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Abundant Life Christian Fellowship Privacy Policy

(Last updated: 9 July 2008)

Introduction

Abundant Life Christian Fellowship is committed to protecting its Partners’, Attendees’ and Clients’ privacy. We have created a Privacy Policy to ensure that we uphold the trust people place in us when they provide us with their personal information. This means that when we collect personal information as part of our caring for Partners, Attendees and Clients, we will comply with the ten National Privacy Principles and other privacy laws.

This Policy will be made available to any person requesting a copy.

Personal Information Collection

When we collect personal information we will ensure that we do so lawfully and in a fair manner. We will only collect information that is necessary for conducting our activities.

We use personal information to provide personal ministry to an individual, to administer an individual’s relationship with Abundant Life Christian Fellowship and to provide individuals with information on Church events and ministries. Without personal information details, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship may not be able to interact with an individual or provide ministry opportunities in a meaningful way.

We will advise all individuals of the purposes for which their personal information is collected, and of those third parties to whom the information is usually disclosed.

Whenever we collect personal information from third parties concerning an individual, we will take reasonable steps to advise that individual that we have the personal information, the reasons why we have it, and how the individual may gain access to it.

Use of Personal Information

Personal Information will only be used:

       For the purpose it was collected and for related purposes that the person would reasonably expect it to be used;

       Where consent is provided for the particular use;

       If we are required by law to disclose it; or

       For any other reasonable purpose as allowed or required by the Act.

Personal information is not generally available to persons who are not Staff or Volunteers of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship and require the information for the purposes of ministry of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. We will regularly provide Church Partners and Attendees with the opportunity to update their details via Directory Update forms.

Sensitive information

Some personal information is sensitive information. Health information is sensitive information. We will only collect sensitive information with the consent of the individual, for the purposes required by the activities of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in the provision of health services (including counselling) or for other purposes allowed or required by the Act.

Any sensitive information that Abundant Life Christian Fellowship collects in the course of its activities is covered by an exemption set out in NPP10. This exemption permits Abundant Life Christian Fellowship to collect information regarding such things as the religious affiliations of Partners, Attendees and Clients (as this is naturally an important part of membership of the Church) without first receiving your consent to the collection. However, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship does not disclose this information without an individual’s consent. We collect this type of personal information relying upon NPP10.1(d) only in relation to members of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.

Online Privacy

Abundant Life Christian Fellowship is also committed to privacy on its Internet sites. We have a public website at  www.alcf.org.au  which is available to anyone. Abundant Life Christian Fellowship collects personal information on its Internet site you when you fill out a form. The information that we request is limited to what is needed to provide you with the service.  When you browse this web site, our Internet Site Host makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

       your server address

       your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)

       the date and time of your visit to the site

       the pages you accessed and documents downloaded

       the previous site that visited and/or the Search engine keyword used to find our site

       the type of browser and operating system you are using

       the amount of data in bytes that you download from our site

No attempt is made to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may inspect logs.

We have sections on the website which are available only to Partners and Home Group Leaders of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. These sections include information similar to that which is distributed in hard copy form to our Partners and Home Group Leaders and have password protection.

 Management of Information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information collected from individuals is complete and up-to-date. We will regularly provide Abundant Life Christian Fellowship Partners and Attendees with the opportunity to update their details via Directory Update forms.

We will take all reasonable steps to protect the information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access or disclosure. Abundant Life Christian Fellowship has procedures to destroy all personal information which is no longer needed.

Anonymity

Where practicable and lawful, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship will endeavour to provide individuals with the option of interacting anonymously. However, given the activities in which Abundant Life Christian Fellowship is engaged in, this will generally not be a practicable option.

Access to Information

We will provide people with reasonable access to their personal information collected by Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in the course of its dealings with the person. However, in certain circumstances we may deny access to this information to the extent that:

       Providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of any individual;

       Providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals;

       Any other reason as consistent with the Act.

In such a situation we will explain to the person the reason for denying such access.

Abundant Life Christian Fellowship will do everything it can do to respect the privacy of individuals and will only make an individual’s personal information available to those who have an absolute need permitted by privacy laws to provide a service to the individual.

Register of Partners

The Public Officer shall keep and maintain a Register of Partners, in which shall be entered the full name and address and date of acceptance of the name of each partner. The Incorporated Associations Act requires that the register shall be available for inspection free of charge by partners upon request at the address of the Church. A partner may make a copy of the entries in the register.

Policy Updates

From time to time, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship will review this policy and may be revise it. When we do, we will also revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement. For material changes to this statement, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship will notify you by placing a prominent notice on our Web site.

Questions and contact

If you would like further information about the way Abundant Life Christian Fellowship manages the personal information it holds OR would like access to your personal information held by Abundant Life Christian Fellowship please contact the Church by email (privacy@alcf.org.au)