Privacy Policy

Signature Strata Privacy Policy

1. General

At Signature Strata, we respect our client’s privacy and implement all reasonable measures to safeguard any personal information entrusted to us.

This policy sets out the rules we will abide by when dealing with personal information we collect from individuals in the course of our business.

This policy is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) of the Privacy Act 1988.

Furthermore, Signature Strata are required to maintain and collect information as regulated and governed by the following legislation:

  • Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011
  • Unit Titles (Management) Regulation 2011
  • Property Stock & Business Agents Regulations 2003
  • Privacy Amendments Act 2017

Our privacy principles apply primarily to the following areas:

2. Personal Information

Signature Strata collects Personal Information and, in some cases, Sensitive Information about individuals, e.g. clients and prospective clients, consultants, subcontractors, suppliers, industry participants, and employees.

‘Personal Information’ is information or an opinion (whether true or not; and whether recorded in material form or not) about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

‘Sensitive Information’ is a sub-set of Personal Information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; membership of a political association; religious beliefs or affiliations; philosophical beliefs; membership of a professional or trade association; membership of a trade union; sexual orientation or practices; criminal record; health information; genetic information that is not otherwise health information; biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification; or biometric templates.

3. What Information is Collected and Held

Signature Strata collects and stores individual’s personal information that is required by legislation and necessary to undertake our duties as strata managing agents on behalf of schemes under management.

We will generally collect personal Information directly supplied by you, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.

We will generally only collect Sensitive Information about you with your consent or if authorised by law. By providing us with Personal and Sensitive Information, you consent to our collection and use of it for the purposes set out in this policy

Signature Strata may collect personal Information by email, telephone, website, in person, through our marketing, business development, research or other like activities.

4. How the Organisation will Keep Personal Information Accurate and Current

We seek to maintain the quality of the information we hold by taking reasonable administrative and technical steps to make sure that the information collected, used and disclosed is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If the information we hold about you is incorrect, you may inform us and we will correct it for you.

5. How We Keep Information and Data Secure

Signature Strata utilises up-to-date techniques and processes, which meet current government requirements to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access or interference, modification or disclosure.

We take reasonable steps with data collected from our website using appropriate physical and/or electronic security technology, settings and applications (e.g. passwords and firewalls), and by training staff who deal with Personal Information on our policies and procedures. Notwithstanding this, you should be mindful that the internet is generally not a secure environment.

In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm, the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) sets out obligations for notifying affected individuals, and the Australian Information Commissioner (Commissioner), about an “eligible data breach”. Where a data breach occurs and serious harm to affected individuals is likely, we will notify those individuals and the Commissioner in accordance with our legal obligations.

We will keep your Personal Information only for as long as required for our business purposes and otherwise as required by Australian law. Where we no longer need to keep your Personal Information in accordance with the purposes for which we collected it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your Personal Information.

If you wish to have your Personal Information destroyed or de-identified, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to do so (unless we need to keep it for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons, or as otherwise required by law).

6. Use

Signature Strata aims to collect Personal or Sensitive information only as reasonably necessary to provide proposals, products and services to our clients, to understand and forecast our business; and to respond to requests for information or action.

The only people who are permitted to access personal information are those employees or contractors who need personal information to do their jobs. All employees and contractors are contractually bound by the confidentially agreements in place on how personal information must be treated.

Individuals are not required to provide us Personal or Sensitive Information, however, withholding it might mean we are not able to satisfactorily fulfill our roles as strata managing agents.

Where the Personal Information we collect includes Sensitive Information, we will collect and handle that Sensitive Information in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Laws.

7. Disclosure

We do not use or disclose personal information about an individual for any purpose other than the primary purpose for which the collection of the information pertained, unless the individual would reasonably expect Signature Strata to use or disclose the information for another purpose.

Signature Strata will not release any personal information to a third party unless it is under the following circumstances:

  • Direct instructions from the individual.
  • As required by our statutory obligations as strata managing agents.
  • To fulfil legal obligation to make repairs to the common property.
  • Via legal instructions or orders.

Note: Executive Committees are the legal custodians of Personal and/or Sensitive Information provided by an individual within their Units Plan

8. Destroying Personal Information

Any personal information we hold will be maintained in order to comply with legislative and professional requirements, after which time the information will be securely destroyed. Where the information is paper-based, it will be shredded and if held electronically will be deleted from our on-site and off-site storage systems.

9. Access to Personal Information We Hold and Correction of That Information

Our policy is to provide you with access to your own personal information, subject to some exceptions permitted by law. We will also generally provide access in the manner that you have requested (i.e. by providing copies or permitting a file to be viewed), provided it is reasonable and practical for us to do so.

10. Complaints

Should you have a complaint about any of our privacy procedures or believe there has been a breach with regards to the management of Personal and/or Sensitive Information, please contact:

General Manager Nina Cannell

  • Email: nina@signaturestrata.com.au
  • Phone: 02 6185 0347 (9.00am – 4.00pm, Monday – Friday)
  • Post: Unit 4, 21 Napier Close, Deakin ACT 2600

If we cannot resolve the complaint to your satisfaction within a reasonable time, you, or we, may refer the complaint to the:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

  • Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
  • Phone: 1300 363 992 (10.00am – 4.00pm, Monday – Friday)
  • Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

 

 

Last updated: 28 February 2020