Public Privacy Statement
Updated: 17 April 2009
Please contact the Foundation if you require any further information regarding our privacy policy.
The National Privacy Principles
The Australian Government introduced new legislation that came into force on 21 December 2001 to protect the privacy of individuals. This legislation comprises 10 National Privacy Principles that apply to private sector organisations. You can find out more about these principles by calling the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or through their website at www.privacy.gov.au.
The Macular Degeneration Foundation respects and upholds your rights to privacy protection under the National Privacy Principles in regulating how we collect, use, disclose and hold your personal information.
Why we collect your personal information
Your personal and sensitive information, including health information, is only collected as is necessary for a function or activity to enable the Macular Degeneration Foundation to carry out its work and deliver services to the community.
The Macular Degeneration Foundation is very grateful to the many thousands of people around Australia who provide financial support to allow us to continue our important sight saving work. When you give us personal information such as your name and address, we record it on our database and use it to contact you.
We may use your personal information to send you information on macular degeneration or to let you know about our special events and fundraising programs. You can also let us know that you do not wish to receive any further mail by phoning our Helpline on 1800 111 709 for the cost of a local call.
The Macular Degeneration Foundation will not collect sensitive information about health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade association or union membership, sexual preferences or criminal record, unless you have consented to give this information and it is relevant to the work of the Macular Degeneration Foundation. We will always collect such information in a non-intrusive, lawful and fair manner.
Opting out or modifying your information
If you want to change any information that you have previously given us, or if you want to opt out of future communications please contact:
Macular Degeneration Foundation
Level 9, 447 Kent Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Alternatively, please call1800 111 709 or email: info@mdfoundation.com.au
How we collect your personal information
We collect your personal information when you provide it to the Macular Degeneration Foundation in a number of ways including:
- through a call to our Helpline
- by participating in one of the Macular Degeneration Foundation's education, information or fundraising events
- registration of details on the MDF website
- when you respond to other awareness or fundraising campaigns.
How we keep your personal information secure
If you provide us with your personal information, it is securely stored in our database, which is accessed only by authorised staff at the Macular Degeneration Foundation. Each user can only access the system via a username/password. In addition, our external access to e-mail and the Internet is protected by a Firewall/Router.
Disclosing your personal information
The Macular Degeneration Foundation will not provide your personal information to any other individuals or organisations except on a confidential basis to contractors who provide database management, printing and mailing services to the Macular Degeneration Foundation. In these cases, we ensure that our contractors are also bound by the National Privacy Principles to keep your personal information confidential.
The Macular Degeneration Foundation is very thankful to people who are willing to share their personal stories of their macular degeneration with others through media stories and in our newsletter. We will only use your personal information for publicity purposes or as stories in our newsletter with your express written permission.
Visiting our website
When you visit our website, you can browse at your leisure. The Macular Degeneration Foundation does not use "cookies" to track your movements through the information section of our website or your visits to other websites. The Macular Degeneration Foundation will only place a "cookie" on your computer for (a) the purposes of tracking navigation and/or (b) to track items added to the e-commerce facility when you make an online donation to the Macular Degeneration Foundation or purchase a Macular Degeneration Foundation product. Our third party credit card transaction processor, Payflow Pro online payment gateway, uses "cookies" for transaction integrity and anti-fraud purposes. This provider is compliant with the National Privacy Principles and will not utilise your details for any activity other than supporting the primary purpose of making a donation to the Macular Degeneration Foundation or purchasing a Macular Degeneration Foundation product.
If you provide us with your email address it will not be passed on to any other organisation.
The Macular Degeneration Foundation website contains links to other sites of interest. The Macular Degeneration Foundation does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of those websites.
Please check the Privacy Statements on other websites before you provide your personal information to them.
By using the Macular Degeneration Foundation's Internet site, you agree that the Internet is inherently insecure and accordingly, the Macular Degeneration Foundation cannot provide any definitive assurance regarding security of personal information. The Macular Degeneration Foundation will not be liable in any way in relation to any breach of security or any unintended loss or disclosure of that information.
Our Website Security
Our website is secured by a Comodo 128 bit SSL Key certificate. All forms used within this website are encrypted. We make every effort possible to make your donations and transactions within our site as secure and safe as possible for you. All information that leaves any form (including your credit card number) is encrypted automatically by your browser until it reaches our servers.
The Spam Act 2003
The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited emails and SMS messages for commercial purposes from or within Australia or to people in Australia, and bans the supply and use of software designed to harvest email addresses. While charities do have some exemptions from this Act, the Macular Degeneration Foundation will abide by the best practice guidelines, which will be developed on responsible electronic messaging practices by the Australian Communications Authority.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
The Macular Degeneration Foundation may, without notice, amend or modify its Privacy Policy by posting the amended Privacy Policy to the Macular Degeneration Foundation website.
How to access, correct or update your personal information
If you have any complaints, questions or concerns about what information the Macular Degeneration Foundation holds or about the accuracy of that information, please contact the Macular Degeneration Foundation Office on 1800 111 709 and ask to speak to the General Manager.
If you would like to access the information that we hold about you, you can write to the General Manager at the Foundation’s address provided above. We will endeavour to give you access to that information within two weeks. In order to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to provide specific identification before we give you access.
If the information that we hold about you is incorrect or not up-to-date, we will update it as soon as possible after you have shown us how and why it is incorrect.
In the unlikely event that we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information for legal reasons as specified in the Privacy Act, we will provide you with reasons for denying access.