The Mercy Foundation is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all people who support us, make an inquiry, subscribe to newsletters, donate to us, attend forums and enter the Youth Award competition.
We are also committed to protecting the confidential information of those organisations and their representatives who apply to the Mercy Foundation for a grant or participate in one of our working groups or committees.
The Mercy Foundation deals with information privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act.
This Privacy Policy sets out the Foundation’s policies in relation to management of personal information.
What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?
The Mercy Foundation may collect the following personal information in relation to people who attend our events, who request information about us, who subscribes to our newsletters and who make donations to the Foundation. In this regard we collect and hold your contact details, such as office address, home address, telephone numbers and email address and records of your communications and other interactions with us.
If you have made a financial donation to the Foundation we do not retain your personal financial information.
Storage and security of personal information
We take all necessary and reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We hold personal information in paper-based and electronic records and systems. Personal information may be collected in paper-based documents and converted to electronic form for storage (with the original paper-based documents either archived or securely destroyed).
We use physical security and other measures to ensure that personal information is protected from misuse, interference and loss; and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. Personal information held in paper-based form is securely stored at the Mercy Foundation in Sydney.
We maintain computer and network security by using firewalls, user identifiers and passwords to control access to our computer system. Donations made on the Mercy Foundation website use encryption methods and credit card data is stored using systems compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to protect personal information from misuse, loss or unauthorised access, we cannot guarantee the security of any information transmitted for use or received from our online services. These activities are conducted at the user’s own risk. As soon as we receive a transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security.
Rights to access and correction of your personal information
You have the right to access your personal information unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information. Any requests for access to your personal information should be made to the Mercy Foundation in writing. You also have the right to request the correction of any of your personal information which is inaccurate. Any corrections should be advised to the Mercy Foundation in writing.
OPTING OUT
The Mercy Foundation provides you with the opportunity to opt-out or unsubscribe from newsletters and e-newsletters. By electing not to opt-out, we assume we have the implied consent to receive similar communications into the future.
Information Collected
When you look at our website please be aware that our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and logs information about it. This is the usual practice for an Internet Service Provider. This information may include but is not limited to:
- Your server address
- Your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
- The date and time of your visit to the site
- The pages you accessed and documents downloaded
- The previous site you have visited
- The type of browser you are using
Mercy Foundation Youth Awards
The Mercy Foundation and its employees may use or disclose personal information in the administration and performance of their activities, including the publication of a student’s results if the student has achieved an outstanding result. The Mercy Foundation will not otherwise disclose personal information unless required or authorised by law, or with the student’s consent. Only the student’s first name, academic year and school name will be published.
Students may request verification of a result or reissue of a certificate and results are stored for a minimum of 3 years for these purposes for the benefit of the student, once satisfactory evidence of identity is provided.
Individuals may access their personal information held by the Mercy Foundation by contacting the Mercy Foundation’s CEO. Further enquiries on the application of this policy can be directly addressed to the CEO by telephone (02) 9911 7390 or by email office@mercyfoundation.com.au.
The safety of children is very important to us.
We ask that children under the age of 18 have a parent or guardian verify their contact with us. Whilst we will make every reasonable effort to ensure that children’s privacy and other rights are not compromised, it is ultimately the responsibility of parents to monitor their children’s Internet usage.
We will not share any information about you with third parties, except as provided by civil privacy legislation.
Further information and complaints
If you require any further information about our management of personal information or have a complaint about our handling of your personal information, you should contact the Mercy Foundation in writing at 40 Rocklands Rd. Wollstonecraft NSW 2065 or by phone on 02 9911 7390.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint you may contact us further to advise of your concerns and if we are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution you may write to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner using the form available at this link https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/ for further review of your complaint.
