Privacy Policy

January 2021


Your privacy is important to us

Master Electricians Association ACN 163 222 642 (“MEA”, “Us”, “we”, “Our”) and Electrical Contractors Association ABN 40 669 256 171 (“ECA”, “Us”, “We”, “Our”) are committed to protecting your privacy.

This Privacy Policy is for is for members and corporate partners of MEA and those receiving any type of communication from MEA.

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), Australian Privacy Principles and registered privacy codes govern the way in which we must manage your personal information.  This policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage your personal information.

  1. Personal information

If we deal with you as a current or prospective customer or client, we may collect personal information from you.

Personal information means information from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained. The types of personal information we may collect from you include (but is not limited to):

a)    Name

b)    Date of birth

c)     Residential address

d)    Postal address

e)    Email address

f)      Telephone numbers, and

g)    Your occupation and place of work.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

Where it is lawful and practical to do so, you may wish to deal with us without providing any personal information, such as by providing a pseudonym or dealing with us anonymously, when you make general enquiries.

However, in order to provide some of our services to you, we may need to identify you.

  1. Why we collect personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information from you when it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the services we provide or functions we carry out.

These functions and activities include:

a)    Providing membership services to you or someone else you know, such as access to discounted legal advice

b)    Providing you with information about other services that we offer that may be of interest to you

c)     Providing you with information relevant to your type of business or other area of expertise or interest

d)    Providing you with the opportunity to meet other people and attend seminars and conferences in your type of business, or other areas of expertise or interest

e)    Facilitating our internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements

f)      Analysing our services and customer needs with a view to improving those services, and

g)    Contacting you to provide a testimonial for us.

  1. Information we collect

Information we collect from you

We collect information about you and your interactions with us. For example when you phone us, visit our website, register for an event, or nominate for an award.

When you use our website or mobile applications, we may collect information about your location or activity including IP address, telephone number and whether you have accessed third party sites.

Some of this website information we collect using Cookies (for more information on Cookies see item 5 in this document).

The information we collect from you may include your name, email, address, contact details, payment details, business details and other information required related to, one or more of the services we provide or functions we carry out.

Information we collect from others

We may collect information about you that is publicly available, for example from public registers or social media. We may also buy or obtain personal information from trusted sources to help us identify people who might be interested in hearing about our services.

We will take reasonable steps to make sure you know we have your personal information, how we got it and how we’ll handle it.

Sensitive information

The Privacy Act protects your sensitive information. This includes information about your health, ethnicity and politics. Generally speaking, we do not require sensitive information about you. If we need to obtain this type of information, we will ask for your consent.

An exception to this general policy is that as we are an employer association, the fact that you are a member of ours is considered sensitive information. When you apply for membership with us we seek your consent to our recording the fact you are a member and disclosing this information to our partners.

  1. How we use your information

We collect, use and exchange your information so that we can:

a)    Establish your identity and assess applications for products and services

b)    Price and design our services

c)     Administer our services

d)    Manage our relationship with you

e)    Contact you

f)      Conduct and improve the association and improve the customer experience

g)    Comply with our legal obligations and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators

h)    Identify and tell you about other products or services that we think may be of interest to you.

We may also collect, use and exchange your information in other ways where permitted by law.

  1. Disclosure of your information

In order to perform the functions and/or activities described above, we may disclose your personal information to any of the persons or organisations described below:

a)    Our related entities (if any) to facilitate our and their internal business processes

b)    Third party service providers, who assist us in operating our business (including credit reporting bodies and technology service providers), and these service providers may not be required to comply with our privacy policy

c)     Our related entities and other organisations with whom we have affiliations so that those organisations may provide you with information about services and various promotions

d)    Organisations involved in maintaining, reviewing, upgrading and developing our computer and business systems

e)    Our financial advisers, legal advisers or auditors

f)      Organisations involved in a corporate re-organisation or involved in a transfer of all or part of the assets or business of our organisation;

g)    Organisations involved in the payments systems including financial institutions, merchants and payment organisations;

h)    As required or authorised by law and/or where you have given your consent.

We will not sell your personal information to other companies or organisations without your prior consent.

Compulsory disclosure

Like every business, we comply with the law. We will be obliged to divulge your personal information if requested by a government agency with the proper authorisation, like a court order.

Overseas Disclosure

We may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.

We may use cloud storage to store the personal information we hold about you. The cloud storage and the IT servers may be located outside Australia.

Prior to disclosing your personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that:

a)    The overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles, or

b)    The overseas recipient is subject to a law, or binding scheme, that has the effect of protecting the information in a way that, overall, is at least substantially similar to the way the Australian Privacy Principles protect the information, or

c)     You have consented to us making the disclosure.

  1. Direct marketing

If you do not wish to receive direct marketing, you can tell us by phoning 1300 889 198 or emailing [email protected].

From time to time, where we have your prior consent, we may wish to email you, about an event or new service that we think might be of interest to you. Should you choose not to receive further promotional emails, simply click on the unsubscribe button in the email.

  1. Privacy on our website

The types of personal information we collect about you will depend on how you use our website. For example, our web server will record the date and time you visit our site, the pages viewed and the information downloaded.

Should you complete and submit an online application form (for example, for events registration) we will collect the information it contains.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of data stored on the web browser on your computer. Our website may store cookies on your web browser. A cookie cannot give access to your computer or any information stored on your computer. You can modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

As part of our marketing strategy, we use cookies so third party vendors, including Google, can serve ads based on your prior visits to this website. You have the option to opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page. Alternatively you can opt out of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page.

Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting

Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting have been enabled on this website, which may allow us to collect information about Users, such as age, gender and interests. This will allow us to better understand the Users that visit our Site and identify how we can improve user experience and interaction.

Social Media

If you access a social media page operated by us, the information we collect about you may also include your user ID and/or user name associated with that social media service, any information or content you have permitted the third party social media service to share with us, such as your profile picture, email address, followers or friends lists, and any information you have disclosed in connection with that social media service.

  1. Keeping your information secure

MEA takes reasonable steps to keep personal information secure, accurate and up-to-date.

We keep your hard-copy or electronic records on our premises and systems or offsite using trusted third parties.

We have developed procedures to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information and policies to ensure it is used correctly. We strive to protect your personal information, however, we cannot ensure the security of any information that you transmit to us over the internet and you do so at your own risk.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is secure once it has been received on our systems. Our website links to external websites and we take no responsibility for the privacy practices or the content of these other sites.

Third party websites

We are not responsible or liable for the content or activities of any third party websites that we may link to. If you have any questions in this regard, or believe that a website that we link to is not within the context of the products and services we offer, then please contact us.

  1. Access to your personal information

You can request, at any time, for us to inform you of the personal information we hold about you. We usually respond to you within seven days of receiving your request.

We may refuse to give you access to the personal information we hold about you if we reasonably believe that giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals, or if we consider the request to be frivolous or vexatious.

We encourage you to access and update your personal information should you believe it to be incorrect.

If you wish to access or correct any of the personal information we hold about you, please email us at [email protected] or contact us by phone on 1300 889 198.

  1. Complaints

Should you wish to make a complaint about the management of your personal information, please email us at [email protected] phone on 1300 889 198. We will make a record of your complaint and take steps to correct any deviation from Australian Privacy Principals.

We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days.  We will provide you with a decision on your complaint within 30 days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response you may make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner which can be contacted on either www.oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992.

  1. How we may change this policy

We may amend or update this Policy at any time. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be publicised on our website.

This privacy policy came into existence on 18 January 2021.

  1. More information

For more information about any issue raised in this Privacy Policy or any other concerns, please contact us:

Master Electricians Australia
Phone: 1300 889 198
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.masterelectricians.com.au

Address: Level 2, 57 Berwick St, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006

For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Australian Information Commissioner’s website at www.oaic.gov.au.

  1. General disclaimer

MEA its employees, officers and agents will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from use of the MEA website, any related website, or any MEA electronic publication. Further, whilst every effort will be made to ensure that information on the website and in electronic publications is accurate and correct, no warranty or guarantee is given by MEA as to the accuracy of such information, and no liability will be accepted for loss or damage arising out of the use of such information.