Feros Care collects and holds personal and health information that is necessary to provide services and undertake the business functions as an approved provider of aged, health and wellness, telehealthcare, disability and community care services. Sensitive information will be collected with consent of the individual and Feros Care is committed to protecting your personal information.
Feros Care is bound by the Australian Government Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, which is an amendment to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APP's).
However, information that is directly related to a current or former employment relationship between Feros Care and an employee record held by Feros Care is explicitly exempt from the obligations of the Privacy Act.
To ensure the protection of the information gathered, all Staff and Volunteers sign a Confidentiality Agreement and Code of Conduct. Staff and Volunteers are also bound by the Staff Confidentiality Policy.
The following principles set out how Feros Care manages personal information:
Open and Transparent Management and Collection of Personal Information
Feros Care may collect and hold information about a range of persons it comes into contact with, including:
- clients, prospective clients, business associates and their employees
- job applicants
- suppliers and their employees
- Contractors and
- individuals who visit the Feros Care web site
Feros Care only collects and holds personal information that is necessary for it to provide you with the services you are seeking, or otherwise to enable it to operate its business so as to carry out its function as a provider of aged and community care services.
The personal information Feros Care collects and holds about you depends on your interaction with Feros Care. It may include:
- your contact details, including your name, organisation, occupation, job title, address, phone number, facsimile number and email address;
- details of your qualifications, membership of professional associations, interests and expertise;
- referral information;
- information you give Feros Care in the course of your relationship with Feros Care as a client, prospective client, prospective employee or supplier;
- information Feros Care obtains from you or other persons in the course of providing services for you or your employer;
- where necessary, financial information; and
- where necessary, health information.
Generally, Feros Care will collect and hold your personal information for the purpose of:
- providing services to you or someone else you know;
- providing you with information about other services that Feros Care offers that may be of interest to you;
- providing you with information relevant to the operation of our business;
- facilitating Feros Care's internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements;
- analysing Feros Care's services and customer needs with a view to developing new and/or improved services, including market research, which may be conducted by an external organisation contracted to Feros Care;
- contacting you, in the case of an emergency involving someone else you know; and
- contacting you to provide a testimonial for Feros Care.
Personal information will generally be collected by Feros Care directly from you, or from a referral agency to which you have provided consent. There may, however, be some instances where personal information about you will be collected indirectly because it is unreasonable or impractical to collect personal information directly from you.
If the personal information you provide to Feros Care is incomplete and/or inaccurate, Feros Care may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the services you, or they, are seeking.
Website
When you access Feros Care's web site, Feros Care may collect additional personal information about you, including:
- the date and time of your visit
- the pages you visited and documents downloaded
- your internet service provider
- the address of the web site you came from (if you accessed the web site via a link from another site (such as a search engine)
- your IP address (that is, the single numerical address for your computer on the internet, and/or domain name (that is, the textual address for your location on the internet which corresponds to your IP address, which the internet computers can read).
Also, Feros Care's website may at times use cookies. A cookie is a message given by a web server (that is, a computer that delivers or serves up pages on the world wide web such as www.feroscare.com.au ) to a web browser (that is, software, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, used to locate and display pages on the world wide web). The web browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the web server each time the web browser requests a page from the web server.
Cookies do not identify you personally, but they may link back to a database record about you. Feros Care may use cookies to monitor usage of Feros Care's website and to create a record of visits to Feros Care's website and what pages are viewed so that Feros Care may operate its business more effectively. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you may be able to adjust the settings of your web browser to refuse them.
Use & Disclosure
Generally, Feros Care only uses and/or discloses personal information about you for the purposes for which it was collected (as set out above). However, Feros Care may disclose personal information about you:
- where you ask us for a referral, to other providers of aged and community care services
- to service providers, who assist Feros Care in operating its business, but only to the extent necessary for the service provider to provide the services Feros Care has contracted to them
- to your authorised representatives
- to a purchaser of the assets and operations of Feros Care's business, providing those assets and operations are purchased as a going concern and
- to Feros Care's related entities (if any)
Data Security
Feros Care stores your personal information in different ways, including in paper and in electronic form. The security of your personal information is important to Feros Care. Feros Care takes all reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including electronic and physical security measures.
Access
You may access personal information Feros Care holds about you, upon making a written request. Feros Care will endeavour to acknowledge your request within 14 days of its receipt and to provide you with access to the information requested within 30 days. Please note: Feros Care does not store any personal information on NDIS participants as this remains within National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) systems. Requests for this information need to be directed to the NDIA via a Freedom of Information request by contacting 1800 800 110. Requests for large amounts of information, or information not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given. Feros Care may charge you a reasonable fee for processing your request.
Feros Care may decline a request for access to personal information where, among other things:
- providing access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of an individual
- providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals
- the request for access is frivolous or vexatious
- the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between Feros Care and you, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings
- providing access would reveal information about a commercially sensitive decision making process
- providing access would be unlawful
- denying access is required or authorised by or under law
- providing access would prejudice negotiations between Feros Care and you
- providing access would be likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity or
- providing access would be likely to prejudice the activities of enforcement bodies
If, upon receiving access to your personal information or at any other time, you believe the personal information Feros Care holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please notify Feros Care immediately. Feros Care will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date. If Feros Care disagrees with you about whether your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, and you ask Feros Care to associate with your personal information a statement claiming that your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, Feros Care will take reasonable steps to do so. Feros Care will provide reasons for any decision to refuse access to, or correction of, personal information.
Links to other web sites
Feros Care's web site may contain links to other web sites. Feros Care is not responsible for the privacy practices of linked web sites and so linked web sites are not subject to Feros Care's privacy policies and procedures.
Anonymity & Pseudonymity
Wherever practicable an individual may remain anonymous when communicating with Feros Care. Please note, however, if anonymity is required by you, it may not be possible or practicable to provide services.
Adoption, Use or Disclosure of Government Related Identifiers
Government identifiers, such as Medicare or Tax File Number, will not be used by Feros Care as identifiers for care-recipients or their personal information.
Update
This privacy policy may be updated by Feros Care from time to time.
Transborder Data Flow
Feros Care will only transfer information outside of Australia with the explicit consent of the care-recipient or their Power of Attorney and only if the information transfer is considered secure by management.
Feedback
If you have any queries or concerns about Feros Care's privacy policy or the way in which Feros Care handles your personal information, please contact the Chief Executive Officer as Feros Care's Privacy Officer:
Street address: Level 3, The Strand 72-80 Marine Pde, COOLANGATTA QLD 4225 (please attention to the Privacy Officer)
Postal address: Locked Bag 1, COOLANGATTA QLD 4225 (please attention to the CEO/Privacy Officer)
Email address: [email protected] (please attention to the CEO/Privacy Officer)
Telephone: 07 5669 0555
Facsimile: 07 5536 7520 (please attention to the CEO/Privacy Officer)