Energy Consumers Australia (ABN: 96 603 931 326) (ECA, we, us, our), whose registered office is Suite 2, Level 14, 1 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Australia, is committed to protecting your privacy. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which sets out the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) concerning personal information of individuals.

We have established this Privacy Policy to explain to you how we collect, handle, use and disclose your personal information.

Personal information is any information about you, from which you can be identified.

ECA does not intentionally collect any personally identifiable financial, health-related or other sensitive information. We also do not collect information from children under the age of 13. If you provide us with unsolicited sensitive information, we will either destroy the information or treat it as personal information and handle it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We may collect general information about you when you use our website. This might include your IP address, the browser and operating system you are using, and related information. We may also use cookies (small data files which are placed on your computer) which allows our website to ‘remember you’ when you return to our site and to improve your browsing experience. This information is aggregated and anonymous, and will not be used to personally identify you.

From time to time we may collect personal information about you indirectly through publicly available sources such as social media platforms, for example Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In this situation, we will use the information to contact you or otherwise de-identify the information for research and reporting purposes. We will not disclose identifiable information without your express consent.

ECA may use your personal information for the purposes of its advocacy, research, information and administrative purposes.

These purposes include:

• Understanding and formulating policy and advocacy strategies;
• Undertaking, administering and supporting our core activities (including advocacy and education on key energy issues) and other activities relevant to ECA’s functions;
• Assessing grant applications, granting, monitoring and managing research projects and funding;
• Contacting and engaging with you on key energy issues and other matters relevant to ECA’s functions;
• Providing you with marketing services, including information relevant to key energy issues, research or other ECA initiatives;
• Conducting general research about your concerns and attitudes in relation to key energy issues; and
• Maintaining our records and to comply with our legal obligations.

Any personal information that you give us is private. We will not disclose personal information to persons or entities without your consent, with some limited exceptions.

We use a range of third party service providers to help us undertake, administer and support our activities and functions, including mailing, IT, web hosting, data storage, back-up and data analysis services, recording and filming services, and digital marketing and social media services and platforms. Some of our third-party service providers and their servers may be located overseas in various countries (including USA and Singapore).

Where we disclose personal information third-party service providers we require them to have appropriate controls to protect your personal information. They can only use your personal information for authorised purposes.

We may be required by law to disclose certain information from time to time.

By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using and disclosing it for the purposes described above, and in accordance with this policy.

You do not have to give us all of the information we ask you to provide. However, if you do not provide us with some or all of the personal information required, you may miss out on receiving valuable information about us, our research and reports, and national energy market matters; may not be able to attend and participate in our events and may not be able to apply for and receive grants and research funding.

We will provide you with option to engage with us anonymously or through using a pseudonym if it is feasible to do so.

If you no longer wish to receive information from us about our activities, events, research or other relevant information, you can always opt out. If you are receiving email communications from us, there will be a mechanism to opt out contained in each of those emails. To stop receiving any other communications from us, you can contact us.

Information ECA collects is handled securely and with proper regard for privacy.

Your information may be stored both electronically and in hard copy. Electronic data is stored on secure databases operated by third party service providers and some hard copy files are held at our secured offices.

ECA takes the security of your personal information very seriously, and we implement a range of measure to protect your information from loss, misuse, interference and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. [All information is sent and received using the latest in secure e-commerce software.]

Any third-party agents or contractors of ECA who have access to personal information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with our policy, including in relation to security and confidentiality. They must not use any information for any other purpose than to carry out the services they are performing on behalf of ECA.

ECA may make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. Any revised Privacy Policy will take effect when it is posted on our website.

To the extent practicable, ECA will give you reasonable notice in writing (which may be by e-mail) of any such changes to the Privacy Policy that are material to how we collect, handle, use and disclose your personal information. By continuing to engage or communicate with us you will be taken to have accepted such changes.

You have a right to access the personal information that we hold about you.

It is important to us that the information we hold about you is up-to-date, accurate and complete, and we will try to confirm your details through our communications with you. If any of your details change, please notify us as soon as you can. If you believe we are holding information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, you can ask us to correct it, or delete it altogether.

If you would like to access your personal information, or request us to update, correct or delete it, you can do so by contacting us in writing and verifying your identity. We will do our best to respond to your request within 30 days.

We will only refuse access in exceptional circumstances, and if this is the case, we will advise you of our reasons for doing so.

If you require a hard copy of your personal information we may charge an administration fee.

If you have a complaint about how your personal information is being handled or you believe that ECA has breached the Privacy Act 1987 (Cth) or APPs, you can contact us.

We take your complaints seriously. We will attempt to resolve your issue quickly and fairly. If we cannot resolve your complaint to a satisfactory standard, you are entitled to lodge your complaint in the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

ECA welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy and would like further information, please contact our Privacy Officer by any of the following means:

Email: privacy@energyconsumeraustralia.com.au

Post: ECA – Privacy, Suite 2, Level 14, 1 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Phone: 02 9220 5500 (during business hours Monday to Friday)