Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

Audiology Australia Ltd ACN 168 531 324 (we, our, us) is committed to managing the privacy of the personal information we collect and hold about individuals in accordance with best practice.

This privacy policy (Policy) explains how we manage personal information in compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)(Privacy Act), as well as other relevant State and Territory legislation regarding the management of personal information.

2. Collection of information

2.1. Types of personal information we collect and hold

The types of personal information that we collect about you will ultimately depend on the types of interactions that you have with us. The type of personal information that we will typically collect includes the following:

general information about you, including your name, address, contact phone number, gender, date of birth, and email address;
your employment details, including your skills, professional qualifications, career and employment history for the purposes of verifying eligibility for membership and/or clinical certification;
details about you that you have submitted as part of participation in any of our programmes, or an application for membership, membership renewal, or clinical certification;
details about our interactions with you-such as your clinical certification status and history, your membership status and history, any feedback, complaints, responses to surveys, records of correspondence and interactions with our staff (including in person, online, by telephone, email and via social media); and
if you are one of our members or an audiologist certified by us we will assign you a unique identification number to enable us to carry out our functions efficiently. This number appears on the Membership and/or certificates issued to Audiology Australia Accredited Audiologists^® and non-accredited audiologists. We do not use any government-related identifiers as our own identifiers of an individual.

Sensitive information

Sometimes we may need to collect sensitive information about you, for example if you lodge a complaint about one of our members or Certified Audiologists. We will only collect sensitive information about you that we reasonably need to perform our functions (such as health information if relevant to a complaint about a practitioner)) with your express consent, unless an exception under the Privacy Act applies.

Express consent may be obtained by:

signed or electronic forms;
ticking an online consent box;
verbal confirmation (which we document); or
any other clear affirmative action indicating your agreement.

If you do not consent to us collecting or using sensitive information, we may be unable to investigate certain complaints or provide some services.

2.2. How we collect and hold your personal information

Direct collection

While our usual practice is to collect personal information directly from you or your authorized representative, we may collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

when you communicate with us via telephone, or via written correspondence such as email;
when you apply for membership or clinical certification with us;
when your access our products or services, including our website, our social media, or our electronic applications;
when you apply for employment or for an internship with us;
when you participate in any of our activities, including by attending any of our seminars, events and functions;
when you provide us with a product or service

Website

We may collect non-identifying information in relation to your use of our website, including your IP address, the type of browser you use, the files you request, and the domain name and country from which you request information, to monitor and improve our web site and services. Our website may use cookies to assist in making your browsing experience better and to allow us to improve our website.

Indirect collection

While handling an investigation or resolving a complaint, we may collect personal information about you indirectly from publicly available sources or third parties such as an authorized representative, complainants, respondents, or witnesses to a complaint.

We also collect information from publicly available sources to enable us to contact stakeholders who may be interested in supporting our work or participating in our events.

3. How information is used

3.1. Typical purposes

Audiology Australia is a professional membership association for audiologists. We will not collect, hold and/or use your personal information unless it is necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions, activities or services, including (but not limited to):

keeping a register of members, their qualifications, achievements, appointments and their general and specific professional experiences (if appropriate and where applicable);
promoting proper professional standards of practice and suppressing malpractice by and amongst audiologists,
to carry out determinations made in respect of disputes and questions of practice or of professional conduct relating to audiology which may be referred to us;
collecting membership subscriptions
asking for, inviting, collecting and receive donations for our funds;
establishing and promoting standards of professional education, qualifications, conduct and ethics of the profession of audiology;
appointing, employing, removing or suspending such persons as may be necessary or appropriate for the purposes of the administration of Audiology Australia ; and
holding and conducting conferences, meetings, lectures, discussions and experiments relevant to the science, knowledge and practice of audiology.

If you do not provide your personal information to us, we may be unable to offer you, or maintain, your membership or clinical certification or, you may be unable to participate in or have access to our processes, programs, events and activities. We may also be unable to provide you with some or all of our other services.

Individuals who we clinically certify to become an “ Audiology Australia Accredited Audiologist^®” enter into a Licensing Agreement with us for the use of the trade mark and in doing so agree to their name, membership number, and State/Territory being placed on a public register of Certified Audiologists accessible from our website.

3.2. Disclosures to Medicare, Government Agencies and Other Authorised Bodies

We may disclose certain personal information to government agencies and related bodies where this is reasonably necessary for verifying an individual’s professional status, supporting health service delivery, or meeting regulatory, compliance or funding requirements.

These bodies may include (but are not limited to):

Medicare;
the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA);
State and Territory WorkCover / workers compensation authorities;
the Hearing Services Program / Office of Hearing Services;
private health insurers;
National Health Services Directory; and
other health, disability or regulatory bodies authorised to collect such information.

The types of information we may disclose typically include your name, membership or certification status, professional credentials, practice details, and whether you currently hold an “ Audiology Australia Accredited Audiologist®” clinical certification.

These disclosures are made only where:

the agency or organisation has a legitimate need to confirm your registration, certification or eligibility;
the disclosure is directly related to our functions and activities as a membership and certification body;
the disclosure is required or authorised by law (including under government program rules or funding requirements); or
you have provided consent (express or implied) for such verification to occur.

We do not disclose your personal information to these bodies for marketing or unrelated purposes. We require organisations receiving member lists or certification details to use the information only for the purpose for which it was provided and not to distribute it further.

3.3. Complaints

We may need to disclose the membership status of a member if a person makes, or seeks to make, a complaint about the member. In accordance with our independent complaints and resolution procedure, we may notify another professional body, regulatory body or agency about a complaint regarding a member and its outcome where it considers it is reasonable and just or otherwise appropriate to do so.

If any other organisation, person or entity requests that Audiology Australia verifies an individual’s clinical certification status, we will not do so until we have received authorisation from the individual.

3.4. Promotions

We may use your personal information to send you communications about our programs, events, publications, professional updates, campaigns, or services that we believe may be of interest to you (Promotions). These Promotions may for example be sent by email, post, or other digital platforms. We will only use your personal information for these Promotions where:

you would reasonably expect us to use your information for that purpose;
you have provided your consent (express or implied); or
the communication is permitted by law.

You may opt out of receiving Promotions at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting us at the details provided in this Policy. Once you opt out, we will no longer send you Promotions, unless you later request to receive them again.

3.5. General administration

We also collects, holds, uses and discloses information for general administration purposes such as:

Recruiting staff and contractors;
Processing payments;
Answering queries and
Using aggregated information for business analysis.

4. Unsolicited personal information

We may receive personal information that we have not requested, including information sent to us in error, information provided by third parties, or information provided in circumstances unrelated to our functions or activities.

Where we receive unsolicited personal information, we will handle it in accordance with the Privacy Act, including the requirements of APP 4.

If we determine that the unsolicited personal information is not reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities, and we are not otherwise permitted or required by law to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to:

destroy the information as soon as practicable, if lawful and reasonable to do so; or
ensure the information is de-identified.

If the unsolicited information is relevant to our functions or activities and we are permitted to retain it, we will handle the information in the same manner as personal information that we have collected directly, as set out in this Policy.

5. Anonymity and pseudonymity

You may choose to interact with us anonymously or under a pseudonym where this is lawful and reasonably practicable. This includes making general enquiries, accessing public information on our website, or providing certain kinds of feedback.

In many circumstances, however, we may need to identify you in order to respond to your request or carry out our functions. For example, we generally require your identity if you:

apply for membership or clinical certification;
update your member record;
request verification of your clinical certification status;
lodge a formal complaint or respond to a complaint; or
register for events or programs that require eligibility checks.

If you choose not to provide your identity when requested, we may be unable to provide you with the relevant service.

6. Cross-border disclosure of information

We may disclose personal information to organisations located outside Australia in the course of providing our services, including where our service providers store or process data overseas. These organisations may include cloud hosting providers, database providers, IT service providers and other professional service firms.

The countries in which these overseas recipients are likely to be located include:

Singapore – cloud hosting and data processing services;
United States of America – cloud infrastructure, email, document management and communications platforms;
New Zealand – service providers supporting our administrative or professional functions (if relevant); and
other countries in which our contracted service providers or their sub-contractors maintain data centres.

Where we disclose personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient complies with the Australian Privacy Principles or is bound by a law or scheme that provides substantially similar protection. This may include:

contractual safeguards, including data protection obligations;
requiring adherence to recognised international security standards; and
conducting due diligence on the recipient’s privacy and security measures.

By interacting with us, you acknowledge that your personal information may be transferred overseas in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

7. Security of personal information

We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These steps include:

secure electronic data storage using reputable cloud service providers;
access controls, including password protection, role-based access restrictions and multi-factor authentication;
encryption of data transmitted to and from our systems;
physical security controls for our premises and record storage areas;
confidentiality obligations in staff and contractor agreements;
regular security audits, monitoring and system updates; and
secure destruction or de-identification of personal information when it is no longer required and when retention is not legally required.

Despite our efforts, no data transmission or security measure can be guaranteed as completely secure. If you become aware of any security breach, please notify us promptly.

8. Ensuring Accuracy and Currency of Personal Information

8.1. Quality of Personal Information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant. These steps may include:

requesting that members review and update their details;
updating records upon receipt of corrected information; and
implementing administrative and technical measures to maintain data accuracy within our systems.

We encourage all members and Certified Audiologists to keep their personal information up to date. If you believe that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us using the details provided in this Privacy Policy so we can update our records promptly.

8.2. Requesting corrections

You have the right to gain access to the personal information we hold about you.

If you request access to the information that we hold about you or request that we change the information, we will allow access or make the requested changes unless we consider there is a sound reason under the Privacy Act or other relevant law to withhold the information or not make the requested change. Please contact us at the details below to correct and update your information

If we refuse your access or correction request, we will provide you with a written notice stating the reasons for our refusal and how you can make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

9. Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect our current data collection and disclosure practices, with or without giving notice to you. The most recent version of our Privacy Policy is available on our website. We recommend you visit our website regularly to keep updated with any changes to this Privacy Policy.

10. How to make a complaint about a potential breach of your privacy

You may contact us anytime with any questions, concerns or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled. Please address any complaint about privacy to the Privacy Officer via:

Email: info@audiology.asn.au
Phone: +61 03 9940 3900; or
Mail to: The CEO, Audiology Australia 15-19 Gracie St, North Melbourne, VIC, 3051

We take all complaints seriously and will respond to your complaint within a reasonable time.

If you are unsatisfied with our complaint handling, contact the OAIC by telephone on 1300 363 992, by email enquiries@oaic.gov.au or by using the contact details on the OAIC website.

Download this Privacy Policy as a PDF