Privacy Policy – SMD Consulting
SMD Consulting Pty Ltd ACN 684 572 138 (“SMD Consulting”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling personal information in accordance with applicable Australian privacy laws. At www.smdconsulting.com.au, we understand the importance of keeping personal information private and secure. This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") describes generally how we manage personal information and safeguard privacy. If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
This Privacy Policy forms part of, and is subject to the provisions of, our Website Terms of Use (www.smdconsulting.com.au/website-use).
By using this website, you acknowledge that your personal information may be collected, used and disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
The Australian Privacy Principles
We will treat all personal information in accordance with any and all obligations that are binding upon us under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The Privacy Act lays down 13 key principles in relation to the collection and treatment of personal information, which are called the “Australian Privacy Principles”.
What Is “Personal Information”?
Personal information held by SMD Consulting may include your:
- name and date of birth;
- residential and business postal addresses, telephone/mobile/fax numbers and email addresses;
- your computer and connection information; and
- any information that you otherwise share with us.
Information We Collect
We collect personal information only where it is reasonably necessary for our business functions and activities, including providing consulting services, responding to enquiries, operating this website, and complying with legal and regulatory obligations.
We may collect personal information including:
- Name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Company name
- Information submitted through contact forms or enquiries
- Website usage data through cookies and analytics tools
How We Use Your Information
We may use your information to:
- Respond to enquiries or feedback that you may have;
- Provide consulting services;
- Improve our website and services;
- Communicate updates, insights, or marketing material;
- Maintain internal records;
- Conduct research and development in respect of our products and services;
- Prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, this site; and
- For any other purpose reasonably necessary to operate our business, provide our services, comply with legal obligations, or protect our legitimate business interests.
We may send you information about our services, industry insights, events, updates and other communications that we believe may be of interest to you.
You may opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by using the unsubscribe facility included in the communication or by contacting us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy. We will not send you direct marketing communications where prohibited by law.
We will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.
When We May Disclose Your Personal Information
For the purposes set out above, SMD Consulting may disclose your personal information to organisations outside SMD Consulting. Your personal information may be disclosed to these organisations only in relation to this site, and SMD Consulting takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information. These organisations may carry out or provide:
- customer enquiries;
- mailing systems;
- billing and debt-recovery functions;
- information technology services;
- marketing, telemarketing and sales services;
- market research; and
- website usage analysis.
In addition, we may disclose your personal information to:
- your authorised representatives or legal advisers (when requested by you to do so);
- credit-reporting and fraud-checking agencies;
- our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
- government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law;
- organisations who manage our business strategies, including those involved in a transfer/sale of all or part of our assets or business (including accounts and trade receivables) and those involved in managing our business risk and funding functions; and
- the police or other appropriate persons where your communication suggests possible illegal activity or harm to others.
Overseas Disclosure of Personal Information
In the course of providing our services and operating our business, we may disclose personal information to third-party service providers located in Australia and overseas. These service providers may include providers of website hosting, cloud storage, information technology support, customer relationship management systems, email and communication platforms, analytics services, marketing platforms, professional advisers and other business service providers.
As a result, personal information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in countries outside Australia, including countries in which our third-party service providers maintain facilities or conduct operations.
While we take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients handle personal information in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles and applicable privacy laws, we do not control and are not responsible for the privacy and security practices of independent third-party service providers.
By providing personal information to us, you acknowledge and consent to the disclosure, storage and processing of your personal information by such overseas service providers where reasonably necessary for the operation of our business, the provision of our services, or the administration of this website.
Where required by law, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas disclosure of personal information complies with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
Cookies and Analytics
This website may use cookies and third-party analytics tools to improve user experience and monitor website performance.
A cookie is a text file or a packet of information that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. There are two types of cookies that may be used at this site: a persistent cookie and a session cookie. A persistent cookie is entered by your web browser into the "Cookies" folder on your computer and remains in that folder after you close your browser, and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to this site. A session cookie is held temporarily in your computer’s memory and disappears after you close your browser or shut down your computer. Cookies cannot be used to run programs. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. SMD Consulting extends the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources.
You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions to learn more about these functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this site.
Why We Use Cookies
This site uses cookies in order to:
- remember your preferences for using this site;
- show relevant notifications to you (eg, notifications that are relevant only to users who have, or have not, subscribed to newsletters or email or other subscription services); and
- remember details of data that you choose to submit to us (eg, through online contact forms or by way of comments, forum posts, chat room messages, reviews, ratings, etc).
Many of these cookies are removed or cleared when you log out but some may remain so that your preferences are remembered for future sessions.
Third-Party Links and Cookies
This website may contain links to external websites. In some cases, third parties may also place cookies through this site. For example:
- We may use advertising and marketing service providers from time to time to deliver relevant advertisements and measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. These providers may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies to collect information about your interactions with this website and other websites; and
- Third party social media applications (eg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc) may use cookies in order to facilitate various social media buttons and/or plugins in this site.
You may click-through to third party websites from this site, in which case we recommend that you refer to the privacy statement of the websites you visit, as we do not control their privacy practices. This Privacy Policy applies to this site only. SMD Consulting is not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of third-party websites.
Storage and Data Security
We will take reasonable steps to maintain confidentiality and protect your personal information you provide us from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.
This website and related systems are hosted by third-party service providers who may store or process personal information on our behalf. These providers may have access to personal information for the purposes of providing hosting, storage, security, and technical support services.
In our business, personal information may be stored both electronically (on our computer systems and with our website hosting provider) and in hard-copy form. Firewalls, anti-virus software and email filters, as well as passwords, protect all of our electronic information. Likewise, we take all reasonable measures to ensure the security of hard-copy information.
While we take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. If we become aware of a data breach involving personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will comply with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including notifying affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner where required.
Duration of Retention of Your Personal Information
We will only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. At the end of any retention period, your personal information will either be deleted completely or anonymised (for example, by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning). In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal information.
Keeping Your Information Up-To-Date
To ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date, please promptly advise us of any changes to your information by contacting SMD Consulting using the details provided below.
Re-marketing
We may use advertising and marketing technologies to deliver relevant advertising to users of this website and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing activities. These technologies may use cookies, pixels or similar tracking tools to collect information about your interactions with this website and other websites.
This may result in you seeing advertisements for our services on third-party websites and platforms. Any information collected through these technologies will be handled in accordance with the privacy policies of the relevant third-party providers, and we do not receive information that personally identifies you from these providers.
You can manage or opt out of personalised advertising through your browser settings or via the opt-out tools provided by relevant advertising platforms.
Access and Correction
You may request access to or correction of your personal information by contacting us directly.
We will handle requests for access to your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. We will deal with all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible. Requests for a large amount of information, or information that is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given. We may charge you a fee for access if a cost is incurred by us in order to retrieve your information, but in no case will we charge you a fee for your application for access.
In some cases, we may refuse to give you access to personal information that we hold about you. This may include circumstances where giving you access would:
- be unlawful (eg, where a record that contains personal information about you is subject to a claim for legal professional privilege by one of our contractual counterparties);
- have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy; or
- prejudice an investigation of unlawful activity.
We may also refuse access where the personal information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings.
If we refuse to give you access, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal.
Changes to this Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be in accordance with any applicable requirements under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. Updated versions will be published on this website.
Privacy Complaints
If you believe we have breached the Privacy Act or Australian Privacy Principles, you may submit a complaint to us using the contact details below. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within a reasonable period and aim to respond within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
Contact
If you would like more information about the way we manage personal information that we hold about you, or are concerned that we may have breached your privacy, please email SMD Consulting at: [email protected]
If you require any further information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, you can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/