto UC cannot be held responsible if you share personal information on these platforms that is subsequently used, misused, or otherwise appropriated by another user.

What happens if we cannot collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all the following may happen:

• we may not be able to provide the requested activities or services to you, either to the same standard or at all.
• we may not be able to provide you with information about activities and services that you may want.
• we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful, or
• we may not be able to contact you in relation to the various activities we undertake and services we provide.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of service.

• We collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
• to include in the Dapto UC directory.
• to include in and send emails via the Dapto UC group email.
• to provide services to you and to send communications requested by you.
• to arrange the various activities of the Church.
• to answer enquiries and assess suitability for employment and volunteering.
• to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about existing and new services.
• to provide you with access to protected areas of our website.
• to assess the performance of our website and to improve the operation of our website.
• to conduct service processing functions, which may include providing personal information to our various entities, contractors, service providers or other third parties.
• for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of the Church, its various entities, contractors, or service
• to update your personal information held by our related bodies, contractors, or service
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to
• to establish and maintain your involvement with the Church.
• to answer your
• to register you for events, conferences, and
• for direct promotion of services and to keep you informed of new developments we believe may be of interest to you. If we contact you in this way without obtaining your prior consent, we will provide you with the opportunity to decline any further promotional communications.
• to third parties where we have retained those third parties to assist us to undertake our activities and provide the services you have requested, such as religious education instructors, catering and event coordinators, promotions companies, transport providers, health care providers, website hosts and IT consultants, and our professional advisers such as consultants, lawyers and accountants. In some circumstances we may need to disclose sensitive information about you to third parties as part of the services you have requested.
• to different parts of the Church to enable the development and promotion of other activities and services and to improve our general ability to assist Church attendees and the wider
• to process and respond to any complaint made by
• to track clients’ use of any services we offer.
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision, or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country (or political sub-division of a country).
• seeking your views on a social/moral issue to assist in shaping reports/submissions to Government and others.
• assessing your suitability for nomination, election or appointment to a board, council, or committee.
• convening meetings of boards, councils, and committees.
• processing authorised payments to and from you.
• Pastoral care
• Keep you informed about matters relating to spiritual life, through correspondence and newsletters.
• Look after your spiritual and physical wellbeing.
• Fundraise, seek, and administer donations.
• Assess your job or volunteer application.
• Manage our volunteers.
• Satisfy the Uniting Church in Australia’s legal obligations and allow the UCA to discharge its duty of care.

Your personal information will not be shared, sold, rented, or disclosed other than as described in this privacy policy.

To whom may we disclose your information?

We may disclose your personal information when/in a manner that could be reasonably expected in a church environment including to:

• our Ministers in Placement, Supply Ministers, employees, volunteers of the various Church councils, committees, sub-committees, activity leaders, and task groups.
• contractors or service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our operations, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide services to you including, without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, advisors, and consultants.
• suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for operations, marketing, and related purposes.
• any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.
• Theological Students studying UCA or Christian Studies in accord with the protocol of the relevant Human Research Ethics Committee approved research proposal.

We may combine or share any information that we collect from you with information collected by any of our various entities (within Australia).

We will not disclose your personal information to any entity of the Uniting Church in Australia for the purposes of that entity soliciting donations from you.

We may also disclose your information to government bodies, regulators, law enforcement agencies and any other parties where authorised or required by law.

Direct marketing materials

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our activities and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then endeavour to ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

We do not provide your personal information to other organisations for the purposes of direct marketing.

Use of Government identifiers

We will not use government identifiers, such as Medicare numbers or your drivers’ licence numbers, as its own identifier of individuals. We will only use or disclose such identifiers in the circumstances permitted by the Act.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us (see the details below). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). We may charge you a fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs (e.g., photocopying etc.) in providing the information to you and, we may charge a reasonable fee for providing access. An administrative fee may be applied for pages scanned or photocopied where the total amount of pages requested is above 10 pages. Currently the charge will be $0.20 per page photocopied or scanned. We will not charge for simply making the request and will not charge for making any corrections to your personal information. Depending on the nature of the request, we may ask you to verify your identity or to put your request in writing.

While we do not charge you for a request for accessing your personal information you should be aware that we may charge a reasonable fee (which will be notified to you once you make a request) for our time and expenses circumstances if an extended amount of time is required to collate and prepare material for you; and if you wish to have your files photocopied or printed for you.

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete, or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it by contacting us via the contact details below. We will consider whether the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

If you believe that your privacy has been breached or you are not happy with the way your personal information has been handled by us, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information below and provide details of the incident (preferably in writing) so that we can investigate it.

We will attempt to confirm as appropriate with you our understanding of the conduct relevant to the complaint and what you expect as an outcome. We will inform you whether we will investigate, the name, title, and contact details of the investigating officer and the estimated completion date for the investigation process.

After we have completed our enquiries, we will contact you, usually in writing, to advise the outcome and invite a response to our conclusions about the complaint. If we receive a response from you, we will assess it and advise if we have changed our view. If you are unsatisfied with the outcome, we will advise you about further options including, if appropriate, review by the Privacy Commissioner within the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. via https://www.oaic.gov.au/. In the event of a data breach, Dapto UC follows the Data Breach Policy of the NSW ACT Synod.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?

We do not disclose personal information to overseas recipients. However, some parts of the Church may use data hosting facilities and third-party service providers to assist us with our functions and activities. As a result, your personal information may be transferred to, stored at, processed or backed-up at a destination outside Australia. These destinations outside Australia include, but are not limited to New Zealand, the United States of America, Singapore, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, India, Korea, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Security

We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. We may hold your information in either electronic or hard copy form. Personal information will be securely destroyed when no longer needed unless we are required by legislation to keep it.

Office bearers and relevant persons in the Church have access to such personal information as is required for their duty and this may be stored on personal computer drives.

Personal information can be circulated to those persons who need it in the exercise of the functions of the Church.

Documents that contain your personal information are not uploaded to our website.

Information you supply is secure in transit across the internet.

Links

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.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns, or complaints regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details set out below.

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

Please contact our Privacy Officer at:
Les Smith

Dapto Uniting Church

PO Box 132, Dapto, NSW 2530

Phone: 0413 768 774

Email: secretary.dapto@nswact.uca.org.au

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.

Updated September 2022