Norwest Anglican Church abides by Australia’s National Privacy Principles and is committed to respecting your right to privacy and your right to control the accuracy of your private/sensitive information.

Sensitive information

Sensitive information is information that identifies an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health information. Norwest does not collect sensitive information about you unless you specifically choose to volunteer it to us.

How do we collect your information?

We will only collect personal information by lawful and fair means, and we take steps to safeguard this information. We collect private information about you or your family members if:

• You attend a Norwest activity and choose to provide us with your private information.
• You contribute financially to support the ministry of Norwest and choose to provide us with your private information.
• You provide necessary private information for children (under 18 years) who attend an event/church service.
• You choose to complete a ‘contact us’ or other details form on our website and ask us to respond to you.
• We collect private information directly from you, however there are circumstances where children (under 18) connected with our youth ministry may provide us with parental information for medical or emergency contact reasons.

How do we protect your information?

We protect your personal detail stored on a digital database, through encryption, firewalls, secure buildings and computer security systems.

• We never share information about you with any other organisation.
• We will take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we hold about you is relevant, not excessive, accurate, complete and up-to-date. Each time we contact you we will give you an opportunity to correct or update details. Our Church Management Database, Fluro, secures data with the latest technology on its servers and has strong password protection on its servers and for users. You can see the Fluro website for more detail.

How your private information is used and disclosed

Your information is maintained on a digital database (Fluro). Each email from us contains an option to update your communication settings.

Database information can only be accessed by authorised users within Fluro such as:

• Norwest staff: these users have access to all information you have provided about yourself or your family members.
• Norwest ministry leaders such as Community Group leaders or serving team leaders: These users have access to your name, address, e-mail and phone numbers.

If we have your email address and you are a regular member of Norwest we will send you a weekly e-newsletter (You can always opt out of these). You may also receive emails from the church office from time to time with event or church information which you can also opt out of.

How do you view information we have about you or your family members?

If your private information is held on our database you may request access to your personal information via the church office. We encourage you to contact us if you have any concerns about the personal information we may hold about you. If we are holding your personal information you are entitled to request an update, change, or removal of that information at any time.

How to opt out of your information being stored, your communication preferences, or update your personal information:

You have the right to opt out of individually addressed promotional mailings/emails. If you do not wish to receive further communication from us you can:

• Phone us on (02)9686 1368 and ask for the Privacy Officer
• Write to us at: PO Box 6093, Baulkham Hills NSW 2153, or
• Email us at office@norwest.org 

(You will need to give sufficient information for us to identify you, for example, your name and address, so that we can assist with your information request.)

Complaints

We are committed to dealing quickly and appropriately with complaints and will respond promptly to any concerns you raise about your privacy in relation to Norwest Anglican’s activities or practices. If you are concerned that this privacy policy may have been breached or that your privacy may have been compromised please contact us in writing immediately, setting out your concerns. Please include a daytime telephone number where we can contact you. We will get back to you within five working days.

Write to:
The Privacy Officer
Norwest Anglican Church

PO Box 6093, Baulkham Hills NSW 2153

Please do not contact us by email to make a specific complaint, as it is insecure.

Unresolved complaints

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can refer it to the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner.

Contact details:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218, SYDNEY NSW 2001, AUSTRALIA.

Privacy Hotline

• 1300 363 992 (9.00am – 5.00pm EST Monday to Friday) (for the cost of a local call anywhere in Australia)
• Landline (02) 9284 9800
• TTY 1800 620 241
• Fax +61 2 9284 9666
• Web www.privacy.gov.au
• Email privacy@privacy.gov.au

Please note: Complaints should be made in writing to the Federal Privacy Commissioner at the above address. If you need help to make a complaint, you can phone the hotline for assistance.

Note to Privacy Policy: For the purposes of simplicity the abbreviation Norwest in this document will be understood to mean Norwest Anglican Church, Baulkham Hills. Fluro is the digital database referred throughout the policy.