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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Statement (this Statement) sets out how HOST International Ltd `{`53 616 244 332`}`, (HOST, we, us and our) protect the privacy of personal information that is collected through the website available at www.www.hostinternational.org.au (Site), or directly from you. We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Please read this Privacy Statement carefully.

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This Privacy Statement may be amended from time to time with changes, additions and deletions, at our sole discretion. You should check this page regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Site following any amendments indicates that you accept the amendments.

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What does this Privacy Statement cover?

  • You use this Site; or

  • We perform any other activities that form part of the operation of our business.

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Are all areas of this Site covered by this Statement?

Certain areas of this Site may have separate privacy policies that apply to personal information collected via those pages. A separate policy may be necessary because of the nature of the personal information being collected and to provide additional detail about how we handle information collected via those pages.

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HOST Affiliate Organisations and Branches in other countries

HOST is a registered non-profit in New Zealand, rapidly expanding into other countries, and is subject to the privacy laws of the particular country or countries in which they operate. As a result, separate privacy policies will govern the handling of any personal information collected by these affiliate organisations and branches will not be covered by this Statement. These privacy policies can be accessed here.

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​We encourage visitors to review the privacy policy of each affiliate or branch before disclosing any personal information.

What Laws apply to us?

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When handling personal information, we will comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other applicable legislation (such as Australian State and Territory health privacy legislation).

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​The APPs are legally binding principles that are designed to ensure that individuals’ personal information is protected throughout the information lifecycle – that is, from the time the information is collected through to its destruction. The APPs also give individuals the right to access their personal information and have it corrected if it is incorrect.

​We take our obligations under the APPs and Australian State and Territory privacy legislation seriously.

A full copy of HOST’s Australian Privacy Policy can be accessed here.

For further information about your privacy rights, you can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at 

https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/privacy-act/.

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What personal information do we collect and hold?

We collect information about you and your interactions with us, for example, when you call us or visit our Site. The information we collect from you may include your identity and contact details, and details of enquiries or complaints you make.

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We may collect information about how you access, use, interact and communicate with the Site. This information may include:

  1. The location from which you have come to the Site and the pages you have visited;

  2. Technical data, which may include IP address, the types of devices you are using to access the Site, device attributes, browser type, language and operating system; and

  3. Information collected by our ‘Contact Us’ page when you contact us or submit an inquiry via the Site. Such information may include your name, address, email address and phone number. When you use the ‘Contact Us’ page of our Site, your personal information will be processed by HOST for the sole purpose of replying to your queries. No other processing will be conducted by your personal information.

 

We may also collect personal information from members of the public as part of undertaking surveys, research on current issues or as part of projects or initiatives we are conducting with other organisations.

​The types of information that we may collect may vary depending on the nature of the undertaking. However, we will take reasonable steps to provide clear information about the nature of those activities and the purpose for which we are collecting your information.

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How do we collect your personal information?

We also use cookies on the Site. Accepting the cookies used on the HOST Site does not give us access to your personal identifiable information but we can use the cookies to identify your computer.

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What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that the Site may place on your device to store information.

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Encrypted information gathered from cookies is used to understand the performance of our Site, improve your experience while using it, and to improve the technology through which the Site is built and operated on.

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We may use persistent cookies (which remain on your computer even after you close your browser) to store information that may speed up your use of our Site for any of your future visits to the Site. We may also use session cookies (which no longer remain after you end your browsing session) to help manage the display and presentation of information on the Site.

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You may refuse to use cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Site.

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Why do we collect, hold and use your personal information?

We collect, hold and use your personal information for the following purposes:

  1. To contact you, for example, to respond to any correspondence you have entered into with us whether by letter, email, text, social media, message board or any other means;

  2. For internal record keeping, to administer the Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, statistical and survey purposes;

  3. To provide you with information about our activities or online content you have agreed to receive;

  4. To personalise the way HOST Content is presented to you;

  5. To use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from different countries;

  6. To enable us to track users returning to the Site;

  7. To give us information about how many users read each blog post;

  8. To analyse and improve the activities and content offered by the Site and to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience;

  9. To notify you about changes to our service; and

  10. As part of our efforts to keep our Site safe and secure.

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How do we store and hold personal information?

We store most information about you in computer systems and databases operated by either us or our external service providers.

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We implement and maintain processes and security measures in an effort to protect personal information which we hold from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

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​These processes and systems include:

  1. Administrative and technical controls to restrict access to personal information to only those people who need access;

  2. Technological security measures, including firewalls, encryption and anti-virus software;

  3. Staff education and training to ensure our staff are aware of their privacy obligations when handling your personal information; and

  4. Monitoring and regularly reviewing our practice against our own policies and industry best practice.

 

We will also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for the purposes for which it was collected or for any secondary purpose permitted under the APPs.

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Sensitive Information

While HOST has taken all reasonable measures to ensure the privacy and safety of personal information, we encourage users not to send sensitive information to us using the online contact forms on our Site, including the HOST ‘Contact Us’ form.

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Please contact us to ask about a more secure method for sending any sensitive information.

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Who do we disclose your Personal Information to, and why?

We may transfer or disclose your personal information to our related companies.

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We may disclose personal information to external service providers so that they may perform services for us or on our behalf.

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We may also disclose your personal information to others where:

  1. We are required or authorised by law to do so;

  2. You may have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances; or

  3. We are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.

 

If the ownership or control of all or part of our business changes, we may transfer your personal information to the new owner.

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Contact Us

For more information about our privacy practices including accessing or correcting your personal information or making a complaint, you can contact us using the details below:

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Attention: Privacy & Policy Unit

HOST International
P.O. Box 2358
North Parramatta NSW 1750
Australia
Email: privacy@hostinternational.org.au or privacy@hostinternational.org.nz
Phone: +61 (0)2 8660 1000

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