Australian Strings Association Privacy Policy

Introduction

Australian Strings Association (AUSTA) respects the privacy of its members and understands the importance of protecting personal information, according to the national law found in the Privacy Act. This document explains how AUSTA collects personal information, looks after it, what AUSTA uses it for, and who can access it. It also outlines your privacy rights, AUSTA obligations, and explains how you can access the information AUSTA keeps about you.

Information Collected

AUSTA collects personal information about members and other individuals with whom we deal. The information collected includes, but is not limited to:

• Full name
• Street and postal address
• Email
• Phone number
• Areas of interest
• Workplace

Members may elect to pay their membership fees by credit card over the phone or by hard copy membership form. In all instances these details are shredded immediately after use. 

Why we collect this information

This information is used to effectively provide services to AUSTA members.

How is data collected?

AUSTA collects personal information in a fair way, and only seeks information which is relevant to AUSTA. When you apply for membership, you consent to AUSTA using and storing your information.

When you join AUSTA, you complete an online membership form. AUSTA requires your contact/personal details to send you information about the organisation, send you Stringendo and other AUSTA related news, and to obtain your feedback about activities. Sometimes AUSTA might contact you with information about other activities that are complementary to AUSTA, but if you don’t want to receive such information you can let us know when you join the organisation, or at any other time. If you don’t say anything, AUSTA will assume it’s ok to contact you about that sort of information.

When you join AUSTA, it means you allow AUSTA to use your personal information in the following way: 

• To maintain a register of membership 
• To effectively manage all AUSTA activities 
• To communicate with you about AUSTA 
• To inform you of relevant internal or external activities, events, promotions or special offers that may be of interest to you 
• To identify details of AUSTA membership (like where people live) for the purpose of building membership 
• To check your satisfaction with AUSTA, and find out about needs and attitudes of members 

AUSTA will pass on your information if required by law, or if there is a duty to the public to disclose it (for example, for health safety during a pandemic).

Accuracy

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we collect, hold and use is accurate, up-to-date and complete. We encourage you to contact us if you believe that any of the personal information that we hold about you is inaccurate, outdated, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We will respond to all requests to correct your personal information.

You are also able to log on to the website and update your information yourself. 

Access 

If you wish to gain access to the information that we hold about you, you may contact us at admin@austa.asn.au . You may also log on to the AUSTA website to view your own information.

We will respond to all requests for access. On the rare occasions when we refuse access, we will provide a written notice stating our reasons and the provisions of the Privacy Act that support our decision. 

Disclosure 

AUSTA understands the importance of keeping your information private, and only discloses your personal information to third parties in certain circumstances. 

Organisations to which we usually disclose information include: 

• service providers that assist us with our magazine Stringendo 
• information may be securely uploaded to third party service providers such as bulk email marketing and survey software applications for the purpose of communications and improving AUSTA services 
• government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law 
• Members may elect to pay their membership subscription by credit card. This is processed by PayPal.
  Members who elect to apply for auto-renewal membership must do this through PayPal, who houses all information needed for this service. 
• Ticketing services that include Trybooking, Whova, Humanitix (and similar platforms) may collect information when purchases are made through these systems. 
• Members may elect to have a publicly listed teacher’s profile that contains their contact details. This is an opt in member benefit. Members can log in to the website to add, edit or remove any publicly listed information or contact the AUSTA office for assistance. 

Where personal information is disclosed AUSTA takes all reasonable steps to ensure third parties use this information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. 

We do not otherwise provide your information to third parties for use in marketing their own products and services to you.

Security 

We hold your personal information in electronic files and some entities with whom we store personal information may be situated outside Australia. We take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information held by the organisation is kept securely, both in a physical and electronic form, and to protect the information from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and from loss and misuse.

Our Website

Our website uses “cookies”, which are pieces of data that are stored on your hard drive containing details about your use of our website. Use of a cookie does not provide us with information about you that can be used to identify you, rather, they anonymously track usage of our website, so that we can enhance users’ experience of our website. You may elect to reject cookies and still use our website, however in doing so, you may be unable to access certain pages.

We also use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer our website, track use movements on our website, and gather broad demographic data for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to any information that could identify you.

Marketing 

We may use the personal information that we hold about you, including your contact details, to provide you with information about activities, events and products that may be of interest to you, or to seek donations or support for our activities. 

You may opt out of receiving all or certain types of marketing information from us at any time by contacting us directly on the details provided below or by using the opt out options provided in our communications, including the unsubscribe function in our emails.

Your Rights 

You need not give us any of the personal information about you or any other person, which may be requested in our communications with you. However, without that information, we may not be able to process an application, fulfil your request to become a member or provide you with an appropriate level of service. You are entitled to ask us for access to your personal information records at any time, or to choose to cancel or opt-out of any service or future mailing. You may elect to advise us that your phone or email details are to be marked as ‘silent’ in which case we will not release them in any form, except to staff who need them in case of an emergency.

Questions and Complaints 

If you have any questions, feedback, or complaints about the way in which your personal information is handled by AUSTA, please contact the office at admin@austa.asn.au 

If you are not satisfied with the response, you may contact the Australian Information Commissioner