Privacy Policy

The functions and activities for which we collect and hold personal information include:

• Managing the membership of National Seniors Australia and member participation 
• Holding events such as branch meetings and briefings on current issues
• Providing products and services including travel and insurance
• Conducting, and making available the results of, research and polls
• Providing and exchanging information through various channels such as 50 something magazine, social media sites and our website 
• Lobbying and making submissions to government and others about Australians over 50
• Carrying out a range of research, data collection and analytic activities to identify members’ needs and ensure our products and services meet those needs
• To provide up-to-date information to support lobbying activity and make submissions on issues and proposed laws.
• Entering into relationships with sponsors and other partners to financially support National Seniors Australia activities.

National Seniors holds membership information so it can stay in contact with the member but more specifically so it can send the member the National Seniors magazine, keep the member informed about services and products offered by National Seniors, inform the member about membership events and inform the member about policy and social issues on which National Seniors seeks to exert influence and thereby enable members to participate in or contribute to a National Seniors campaign on a particular issue. An individual member may at any time request not to receive information or any other publication or communication from National Seniors and National Seniors will comply with the request within a reasonable period.

National Seniors may also disclose membership information to its partners who also offer services and products to National Seniors members. In this policy the term partner includes a branch organisation, a service provider and other entities which National Seniors has approved to provide services to members. National Seniors partners are selected after careful consideration of their compatibility with the values and objectives of National Seniors. An individual may at any time request that information about them not be disclosed to National Seniors partners and National Seniors will comply with the request within a reasonable period.

If a member receives an email communication containing information about products and services offered by National Seniors or its partners they can stop receiving this communication at any time by replying to the email with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line, or by making this request by phone or mail.

National Seniors holds information relevant to the supply to an individual of a product or service to the extent reasonably necessary to meet the individual’s needs and requirements in respect of that service or product. This information is disclosed to other entities involved in the supply of the product or service. For example information in respect of an insurance product is supplied to the insurer [National Seniors acts only as agent for insurers] which supplies the insurance product. Similarly, information in respect to a travel service is supplied to the company delivering the service [National Seniors acts only as a travel agent].

When an individual agrees, their name may be included together with other petition supporters in a petition to government or other third party.

What kind of personal information does National Seniors collect and hold?

National Seniors collects information from an individual that is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of its functions or activities.

To join National Seniors a member is asked to provide their full name, date of birth and contact details which generally includes their mailing address, phone numbers and email address.

When a person uses a service or purchases a product supplied by National Seniors, such as travel services or an insurance product, they will be asked to provide specific information relevant to the delivery of the particular product or service. The information provided will vary depending on the circumstances of the person concerned and the nature of the product or service sought.

When National Seniors runs a campaign which includes a petition to government or other third party it may ask an individual to support the petition by allowing their name to be included in the petition. When an individual agrees to support the petition and to allow their name to be included in the petition then it is only their name which is included.

When National Seniors receives a communication via letter, email, and phone or otherwise it may hold a record of that communication in order to respond to the communication or as a record of the interaction for future legal purposes.

When you make a purchase or other financial transaction through National Seniors the information, including applicable credit or similar card details, may be collected in order to process the transaction.

We collect and hold information members provide through applications to attend events. This includes, if applicable:

• Sensitive information such as dietary or mobility requirements.
• Travel bookings.
• Image (video or photographs) or sound recordings (but only if you have not opted-out from this).

We may keep a record of the events a member has attended.

We commission research about members. However, we only collect and hold the information gained from the research in aggregate form and do not connect it with any records we hold about individual members.

Does National Seniors collect sensitive information?

We will only collect your sensitive personal information such as health information with your consent for your travel arrangements, attendance at events or insurance purposes.

How does National Seniors collect and hold personal information?

Where practical, National Seniors will collect personal information directly from you. Generally, this collection will occur when you deal with us either in person, by telephone, letter, facsimile, email or when you visit our website.

We may collect personal information about you when you purchase or make enquiries about travel arrangements, insurance products or other products and services, when you enter competitions, when you register for promotions, when you subscribe to receive marketing from us (e.g. e-newsletters) or when you request brochures or other information from us. We may also collect your personal information when you complete polls, surveys or provide us with feedback.

In some circumstances, it may be necessary for us to collect personal information about you from a third party. This includes where a person makes a travel booking on your behalf which includes travel arrangements to be used by you (e.g. a family or group booking). Where this occurs, we will assume you have consented to your personal information being collected by us and to us handling it in accordance with this Policy. You should let us know immediately if you become aware that your personal information has been provided to us by another person without your consent.

We use website tracking to provide you with a customised experience, and improve services and marketing. You can turn off your cookies collection and tracking in your browser settings.

Information collected relevant to a financial transaction, such as credit card details, are passed through a secure server using the latest 128 bit SSL [Secure Sockets Layer] encryption technology. The 128 bit SSL technology is industry standard.

Membership information is held on a computer database held by National Seniors and membership forms are held in a secure facility.

Within National Seniors, access to personal information of individuals is restricted to National Seniors employees for whom such access is reasonably necessary in order for them to carry out one or more of the functions or activities of National Seniors. Those employees are bound to comply with Privacy Act 1988 and the National Seniors privacy policy and risk disciplinary action, including termination, if they fail to do so.

Information relevant to the supply of a service or product by National Seniors as agent for another entity [such as in relation to insurance and travel products and services] is passed on to the principal supplier of the service or product in order to fulfil the customers’ requirements.

When we act as agent

When we book products and services for you, we usually do so as agent for or on behalf of travel service providers. This means that we usually collect personal information about you both for our internal purposes (e.g. to process your booking), and on behalf of the parties for whom we act as agent, for their internal purposes (e.g. to provide the booked services). Accordingly, the consent you provide under this Policy to the collection and use of personal information by us, applies equally to the parties whose products and services we sell. For example, if you purchase a flight from us, then under this Policy you will have consented to your personal information being provided to the airline to enable your flight to be booked.

We act as agent for or on behalf of many thousands of travel service providers, so it is not possible for us to set out in this Policy all of the travel service providers for whom we act nor exactly how each of these travel service providers will use your personal information. 

Uses of Personal Information

We use information we collect and hold through membership and event applications or attendance to:

• Administer and meet member requirements for the particular service or event.
• Help us improve the particular service or event.
• Identify and analyse member activities and interests in order to better meet member needs and attract new members.
• Enable us to target marketing communications to members.
• Enable National Seniors to further its mission of influencing government policy.

We will not use your personal information for any purpose which you would not reasonably expect unless it is consistent with the Privacy Act. If we think a member may not expect a particular use of information we hold about them, we ask for consent before we use it for that purpose.

Sound and image recordings of events We use sound and image recordings of our events to enable us to improve our events, and for promotional purposes. We will give you a chance at the time you apply to participate in an event to indicate if you do not want us to use your voice or image. You can also contact National Seniors if you want to express your preference.

Marketing communications We send marketing material to members about whom we have records in order to give you information about the products and services that National Seniors provides that will be of personal benefit. These products or services may extend beyond those provided by National Seniors and include special offers from third parties.

We give you the chance to opt-out of receiving marketing material in communications we have with you, such as forms, letters or emails, or you can contact us using the details below or log-in to our website at www.nationalseniors.com.au

Disclosure (sharing) of Personal Information

Local branches We pass on member details to your nearest local branch only with your consent.

Sensitive information We only disclose sensitive personal information such as health information for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for directly related purposes you would reasonably expect.

Contractors and partners We disclose personal information to contracted service providers who assist us with a number of our functions and services including service providers of technology, data processing, contact centre, legal, accounting, business consulting, auditing, archival, delivery, banking, payments, market research, content production and mailing but only for the purpose of fulfilling those services.

Overseas disclosure Some of our contracted service providers are located in other countries. Where we use a service provider that hosts personal information in other countries, we take steps that are reasonable in the circumstance to ensure that the host does not breach Australian privacy law. The steps we take include adding provisions in our contract with the service provider that require them to protect the personal information they hold.

We also use the personal information about you which we collect or receive being processed, transferred and/or disclosed by us in the following circumstances:

• each of the circumstances set out in the previous section “How do we use personal information?”;
• as permitted or required by law;
• to various regulatory bodies and law enforcement officials and agencies, including to protect against fraud and for related security purposes;
• to third party suppliers of IT based solutions that assist us in providing products and services to you;
• to our related entities and brands (including companies based overseas);
• to travel service providers such as travel wholesalers, tour operators, airlines, hotels, car rental companies and other service providers for the purpose for which the information was collected or for a related purpose (for example to facilitate and process your travel arrangements);
• to comply with our legal obligations and any applicable customs/immigration requirements relating to your travel;
• to comply with a request from a qualified government department if we are satisfied that they have the authority to make such request;
• where we suspect that unlawful activity has been or may be engaged in and the personal information is a necessary part of our investigation or reporting of the matter;
• to third parties who may involve you in market research for the purpose of servicing our relationship with you and improving the services we provide; and
• to third parties for the purpose of analysing trends in sales and travel destinations.

The third parties to whom we disclose your personal information may also be taken to have collected your personal information in their own right, for their internal use. For more information in relation to collection by travel service providers, see the heading above titled "When we act as agent".

Where we engage travel service providers to perform services for us, those travel service providers may be required to handle your personal information. Where we disclose your personal information to such travel service providers, you agree that we will not be required to ensure their compliance with applicable privacy laws or otherwise be liable or accountable for how they handle your personal information.

Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a threat to life, health or safety or for certain action to be undertaken by an enforcement body (e.g. prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences), disclosure is authorised or required by law or disclosure is otherwise permitted by applicable privacy laws.

Is it practicable for members to deal with National Seniors anonymously?

Generally this is not practicable when we require personal information to provide services to you.

When and how may this policy be changed?

The National Seniors privacy policy may be changed periodically so as to keep it up to date with changes in legislation and the activities and functions of National Seniors. Changes to the policy will be incorporated into the privacy policy posted on the National Seniors website and may also be notified by email.

Does National Seniors receive unsolicited information and if so how does it deal with it?

Any unsolicited information (such as Facebook and Twitter comments) would not be recorded in relation to a member’s record.

Email

If you send us an email, that address will be recorded automatically by our e-mail messaging system for the purpose of replying to your e-mail. However for normal communication with you we will use the e-mail address you provide in your membership application/renewal, unless you ask us to use a different e-mail address.

When we send you emails or other electronic messages, we record information about your interactions with the email including when you open the email, what device you’re using, what email client you’re using and what links you click on.

This helps us to better understand what information is of interest to you and to improve the content.

Our Website and Social media

Website This section applies to our website under the domain name nationalseniors.com.au

We use Google Analytics to collect a range of information about your interactions with our website. Google Analytics collects the information using a number of techniques including cookies and Java Script. We also use analytics tools to collect information from the browsers of those who engage with National Seniors via social media including Facebook and Twitter.

Messages you post on our members’ forum may be used in a de-identified way in other documents.

The information we collect includes IP address, domain name, date and time of visit, the pages visited and time spent on each page, whether you have visited the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page. We use this information to evaluate the effectiveness of our website and the level of interest in particular pages or National Seniors campaigns.

Information about how Google handles personal information is available at http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/policies/privacy/.

You can opt out of the collection of information via Google Analytics by downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Our website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites and we suggest that you review their privacy policies.

Social media We participate in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. If we think it is relevant to the quality of service that National Seniors provides or its objectives, we sometimes record the nature of the topic discussed by a particular individual and their name and follow up with further conversation offline about which we take notes. Such comments may be used in a de-identified way in other documents.

Social media services also handle your personal information for their own purposes. These sites have their own privacy policies.

Security of Personal Information

We regularly assess the risks of misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure of personal information and ensure that we have adequate measures, including policies, procedures and technology, to address those risks. For example, we limit staff access to personal information to that which they need to carry out their role. We conduct regular internal and external audits to assess whether we have adequately complied with or implemented these measures.

Retention of Information

We hold most information about members for 7 years after your membership has expired or been cancelled.

How can someone access personal information about them held by National Seniors and correct such information?

Individuals have a right to access all information held by National Seniors about them subject to the lawful exceptions specified in the Australian Privacy Principles established under the Privacy Act 1988.

Members can access their membership information at any time by contacting the National Seniors Privacy Officer on 1300 76 50 50 or by writing to National Seniors Privacy Officer GPO Box 1450 Brisbane QLD 4001 and information will be provided within a reasonable period after the request is made.

We will ask you to verify your identity to ensure we don’t give information to the wrong person.

What measures exist to correct inaccurate information?

A member may contact National Seniors through the person with whom they are dealing or the National Seniors Privacy Officer at any time during business hours to advise of inaccurate information and upon verification of their identity the inaccuracy will be corrected.

How can someone complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how will National Seniors deal with such a complaint?

Anyone can complain about a breach by National Seniors of the Australian Privacy Principles by contacting the National Seniors Privacy Officer on 1300 76 50 50 or by writing to the National Seniors Privacy Officer GPO Box 1450 Brisbane QLD 4001. A copy of this privacy policy can be obtained free of charge again by contacting the National Seniors Privacy Officer.

The complaint will be dealt with in a timely manner and confidentially [subject to National Seniors being entitled to undertake reasonable investigations and enquiries into the complaint]. National Seniors may ask the complainant to put the complaint in writing before dealing with the complaint. If the complaint cannot be dealt with to the reasonable satisfaction of the complainant then the complainant will be referred to the Australian Privacy Commissioner