Privacy Policy

as of December 2001

The privacy officer for the Assembly is Jim Fraser [jimf@nat.uca.org.au]
Phone +61 2 8267 4229. Fax +61 2 8267 4222
PO box A2266, Sydney South, NSW 1235

If you have any questions about this policy please contact the assembly's Privacy Officer

Frequently asked Questions regarding Privacy

Overview

The privacy amendment (private Sector) Act No 155 of 2000 came into effect on 22nd December 2001 and requires private sector organisations, such as the Uniting Church, to develop a privacy policy outlining how personal information is handled and managed.

The Uniting Church is not structured as a national church, but actually is made up of Synods - bodies that are essentially state-based, except for the Northern Synod which takes in other remote areas of northern Australia. Consequently each synod has produced it's own privacy policy and these can be found on each of the Synod web sites. [http://uca.org.au/synods.htm]

This web site is actually not associated with any of the synods. It is run by the National Assembly (The "Assembly"), which is the national council of the Uniting Church in Australia. The Assembly has associated with it a number of national agencies, committees, working groups, forums and task groups which, for the purpose of this policy, will all be referred to as the "Assembly" or "Assembly agencies".

The work of the various Assembly agencies is broad ranging and the process to develop and implement an appropriate policy to address the specific needs of each agency is complex and cumbersome. Therefore, the Assembly has adopted a Primary Privacy Policy, which is the basic standard to which all Assembly agencies must adhere.

Elements of specific policy development, called Second Generation Privacy Policies, and implementation are thus delegated to those agencies that have specific privacy considerations. Below is a list of those agencies that have Second Generation Privacy Policies. Any Assembly agency which has a Second Generation Privacy Policy must have authorisation from the General Secretary and must appoint a Privacy Officer.

The privacy policy has been broken into three sections. The first is the official Uniting Church in Australia National Assembly Primary Privacy Policy. The second is the Second Generation Privacy Policies of Assembly Agencies. The third is the privacy policy specific to this web site.

The Primary Privacy Policy

This policy has been adopted by the Assembly in order to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act No 155 of 2000. The policy should be read together with the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) set out in the Privacy Act. A copy of the NPPs is available on the Australian Privacy Commissioner's Website. [http://www.privacy.gov.au/]

1. In this policy, a reference to
   • "Church" means The Uniting Church in Australia;
     "Assembly" means the National Assembly (national council) of the Church
   • The Assembly will comply with the NPPs. If there is any inconsistency between this policy and the NPPs, then the NPPs prevail.
2. Subject to paragraph 4, the Assembly will only use personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected. In most cases, the purpose will relate to the spiritual, pastoral, social, educational and administrative functions of the Assembly.
3. Those functions include maintaining personal information for the purpose of analysing the role of the Church in society and recording the family histories of its members. The information may be disclosed to scholars studying the Church and to relatives of Church members.
4. The Assembly will only use personal information about an individual for a secondary purpose (i.e. something beyond the scope of the primary purpose) if that individual has consented or the use is otherwise permitted by the NPPs.
5. The Assembly will take reasonable steps to keep personal information secure and will, subject to the NPPs, comply with any request from a person to correct or remove his or her information. The Assembly will appoint a Privacy Officer who will be responsible for storing, correcting and giving people access to personal information collected about them. The Assembly may charge fees for access to personal information.
6. Personal information collected by the Assembly may be sensitive information for the purpose of the NPPs (e.g. information about a person's religious beliefs). As a non-profit organisation, the Assembly is permitted to collect sensitive information without a person's express consent. However, the Assembly will endeavour to seek consent from a person if sensitive information is sought for something other than the primary functions of the Assembly described in paragraph 3.
7. The operating procedures (whether or not they are formalised in a manual) of the Assembly will comply with this policy and the NPPs.
8. The Assembly's Privacy Officer will be empowered to receive and deal with any complaint that the Assembly has not complied with this policy or the NPP's.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact the Assembly's Privacy Officer.