At Thriving Communities Partnership, your privacy is important to us.  

We are committed to ethical data principles, to supporting the Australian Privacy Principles, and our procedures relating to personal information and sensitive information are designed to ensure that you are fully protected in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act), the Australian Privacy Principles, and data protection legislation.  

When using our website, including our online portal and/or the Hub, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information and sensitive information, but only in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This Policy applies to Thriving Communities Partnership Ltd (ABN 34 624 589 395) (TCP) and related companies, and was last updated in June 2021.

What personal information and sensitive information TCP collects

TCP connects community members in need with key partners to provide access to essential services, utilities, financial services, telecommunications and transport, and works to reduce vulnerability and hardship in the community.  We work with community and charitable organisations, utilities companies, telecommunications providers, banks and other lenders, transport companies and others.  Our website has a partial list of our partners.

This policy applies to you as an individual, regardless of the support we provide to you or which of our partner organisations you work with.

In the course of providing our services and functions, we collect personal information (and, at times, sensitive information) directly from you, from a person acting on your behalf, or an entity that we have partnered with.  This personal information may include:

• profile information provided directly through our website or over the phone (e.g. your name, date of birth, gender, marital status, contact numbers, email and mailing addresses);
• your user content that you post to the website or hub;
• communications between you and Thriving Community Partnership;
• information relating to your employment and income;
• information relating to finances, financial standing, banking and
• your history of transactions (including payments to and from) service providers, including utilities companies;
• contact details, job title and functions, and other information provided by your employer or another organisation that you represent or work with; and
• your service preferences and details of our work with you. 

Some of the information we collect may be ‘Sensitive Information’ under the Privacy Act, including:

• information regarding your health;
• your racial or ethnic origin;
• your religious or political affiliations or beliefs;
• membership in any trade union; or
• your sexual orientation.

Without your personal information or sensitive information we may be unable to provide our services to you.

Other information Thriving Community Partnership collects

In providing services to assist you with your needs, we use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the TCP website and online portal. These tools collect information sent by your device or our website, including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the website and application. We collect and use this analytics information with analytics information from other users so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify any particular individual user.

When browsing or searching our website, our server automatically collects navigational data to help us improve our website content and navigation, as well as information about your device.

Our core commitment to you in collecting this information is to create better, more tailored and more user-friendly experiences for those in need.

How TCP collects personal information and sensitive information

We collect your personal information and sensitive information in the course of providing our services and functions to you, including if you select or sign up to any functions on our website, complete any online enquiry forms or interact with TCP in person, for example by email, by telephone or at our office or at a premises where we are working.

We may also receive information about you from third parties we deal with, which might include your employer, other third parties you have dealings with, utilities providers, community organisations, credit reporting agencies, financial institutions and the businesses that we work with to provide our services.

Use of personal information

We use your personal information for legitimate purposes only, including:

• to provide you or a third party you are dealing (including utilities, banks and other service providers), with the services or information that you or they have requested from us;
• to reply to your queries about us and the services and functions that we provide;
• to develop electronic and hard copy database, marketing lists, mail-outs, provided you have consented to receiving marketing and promotional material via email from us;
• to improve our website and/or the Hub (based on the information and feedback we receive from you);
• to improve customer service (new information helps us to more effectively respond to your service requests and support your needs).

Sensitive information

Some information that you provide to us may constitute sensitive information, including regarding your health, your religious and political views, your sexual orientation and your criminal record.

Generally, your sensitive information will be used by us for the same legitimate purposes as your personal information and under the same ethical data considerations. Information will only be gathered and used as reasonably necessary for us to provide our services to you and to facilitate the provision of services to you by our partners.

Your sensitive information will only be used for the direct purpose of providing our services to you (including facilitating our partners providing services to you).

Disclosure of personal information

We will only disclose your personal information to third parties in certain circumstances necessary to the provision of our services to you. Personal information provided to our partners will be governed by the terms of their respective privacy policies.

We may disclosure your personal information with our partners.  A partial list of our partners is available on our website, and we will always clearly communicate with you regarding which of our partners we are sharing your personal information with. 

Your sensitive information will only be disclosed with our partners where it is necessary to do so to provide our services or to facilitate our partner providing services to you.

Other organisations to which we may disclose information (excluding sensitive information) include any consultants, advisers, credit agencies, debt collection agencies and service providers you or we work with. We do not provide your information to third parties for them to use to market their products and services to you.  From time to time, our website may contain links to other websites, resources and affiliates of TCP, which may have a different privacy policy to us.  Accordingly, you should check the privacy policies on their respective websites.

Management of personal information

We understand that security of personal information and sensitive information is important to you and is an important aspect of ethical data practice.  We aim to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold about you is not the subject of loss, misuse or unauthorised access or alteration and is accurate and up to date.  We also take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if we no longer require this information.  In some circumstances, however, your information can never be completely destroyed due to legal or accounting requirements or where it is held on a database.  Our website does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the internet.  You should be aware that there is an inherent risk transmitting information across the internet.

How we deal with data breaches

We strive to maintain the highest levels of security when it comes to your personal and sensitive information.

However, as a necessary precaution against outside interference, we have put in place an internal data breach response plan, governing our responses to data breaches.

This document and our processes and procedures will allow us to respond effectively in the case of a data breach.

Access to and correction of personal information and sensitive information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that all information we collect, use or disclose about you is accurate, complete and relevant. If you believe that we hold incorrect, incomplete or irrelevant information about you, please notify us and we will endeavor to update the information as soon as possible. You may access your information held by us (subject to some exceptions allowed by law), without charge. If you wish to know what personal information we hold about you or to correct any personal information we hold about you, please contact us by email or phone.

Promotional material via email

You may choose to opt out of our marketing communication activities at any time.  If you do not wish to receive emails containing marketing and promotional materials from us, please let us know via email, being sure to provide us with your name and address.  We will then remove your name from our marketing lists.  

Queries, concerns, complaints

Providing an excellent customer experience is important to us.  If you have any queries, or believe that Thriving Community Partnership has breached your privacy rights in any way, please contact our office on 1300 144 255 or email us at contact@thriving.org.au.  We will try to satisfy any questions or concerns that you have.  If we do not answer your concerns to your satisfaction you have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.