Last updated 23 January 2024
Featherstone & Associates Pty Ltd ACN 673 573 165 (Featherstone & Associates) is committed to providing you with quality services and takes all reasonable steps to ensure your Personal information and data is managed responsibly.
This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected and held by clients of Featherstone & Associates. Although we do not meet the threshold to be considered an APP entity, we wish to be open and transparent about how we collect, hold and use your Personal Information and under what circumstances we disclose it.
This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information collected by Featherstone & Associates in the course of providing our services. By providing Personal Information to us you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any other arrangements that apply between us.
We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time by publishing changes to it on our website. We encourage you to check our website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.
1. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
Personal information
Personal Information is defined in the Privacy Act and includes information or an opinion about an individual that is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information is recorded in a material form or not (Personal Information). For example, this may include your name, age, gender, postcode and contact details. It may also include financial information, including your credit card information.
We may collect the following types of Personal Information:
- name;
- mailing or street address;
- email address;
- telephone number and other contact details;
- age or date of birth;
- credit card information or other banking details;
- your transaction history with us;
- your device ID, device type, geo-location information, computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the sites, ad data, IP address and standard web log information;
- any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our website or app or indirectly through your use of our website or app or online presence or through other websites or accounts from which you permit us to collect information;
- information you provide to us through customer surveys; or
- any other Personal Information that may be required in order to facilitate your dealings with us.
We may collect these types of Personal Information either directly from you, or from third parties. We may collect this information when you:
- register on our website www.featherstone.law;
- open a client account with us;
- use our platform, or perform any transaction on the website;
- communicate with us through correspondence, chats, email or other methods; or
- interact with our sites, services, content and advertising.
Why we collect, use and disclose Personal Information
The information that we collect is intended to provide our services to you and other material service obligations that we have to clients. We may collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes:
- to enable you to access and use our services at the Featherstone & Associates website or the physical provision of services to you;
- to operate, protect, improve and optimise our website, applications, platform, business and our users' experience, such as to perform analytics, conduct research and for advertising and marketing;
- to send you service, support and administrative messages, reminders, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and information requested by you;
- to send you marketing and promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you, including information sent by, or on behalf of, our business partners that we think you may find interesting;
- to administer rewards, surveys, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by us or our business partners; and
- to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes that we may have with any of our users, and enforce our agreements with third parties.
2. USE OF INFORMATION
Featherstone & Associates uses your Personal Information for a number of purposes including:
- to help us respond to any queries or problems you may have encountered;
- to help us create and provide content that is relevant to you;
- to provide you with regular updates about our services;
- to provide you with information about our offers and marketing materials;
- to improve your experience on our website and our services;
- to enhance our customer relationship management; and
- to provide you with administration needs, including managing your account.
We may also use your Personal Information for purposes that you would reasonably expect in connection with the services we provide. If We are required by law to disclose your Personal Information to a government agency, regulatory body or law enforcement body, we will do so.
Do we use your Personal Information for direct marketing?
We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services, products and market research. This may take the form of emails, SMS, mail or other forms of communication, in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Privacy Act. You may opt-out of receiving marketing materials from us by contacting us using the details set out below or by using the opt-out facilities provided (e.g. an unsubscribe link). We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes.
3. DISCLOSURE
To whom do we disclose your Personal Information?
In order to fulfill our service obligations to clients, Personal Information may be shared with our affiliates, associated entities and partners, agents, employees, representatives, service providers and third-party contractors in ways consistent with this Privacy Policy and as dictated to by relevant law, such as to comply with a search warrant or respond to a subpoena.
Disclosure of Personal Information outside Australia
We may disclose Personal Information outside of Australia to organisations who provide services in relation to ID verification, data security and storage located for example in the United States of America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia and the United Kingdom. When you provide your Personal Information to us, you consent to the disclosure of your information outside of Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that overseas recipients handle that Personal Information in compliance with Australian Privacy Law. We will, however, take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipient will deal with such Personal Information in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
4. ACCESS AND CORRECTIONS
You can access the Personal Information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact information set out below. Sometimes, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of your Personal Information and, where this is the case, we will tell you why. It is important that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up to date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practical so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you. We may also need to verify your identity when you request your Personal Information. If you think that any Personal Information we hold about you is inaccurate, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected. Depending on the type of request, requests may attract a minimal charge.
5. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal and transactional information relating to your account is generally held for at least seven (7) years after the account has been closed. This is in order to fulfill our obligations to our legal, compliance and regulatory obligations. If we determine that there is no reasonable requirement as to why Personal Information held in respect of an individual is no longer needed for our functions or the services we provide, we may permanently destroy or de-identify that information.
6. USING OUR WEBSITE AND COOKIES
We may collect Personal Information about you when you use and access our website. While we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, your operating system, browser type and the internet protocol (IP) address assigned to your computer, browser type, date and time stamps and exit and referring pages.
We may also use 'cookies', or other similar tracking technologies on our website that help us track your website usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, TV, mobile phone or other device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and/or browsing sessions. You can disable cookies through your internet browser but our website may not work as intended for you if you do so.
We may also use cookies to enable us to collect data that may include Personal Information. For example, where a cookie is linked to your account, it will be considered Personal Information under the Privacy Act. We will handle any Personal Information collected by cookies in the same way that we handle all other Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate setting on your browser, however if you do this, it may affect the functionality of our website and our ability to provide you with services.
We use Google and other analytics tools to help the website analyse how our site is used, such as allowing Us to compile reports on website activity and providing us other services relating to website activity and internet usage. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website will be transmitted to and stored by Google LLC on servers in the United States of America (or as modified by Google LLC).
7. SECURITY
Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Such measures may include the use of password protection and restricting access to Personal Information to those with a legitimate purpose in receiving the information. Featherstone & Associates also takes steps to ensure that Personal Information collected is reliable, accurate, complete and current for its intended use. Featherstone & Associates' employees who have access to Personal Information are trained in accordance with this Privacy Policy and will be advised that they must fully comply with the Privacy Act and relevant regulations, as well as this Privacy Policy and any failure to do so will result in the appropriate discipline, up to and including termination of their employment.
While Featherstone & Associates takes reasonable precautions against possible security breaches of our website and records, no website or internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorised access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will occur. However, we will comply with any legal requirements as set out in the Privacy Act should such event take place. We ensure that we meet OAIC guidelines regarding the appropriate levels of information and software security, governance and associated procedures.
8. ELECTRONIC MARKETING
We may send marketing and/or promotional messages to any electronic address that you provide or for which you are responsible. You warrant that you have authority, either as or on behalf of the electronic account holder, to provide this consent and agree that until you withdraw your consent by providing written notice to us or using an unsubscribe facility in the message, we may continue to send commercial electronic messages to those addresses. It is in our legitimate intent to provide you with the best products and services we can by keeping you informed and hearing your feedback.
9. OFF-SHORE ACCESS
The Personal Information we collect may be transferred out of Australia and to other countries such as United States of America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia and the United Kingdom, where it may be processed by third-party servers and providers, including cloud-based services, who assist us to manage your Personal Information, data, email, website, promotional material, office administration and financial services.
10. LINKS
Our website may contain links to websites operated by third parties. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. Unless expressly stated otherwise, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of, or any content on, those linked websites, and have no control over or rights in those linked websites. The privacy policies that apply to those other websites may differ substantially from our Privacy Policy, so we encourage individuals to read them before using those websites.
11. CHANGES
Our Privacy Policy will be reviewed periodically to account for changes to laws, regulations and technology to adapt to the dynamic nature of our industry. If you have any specific concerns or questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us via our Enquiry Form or telephone number. If you cannot provide us with information necessary to fulfill our obligations and requirements, we may be unable to provide you with the requested product or service. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and other policies, including Terms of Use and Featherstone & Associates content, information, promotions, disclosures, disclaimers and other components of our site, our accounts, and overall client offering.
12. CONTACT AND COMPLAINTS
Please contact us via our Enquiry Form or telephone number with any questions, comments or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy and/or practices. If you consider that any action of ours breaches this Privacy Policy or otherwise doesn't respect your privacy, you can make a complaint. This will be acted upon promptly within a reasonable timeframe. To make a complaint, write to us through our Enquiry Form or call our telephone number.
If you are not satisfied with our response to any complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
- Website https://www.oaic.gov.au/
- Phone Number 1300 363 992
- Email enquiries@oaic.gov.au