Privacy

Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy (“Policy”) covers DAA’s treatment of personal information, or personally identifiable information (both “Personal information”) and sensitive information that may be collected by or submitted to DAA to enable DAA to undertake it’s core functions – including but not limited to:

• DAA Staff employment requirements such as Tax File Numbers (TFN) for taxation purposes
• DAA Membership and / or access to the Accredited Practising Dietitian Program
• Sponsorship/Partners
• Allied Health Professionals or organisations that DAA regularly cooperates with
• Medicare or other professional registration and/or verification

This Policy does not apply to companies that DAA does not own or control, or to individuals that are not under DAA’s supervisory control. Whenever personal information is voluntarily disclosed online or in hard-copy this information cannot be made one hundred percent secure and, in some cases, that information could be intercepted, collected and used by others. However, DAA works hard to protect personal information at all times and in several ways.

Information is encrypted and stored on a secure server that DAA owns and operates. Only authorised personnel can access this database through individualised passwords.
DAA emails are not encrypted and authors of email content should be aware not to include personal, sensitive or commercial in confidence material. DAA emails are notated with a disclaimer explaining the appropriate use and protection of information contained within.

Australian National Policy landscape

The Privacy Act 1988 is the national legislation which ensures that organisations like DAA, businesses and government agencies protect people’s Personal information and are transparent about how they handle this information. The Act was amended in the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) 2012, these changes came into effect on 12 March 2014.

The main changes invoked were the replacement of the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). These Privacy Principles regulate the handling of Personal information via individual and organisational specific policies and procedures. There are 13 new principles which are broken down into 5 discrete parts, these are:

Part 1 – Consideration of Personal information privacy
Part 2 – Collection of Personal information
Part 3 – Dealing with Personal information
Part 4 – Integrity of Personal information
Part 5 – Access to, and correction of Personal information

Key Definitions

DAA has adopted the definitions given to ‘personal information’ and ‘sensitive information’ as outlined in the Privacy Act 1988. These are:

‘Personal information’ means the information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

‘Sensitive information’ includes (but is not limited to):

Information or an opinion about an individual’s

1. Racial or ethnic origin; or
2. Political opinions; or
3. Membership of a political association; or
4. Religious beliefs or affiliations; or
5. Philosophical beliefs; or
6. Membership of a profession or trade association; or
7. Membership of a trade union; or
8. Sexual preferences or practices; or
9. Criminal record

that is also personal information; or

10. Health information about an individual; or
11. Genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information.

How We Collect Your Personal Information

While using the DAA website, you may be required to submit personal information when registering for services, ordering products, posting content or requesting assistance. Depending on the service or process, the personal information you may be asked to provide is your:

1. Name, postal address, email address, phone number, credit or debit card information, age, gender or other demographic information such as location information.
2. Personal information may also be collected, or your IP address logged, when you visit the DAA website. Your IP information allows us to understand how you use our site and to enable us to make changes to our site in order to improve your experience.
3. Information regarding your computer, your connection to our website (such as your browser type, operating system, and platform) is not recorded by DAA.
4. DAA uses cookies to remember certain user information. Cookies are electronic identifiers that are transferred automatically to your computer through your browser that allows our computers to save certain information you provide us and store information about you so we can recognise you when you visit our website in the future. This allows you to avoid logging in more than once, which saves time, and creates a customised website that fits your needs. You may, at any time, disable or refuse to accept cookies by changing the preferences or settings on your web browser. If you choose to disable cookies, you will still be able to use our website, however, you will not be able to fully take advantage of certain automation and other functionality features available.

Dealing with Personal information

How We Use Your Personal information

DAA may use the personal information you provide for purposes such as: carrying out a registration made by you; customising the advertising and content you see; fulfilling your requests for products and services (including purchases); improving the content and overall look and feel of our website and services, contacting you, conducting research, providing anonymous reporting for internal purposes and contacting users regarding changes to our website or business. DAA may also retain the details of purchases and other transactions or payments made with us or affiliates of our organisation, such as PEN.

How Your Personal information is disclosed

It is DAA policy not to disclose, sell or rent your personal information to any individual, business, government entity or outside parties except:

1. to provide products or services you’ve requested through DAA
2. in response to a validly-issued subpoena, court order, or other legal process
3. when necessary to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal action
4. if you request DAA to do so
5. anytime authorisation is given to DAA to release information about individuals including any request to view an individual’s own information
6. for the purpose of providing a public list of names and states/territories of residence to allow confirmation of APD status.

From time to time, DAA may use return email addresses to answer the email we received from you. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and your personal information will not be collected for use by others looking to conduct any direct marketing activities.

Setting Up User Accounts

DAA allows users to set up personal accounts to purchase resources or publications from our online library or to participate in our online communities. You have the ability to edit personal information you provide at any time, and may request to have your account removed. This can be done by contacting DAA. Other information collected  in the process of purchasing products and other activities on the website, can only be archived and is not able to be deleted from DAA records. Unless DAA is required to respond to court orders, subpoenas or comply with applicable laws, DAA will use its best efforts to ensure that unauthorised third parties do not access your user information.

Correcting Your Personally Identifiable Information

The individual member or user of the DAA website and business management database is responsible for ensuring that all personal information you provide to DAA is maintained and kept current.

Web Statistics & Shared Data

DAA collects and uses some web based information to analyse trends, administer the site, track user movement, and to gather broad demographic information for reporting and sponsorship purposes.

From time to time, we may use this information to better design our website and to share with select advertising partners, sponsors, and/or affiliates however IP addresses are not linked to personal information. For example, we may tell an advertiser that (x) number of individuals visited a certain area on our website, or that (y) number of men and (z) number of women filled out our registration form, but we will not disclose to these partners, sponsors and/or affiliates anything that could be used to personally identify those individuals.

DAA staff will be asked to complete certain personal information as part of their employment contracts; this includes supplying a Tax File Number (TFN).

Third party Websites

The DAA website contains links to other third party websites. DAA does not claim or assume any responsibility for the privacy practices of these third party sites. You are encouraged to be aware when you leave our site and to take reasonable precautions when sharing your personally identifiable information on third party websites.

Opt-In/Out

You may “opt-in/out” for receiving newsletters, promotional offers and other information from our partners and affiliates. To unsubscribe from external advertising and marketing material and DAA driven SMS messaging go to the ‘Update your details’ section of the Website and edit your personal profile. As DAA is required by law to be able to communicate with its members, it is not possible to opt out of weekly emails and newsletter subscriptions to ensure members do not miss important information that will need to be communicated from time to time.

Encryption

All user accounts must be accessed with usernames and passwords. You are strongly advised not to share your user name and password with any other person. All online payment pages are protected with Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) encryption.

Amendments

DAA reserves the right to amend this policy at any time. DAA will contact registered users by e-mail, and shall also post a notice of changes on its web site, when and if the terms of this policy are amended.

Adding your details to accessible website lists

The DAA website supports lists which are accessible either to the public (Find and APD, Locum Lists) or other members (Find a Mentor). Inclusion in these lists is entirely voluntary and the member is responsible for ensuring details are current and correct.

Landing pages for such lists will contain clear disclaimers to this effect and a warning to users that the lists are not to be mined for marketing, surveys or other purposes, which breach the intent of the page.

Contact

You may contact DAA directly by e-mailing the Website Aministrator should you have any questions regarding this policy or wish to register any concerns you may have including potential breaches of your Personal information.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License.