RSPCA Victoria
Rethink Roaming

Privacy policy

RSPCA Victoria is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au

What is Personal Information and how do we collect it?

‘Personal information’ is any information or opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, regardless of whether the information or opinion is true or not or whether it is recorded in a material form or not.

‘Sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information that is given a higher level of protection because of its sensitive nature. It includes health information, as well as personal information that is about an individual’s:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • membership of a political association, a professional or trade association, or trade union
  • religious beliefs or affiliations
  • philosophical beliefs
  • sexual orientation or practices, or
  • criminal record.

RSPCA Victoria usually collects Personal Information directly from the individual or a person authorised by the individual arising from:

  • a direct enquiry from an individual; or
  • if you apply for or undertake one of our courses, your course or training progression, assessment and attendance results;
  • if you attend one of our veterinary clinics;
  • details of products and services you have purchased from us, including animal adoptions, or which you have enquired about, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services and to respond to your enquiries; or
  • information you provide to us, such as complaints or suggestions, and volunteer, supporter or donation information, including through our website (www.rspcavic.org), our representatives, service centres, the websites of our business supporters and when you complete our customer surveys and sign up to our campaigns.

RSPCA Victoria may collect your personal information when you interact with us in person, via the telephone, email or via our online forms. We only collect information through lawful means. In some cases, where it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain your personal information directly from you, we may seek to obtain it from a publicly available source, or a third party, for example, your animal health care professional or your pet insurance provider. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

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

  • to provide services to you and your pets;
  • to interact with you;
  • to carry out transactions with you, such as to process payments received by you via direct debit;
  • to fundraise and to develop and maintain relationships with our (potential) donors and supporters;
  • to undertake research and conduct quality assurance;
  • to provide you with information about activities and events that may be of interest to you;
  • to assess your suitability to become a volunteer, employee or contractor;
  • any purpose required or permitted by law;
  • any purpose disclosed to you and to which you have consented;
  • any purpose that you would otherwise reasonably expect; and
  • to maintain our business records and otherwise to run our business.

What do we do with your personal information?

We will not sell, share or rent any of your person information to third parties, other than to the extent set out in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose your personal information to third parties, such as:

  • our service providers, including IT services, insurers, financial institutions, debt collection agencies, mailing houses;
  • our related companies, member organisations and other business partners;
  • our professional advisers, including lawyers, accountants and auditors;
  • government, regulatory and law enforcement authorities; and
  • your agents and representatives.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties overseas, including our business partners, service providers and advisers, as well as your agents and representatives. The countries to which we disclose personal information differ depending on the issue.

Cookie Statement

RSPCA Victoria uses cookies. A cookie is a small string of information that a website transfers to your browser for identification purposes. We are using cookies to collect data about our visitors’ device type and screen size, approximate location, browser, OS, IPs, page visits, bounce rate, conversions and popular content on the website.

Depending on the surrounding circumstances, the cookies used by RSPCA Victoria may or may not identify individual users who log into the website. If they do reveal your identity, they constitute personal information, and thus are the subject of the Privacy Act.

Most internet browsers are set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive them, you can adjust your internet browser to reject cookies, or to notify you when they are being used. There are also software products available that can manage cookies for you. Rejecting cookies can, however, limit the functionality of our website (such as preventing users from logging on and making donations).

Security of Personal Information

RSPCA Victoria takes your privacy seriously. We have security measures in place to protect your information stored by physical and electronic means. This includes the secure storage of any electronic documents within Australia and storage of paper files in secure locations.

Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information in accordance with RSPCA Victoria’s document retention and destruction policies and procedures. However, most of the Personal Information is or will be stored in electronic files which will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years.

We are committed to ensuring the privacy of all Personal Information we collect. Certain compulsory obligations have been placed on organisations under the Privacy Act to notify specific types of data breaches (Notifiable Data Breaches “NDB”) to individuals affected by the breach as well as to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). An NDB is one that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual to whom the information relates. RSPCA Victoria is committed to ensuring the protection of all Personal Information and we will comply with the NDB obligations.

In the event of a data breach of Personal Information, RSPCA Victoria will notify the party(s) affected within 30 days of RSPCA Victoria becoming aware of the breach, and provide:

  • our contact details;
  • A description of the data breach;
  • The kinds of information that is suspected of being obtained;
  • Recommendations about the steps you should take to limit the impact of the breach; and
  • Advice as to whether we have contacted the OAIC about the breach.

Change of contact details

RSPCA Victoria takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information it collects about you is accurate, up-to-date and complete, and also when using and disclosing it, that it is relevant for the purposes of the use or disclosure. If we are satisfied that any of the information should be corrected we will also take reasonable steps to correct that information. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

Opting out of direct marketing

If you no longer wish to hear about RSPCA Victoria, you can opt out at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer on the details below.

Access to your personal information

You can apply to access the personal information held by RSPCA Victoria about you. To do this, please contact us on the details below.

We will respond to your request promptly, but may need to verify your identity before providing access to your information.

We will generally provide access where a request is made, unless a relevant exception under the Privacy Act applies, such as where giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where we are required or authorised by law to deny access. If we refuse your request, we will give you written notice of our decision, including our reasons and how to complain if you are not satisfied with our decision.

Queries and complaints

If you would like to contact RSPCA Victoria about your personal information or would like to make a complaint, contact us via: privacy@rspcavic.org.au

We will investigate and respond to any complaint, query or privacy question within a reasonable period and within 30 days. We may need to request more information from you and we may propose a resolution to your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on the details below.

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Phone: 1300 363 992
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Online form: www.oaic.gov.au (Privacy Complaint Form)

Changes to this privacy policy

RSPCA Victoria may, from time to time, update or change this privacy policy to ensure that it reflects the acts and practices of our organisation as well as any changes in the law.

Last updated: May 2022