The Communications Council Website Privacy Policy
The Communications Council fundamentally believes that ‘consumer privacy is a right and not a privilege’ and that consumers should not have to work to protect their privacy, but rather marketers should have to work to earn consumers’ trust and seek permission to collect personal information.
Collection of Information
Whenever we collect personal information from you we will do so in a lawful and fair way. We will also advise you how and where to contact us. This web site is committed to respect the privacy of its users and will disclose its information practices:
- If we collect the information from a third party we will take reasonable steps to advise you of that collection promptly.
- We will tell you why we are collecting the information and the third parties to whom we usually disclose that information.
- If you do not wish to provide the information we request, we will tell you what impact this will have.
- We will inform you about what choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
- The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under The Communications Council control.
- How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information that you have provided.
Use of Information
The Communications Council is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. The Communications Council collects information from our users at several different points on this website.
Registration
Completion of the registration form is optional. During registration you can provide your contact information (such as name and email address). This information is used to contact you about the services on our site for which you have expressed an interest. It is optional for you to provide demographic information (such as job title and address details), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalised experience on our site. Registration also allows us to identify The Communications Council members who can access the members only section of this site.
Order
We require certain contact information (like name and shipping address) and financial information (like credit card number, expiration date) to complete orders. This information is used for billing requirements and to process your order. This contact information is used to get in touch with you should we have a problem processing an order.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on your hard drive containing information about you. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once you close your browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, you would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If you reject the cookie, you may still use our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
Log Files
To analyse trends, track user’s movement, administer the site and gather broad demographic information, IP addresses are used. The identification of an IP address does not link in any way to personally identifiable information.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that The Communications Council is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. It is the user’s responsibility to read the privacy statements of every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information that has been collected by this web site.
Newsletter
If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter, you will need to provide your name and an email address.
Surveys & Contests
Surveys and contests require information to be revealed, including contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as postcode and age). Participation in surveys on our site is completely voluntary and is therefore the choice of the individual whether or not to disclose this information.
Security
This website takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line.
- When our registration/order form asks you to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL.
- While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just ‘surfing’.
- While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line.
- All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices.
- Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information.
- Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to your information.
- Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added; our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers’ information is protected.
- Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked cage.
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to The Communications Council.
Members
The Communications Council sends all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. The Communications Council members will occasionally receive information on events, industry news, seminars and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see our choice and opt-out below.
Correction/Updating Personal Information
If your personally identifiable information changes (such as your email address), or if you no longer desire our service, we will endeavour to provide a way to correct, update or remove your personal data provided to us. This can usually be done at the member section or by emailing hello@communicationscouncil.org.au
Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for the information. For example, our order form has an ‘opt-out’ mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don’t want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists.
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or email us at hello@communicationscouncil.org.au Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party, or not.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
Privacy inquiries
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any privacy related dealings with us or a possible breach of your privacy or would like further information about our information management practices, you can contact:
Daniel Leesong
Chief Executive Officer, The Communications Council
Telephone: (02) 8297 3800
If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe at www.truste.org. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve your concerns.