General

Finucan Lawyers and its related entities (referred to in this document as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’) recognises that your privacy is important, and we are committed to protecting the personal information we collect from you.
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’), and the Australian Privacy Principles (‘APP’) govern the way in which we must manage your personal information and this policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage personal information about you.

Definitions

In this policy:
• Personal Information has the meaning given under the Privacy Act but, in short, means information or an opinion relating to an individual that can be used to identify that individual.

• Privacy Act means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including the Australian Privacy Principles (as amended from time to time).

• Sensitive Information has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act.

• Services means the services of a legal and commercial nature that we provide.

• Website means www.finucanlaw.com.au and other websites and forms of social media where you post comments or we interact with you.
The meaning of any general language is not restricted by any accompanying example and the words ‘includes’, ‘including’, ‘such as’, ‘for example’ or similar words are not words of limitation.

Collection

Types of Information Collected
We may collect and hold personal information about you, that is, information that can identify you, and is relevant to providing you with the services you are seeking. This can include your name, date of birth, contact details (including address, email address, phone number), financial information (such as credit card or bank account numbers) and information about how you use our products and services. This is not an exhaustive list. We may need to collect additional information about you from time to time to provide products or services to you. You might also need to provide us with personal information about other individuals (e.g. your authorised representatives). If so, we rely on you to inform those individuals that you are providing their personal information to us and to advise them about this policy.

Purpose of Collection
The type of personal information that we collect and hold about you depends on your interaction with us. Generally, we will collect, use and hold your personal information for the purposes of:
• providing products or services to you or someone else you know;
• issuing tax invoices for the products or services we may provide to you from time to time;
• providing you with information about other services that we, our related entities and other organisations that we have affiliations with, offer that may be of interest to you;
• facilitating our internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements; and
• analysing our services and customer needs with a view to developing new or improved services.

Method of Collection
Personal information will generally be collected directly from you through the use of any of our standard forms (such as when you enter into an agreement with us, contact us with a query or request or submit your details through our website or by email). We may also collect information other than directly from you, for example:
• from third parties such as our related entities, business partners, or your representatives;
• from our referral partners;
• from publicly available sources of information;
• from our records of how you use our services; and
• from the third parties we list in the section of this policy with the heading ‘Use and disclosure’.
If you choose not to provide certain information about you, we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you require, or the level of service on which we pride ourselves.
If the personal information you provide to us is incomplete or inaccurate, we may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the products or services you, or they, are seeking.

Internet users
If you access our website, we may collect additional personal information about you in the form of your IP address and domain name.
Our website uses cookies. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and to prepare customised web pages for them. Cookies do not identify you personally, but they may link back to a database record about you. We use cookies to monitor usage of our website and to create a personal record of when you visit our website and what pages you view so that we may serve you more effectively.
Our website may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of linked websites and linked websites are not subject to our privacy policies and procedures.

Use and Disclosure

General
Generally, we only use or disclose personal information about you for the purposes for which it was collected (as set out above) or for purposes which are directly related to one or more of our functions and activities.

We may disclose personal information about you to:

Third parties:

• such as third party product or service providers, who assist us in operating our business (including to assist us in providing you with the products and or services that you have requested or have expressed an interest);
• if you agree to the disclosure;
• when we use it for the purpose for which it was collected, e.g. to provide you with Services;
• in circumstances where you would reasonably expect information of that kind to be passed to a third party (e.g. as a result of disclosure in a court action, during court proceedings, briefing and instructing counsel or disclosure to an expert);
• where disclosure is required or permitted by law (including under the Privacy Act), by court order, or is required to investigate suspected fraud or other unlawful activity; or
• if disclosure will prevent or lessen a serious or imminent threat to someone’s life or health.
• Such third parties may not be required to comply with our privacy policy.

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.

Legal Professional Privilege
When you provide personal information to us in the context of our providing legal advice to you, that information may be protected by Legal Professional Privilege.
In addition, if your relationship with us is one of lawyer/client, we are bound by obligations of confidentiality.
If Legal Professional Privilege applies, your personal information is protected from disclosure, other than where we are specifically required as a result of a law or an order of the court to disclose it or where disclosure is in accordance with your instructions.

Disclosing personal information off-shore
We may disclose personal information to third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the reasons listed above under the heading ‘purpose of collection’.

In providing services to you, we may need to disclose your personal information to a service provider in another country. This does not diminish your rights and we will take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure transferred information is kept secure as required by applicable data privacy laws. By submitting your personal information to us you agree that you do not object to any such transfer, processing or storage. If we merge, combine or divest a part of our business, we may also pass on your details to our new colleagues and the manager of any entity through which they operate unless prohibited from doing so by law or applicable professional rules.

We may disclose your personal information outside of Australia as follows:
• to third parties if required to provide you with requested or necessary services; and

• to our data hosting and other service providers which may be located outside of Australia.

How we use your information for Direct Marketing

We may also use your information so that we, our related entities, and other business partners can promote and market products, services and special offers that we think will be of interest to you (which may include products, services and offers provided by a third party). This marketing may be carried out in a variety of ways (including by email, SMS/MMS, or social media) and may continue after you cease acquiring any products or services from us until you opt-out by contacting us using the contact details set out in the Contact section of this policy.

How we hold your personal information

The security of your personal information is of paramount importance to us. We store your personal information in different ways, including in paper and in electronic form. Any bank or credit card details you provide and that we store will be encrypted, and any tax invoices we issue to you will not display your full bank or credit card details, for your added protection. The security of your personal information is important to us. We take all reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If we no longer need your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected or for purposes which are directly related to one or more of our functions and activities, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy it or permanently remove all identifying features from that information. This obligation is subject to any legal requirement or Court order to retain the information.

How you can access your personal information

You may access the personal information we hold about you, upon making a written request. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.
If, upon receiving access to your personal information or at any other time, you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please notify us immediately. We will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date.
If you wish to access any of your personal information that we hold or would like to correct any errors in that information, please contact us using the contact details set out in the Contact section of this policy, so that we can consider and respond to your request. We may apply an administrative charge for providing access to your personal information in response to a request.

Complaints

You may use the contact details below to notify us of any privacy complaint you have against us, including if you think that we have failed to comply with the APP or any binding APP code that has been registered under the Privacy Act. We are committed to acknowledging your complaint in a prompt manner and will give you an estimated timeframe for when we will respond to your complaint.
If you are unhappy with the way that we handle your complaint you may make your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Contact

If you have any queries or concerns about our privacy policy or the way we handle your personal information, please contact our privacy officer at:
Email address: info@finucanlaw.com.au
Telephone: (07) 5655 4570

Changes to our privacy and information handling practices

This privacy policy is subject to change at any time. Please check our privacy policy on our website regularly for any changes.

More information

For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website at http://www.oaic.gov.au/.