Privacy Statement
How We Handle Your Personal Information
Personal information is information or opinion that allows others to identify you. It includes your name, age, gender, contact details, as well as your health and financial information. We will act to protect your personal information.
ThinkGP provides general practitioner related information and online CPD education.
The protection of your personal information is a vital part of our relationship with you.
We collect personal information to provide you with the services you request as well as information on other products and services offered by us.
Personal information may be used and disclosed within ThinkGP to administer our products and services and, unless you tell us otherwise, to provide you with related marketing information. We also use the information we hold to help detect and prevent illegal activity. We co-operate with police and other enforcement bodies as required or allowed by law.
We disclose the minimum required relevant personal information to external organisations that help us provide services. These organisations are bound by confidentiality arrangements.
If you request, we will provide access to the personal information we hold about you. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, please inform us so that we can correct it.
Further information and feedback
If you have any questions or would like further information on our privacy and information handling practices, please contact us by:
E-Mail admin@ThinkGP.com.au
Telephone +61 9886 4731
Writing to the address below:
ThinkGP Education
PO Box 6196
North Ryde NSW 2113
Collection of Personal Information
Why we collect information
Personal information is collected so that we may:
* administer our client relationships;
* provide clients with the products and services they request.
* assist us in improving the quality of our website and other offerings
Personal information may also be used for:
* monitoring and evaluating products and services;
* gathering and aggregating information for statistical and research purposes;
* assisting with queries; and
* taking measures to detect and prevent frauds and credit loss.
What we collect
Personal information collected by members of ThinkGP generally comprises name, email and/or postal address and phone number. We also collect your QA/CPD number and other RACGP and ACRRM related information.
We do not collect information about your political or religious beliefs, or ethnic background.
If you provide incomplete or inaccurate information we may not be able to provide you with the products or services you are seeking.
We will obtain your consent for the purposes for which we intend to use and disclose your personal information. You are required to enter certain information to gain access to our services - if you do not enter required information we will not be able to provide certain services to you.
Having provided your information, you are able to withdraw it at any time. Please contact ThinkGP and we will delete information we hold on you.
In some cases, your personal information may be provided to us by consultants, or other intermediaries. We will take reasonable steps to let you know that we have your personal information, unless it is obvious from the circumstances that you know or would expect us to have the information, such as where an intermediary is acting on your behalf. Reasonable steps may include asking the person who gave us your information to let you know that we have that information.
Other Employees of ThinkGP
Employees of ThinkGP that have collected personal information are permitted by the Privacy Act to disclose personal information to other employees of ThinkGP. This enables ThinkGP to have an integrated view of its customers. Any such disclosure is controlled by the Privacy Act. Without your consent, other members of ThinkGP may not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than for which your information was originally collected. All members of ThinkGP observe the same standard of privacy and information handling practices.
In all circumstances where personal information may become known to contractors or agents, there are confidentiality arrangements in place. Contractors and agents are not able to use or disclose personal information for any purposes other than our own.
ThinkGP takes its obligations to protect customer information very seriously and we make every effort to deal only with parties who share and demonstrate the same attitude.
We may be required by law to disclose information, for example, when we are served with a court order. We may also be required by a Government Agency to produce information and records, for example, pursuant to taxation or social security laws.
Personal Information Quality
Our goal is to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Please contact us if any of the details you have provided change. Please also contact us if you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date.
Personal Information Security
We are committed to keeping secure the personal information you provide to us. We take all reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold about you from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Our security measures include, but are not limited to:
* restricting access to our computer systems and physical records to authorised persons and preventing users from accessing information they have no need to access;
* requiring employees to use unique passwords to gain access to systems. These passwords are changed regularly and their use is independently monitored;
* encrypting data sent from your computer to our systems during Internet and customer access codes transmitted across networks;
* employing firewalls, intrusion detection systems and virus scanning tools to prevent unauthorised persons and viruses from entering our systems;
* using dedicated secure networks or encryption when we transmit electronic data for purposes of outsourcing;
* practicing a clean desk policy in all of ThinkGP's premises and providing secure storage for physical records; and
Online Information Collection
For statistical purposes we collect information on web site activity (such as the number of users who visit our web sites, the date and time of visits, the number of pages viewed, navigation patterns, what country and what systems users have used to access the site and, when entering one of our web sites from another web site, the address of that web site) through the use of 'cookies'. This information on its own does not identify an individual but it does provide members of ThinkGP with statistics that can be used to analyse and improve their web sites.
Cookies
A 'cookie' is a packet of information that allows the server (the computer that houses the web site) to identify and interact more effectively with your computer.
When you use one of our web sites, we send you a temporary cookie that gives you a unique identification number. A different identification number is sent each time you use one of our web sites. Cookies do not identify individual users, although they do identify a user's browser type and your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions. If you reject all cookies, you may not be able to use our web sites.
Links to other websites
Our web sites may contain links to external web sites. Whilst such links are provided for your convenience, you should be aware that the information handling practices of the linked web sites might not be the same as ours.
Direct Marketing
One of the reasons we collect personal information is so that we may provide you with information on products and services offered by ThinkGP. However, you may, if you wish, indicate that you do not want to receive information on products and services offered by:
* 'ticking the box' on the form you sign when you take out a product or service; or
* contacting ThinkGP at any time to indicate that you wish to 'opt out' of receiving such information.
Changes to our Privacy and Information Handling Practices
ThinkGP may make changes to its privacy and information handling practices from time to time for any reason. We will publish those changes on our website and, if there are important changes or a lot of minor changes, by updating this document. This document is dated 29 July 2003.
Access to personal information
You can request us to provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you.
Responding to an access request
We will respond to your access request as soon as possible. We will endeavour to comply with your request within 14 days of its receipt but, if that deadline cannot be met owing to exceptional circumstances, your request will be dealt with within 30 days. It will help us provide access if you can tell us what you are looking for. Your identity will be confirmed (including by verifying your signature) before access is provided.
An access charge may apply
An access charge may apply, but not to the request itself. The charge is for the time we spend on locating, collating and explaining the information you request (generally based on a rate of $150 per hour or part thereof) plus any photocopying costs and out of pocket expenses (such as freight and traveling costs).
How to gain access
Please provide a letter detailing your request, and either mail it to Customer Relations, ThinkGP, GPO Box 6196, North Ryde NSW 2113, or hand it in at a ThinkGP office. Following receipt of your request, our Customer Relations area will provide you with an estimate of the access charge and confirm that you want to proceed.
Making a privacy complaint
We recognise that even in the best run organisations things can go wrong. Should you have a privacy complaint, please tell us because it gives us the opportunity to fix the problem. We will investigate the complaint, answer your questions and do all we can to regain your confidence.
To assist us in helping you, we ask you to follow a simple three-step process:
Gather all supporting documents about the matter of complaint, think about the questions you want answered and decide on what you want us to do.
Contact ThinkGP where your situation will be reviewed and if possible resolved straight away. A quick chat is all that's required to resolve most issues.
If at this stage the matter has not been resolved to your satisfaction, please contact our Customer Relations team using the above contact points. Rest assured that a member of staff with the necessary authority will review your case. If you are still not satisfied, we will tell you about the dispute resolution avenues available to you.