Ecolease is a proud Privacy Awareness Week partner. Privacy Awareness Week is held every year to promote awareness of privacy issues and the importance of the protection of personal information.
Privacy continues to be a hot issue for businesses, government agencies and of course you, our customers. We recognise that our customers value their privacy. Research has shown that 60% of Australians have decided not to deal with a private business and 25% have decided not to deal with a government agency due to concerns as to how their personal information will be used.
New Australian privacy laws came into force on 12 March 2014. The changes include a new set of Australian Privacy Principles that regulate how we handle your personal information and new enforcement powers for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (or OAIC), the federal Australian Government body responsible for privacy in Australia.
These were the most significant changes to privacy laws in over 25 years, affecting a large section of the community.
One of the aims of the new privacy laws is to ensure that your personal information is managed in an open and transparent way. We take your privacy very seriously, and we want you to know that we have updated our privacy policy in line with the new requirements.
You can access our privacy policy on our website www.ecolease.com.au/contact-details/Â or you can contact us at [email protected] to request a copy. Our policy addresses the following issues: the types of personal information we collect, use or disclose, if sensitive personal information is collected, if your personal information will be used for direct marketing or disclosed overseas, how you can access and correct your personal information and how you can make a privacy complaint to us.
Of course, we are not the only company that collects your personal information. Here are some tips to help you protect your own personal information:
• Know your privacy rights
• Read privacy policies and notices
• Always ask why, how and who — this will help you to know how your personal information is going to be used, and if it is going to be given to another agency or organisation
• Only give out as much personal information as you need to — always think before handing your personal information over
• Ask for access to your personal information
• Make sure the information an organisation or agency holds about you is accurate and up to date
• Take steps to protect your online privacy
• Make sure your hard copy records are properly destroyed
• You can ‘opt out’ of marketing communications if you do not want to receive any further contact of this kind
• Make a privacy complaint if you consider that your personal information has not been handled properly.
Privacy Awareness Week is held from 4–10 May 2014.
More in our Privacy Series: Changes to the Law; Top 10 Privacy Tips; Social Media & Identity Theft; and The Truth About Your Credit Report
