Our relationship with you
Thank you for visiting the Elgas website, and for your interest in our company, our products and our services. Our goal is to provide you with quality products and services to meet your needs. We collect personal information about you in the course of pursuing this goal.
Respecting your privacy and the law
We protect the privacy of your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles and all relevant laws and regulations. This includes the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth), the Spam Act 2003 (Commonwealth) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Commonwealth).
Purpose and Scope of this Policy;
This policy describes the way that Elgas (and our agents and contractors) handle personal information collected in Australia from our customers and from any visitors to our online websites. It does not apply to personal information collected from external websites, whether or not linked to our websites.
This policy tells you:
- why we collect personal information
- how it is collected
- the kind of personal information we may collect
- how it may be used or disclosed
- how it is stored and kept secure
- how you can control what personal information we collect and how it is used
- how you can access it
- how it can be updated
- how we handle information on the Internet
- how to contact us
- where to get more information about privacy issues
1. Why we collect personal information
Personal information is information that allows others to identify you. We only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary to carry out our business functions.
If you are our customer, we collect personal information that permits us to provide you with our products and services, assess your credit application, and identify you in case you should need to have your product exchanged or repaired. We also collect personal information for the purpose of letting you know about our products, services, promotions or opportunities that may interest you. For customers who are legal entities, we collect personal information about your employees or officers so that we may contact your company through them.
2. How we collect personal information
We will only collect personal information by fair and lawful means. Generally, we will only collect personal information directly from you or your authorised representative. However, we may also collect personal information about you from other sources, such as mailing lists, websites, contractors, business partners or others.
Personal information we collect from you
You may give us personal information voluntarily. The following are examples of how this may occur:
- purchasing a product
- signing up to a service
- registering a warranty
- participating in a forum or survey
- entering a competition
- contributing to a fundraising event
- registering for a newsletter
- subscribing to a loyalty program
- requesting to be on an email list
- making an enquiry or lodging a complaint
- accessing our on-line content and services
- downloading or using our electronic applications
- participating in our social media communications
- contacting us by various methods such as mail, email or phone,
- contacting customer service
- visiting our offices or shops
- exchanging business cards
- attending one of our events
- completing documents related to a health service
- operating our corporate credit or expenses card
- entering into a contract or business arrangement with us
If you provide us with personal information about someone other than yourself, we will assume that you have obtained that person’s consent for the purpose for which you disclosed it to us.
Personal information we collect from others
Occasionally, we will collect personal information from a third party or from a public source. We will only collect information that way
- with your consent, or
- in cases where you would reasonably expect us to collect the information, or
- where the information is needed to investigate a privacy complaint.
Personal information we have not requested
If we receive personal information from you or others that we did not request, we will determine if it is reasonably necessary for our business functions. If it is, we will retain and use it for those purposes. If it is not, we will destroy or de-identify the information provided it is lawful and reasonable to do so.
3. The kind of personal information we may collect
We may collect personal information that allows others to identify you. Examples of personal information include your name, postal or email address, age, date of birth, tax file number and medicare number.
Normally we will collect personal information with your consent, but we are permitted do so without your consent where this is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain. However, there are certain kinds of personal information that require special treatment.
Your sensitive information
Elgas does not normally collect sensitive information, and we will never collect sensitive information about you without your consent, except as specifically permitted by law. Sensitive information includes information about your:
- racial or ethnic origin
- political opinions
- religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations
- membership in a professional or trade association
- membership in a trade union
- details of health or disability
- sexual orientation
- criminal record
Information from minors
We will not knowingly collect, use or disclose personal or sensitive information from a minor without obtaining prior written consent from a parent or guardian.
4. How we may use and disclose personal information
We only use personal information for the purpose for which it was collected or given to us (the “primary purpose”). The primary purpose must always be directly related to one of our business functions or activities. We may use personal information for other purposes (“secondary purposes”) if required or permitted by law or if we have your express or implied consent. Personal information is used only to the extent necessary and only for the legally permissible purpose for which you gave your consent.
Direct marketing
We may use personal information we collect from you to identify particular products, services or special offers that we believe may be of interest to you. We may then contact you to let you know about these opportunities. We will only do this with your express consent, or where this is impractical, your implied consent. We will always give you an easy way to opt out of receiving such information in the future. Whenever we use personal information to contact you for purposes of direct marketing, we will include a prominent statement that tells you how to opt out of receiving direct marketing communications.
Government Identifiers
Government identifiers are items of identifying information assigned to you by government agencies. Examples include tax file numbers or Medicare numbers. If it is necessary for us to collect government identifiers from you, we will not use or disclose them to any third party unless you have given us your consent or we are required or authorised by law to do so.
External disclosure of personal information
We may be required to disclose personal information to external agencies and organisations, for example, to government agencies such as the police department or the taxation department, or to other organisations, such as insurance companies. We will not disclose your personal information to anyone unless:
- you have given us your consent;
- it is reasonable to expect that the information is of a type that is usually disclosed to others;
- we are authorised by law to disclose the information;
- disclosure will prevent or lessen an imminent threat to somebody’s life or health; or
- disclosure is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of legal obligations with which we must comply.
Disclosure overseas
Elgas does not disclose customer personal information to internal or external parties outside of Australia.
5. Storage and Protection of your personal information
We store information in different ways, including paper, electronic and online forms. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure our hard copy and electronic records containing personal information are only accessed on a genuine need to know basis by our staff or contractors or as required by law. We generally keep personal information only for as long as it is required for business purposes or by law.
Because of the importance of protecting your personal information we take reasonable steps to guard against its misuse, inappropriate or unauthorised disclosure, modification, loss, theft and unauthorised access. We do this by:
- training our employees and external contractors on privacy and data protection policies and procedures
- imposing confidentiality obligations on our employees
- ensuring our business partners have adequate systems in place to protect your personal information
- only collecting personal information we need
- introducing document storage, security and destruction policies and procedures
- applying strict security measures for access to our computer and data recording systems
- controlling access to our buildings
- applying security measures to our websites
- allowing you to deal with us anonymously if you choose, where appropriate
- asking you to share responsibility and take steps to protect your own personal information wherever possible.
Where feasible, we impose contractual restrictions on our business partners in respect of the collection and use of personal information that are as stringent as obligations imposed on us under the Privacy Act,
6. How you can control what we collect and how we use it
Your choice
We respect that the choice to provide your personal information is completely up to you. In some cases you may not want us to collect or use your information in a particular way. Alternatively, you may want to withdraw permission that you gave us earlier. We will give you an opportunity to tell us so that we can change the way we collect or use your personal information, where possible, or withdraw a service. However, you should be aware if we do not receive information that we need, we may not be able to provide you with our products, services or offers.
Dealing with us anonymously
You can deal with us anonymously where it is lawful and practicable to do so. If you prefer, you can use a pseudonym in place of your real name. Please note, however, that in cases where we deal with you in relation to the purchase or supply of our products or services or the provision of financial or credit information it will be impracticable for us to deal with you either anonymously or by pseudonym.
Opt in or out
We may send you marketing information by mail, e-mail, SMS or other electronic means. Where practical, we will provide you with the opportunity to “opt out” of receiving further communications. If you are on one of our automated email lists, you may opt out of further contact from us by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email. If you do not “unsubscribe” to our automated emails or tick the “opt out” box on hardcopy communications we will assume that we have your implied consent to send you similar marketing communications in the future.
7. Accessing your personal information
Upon your request we will give you access to your personal information held by us. We will respond to your request for access within 30 days. We will grant access where reasonable and practicable.
There is no standard fee for providing access to, or correcting records. However, we may seek to recover our reasonable costs in connection with your request.
In a few limited cases we will not give you access:
- if we reasonably believe giving you access would pose a threat to the life, health and safety of any individual, or would be likely to unreasonably impact the privacy of others;
- If your request is frivolous or vexatious;
- If the information would not be able to be discovered in legal proceedings between us, or would prejudice negotiations between us, or would be unlawful, or would be likely to prejudice taking appropriate action where we are suspected of having engaged in unlawful activity;
- If access may prejudice enforcement activities, a security function or commercial negotiations.
8. Updating your personal information
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is accurate and up to date, but it is inevitable that some information will become out of date. If you believe that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or out of date, please inform us. We will correct the inaccuracy soon after being notified. Where we operate on-line information facilities you may be granted access to update the accuracy of your own personal information.
9. Your privacy on the Internet
It is our usual practice to collect information about all visitors to our online resources. We provide online shopping facilities through which we may also collect information. Online services provided through third parties and non-Linde Group websites that can be accessed from our websites are governed by the privacy policies of third parties.
Our Websites
We collect anonymous information about your likes and dislikes based on your behaviour as you navigate our websites. We may also collect other anonymous information such as:
- your internet service provider
- the country from which you are accessing the site
- the website that has directed you to our website
- your server address
- the search term you use
- if you have come to our site via a search engine
- top level domain name
- the date and time of your visit to the site
- the Linde Group websites that you visit
- the files that you download from our website
This information about your visit is collected for statistical purposes; we do not use this information to personally identify anyone.
In some cases we collect personal information that can be linked to you individually, for example, when you log onto or visit our online services as a registered user. We may store information such as the comments you make, the pages you visit or the links you click.
Cookies
We collect information to monitor the use of our online services. The information helps us improve our services by learning what our users prefer and what, if anything, needs fixing. We collect this information using ‘cookies’. Cookies are small text files that are created during your visit to our website and stored on your browser. Cookies do not identify individual users, although they do identify a user’s internet browser type and internet service provider. Credit card information is never stored in a cookie. Cookies created by our servers can only be read again by us and not by any external website. Most browsers are set to automatically accept cookies. You can deactivate this function in your browser if you do not want your cookies stored. Our Internet sites can still be used without cookies or other website controls such as Javascript or ActiveX but some advanced features may not be available to you.
Our website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help analyse how a website is used. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our websites will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information on our behalf for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing us with other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
The IP address that your Browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You can opt-out from being tracked by Google Analytics with effect for the future by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Addon for your current web browser here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
We also employ other services from Google and other third party vendors, such as online remarketing, or advertising that is targeted at previous visitors to our website. When you visit our websites, cookies are stored on your browser that permit Google and other third-party marketing vendors to display our ads when you visit other websites. You can opt out of targeted ads provided through Google by visiting the Google Ads Settings page at www.google.com/settings/ads. For ads provided through other vendors, visit the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page here: www.networkadvertising.org/choices
For more information about Google’s use of cookies and opting out, look here: www.networkadvertising.org/choices Any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy.
Our online protection
We take steps to ensure that information we obtain through our websites is protected. For example, our websites have electronic security systems in place, including the use of firewalls and data encryption. User identifiers, passwords or other access codes may also be used to control access to your personal information on our websites. We do not give personal information collected online to other agencies or organisations without your consent unless we are required to by law, or we believe an individual would reasonably expect us to do so.
Online shopping
We also collect personal information from you through our online shopping facility. Online shopping is provided to you for your convenience. If you do not wish to place your order on the internet, you may contact us by phone at 131 161.
Credit card information
We provide you with the opportunity to pay for products or services you purchase online by credit or debit card. Our online shopping facility permits you to save your card details in an online profile so you do not have to enter the details each time you make a payment. Your credit or debit card information is transmitted directly to our online credit card payment service providern and is not stored on our Internet servers. Our online credit card payments are currently processed on our behalf by Westpac Bank. You can view their privacy policy here:www.westpac.com.au/privacy
Order information
Your order details are only stored and transmitted in encrypted form on our internet servers. This means that communication between your browser and our order system, for instance, cannot be read by others on the internet. Using our ordering system is regarded as consenting to the storage and use of your information by Elgas and its business partners.
Third party services
Sometimes we use third party platforms to deliver our online resources. Those sites are hosted and managed by external organisations. Sometimes you may be able to access other websites by clicking on links we have provided in our websites. Those sites are also external to Elgas. External websites and are not subject to our privacy standards, our procedures or this policy.
We are not responsible for protection of personal information or data collected through external websites. You should review the privacy policy for each website you visit before you disclose any personal information or data through the website. Occasionally, we use third parties to provide us with aggregate statistical analysis of our website traffic. We do not provide them with any personal information.
Links to other websites
Our websites may contain links to other websites. We make every effort to check these direct links. Elgas is not responsible for the content of the websites to which we link. Elgas is also not responsible for the content of websites that link to our website.
10. How to contact us
Please let us know if you receive communications from Elgas that you believe are in violation of this policy or in breach of the law. You may also contact us if you have questions about our privacy policy or practices.
By mail: Elgas Limited, GPO Box 1336, Chatswood NSW 2067
By phone: 02 8094 3200
11. General information on privacy
General information about privacy can be obtained from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling their Privacy Hotline on 1300 363 992, visiting their web site here: www.oaic.gov.au or writing to The Australian Information Commissioner at GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.
Elgas reserve the right to alter this policy at any time in compliance with relevant data protection and privacy regulations. This policy was last updated in October 2014.