Privacy Policy

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This policy explains how and why we collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information.

“We”, “us” and “our” means Ai Group (also known as The Australian Industry Group) ABN 81 632 926 099 of 5/441 ST KILDA RD, MELBOURNE, VIC,3004, and all our related entities.

This Policy should be considered in light of affiliated policies and regulatory matters (if any) such as use of emails, Spam Act, Facebook Protocols (and our social media T&Cs), and even the Do Not Call Act. Most of these mentioned may not necessarily directly deal with ‘personal information’ as defined in the Act but extends to uses of data that may incidentally include personal information.

You consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this policy.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified from the information or opinion. Information or an opinion may be personal information regardless of whether it is true.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

The personal information collected and used by Ai Group can be provided or used electronically or by conventional methods and the principles of protection outlined in this Policy apply equally to all information mediums.

Ai Group is a corporate membership-based not-for-profit organisation. We provide a range of services to our members and third parties. Most of our membership and clientele are companies but we invariably deal with individuals.

The essence of our business is communication and so we collect the personal information of individuals from our websites, our servers (emails) and other electronic means like telecommunication facilities. We also collect it through exchange of business cards, referrals from other individuals, attendance registers and sometimes we purchase databases for particular purposes.

We collect information about you and your interactions with us, for example, when you purchase or use any of our products or services, call us or otherwise visit our website. The information we collect from you may include your identity and contact details, your history of purchases and use of our products and services and details of enquiries or complaints you make.

In most cases, the information will only involve your name and your business title or position, your business email addresses and mobile phone number. Depending on the purposes for the collection, we may necessarily have to include for legal compliance purposes, your birthdate and place, home and work addresses, personal mobile telephone numbers or direct landline numbers.

Our services may be based around the exchange of information and advice on industry, workplace and employment related matters affecting businesses in Australia. Most of the personal information about individuals that we collect in whatever form and from whatever source, is used only so that we can communicate more effectively and efficiently with them, and numerous clients, contractors, government departments and agencies in the performance of our contractual obligations.

In every mode of collection or use, we follow the guidelines and rules laid down by the Australian Privacy Principles. Our compliance procedures can be overridden by legal process – law enforcement, regulatory intervention, and emergency health or safety issues all take priority to our protocols and procedures.

We only collect the information we need to provide you with the services you seek or are likely to be interested in due to the nature of our relationship. Generally, it’s to administer that relationship, whether in membership (and delivery of membership services), or for supplies, acquisitions or disposals of assets or interests, potential clients, contractual or legal compliance and insurance purposes.

We do not collect tax file numbers or other government identifiers of individuals, except as a legal necessity, if you are an individual carrying on a business we will collect and use the ABN of that business for our business and tax requirements.

Sensitive Information

We may in selected specific circumstances, have to ask for sensitive information such as affiliation or membership of a union, or health status (including as may be applicable, COVID-19 vaccination status), and background in the context of employment and regulatory advice provided as part of our primary purpose. If the information is expressly required by a law or regulation or is required or relevant to our purpose or the services we provide, including for our employment purposes, we will identify the law or regulation when we ask for the information (e.g. in the case of Workplace Health and Safety, Fair Work or Industrial Relations, VET or EBA training). Sensitive information is treated separately and more confidentially and is destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed for the purpose. We will require your written consent to the disclosure of information that contains sensitive information if such disclosure is required.  Ai Group has relevant security measures such as restricted access to limited approved parties as and when required, for example in the case of sensitive information for employment purposes.

Website access

We may collect de-identified information about how you access, use and interact with the website. We do this by using a range of tools such as Google Analytics. This information may include:

1. the location from which you have come to the site and the pages you have visited; and
2. technical data, which may include IP address, the types of devices you are using to access the website, device attributes, browser type, language and operating system.

We use cookies on the website. A cookie is a small text file that the website may place on your device to store information. We may use persistent cookies (which remain on your computer even after you close your browser) to store information that may speed up your use of our website for any of your future visits to the website. We may also use session cookies (which no longer remain after you end your browsing session) to help manage the display and presentation of information on the website. You may refuse to use cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.

Why do we collect, hold and use your personal information?

We collect, hold and use your personal information so that we can:

1. provide you with products and services, and manage our relationship with you;
2. contact you, for example, to respond to your queries or complaints, or if we need to tell you something important;
3. comply with our legal obligations and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators; or
4. identify and tell you about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you.

If you do not provide us with your personal information we may not be able to provide you with our services, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.

The personal information we may solicit and collect directly from you or from another entity about you is only the information that is reasonably necessary for us to do our job for you for our functions and our activities. However, Ai Group also undertakes to deliver a number of government funded programs from time to time on behalf of either a State/Territory or the Commonwealth or one of their agencies.  

Examples of personal information collected by us could include:

• personal information provided by an individual in response to a request, direction or order
• personal information about an individual provided by another entity in response to a request, direction, order or arrangement for sharing or transferring information between both entities
• personal information provided at a business meeting, where it relates to the subject matter of the meeting, including business cards exchanged at the meeting
• a completed form or application submitted by an individual
• a record of a credit card payment
• video footage that identifies individuals.
• an employment application sent in response to either a job advertisement published by an entity or an expression of interest register maintained by the entity.

How do we collect your personal infromation?

We will collect your personal information directly from you whenever you interact with us.

We collect the information in numerous ways – telephone, internet, email, and written correspondence. Other sources of collection of that personal information may include –

• registration forms, invitations and expressions of interest forms for briefings, interest groups, training courses
• membership applications, notices, invoices and order forms
• forms and notices for statutory compliance purposes (such as consents to act)
• surveys and questionnaires
• project and consultancy proposals and contracts for services
• telephone enquiries to our offices
• email broadcasts
• business cards
• publicly available directories and publications.

In some cases, we collect information using the services of a formal personal information collection agency or third party. (We will tell you when it comes from someone other than you). Where you provide us with personal information about someone else, you must ensure you have that individual’s consent to giving it to us, especially if it is an employee or contractor to you.  

Our on-line facilities such as web browsers, log information collectors and cookies do not collect personal data about individuals. You can disable cookies and opt out of on-line advertising, but there is a risk that in doing so, you and your business may not receive the services you have sought from us or updates or other information pertinent to our relationship with you.

We may also collect information from third parties such as training organisations, credit agencies, referral services.

How do we store and hold personal information?

We store most information about you in computer systems and databases operated by either us or our external service providers.

While most of our data is presently residing in datacentres in Australia, there may be times when, due to the nature of the transaction you seek with us or the communication facility used, your data is available to overseas recipients. The purpose of these sorts of disclosures are for software solutions, help desk support or for simply storage purposes through contracted service providers or facilities we use that include cloud options.

Please note that by using our telecommunication facilities and specifically internet access, you will be consenting to the possibility of the data we collect for the service transaction or relationship being disclosed overseas and to unknown destinations. This covers those cases where we are simply undertaking normal business activity.

Some information about you may be recorded in paper files that we store securely.

We implement and maintain processes and security measures to protect personal information which we hold from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

These processes and systems include:

1. the use of identity and access management technologies to control access to systems on which information is processed and stored;
2. requiring all employees to comply with internal information security policies and keep information secure; and
3. monitoring and regularly reviewing the organisation’s practise against our own policies and against industry best practice.

We will also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for the purposes for which it was collected or for any secondary purpose permitted under the APPs. We have implemented procedures that facilitate the destruction or de-identification of personal information when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected (unless it is needed for legal reasons).

Who do we disclose your personal information to, and why?

We may transfer or disclose your personal information to our related companies. Disclosure to third persons could include regulatory and other government agencies connected with the subject matter of our dealings with you and contracted service providers who are undertaking a service on our behalf.

We may disclose personal information to external service providers so that they may perform services for us or on our behalf.

We may also disclose your personal information to others outside our group of companies where:

1. we are required or authorised by law to do so;
2. you may have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances; or
3. we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.

If the ownership or control of all or part of our business changes, we may transfer your personal information to the new owner.

Do we disclose personal information to overseas recipients?

In some cases, your dealings with us may involve the transfer of your personal information overseas. This should only occur when you have directly requested it such as for trade missions, travel documentation, export or import documentation and international introductions or referrals. In these cases, we are not responsible for the use of that information at its destination, or the recipient’s compliance with our privacy policy, Australian privacy laws or their own internally regulated security or privacy compliance. While any contractual arrangements we may undertake on your behalf that involve an overseas recipient include specific obligations in relation to protection of your information (including any confidential information you need to disclose), it is neither practicable nor reasonable for us to identify each possible recipient, the business, or agency and to explore and advise on their privacy environments. If you need to have that disclosed overseas, you are taken to have full responsibility for the consequences.

Do we use your personal information for marketing?

We will use your personal information to offer you products and services we believe may interest you, but we will not do so if you tell us not to. These products and services may be offered by us, our related companies, our other business partners or our service providers.

In the case where we are a contracted service provider to a government agency under a Commonwealth contract and we have collected the personal information for the purpose of meeting our obligations under that contract and the use of your personal information is in fact necessary to so meet that obligation.

Where you receive electronic marketing communications from us, you may opt out of receiving further marketing communications by following the opt-out instructions provided in the communication.

In all cases where we use or disclose personal information for the purposes of our own direct marketing or to facilitate another organisation’s direct marketing, and the consent express or implied has been obtained in accordance with this APP, you can always request that you be removed from the marketing list and or ask us not to disclose your data to the other organisation(s) for that purpose.  

Access to and correction of your personal information

You may access or request correction of the personal information that we hold about you by contacting us. Our contact details are set out below. There are some circumstances in which we are not required to give you access to your personal information.

There is no charge for requesting access to your personal information but we may require you to meet our reasonable costs in providing you with access (such as photocopying costs or costs for time spent on collating large amounts of material).

We will respond to your requests to access or correct personal information in a reasonable time and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold about you remains accurate, up to date and complete.

Notifiable data breaches

We are committed to doing all that we can to protect data and personal information.

As the internet is inherently insecure no matter how many protection measures are taken, should there be a data breach, Ai Group may, in compliance with the law, notify the relevant parties as soon as practicable. In the case of what is known under the law as an ‘eligible data breach’, Ai Group  may notify the relevant parties of what has occurred, what information is involved, what the implications may be, what can be done and what Ai Group will do in the specific circumstances.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about the way in which we have handled any privacy issue, including your request for access or correction of your personal information, you should contact us. Our contact details are set out below.

We will consider your complaint and determine whether it requires further investigation. We will notify you of the outcome of this investigation and any subsequent internal investigation.

If you remain unsatisfied with the way in which we have handled a privacy issue, you may approach an independent advisor or contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au) for guidance on alternative courses of action which may be available.

Contact details

If you have any questions, comments, requests or concerns, please contact us at: info@aigroup.com.au or call us at our headquarters in Melbourne.

If you are in email contact with Ai Group already, then submit your request to your usual contact and copy info@aigroup.com.au. If you have a concern or complaint about how your personal information is being handled by Ai Group, then you can email our Chief Privacy Officer by sending an email to info@aigroup.com.au marked PRIVACY – URGENT.

Changes to this policy

From time to time, we may change our policy on how we handle personal information or the types of personal information which we hold. Any changes to our policy will be published on our website.

You may obtain a copy of our current policy from our website or by contacting us at the contact details above.