SociaLink will comply with the Privacy Act 1993.
A. Privacy Officer
The General Manager is the Privacy Officer. All privacy complaints or requests for information should be raised with the Privacy Officer.
B. Privacy of Staff and Trustees
Trustees and staff members will be advised when private information about them is being collected and held. Every effort will be made to ensure the information collected is accurate.
Trustees and staff have the right to access personal information held about them.
Private information about trustees and staff is kept either in a locked filing cabinet or electronically on a password protected computer.
The Chairperson of the Board, General Manager, Administration Manager and, if necessary legal and employment advisors, may have access to private information about trustees and staff for the purposes of contractual matters, reviewing performance, paying and reviewing salaries, maintaining leave records and paying trustee expenses.
Private information will not be disclosed to anybody else without the express permission of the staff member or trustee concerned.
Staff members should not store private information on their work computers, since other staff and trustees have access to staff computers, including access to email.
Any health information about identifiable individuals such as health and medical histories or information about disabilities will be kept according to the Health Information Privacy Code.
C. Privacy of members of community organisations
1. Organisations using SociaLink’s advisory service
a. Staff members provide advice to community organisations. In doing so they should take care that they do not have access to private information about members of those organisations unless express permission to do so has been given by the individuals concerned.
b. If permission has been given for a staff member to have access to private information about individuals in community organisations, he or she should store it securely and only for as long as it is necessary to hold that information. After such time the information should be destroyed or returned.
2. Organisations listed on SociaLink’s databases
a. A database of names and addresses of community organisations is maintained by SociaLink for the purposes of mailing out newsletters, information on meetings, training and for other services provided by SociaLink or other organisations where the service may be of benefit to community organisations.
b. Most of the information contained in such databases is public information, including the names and contact details of community organisations and names of key contact people in the organisation.
c. However for some organisations, the contact details may also include the private contact details of individuals. A privacy statement regarding the use of the database is included in the SociaLink newsletter and individuals may request to have their private contact details removed from the database.
d. SociaLink does not give other people or organisations access to its databases, (except for the purpose for which it was collected) unless certain that there are no private details included in the information.
e. Only public information or private contact details where express permission has been given by the individual concerned may be included in the Socialink website since the information may be accessed on the internet by any member of the public.