Privacy policy

Introduction

The protection of your personal information is something that Connect Develop (Connect Develop, we, us, our) takes very seriously. This Policy describes how we manage your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (”Privacy Act”).

This Policy represents our policy as at April 2018. From time to time and for any reason we may revise this Policy and our information handling practices. This document will be updated to reflect any changes made and we will publish the revised policy on our website.

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you should contact the Connect Develop Privacy Officer in any of the ways specified under “Contact us”, below.

Personal information – what information we collect and how we use it

“Personal information” is information or an opinion, whether true or not and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, and includes sensitive information.

We will only collect personal information about you if you provide it to us knowingly or otherwise in accordance with this policy. We collect your personal information to allow us to conduct our business functions and to market and sell our products and services, as well as the specific purposes set out in the section entitled “Using your personal information” below. If you do not provide certain personal information, we may not be able to process your application or provide certain of our services to you.

When you register with us, acquire services, visit our website (see below), request information about us or our products, or otherwise contact us (via our website or otherwise), we may collect personal information about you including (but not limited to) your full name, email address, telephone number, address and date of birth, identification details, credit reporting or payment history information, concession details and other personal information.

We may also hold personal information that you provide to us about other individuals residing at the service address e.g. your spouse, partner or co-tenant. We rely on you to inform those individuals that their personal information is being provided to us and that they may contact us for further information.

Under the Privacy Act, “sensitive information” includes but is not limited to information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, or criminal record and also includes health information about an individual. Generally, we do not collect or hold sensitive information about you. However, in certain circumstances and provided we have obtained your consent or where it is required or authorised by or under an Australian law or court/tribunal order, we may collect and hold health information about you or someone living at your supply address as it relates to providing energy or related services to your supply address. For example, that you or a person residing at your supply address is dependent on life support equipment or has a health condition requiring special conditions under energy laws such as multiple sclerosis.

Where we engage with you multiple times over a short period in relation to the same matter, we may not provide you with a separate notice about privacy each time we engage with you.

We may record phone conversations for quality and compliance and training purposes.

We may also collect personal information about you from third parties such as utilities retailers, distributors, market data research firms, your representatives (e.g. spouse, co-tenant, real estate agent) and contractors providing associated services.

We may keep a record of visits to our website, using “cookies” and “log files” to store your preferences, record session information and collect information on how you visit and access our web pages. This information is collected automatically whenever you use the website. A cookie is a small amount of data (which may include information about a user’s identity, browser type or website visiting patterns) that is sent to your Internet web browser from our web server and stored on your computer. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them. If you disable the use of cookies on your web browser or remove or reject specific cookies from our website or linked sites then you may not be able to gain access to all of the content and facilities in those websites.

We may also log IP addresses (i.e. the electronic addresses of computers connected to the Internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, track users’ movements on the website, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use and for advertisers and business partners.

Our website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of such sites. We recommend that you examine the privacy policy for all third party websites you visit to understand their procedures for collecting, using and disclosing personal information.

How we use personal information

We collect, hold and use your personal information for our normal business operations and activities, including to:

• Communicate with you and assist us in the provision of energy services and other products and services to you;
• Assist you by providing you with information and support, and managing and administering any account you may hold with us;
• Arrange for the connection and disconnection of the utility services that you nominate in the completed application forms that we receive from you (nominated utility services);
• Administer our website;
• Keep you up to date with events, products and services that may be of interest to you;
• Help us research the needs of our customers and to market our products and services with a better understanding of your needs and the needs of customers generally;
• Conduct research for the purposes of improving existing products or services or creating new products or services;
• Communicate with contractors and suppliers;
• Comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• For other purposes required or authorised by law, including other purposes for which you have provided your consent;
• Process any job application submitted by you; and
• Allow us to provide advertising material to you regarding us, our related entities and our business partners.

We also use your personal information to provide you with information on products, services that we, or third parties offer, offers, competitions and other marketing information that we consider may be relevant to you or that you might be interested in, even after you cease acquiring products or services from us. You can tell us if you do not want to receive such information by contacting us using the information in the ‘Contact us’ section below.

You consent to us using your personal information in the above ways. We may collect and use your personal information for other purposes not listed above. If we do so, we will make it known to you at the time we collect such information.

We will not use personal information provided by you to us in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Act or any other relevant laws or guidelines.

When we disclose personal information

We will provide your personal information to third party utility companies for the purpose of completing the connections or disconnections you request and to obtain confirmation of the connection or disconnection and, if applicable, to the real estate agents who assisted you in your move. We only provide these utility companies and real estate agents with the information they require for this purpose.

We may also provide your personal information on a confidential basis to third parties in the course of delivering other products and related services to you and to achieve the purposes specified in “How we use personal information”, above. These parties may include our related entities, third parties that provide products and services to us or through us, or other third parties such as regulatory or government authorities, your authorised representatives on your account, and representatives, agents or contractors who are appointed by us in the ordinary operation, administration or promotion of our business (such as for data storage or processing, printing, mailing, marketing, planning and product or service development).

We may also disclose your personal information to our website host or IT service providers in certain limited circumstances, for example when our website experiences a technical problem or to ensure that it operates in an effective and secure manner.

Generally, we’ll only disclose your personal information to these parties:

• For the purposes set out in this privacy policy or any agreement you enter into with us;
• In circumstances permitted by the Privacy Act;
• If we are otherwise required or authorised by law; or
• If the disclosure is made with your consent.

Cross-border disclosure of personal information

We do not disclose, process or store personal information overseas, however, our third party service providers may do so. As at the date this privacy policy was most recently updated, we are not aware of any third party providers that are disclosing, processing or storing personal information overseas. We will update this policy should this change.

Marketing

You consent to us using your personal information from time to time to send you information regarding special offers or promotions about us or our products and services, as well as the products and services of our related entities and our business partners. You also consent to us sending you such information by means of direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS and MMS messages. We will only do this if we believe this will be of interest to you. If you do not want us to send you any of this material or if you want to stop receiving direct marketing, you can let us know by using the Contact us information specified below.

How we hold and keep secure personal information

We are committed to keeping secure the personal information you provide to us. We take precautions to protect the personal information we hold about you from misuse, loss, interference, theft and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We will take reasonable steps to preserve the security of your personal information and other information or data collected by us. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as perfectly secure. As a result, although we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us over the Internet. You transmit such information at your own risk.

How we handle requests for access to personal information

You can request access to details of the personal information that we hold about you at any time, which we will provide to you free of charge, by contacting us using the details under ‘Contact us’ below.

We will respond to any such request for access as soon as reasonably practicable. We may require you to set out the request in writing. Wherever possible and practicable, we will provide with you a copy or details of your personal information in the manner requested.

Otherwise, we will work with you to find a mutually agreed alternative. If, after exploring all options, we cannot provide you with access to the information in the form requested, we will provide a written statement setting out our reasons for refusal.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant. If we determine that information we hold about you is no longer required, we ensure it is destroyed.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

We may not be able to provide you with the services you are seeking if you provide incomplete or inaccurate information. If you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated, please contact us using the details listed under ‘Contact us’ below so that we can correct it.

Privacy complaints

Should you have a privacy complaint or want to report a breach by Connect Develop of the Australian Privacy Principles, we encourage you to inform us so that we can have the opportunity to remedy the issue and find a solution.

We will investigate your queries and complaints within a reasonable period of time and will notify you of the outcome of our investigation.

If you are unsatisfied with the handling of your complaint, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (”OAIC”). For more information about making a complaint to OAIC, visit http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint.

Contact us

If you would like to access the personal information that we hold about you, have a query or complaint or would like further information about our privacy policy, you can contact us by calling Connect Develop on 1300 669 950, or by emailing info@connectdevelop.com

Last updated: 10/04/2018

References to Connect Develop are references to Connect Develop Pty Ltd ABN 62 168 093 749.