Privacy Policy

1. Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the collection, storage, use and disclosure by Centre of Perinatal Excellence Ltd (ABN 50 203 962 931) (COPE, we, us) of your personal information.  It also provides information on how you can obtain access to or seek correction of your personal information.  COPE is committed to the protection of personal information and has developed this Privacy Policy in line with the ‘Australian Privacy Principles’ in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

You agree that providing us with your personal information when you complete a form, use the website https://www.cope.org.au/ (Website), complete national perinatal health screening, donate money through the website and/or provide your personal information on a website form implies your consent to the collection and use of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time.  Your use of the website following any such change to the Privacy Policy will confirm your acceptance of the changes.

2. Kinds of personal and health information collected

We only collect personal and health information that is reasonably necessary for us to provide you with the services you have requested, enhance your use of the website and to enable us to provide the services on the website.  The type of personal information we may collect from you includes personal information, such as your full name, email address, post code, credit card details, provider numbers (for healthcare professionals only) and details about your education.  The type of health information we collect is the due date or date of birth of your child.

When providing your personal information to us, some information may be identified as mandatory or voluntary. If you do not provide the mandatory data, we may not be able to effectively provide our services to you.

3. Collection of your personal information

In most cases, we will collect personal information directly from you.  This may take place when you provide us with your personal information through the website, in person, over the telephone or by completing documents, such as an administrative form.

In operating the website, COPE may collect:

  • Information that does not personally identify you but tracks your use of the website to learn about your preferences so that we can make our website better;
  • Information that does personally identify you (including details such as name, email address, telephone number, date of birth, gender, age, occupation, profile image) but only when you voluntarily give it to us; and/or
  • Sensitive information, including health information (such as your child’s expected date of birth, health information, medical/health treatment you are seeking, disability community interests) but only when you voluntarily give it to us (for example, if you establish an account).

The collection of this personal information is required to enable COPE to provide the services to you on the website, to send you our free e-newsletter called Ready to COPE (RTC) and to ensure the highest quality of service provision.  Individuals do not have to supply COPE with their personal or health information,  However, if the individual chooses not to do so, COPE may be unable to provide the services required or sought.

4. Storage and security of your personal information

From time to time, we may hold personal information in any combination of data storage facilities, cloud computing facilities or paper based files which may be operated or held by us or by third party service providers under a contractual arrangement.  We will use all reasonable endeavours to maintain the security of your personal information from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.  We cannot ensure or warrant that your personal information will always be secure during transmission or protected from unauthorised access during storage.  Therefore, you provide your personal information to us at your own risk.  Please contact us immediately if you become aware or have reason to believe there has been any unauthorised use of your personal information in connection with the website or RTC.

5. Use and disclosure of your personal information

COPE will use and disclose your personal and health information in order to provide you with the services requested, for you to use the website and for COPE to provide services that are available on the website.  You hereby consent to COPE:

  • Contacting you to ask you to provide feedback about the services and the website, including through an anonymous email survey;
  • Collecting, moderating and sharing comments and feedback provided by you and making them publicly available by publishing/displaying them on the website;
  • Using your personal and/or health information to contact you for advertising, promotional and direct marketing purposes in order to inform you about our activities and to improve the website;
  • Using your personal and/or health information to perform administrative functions and activities in relation to our services and the website;
  • Using your personal and/or health information to improve our services or website to develop new products or services, which may involve performing analytics on information that we collect automatically;
  • Collecting your financial details and information where you voluntarily provide it in payment for a good or service provided by COPE or through the website;
  • Disclosing the personal information we collect to third parties we engage to perform functions or provide products and services on our behalf, such as processing credit card information, mail outs, debt collection, event management, marketing, research and advertising;
  • Disclosing the personal information and/or health information we collect on a de-identified basis to provide research data to Government and/or private sector organisations, including but not limited to:
    a) The number of ante and/or postnatal women who have sought our services;
    b) The number of women who have sought our services who sought professional help and/or were diagnosed with a mental health condition; and
    c) The effectiveness of our services.
  • Using your personal and/or health information to respond to enquiries you make regarding the services or website;
  • Using your personal information and to provide you with online training where applicable;
  • Using your personal information to assess or process an application for employment with us;  and
  • Using your personal and/or health information to comply with any applicable laws.

If you decide that you do not wish to receive information from us, please contact us with your request to be removed from our mailing list.  We will remove your name within a reasonable period of receipt of notice.

Where practicable, we will endeavour to collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the purposes described above on a de-identified basis.

6. Purpose of collecting your personal and health information

The purpose of collecting your personal and health information is to:

  • Provide services and support to you, including timely and relevant information about emotional and mental wellbeing throughout pregnancy and the first twelve months following the birth of a baby;  and
  • Obtain de-identifiable data for research purposes to provide reports on the efficacy of programs for ante and postnatal women.

7. Access, amendment and deletion of your personal information

We will use all reasonable endeavours to keep your personal information accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading.  Please contact us to examine your personal information, if required, and we will provide a complete list of your personal information within a reasonable period of receipt of your request.  You may contact us to amend any of your personal information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date or request that your personal information be deleted.  We will amend or delete your records as requested within a reasonable period of receipt of notice.  If applicable, any legal requirement on us to maintain certain records of your personal information shall prevail over any of your requests.  COPE may require identification to be provided before releasing copies of personal information.

8. Disclaimer

We will only collect, use or disclose information that personally identifies you in accordance with this Privacy Policy, unless we are required to disclose it by law or, in our opinion, we are required by disclose it to protect the rights or property of us or any third party or to avoid injury to any person.

9. Links

If you use a link to access a third party website, you do so entirely at your own risk.  You should always read the applicable privacy policies on the other websites.

10. Mandatory data breach notifications

From 22 February 2018, pursuant to the Privacy Act 1988, we are required to notify you and the Australian Information Commissioner if we suspect that a data breach (relating to your personal and/or health information) has occurred and there is real risk of serious harm to you as a result of the breach.

11. Applicable law

The website is controlled from our offices in Australia.  This Privacy Policy will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Australia.  You irrevocably and unconditionally submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Australia.  If any provision of this Privacy Policy is found to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of law, such invalidity or unenforcability will not affect the remainder of this Privacy Policy, which will continue in full force and effect.

12. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or would like further information, please contact us by any of the following means during business hours from Monday to Friday:

Mail:

Attn: Privacy Policy
Centre of Perinatal Excellence
PO Box 122
Flemington Victoria 3031
Australia

Tel:  (03) 9376 6321
Email:  info@cope.org.au

13. Making a complaint

If you have any concerns about how we manage your personal information, you may write to our Privacy Officer at Centre of Perinatal Excellence, PO Box 122, Flemington, Victoria, 3031.  We will reasonably endeavour to provide a response within 30 days of receipt of your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) by writing to the OAIC at GPO Box 5218, Sydney, NSW 2001.  For further information about the OAIC, please visit www.oaic.gov.au.

 

Last Updated: 25 January 2019