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Privacy Policy

Updated 12 May 2023

Standards Australia Limited (ABN 85 087 326 690) is the peak non-government standards development body in Australia. References to "Standards Australia", "we", "us" and "our" in this Privacy Policy refer to Standards Australia Limited.

In this Privacy Policy:

  • Authorised User means an individual end user who holds a registered account with Standards Australia and is authorised by a Customer to access
  • (including to view) or use the products or services that have been purchased by the Customer;
  • Customer means a person who orders products or services with Standards Australia or uses the Standards Australia Store;
  • Standards Australia Store or Store means the online store located at store.standards.org.au
  • Website means www.standards.org.au.
Standards Australia is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) as amended from time to time, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). The APPs are designed to protect the privacy of individuals by regulating the way personal information is collected, used, disclosed and managed. Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual, whether the information is true or not and whether the information is recorded in a material form or not.

This policy explains our management of personal information, including:

  • the types of personal information that we may collect and hold;
  • how we collect and hold, and the purposes for which we collect, hold and use this information; and
  • how that information is used and disclosed, and with whom the information is shared, including details of overseas disclosures.
It also sets out how you can contact us if you wish to access your personal information, have any queries or concerns about our collection, use or disclosure of personal information, or if you believe we have not complied with this Privacy Policy or the Privacy Act.

If you are also a committee member or you are otherwise participating in Standards Development including by submitting comments on project proposals or by way of the Public Comment process then the section ‘If you are a committee member or participating in Standards Development’ also applies to you.

Your acknowledgement and consent

By using this Website, the Standards Australia Store, or any of Standards Australia’s products, services, applications and/or sites that reference this Privacy Policy, or otherwise providing your personal information to us directly, or through others, or by giving your consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy, you acknowledge that we may collect, use, and disclose that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy laws.

Why do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information for a number of purposes connected with our activities and operations, including to develop, provide, analyse and improve our products and services, for verification purposes, to understand and meet the needs and requests of individuals and organisations we engage with and to meet our legal obligations.

What personal information do we collect and how do we collect it?

The type of personal information we collect may include contact information (such as name, email address, postal address, mobile number, company information), profile information if you choose to provide this (such as your age, gender, country of birth), user information (such as login details, comments, preferences, feedback, device identifiers), and other usage data (see also Cookies, Analytics and Advertising).

We collect personal information in a number of ways, including directly from you, and when you provide it to our agents, contractors or distributors. For example, we will collect your personal information if you:
  • apply to become a committee member,
  • create an account with us,
  • purchase a product or service from us or via one of our distributors,
  • use our products or services, distribute or licence our products,
  • provide feedback to us,
  • submit an enquiry,
  • respond to a promotion by submitting your details,
  • participate in a survey or competition,
  • apply for employment with us,
  • participate in our governance activities,
  • provide services to us,
  • use our Website or Store, or
  • otherwise engage with Standards Australia.
Personal information may be collected by way of:

  • emails,
  • phone conversations (which may be recorded for quality control purposes in accordance with applicable laws),
  • forms filled out by individuals (including via online forms),
  • feedback,
  • enquiries,
  • support requests,
  • surveys, competitions,
  • online user-generated content,
  • market research,
  • video conferencing,
  • face-to-face meetings and
  • interviews
If you are an Authorised User, we may also collect your personal information from your nominating Customer or employer. We may also provide your personal information, including details about your use of the products and services, to your nominating Customer or employer. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, the privacy practices of your nominating Customer or employer.

To improve our processes, products and services, we may also combine your personal information with other information about you, such as the interactions you have with Standards Australia through its Website or applications, participation in standards development or as a customer of Standards Australia’s Store.

We may also supplement and combine personal or other information we receive from you with information from third party sources, such as our distributors, licensees and service providers.

You may in some circumstances have the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym when you deal with us. However, if you choose not to provide the information we need to fulfill your request for a specific product or service or to participate in standards development activities, we may not be able to provide you with the requested product or service or allow you to participate in our activities.

Sometimes our activities require us to collect sensitive information. For more details, see the section ‘Sensitive information is subject to greater restrictions’, below.

Standards Australia collects certain information required for billing, such as your contact details and order details. Third-party payment gateway providers are used for online payment card transactions made via the Standards Australia Store and for payment of invoices online or by phone. However, Standards Australia does not collect complete payment card details, except in a masked form as set out below.

When purchasing a product or service from the Standards Australia Store or paying a Standards Australia issued invoice online or by phone:

  • Customers will be directed to a payment gateway provider.
  • Payment card details are submitted to the payment gateway provider and cannot be viewed by Standards Australia.
  • Standards Australia will receive certain information about Customers from the payment gateway provider (including payment card details in a  masked format and the Customer’s name and IP address) to enable Standards Australia to provide products and services ordered by Customers.
Third-party payment gateway providers will have their own privacy practices, and you will need to check these policies before you submit any personal information to such third-party websites.

Cookies, Analytics and Advertising

Standards Australia uses cookies and device identifiers to identify visitors to the Website, Store and other Standards Australia applications, to improve and personalise our services, products and applications, to gather statistical and demographic information, store user preferences, activity, and session information, to improve security, enhance website and application functionality and show Standards Australia’s ads across the internet and devices.

Standards Australia also uses web analytics and session recording technology provided by third party service providers such as Google Analytics and Hotjar. These services use cookies to assist us in understanding how visitors access and utilise our Website, Store and other Standards Australia applications.

A 'cookie' is a small file which contains a piece of text identifying your browser to our site.
 
You can opt-out of Standards Australia’s use of cookies in your browser at any time by setting your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Website, Store or other Standards Australia application may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

You can find out more information on how Hotjar uses data when you use Standards Australia’s sites at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy. You can opt-out from having your information recorded by Hotjar by visiting Hotjar’s opt-out page and clicking “Disable Hotjar” or enabling a Do Not Track (DNT) in your browser.

In addition, Standards Australia uses the Google AMP Client ID API to consolidate information on each unique visitor to their many interactions with our Website and Store. This consolidated information provides a more accurate picture of visitor journeys and use of our Website and Store. The Google AMP Client ID API assigns a unique, randomly generated identifier to each visitor and uses this identifier to link all activity associated with that particular visitor.

You can find out more information on how Google uses data when you use Standards Australia’s sites or apps at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/

The unique device identifiers, web and mobile analytics data and cookies do not themselves, collect or contain personally identifiable information such as your name, email address or phone number. However, we may collect information about the devices you use, including hardware model, operating system, version and internet protocol (IP) address and user activity (such as the pages you visit, the content accessed, number of downloads or prints, the date, time and length of the session).

In some circumstances, an IP address, device identifiers and cookies can be linked to an individual. Your IP addresses, device identifiers and cookies may also be collected or accessed by our authorised third-party service providers. Analytics data including device identifiers, cookies and user activity can be linked to or combined with personal information you have previously provided to us, for example if you have an account with Standards Australia on our Website, Store or other Standards Australia applications, or if you participate in standards development, thereby identifying you and your user activity on our Website, Store or other Standards Australia applications. In these circumstances, we will only use any personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy laws.

You can manage how your browser and mobile device use data by adjusting your privacy and security settings in your browser and mobile device.

Advertising

Standards Australia uses third party service providers to run advertising campaigns. This technology uses cookies and/or device identifiers to:

  • track the performance of ads based on visitors’ interaction with Standards Australia’s ads; and
  • show Standards Australia’s ads across sites, applications and devices based on visitors past visits and behaviour on our Website and Store (including but not limited to the use of retargeting, contact targeting and lead generation forms). When you visit Standards Australia’s Website or Store, you may receive future Standards Australia’s ads on other sites and applications.
You can opt-out of Standards Australia’s advertising to you by setting your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, by adjusting your mobile device settings or by contacting our Privacy Officer.

How might Standards Australia use and disclose your personal information?

Standards Australia may use and disclose your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, for related purposes which would reasonably be expected, or for purposes to which you have consented, and in other circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act or otherwise required or authorised by law.

Generally, Standards Australia may use and disclose your personal information for a range of purposes, including to:

  • provide you and any of your Authorised User(s) with our products or services that you have requested (including watermarking the publications that you have purchased with your name and details for licensing purposes);
  • respond to your queries or feedback or provide customer service support;
  • analyse and improve all aspects of our business including, but not limited to, our products services and applications, our standards development processes, our Store, our business systems, processes, outcomes, communication, website, engagement, advertising and performance;
  • authenticate users to enable access to Standards Australia’s systems;
  • facilitate your participation in forums, social events and educational events
  • facilitate participation in our governance forums and activities; and
  • consider employment or other engagement applications.
Your personal information may also be used so we can:

  • provide you with any communications or publications in which we think you might be interested; and
  • let you know about developments in our procedures, products, services, activities and programs that might be useful to you, by way of direct mail or telemarketing and (where you have opted in) by email, SMS or MMS.  Recipients who no longer wish to receive such communications can request to be removed from the distribution list by following the unsubscribe instructions in the relevant email, SMS or MMS.

Disclosure of personal information to other parties

Standards Australia may disclose your personal information to third parties such as our members, professional advisers, committee members, external service providers (ie providers of services including website and data hosting, cloud storage, DRM (as defined below), shipping and distribution, IT support, distribution of promotional and transactional communications, standards and other publications, surveys and feedback, market research and promotional activities, analytics and advertising, training, operational, organisational and management services), and government, statutory or regulatory bodies. We do not sell or licence your personal information to third parties.

DRM

We use a third-party service provider for Digital Rights Management (DRM). This technology allows Standards Australia to track user activity (such as the content accessed, number of downloads or prints, the date, time and length of the session and IP address). Standards Australia may combine this information with your personal account information including to improve and protect our products and services.

Standards Australia may apply a watermark to the products ordered by Customers that includes the name and company details of the Customer and its Authorised User(s). Standards Australia may disclose the name and company details of the Customer and its Authorised User(s) to the DRM provider for this purpose.

Landing Pages

Certain promotions and advertising campaigns may be hosted on a landing page controlled by a third-party service provider. If you visit these sites and pages, your browser communicates directly with the service provider and any information that you submit on these pages, such as through the use of forms (for example, your email address and name) is stored by our service provider. Your personal information is then disclosed to Standards Australia.

Sending information overseas

Personal information is sent overseas in certain circumstances, including to external service providers that assist our organisation. Standards Australia complies with the APPs when sending personal information overseas.

Our service providers are located around the world. The countries in which recipients are likely to be located include New Zealand, the EU (including Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Germany), Singapore, the United States, Canada and the Philippines.

If you are a committee member or participating in Standards Development

This section of the Privacy Policy applies to individuals who contribute to Standards Australia’s committees or otherwise participate in standards development, including the following individuals:

  • committee members;
  • working group members;
  • contacts within our nominating organisations;
  • proponents of new project proposals;
  • members of public submitting comments on project proposals;
  • members of the public submitting comments on draft documents;
  • international members participating in Standards Australia’s committees; and
  • individuals participating in, or otherwise engaging with us on, standards development activities.

What personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information we may collect include:

  • contact information (such as your name, address, email address, fax and telephone number),
  • your profile information if you choose to provide this (such as your age, gender, country of birth),
  • if you are a delegate participating in overseas forums, your passport details,
  • if you are a committee member, information about your employer or the organisation that nominated you,
  • login information,
  • recordings and transcriptions of committee meetings,
  • your newsletter preferences,
  • your committee affiliations,
  • comments you submit including by way of project proposals and Public Comment and
  • any feedback that you provide to us in general and about our standards development activities.
  • device identifiers, cookies and user data (see Cookies, Analytics and Advertising).
Personal information may be collected in various ways including by way of written communication including emails, SMS, MMS, and other forms of electronic communication including audio and video communication (which may be recorded, including for quality control purposes and in accordance with applicable laws), forms filled out by individuals (including via online forms), feedback, enquiries, support requests, surveys, competitions, promotions, online user-generated content, market research, face-to-face meetings and interviews.

To improve our processes, products and services, we may also combine your personal information with other information about you, such as from the interactions you have with Standards Australia’s Website and applications or as a customer of Standards Australia’s Store. In these circumstances, we will only use any personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy laws.

We may also collect information about you from third party sources such as international standards organisations, if you are involved in international standardisation activities (including as a delegate of any ISO, IEC or CEN committee).

Where necessary, we may supplement and combine the information we receive from you with information from third party sources, such as your employer or nominating organisation.

Sometimes our activities require us to collect sensitive information. For more details, see the section Sensitive information is subject to greater restrictions’ below.

How might Standards Australia use and disclose your personal information?

Standards Australia may use and disclose your personal information for purposes described in this Privacy Policy, or for related purposes which would reasonably be expected by you, or for purposes to which you have consented, and in other circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act or otherwise required or authorised by law.

Generally, Standards Australia may use and disclose your personal information for a range of purposes, including to:

  • facilitate your participation in standards development in various capacities, including as a committee member or submitting a comment including by way of project proposals and Public Comment;
  • enable our standards development work in general, (including, evaluating stakeholder proposals, contacting nominating organisations, sending delegates overseas, accrediting standards development bodies and publishing information about some or all committee work to enhance transparency and public confidence in our processes);
  • authenticate users to enable access to Standards Australia’s systems;
  • facilitate your participation in committee activities, forums, social events and educational events;
  • consider and manage Support for Industry Services Organisation (SISO) funding applications for delegates to international and interstate committee meetings; and
  • respond to your queries or feedback;
  • analyse and improve all aspects of our business including, but not limited to, our products and services, our standards development processes, our business systems, processes, outcomes, communication, website, marketing, engagement, advertising and performance.
Your personal information may also be used so we can:

  • provide you with any news, updates, offers, communications, surveys, details about products, services, activities or programs, or any publications; and
  • let you know about developments in our procedures, products, services, activities and programs.
We may do this by way of direct mail or telemarketing and (where you have opted in) by email, SMS or MMS. Recipients who no longer wish to receive such communications can request to be removed from the distribution list by following the unsubscribe instructions in the relevant email, SMS or MMS.

Disclosure of personal information to other parties

Standards Australia may disclose your personal information to third parties such as our members, professional advisers, external service providers (ie providers of services including training, website and data hosting, cloud storage, IT support, distribution of promotional and transactional communications, standards and other publications, surveys and feedback, market research and promotional activities, analytics and advertising, operational, organisational and management services and recording and transcribing meetings), other standards development organisations, your employer or nominating organisation, government, statutory or regulatory bodies and other committee members.

From time to time, committee meetings may be recorded and/or transcribed by us or a third party providing recording/transcription services to us. These recordings and transcriptions may contain personal information which may be disclosed to our third party service provider and stored and processed by us or by our third party service provider. We will inform you at the beginning of the meeting if that meeting is going to be recorded.

We may disclose information to the public concerning the operation of our technical committees, including information about the members of those committees on a trial or other basis where we consider that it is appropriate to do so having regard to our public interest objectives and subject to their consent.

We do not sell or license your personal information to third parties.

Sensitive information is subject to greater restrictions

‘Sensitive information’ is personal information about an individual's health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or membership of a trade union, among other things.

We will collect, use and disclose your sensitive information only for the primary purpose for which it was collected, or for directly related purposes which would reasonably be expected by you, or for purposes to which you have consented and in other circumstances required or authorised by law.

Personal information (including sensitive information) may be included in documents that are identified as Committee-in-Confidence such as:

  • opinions expressed in committee meetings and recorded in the meeting minutes; and
  • comments submitted as part of the standards development process where committee members can be identified.
Documents labelled as Committee-in-Confidence may be circulated within the committee or to the responsible parent committee.

Sending information overseas


Personal information is sent overseas in limited circumstances, including to:

  • Standards New Zealand for the purpose of developing joint Australian/New Zealand Standards;
  • committee members who reside in New Zealand, who will be provided with the contact details of other members of their committee and comments received from members of public during Public Comment, to enable their participation in standards development; and
  • external service providers.
Standards Australia complies with the APPs when sending personal information overseas.

Our service providers are located around the world; the countries in which recipients are likely to be located include New Zealand, the EU (including Switzerland, Belgium and Germany), the United States and the Philippines.

International Organization for Standardization, International Electrotechnical Commission and European Committee for Standardization

Standards Australia is a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and a Companion Standardization Body with The European Committee for Standardization (CEN). If you are involved in international standardisation activities (including as a delegate to any ISO, IEC or CEN committee) then Standards Australia may also use and disclose your personal information (including a name, company information, email address, physical address, telephone number, role and stakeholder category) to ISO, IEC and CEN for the purposes of the development of standards and related activities.

ISO, IEC and CEN may disclose your personal information to other countries such as those listed at:

If your personal information is sent to ISO and you have any questions or concerns, you can also contact the ISO Data Protection Officer at the following email address: DataProtectionOfficer@iso.org.

If your personal information is sent to IEC and you have any questions or concerns, you can also contact the IEC Data Protection Officer at the following email address: info@iec.ch.

If your personal information is sent to CEN and you have any questions or concerns, you can contact CEN at the following email address: DataPrivacy@cencenelec.eu.

Security and management of personal information

Standards Australia will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. The ways we do this include:
  • limiting physical access to our premises;
  • limiting access to the information we collect about you (for instance, only those of our personnel who need your information to carry out our business activities are allowed access and committee members only have access to the contact details of members of their own committee and not other committees);
  • using a payment gateway for secure handling of your billing information;
  • requiring any third-party providers to have acceptable security measures to keep personal information secure; and
  • putting in place physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in line with industry standards.
If we no longer require your personal information and are not legally required to retain it, Standards Australia will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify the personal information.

You should be aware that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. Although we strive to protect such information, we do not warrant the security of any information that you provide to us over the Internet, and you do so at your own risk.

Links from our website to other websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We do not operate these websites and therefore are not responsible for the collection or handling of personal information by the operators of these websites. If you follow a link to any of these third-party websites, they will have their own privacy policies and you will need to check these policies before you submit any personal information to such third-party websites.

Accessing the information we hold about you

Under the APPs, you may be able to obtain a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. The APPs provide some exceptions to your rights in this regard.

To make a request to access this information, please contact us in writing here. We will require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. There is no charge for requesting access to your personal information but we may charge a fee to cover the cost of verifying the application and locating, retrieving, reviewing and copying any material requested.

Updating your personal information

We endeavour to ensure that the personal information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Please contact Standards Australia at the contact address set out below if you believe that the information we hold about you requires correction or is out-of-date.

Updates to this Policy

This Privacy Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and the changing business environment. The current version of this Privacy Policy is available at: www.standards.org.au. You may obtain a copy of our current Privacy Policy from that website or by contacting us via the details at the end of this Privacy Policy. Please ensure that you regularly check this Privacy Policy so you are fully aware of any changes or updates.

Complaints

If you are concerned that we have not complied with your legal rights or applicable privacy laws, you may bring a complaint internally through our complaints process or you may decide to make a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), (which is the regulator responsible for privacy in Australia).

We will deal with complaints as follows:
Step 1: let us know
  • If you would like to make a complaint, you should let us know by contacting our Privacy Officer (see below for contact details).
Step 2: investigation of complaint
  • Your complaint will be investigated by our Privacy Officer.
  • A response to your complaint will be provided in writing within a reasonable period.
Step 3: contact OAIC
  • We expect our procedures will deal fairly and promptly with your complaint. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as follows:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

Complaints must be made in writing.

1300 363 992

Director of Compliance  
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001

www.oaic.gov.au

Contact us

Any complaints or correspondence in relation to this Privacy Policy should be sent to our Privacy Officer at:

Standards Australia Limited
GPO Box 476, Sydney, NSW, 2001
Attention: The Privacy Officer
Email: privacy.officer@standards.org.au

We will endeavor to respond to all complaints and correspondence promptly.