Privacy Policy

McDonald Jones Pty Ltd ACN 167 786 094 (referred to as McDonald Jones, we, us or our) is firmly committed to protecting your privacy while interacting with our content, products and services. We aim to provide you with a secure and convenient service while at the same time allowing you to control your privacy and to give you a means to voice any questions or concerns you may have.

For this reason, we ensure that your information is handled in strict compliance with the Commonwealth Government's Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988. Further information on Australian Privacy law is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to tell you what kind of information we may gather or hold about you, how we may use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to correct this information.

1. Collection of Personal Information

1.1 "Personal Information" is information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained. Personal Information that we may collect and hold include (but is not limited to) the following:
(a) name;
(b) postal, residential address and/or service address;
(c) email address;
(d) date of birth;
(e) contact details including telephone numbers (landline and mobile);
(f) gender;
(g) occupation and employment details;
(h) financial information and bank/credit account details;
(i) consumer preference information and opinions;
(j) driver licence number;
(k) payment details;
(l) ASIC corporate searches;
(m) any feedback that you give us; and
(n) information that we collect for marketing purposes, such as your areas of interest and other information you provide to us.

2. Collection of Personal Information

2.1 We may collect your Personal Information when you:
(a) visit our website;
(b) buy our products or services;
(c) fill out an application form;
(d) request information about us, our products or our services;
(e) provide feedback;
(f) fill in a form on our website;
(g) enter a competition we run;
(h) when you provide information to us through Facebook or other social media; or
(i) contact us by telephone, fax, email, internet chat, post or in person.

2.2 We may also collect Personal Information about you from other sources, including:
(a) publicly available sources of information; or
(b) from our business partners if you have indicated that you may be interested in our products or services.
However we will only collect your Personal Information in this way if it is unreasonable or impractical to collect this information directly from you or if we are otherwise permitted to do so.
 

3. Purpose of Collecting, Holding or Using Personal Information

3.1 We collect, hold, use and disclose your Personal Information:
(a) to communicate with you and provide you with information, products or services you have requested;
(b) to administer our relationship with you including responding to queries;
(c) to monitor activity on our websites;
(d) to personalise and customise your experiences on our website;
(e) to provide ongoing information about our activities and new products;
(f) to provide you with information about products, services and offerings that may be of interest to you; and
(g) to process any job application submitted by you.
By submitting your Personal Information to the company, you consent to us using your Personal Information in the above ways.

3.2 You consent to us using your Personal Information for sending you information, including promotional material, about us or our products and services, as well as the products and services of our related entities and third parties, now and in the future.  You also consent to us sending you such information by means of direct mail, telemarketing, email, social media SMS and MMS messages.  You can contact us using the contact details specified below if you do not want to receive marketing information from us or if you want to stop receiving telemarketing.

3.3 We may collect and use your Personal Information for other purposes not listed above.  If we do so, we will make it known to you at the time we collect or use your Personal Information. 

3.4 If you choose not to provide your Personal Information to McDonald Jones for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, we may not be able to undertake certain activities for you such as providing you with requested information, products or services.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information

4.1 Depending on the nature of your engagement with us, we may disclose your Personal Information to the members of McDonald Jones, our other related entities and to third parties that provide products and services to us or through us

4.2 We may disclose your Personal Information to our external service providers including mailing houses who distribute information to you on our behalf or market researchers who have been commissioned by McDonald Jones to carry out surveys and research. From time to time, we work with corporate partners and other third party providers to promote and/or market services that we consider will be of benefit to you. 

4.3 We may also disclose your Personal Information to our website host or software application providers in certain limited circumstances, for example when our website experiences a technical problem or to ensure that it operates in an effective and secure manner.

4.4 We do not otherwise disclose your Personal Information without your permission, unless the disclosure is:
(a) in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any agreement you enter into with us;
(b) required or authorised by law, including without limitation the Australian Privacy Principles; or
(c) made with your consent.

5. Data Quality

5.1 McDonald Jones will take reasonable steps to make sure that the Personal Information it collects, uses or discloses is accurate, complete and up to date.  To assist us in this, you need to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as requested, and properly update the information provided to us to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.  Please contact us in any of the ways specified below if you believe that your Personal Information is inaccurate or incomplete and we will use all reasonable efforts to correct the information.

6. Storage and Data Security

6.1 McDonald Jones will take reasonable steps to protect the Personal Information it holds about you from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. McDonald Jones maintains strict standards and security procedures to prevent unauthorised access to the Personal Information whether it is in an electronic or paper format, and to ensure the correct use of this information.  Personal Information is stored in a central database that is password protected with access available only to authorised persons (such as employees of McDonald Jones or our external database administrator) or otherwise your Personal Information is securely held within McDonald Jones' offices and only available to authorised persons. 

6.2 If you have been provided with a secure logon identity and password to access McDonald Jones' website, it is very important that you keep the logon identity and password secure and make every effort to ensure that they are not misused, lost or stolen. You must tell us immediately if you become aware of or suspect that your logon identity or password has been compromised in any way that impacts or may impact access to McDonald Jones' website.  McDonald Jones cannot be held responsible if you disclose the logon identity or password to anyone else. 

6.3 McDonald Jones will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify the Personal Information if it is no longer needed for any purpose.

7. Access and correction

7.1 You are entitled to access the Personal Information that we hold about you.  If you request access to your Personal Information, in ordinary circumstances we will give you full access to your Personal Information.  However, there may be some legal or administrative reasons to deny access.  If we refuse your request to access your Personal Information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal.  We may charge a reasonable fee for providing you with access to that Personal Information. 

7.2 A request for access can be made by contacting our Privacy Officer in any of the following ways:
» By telephone: (02) 4918 2290
» By email: nthurston@mcdonaldjones.com.au
» By post: Level 5, 18 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle NSW 2300
» By fax: (02) 4028 6347

7.3 If you establish that the Personal Information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, McDonald Jones will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date. If reasonable steps to correct the information cannot be taken by McDonald Jones where such correction of the Personal Information is not technically possible or would be impracticable for McDonald Jones to perform, McDonald Jones may be unable to continue to provide services to you.  McDonald Jones will provide reasons for refusing your correction request.

7.4 McDonald Jones may also update the Personal Information it holds about you if instructed to do so by certain third parties that originally provided us that information.  McDonald Jones may also provide access to the Personal Information to such third parties.

8. Identifiers

8.1 McDonald Jones will not adopt as its own identifier an identifier that has been assigned by a government agency (or by an agent of, or contractor to, a government agency acting in its capacity as agent or contractor).

8.2 McDonald Jones will not use or disclose an identifier assigned to you by a government agency (or by an agent of, or contractor to, a government agency acting in its capacity as agent or contractor) except where such use or disclosure is expressly provided for in this policy.

9. Complaint resolution mechanism

9.1 If you have a question, concern or complaint regarding the way in which we handle your Personal Information, you should contact our Privacy Officer.

9.2 McDonald Jones takes a best practice approach to addressing privacy complaints. We will issue you with a timely response to any complaint that, if appropriate, will outline the measures that McDonald Jones will take to resolve the complaint.

9.3 If you feel that we have not satisfactorily addressed your complaint, you may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by visiting www.oaic.gov.au or by writing to GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601.

10. Application and amendments of this Privacy Policy

10.1 McDonald Jones will take reasonable steps to let you know, generally, what sort of Personal Information it holds, for what purposes, and how it collects, uses, and discloses that information. If you have any queries about this policy, or the manner in which McDonald Jones applies this Privacy Protection Policy to your Personal Information please contact our Privacy Officer in any of the following ways:
» By telephone: (02) 4918 2290
» By email: nthurston@mcdonaldjones.com.au
» By post: 9B Huntingdale Drive, Thornton NSW 2322
» By fax: (02) 4028 6347

10.2 McDonald Jones is constantly improving and enhancing its services to clients, and may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes to the policy will be advised to you by updating this page on the website of McDonald Jones' members. 

10.3 If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this privacy policy or if you have any concerns about what information we have about you or how we store it please contact McDonald Jones' Privacy Officer on the details provided above.