Privacy Policy

Private information in law is personal information disclosed to a person in confidence, either expressly or implied. When this information is given, there is a duty to act consistently with this commitment. There is no duty on a third person to maintain confidentiality unless they are aware that the information is confidential.

In any service that works with people, personal information about the people using the service (clients) is kept on record. The service needs to have this information to make sure the client receives the proper care and medical attention whilst they are being helped. There is often other information about the person’s family and contact details etc. Personal information is kept by services about their volunteers, especially things like home addresses and phone numbers etc, which the service needs so that they can contact their volunteers when required. There is private information about the employees relating to their wages which the service has a duty to keep under law, and their family details, home phone numbers etc which must be kept for the service to contact them if necessary.

We protect the information we have about people involved in our service by not telling people outside of the service private and personal information about the people we work with, whether they are clients, other volunteers or staff.

There is an onus on the organisation to have a system that maintains the confidentiality of records, including limiting access to records concerning clients. The organisation also needs to ensure that all staff, i.e. employed staff, volunteers and students on placement are aware of the duty of confidentiality.

In extreme cases the client has recourse to law. Under common law the person may:

Obtain an injunction to restrain the disclosure of the information

Seek damages for loss caused by the disclosure, e.g. loss of income.

Take action for defamation for damaging comments made. An exemption to defamation is made of “Qualified Privilege” if the statement was made to someone who had a duty to receive the information.

There are situations when disclosure of confidential information is permitted, and generally they are when:

The client consents

A valid search warrant is produced

A subpoena (or order of the court) is served on you to give evidence

Statutory right to demand information e.g. Social Security Act 1991

Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), government workers subject to Ombudsman powers.

Statutory duty to report information e.g. Children (Care & Protection Act 1987), (NSW) Crimes Act 1900

Disclosure within the organisation

Disclosure to outside bodies for research and not released in identifiable form

Disclosure in the client’s interest

Public interest outweighs the client’s rights

Disclosure of a client’s HIV/AIDS status under strictly controlled circumstances.

Confidentiality

Each client (whether an individual or organisation) has the right to expect that any information provided to the HVC either directly or indirectly will be treated as “confidential” by all staff members of the HVC.

Staff will only actively obtain information which is relevant to providing a high quality service for each client

Staff will not disclose information concerning clients without the client’s consent and will not gossip

Staff will ensure that confidential information of both organisation and client records cannot be accessed by unauthorised people

No names of any clients are to be mentioned or made available to organisation members or funding bodies unless access is provided under any other policy of the organisation

Where the client agrees that particular information may be made available, such agreement should be made in writing and signed by both client and a representative of the service:

For Committee: funding source and type of service provided

For staff: client and type of service provided</liIn order to maintain confidentiality, two levels of recording client information relative to statistics are to be implemented

Any confidential information obtained during the provision of services is deemed to remain confidential for an indefinite period, unless special provisions are enacted amending this policy at a future date

Provision of client information will only occur without the clients consent when:

The disclosure of such information is necessary for a high-quality service to be provided to the client and the disclosure of such information is made only to members of the organisation WHO NEED TO KNOW

The client or member of the organisation is placed in the immediate threat of physical danger

A valid search warrant is produced

A subpoena (or order of the court) is served on you to give evidence

Statutory right to demand information e.g. Social Security Act 1991

Statutory duty to report information e.g. Children (Care & Protection Act 1987), (NSW) Crimes Act 1900

Disclosure is within the organisation

Disclosure is to outside bodies for research and not released in identifiable form

Disclosure is in the client’s interest

Public interest outweighs the client’s rights.

Website Analytics

We use the analytics service Google Analytics to help us understand the usage of our website and improve the visitor experience. Google Analytics uses small text files called cookies to record your visit to our website. The information recorded about your visit includes:

The date and time of visit to our website

Pages visited and time spent on pages

The path taken to reach our website

Type of browser used

Type of device used and screen size

Operating system

Server IP address

Region and country location.

Google Analytics transmits the recorded information to Google servers for processing, which may be located outside of Australia. Google Analytics and the recorded information does not identify individual users or associate your server IP address with other data Google may hold.

By using our website, you consent to the use of Google Analytics and the processing of recorded information as described in Google’s Privacy Policy for purposes described above. You may opt-out of Google Analytics at any time by refusing cookies in your browser or using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.