GI Institute is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The NPPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au

What is Personal Information and why do we collect it?

Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. This Personal Information is obtained in many ways including interviews, correspondence, by telephone and facsimile, by email, via our website www.giinstitute.com, from your website, from media and publications, from other publicly available sources, from cookies and from third parties. We don’t guarantee website links or policy of authorised third parties.

We collect your Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our services to you and marketing. We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing.

When we collect Personal Information we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

What Personal Information do we collect?

GI Institute collects personal information (which may, because of the context or nature of the service or product, include health or other sensitive information) from its customers, potential customers, website users, contractors and job applicants and other individuals with whom we may interact. This information may include:

• your name and contact details (address, email address and phone number);
• your credit card, banking and other payment details;
• details of the products or services that you have purchased;
• responses to or your participation in one of our surveys, promotions or competitions;
• information posted on our websites or provided through the social media platforms we use;
• records of our communications with you, including any complaints, requests or queries; and
• information provided by you and third parties when you apply for a job with GI Institute (depending on the role this may also include government related identifiers and criminal record information through police or Ministry of Justice checks).

We may collect this information when you:

• visit, register on or use one of our websites or social media pages;
• purchase our products or use our services;
• submit a form requesting information on GI Institute, our products or services;
• enter a competition or participate in a promotion run by or on behalf of GI Institute;
• complete a survey for GI Institute;
• submit a job application for a position with GI Institute; and/or
• contact us by telephone, email, mail, one of our websites or via our social media pages.

Sensitive Information

Sensitive information is defined in the Privacy Act to include information or opinion about such things as an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union or other professional body, criminal record or health information.

Sensitive information will be used by us only:

• For the primary purpose for which it was obtained
• For a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose
• With your consent or where required or authorised by law.

Third Parties

Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Your Personal Information may be disclosed in a number of circumstances including the following:

• Third parties where you consent to the use or disclosure; and
• Where required or authorised by law.

Information Collected via Our Website

GI Institute will not collect any personal information about users of our websites except when they knowingly provide it or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.  For example, GI Institute will collect personal information from users of its website when they register to receive email updates from GI Institute, post information to one of our websites.

Click stream data

When you visit and browse our website, GI Institute website host will collect personal information for statistical, reporting and maintenance purposes. This information may include:

• the number of users visiting this website and the number of pages viewed;
• the date, time and duration of a visit; and/or
• the path taken through this website.

GI Institute will not take any active steps to use this information to identify you. GI Institute website host uses this information to administer and improve the performance of our websites.

IP addresses

To be able to administer our website in an efficient and secure manner, we collect and store IP addresses for a limited period of time. The IP address is a unique number which makes it possible to identify a visitor’s connection to the internet and it is automatically reported by your web browser each time you view a website.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are transferred to and stored on a user’s computer by a website for the purpose of storing information about a user’s identity, browser type or website visiting and usage patterns to improve functionality.  If you access one of our websites, a cookie is downloaded onto your computer when you first log onto the website. You can accept or reject cookies by changing the relevant settings in your browser.  However, if you decline cookies, you may be unable to access certain parts or features of our website.

Tracking

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer and that allow an analysis of the use of the website by you. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. The IP address provided by Google Analytics as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data.

On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services related to website usage and internet usage to the website operator. You can prevent the storage of cookies by a corresponding setting of your browser software; however, we point out that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website to the full extent.

In addition, you may prevent the collection by Google of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) and the processing of this data by Google by downloading the browser plug-in available under the following link and install: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

As an alternative to the browser add-on, especially for browsers on mobile devices, you can prevent the collection by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set which prevents the future collection of your data when you visit this website. The opt-out cookie is only valid in this browser and only for our website and is stored on your device. If you delete the cookies in this browser, you must set the opt-out cookie again.

Disable Google Analytics

We continue to use Google Analytics to analyze data from Double-Click and AdWords for statistical purposes. If you do not want to do this, you can disable it through the Ads Preferences Manager (http://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/?hl=en)

Our Social Media Pages: Platform Providers

GI Institute uses a number of social media platforms to interact with our customers, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. When you visit one of our social media pages, the platform providers may also collect your personal information. GI Institute does not have any control over these platform providers. How they collect and handle your personal information will be governed by their own terms and conditions, including their privacy policies. Please refer to their websites for more information.

Direct Marketing and Opting Out

GI Institute may use and disclose your personal information to tell you via various means (e.g. email, SMS, telephone, mail) about GI Institute or about its services and products.  If you do not wish to receive direct marketing communications from us (or sent to you on our behalf) by a particular method or at all, you can contact us on the details at the top of this policy at any stage and we will remove your name from our marketing lists as soon as it is practicable for us to do so.

Security of Personal Information

Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information. However, most of the Personal Information is or will be stored in client files which will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years.

Access to your Personal Information

You may access the Personal Information we hold about you and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your Personal Information, please contact us in writing.

GI Institute will not charge any fee for your access request, but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your Personal Information.

In order to protect your Personal Information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

Maintaining the Quality of your Personal Information

It is an important to us that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

Policy Updates

This Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website.

Privacy Policy Complaints and Enquiries

If you have any queries or complaints about our Privacy Policy please contact us at:

GI Institute

1^st Floor, 91 Maroondah Hwy,

Ringwood, VIC, Australia 3134

Email: info@giinstitute.com