Privacy Policy

SureSearch values and respects the privacy of the people we deal with. SureSearch is committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and other applicable privacy laws and regulations. This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information, and how we maintain the quality and security of your Personal Information.

1. Purpose of policy

This Policy sets out:

• how and why we collect and use your Personal Information; and
• what controls you have over your Personal Information in our possession.

This Policy is subject to change at our discretion. The current version will always be available on our website at www.suresearch.com.au.

2. Definitions

In this Policy:

Act means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth);

SureSearch or we or us means Utility Locating Pty Ltd t/a Suresearch ACN 156 481 560 or its associated entities as appropriate.

OAIC means the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner;

Personal Information means any information or opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. In general terms, this includes information or an opinion that personally identifies you either directly (e.g. your name) or indirectly;

Sensitive Information has the meaning given to that term in the Act; and

Unless context otherwise requires, in this Policy, all references to Personal Information include Sensitive Information.

3. What Personal Information do we collect?

The Personal Information we collect about you depends on the nature of your dealings with us or what you choose to share with us. The Personal Information we collect about you may include:

• personal details, including name, contact details and date of birth;
• financial information, including tax file number, billing and payment details;
• information relating to your education, qualifications and employment history;
• information obtained as a result of credit checks which you authorise us to carry out;
• family contact information; and
• your criminal record.

Where we solicit Personal Information, we only collect:

• Non-Sensitive Information, if it is reasonably necessary for the services we provide;
• Sensitive Information, if it is reasonably necessary for or directly related to the services we provide and you have consented to its collection, or its collection is permitted or authorised by law.

We may collect various other types of Personal Information, including Sensitive Information, in the course of conducting our business where it is provided by our clients or other persons without being solicited.

4. How do we collect your Personal Information?

We may collect Personal Information from you when:

• you access or use our website, including applications for, or enquiries about, employment opportunities;
• you communicate with our employees or clients;
• you deal with us in the course of our business; and
• we solicit it from third party information in the course of our business.

If we solicit Personal Information, we will generally solicit it directly from the person it relates to or their agents, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so.

5. Website

To improve your experience on our website, we may use ‘cookies’. Cookies are small data files that are served by our platform and stored on your device. Our website uses cookies dropped by us or third parties for a variety of purposes including to operate and personalise the website. Cookies may be used for recording preferences, conducting internal analytics, conducting research to improve our offering, assisting with marketing and to deliver certain website functionality. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of our website.

6. How we store and protect Personal Information

We may hold Personal Information in physical documents or in electronic form. Physical files are kept securely inside our access controlled premises. Electronic files are only accessible through our secure network. We take reasonable steps to:

• ensure that Personal Information we collect is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant, other than where it is only collected to provide advice in respect of a particular point in time, in which case we will seek to ensure it is accurate, complete and relevant as at that particular point in time;
• ensure that Personal Information we use or disclose is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant, having regard to the purposes for which Personal Information is used or disclosed;
• protect Personal Information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure; and
• destroy or de-identify Personal Information which we no longer need for the purposes for which it was collected, except where it is necessary to retain it in order to maintain ongoing records for our clients.

We cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted via the internet. As such, transmission of Personal Information via the internet is at your own risk.

7. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information

We collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information for various purposes, including:

• providing services to you;
• facilitating other interactions with you in the course of operating our business;
• payment and billing purposes;
• communicating with you;
• responding to your enquiries and information requests;
• assessing the performance of aspects of our business;
• conducting business processing functions;
• storing information at third-party data centres;
• administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, treatment or service development, qualify control and research purposes of our company, its related bodies corporate, contractors or third party service providers;
• updating your Personal Information;
• complying with our tax and legal obligations;
• credit verification purposes, transactions, fraud and credit worthiness;
• billing purposes and debt collection;
• employing staff, including conducting criminal reference checks and other background checks permitted by law; and any other uses identified at the time of its collection.

We may disclose your Personal Information to such persons as is necessary to achieve the above purposes. This will often include disclosure to our related bodies corporate, employees, contractors or other third party service providers. We may use or disclose Personal Information for secondary purposes where it would be reasonable to expect us to do so, and that secondary purpose is related (or directly related in the case of Sensitive Information) to the primary purpose.

8. Overseas disclosure

We may disclose Personal Information to third parties overseas for the purposes for which we collect and use that information. This will generally be limited to third party providers of services such as payment processing, website hosting, data storage, electronic communications and data analysis. Any such disclosure will be done in accordance with the Act. We will attempt to ensure that persons to whom the disclosed Personal Information relates have comparable rights in relation to that information once disclosed overseas. This will generally be limited to third party providers of services such as payment processing, website hosting, data storage, electronic communications and data analysis.

9. How to access and correct your Personal Information

SureSearch will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date. If you wish to make a request to access and / or correct the Personal Information we hold about you, you should make a request by contacting us and we will usually respond within 7 days. We may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we update your Personal Information. If we refuse a request to access or correct Personal Information, where reasonable, we will provide our reasons for doing so and information about your ability to complain about such refusal.

10. How do we protect your Personal Information?

SureSearch will take reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information that we hold about you is kept confidential and secure, including by:

• Having a robust physical security of our premises and databases / records;
• Taking measures to restrict access to only personnel who need that Personal Information to effectively provide services to you; and
• Having technological measures in place (for example, multifactor authentication, anti-virus software, fire walls).

11. Online activity

Website analytics Our website may use analytics services to help us better understand visitor traffic, so we can improve our services. Although this data is mostly anonymous, it is possible that under certain circumstances, we may connect it to you. Direct marketing We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services, opportunities, or events that we consider may be of interest to you if you have requested or consented to receive such communications. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Australian Spam Act 2003 (Cth). You consent to us sending you those direct marketing communications by any of those methods. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by [following the instructions to “unsubscribe” set out in the relevant communication] / [contacting us using the details set out in the “How to contact us” section below].

12. Retention of Personal Information

We will not keep your Personal Information for longer than we need to. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your Personal Information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations.

13. Links to third party sites

SureSearch website(s) may contain links to websites operated by third parties. If you access a third party website through our website(s), personal information may be collected by that third party website. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party provider or website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party provider or website. Third party providers / websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

14. Further information

Please contact us for more information regarding our Policy. More information on the Act is available on the website of the OAIC at www.oaic.gov.au.

15. Inquiries and complaints

Note we may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we can process your complaint. Please allow up to 7 days to respond to your complaint. It will not always be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint, you have the right to contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au to lodge a complaint.

16. How to contact us

If you have a question or concern in relation to our handling of your Personal Information or this Policy, you can contact us for assistance.