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Privacy statement

Your privacy is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Jesuit Social Services strives to meet or exceed the requirements of this Act. We’ve written this Privacy Statement to inform you about what data we collect and what we do with it.

By continuing to use the Jesuit Social Services website (www.jss.org.au) and our associated online properties, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement, as set out below.

Jesuit Social Services is committed to using your information responsibly. We are guided by the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as the Australian codes that we adhere to.

This Privacy Statement helps you understand why and how we collect and use personal information, and what to do if you have questions, concerns or complaints. We will occasionally make updates to this policy, and we will note the date of the last change at the top of the page.

You are in control of the personal information you provide to us. You can choose what to provide to us (including being anonymous or using a pseudonym where practicable), and you can request to change or access these details at any time.

What information do we collect?

Jesuit Social Services asks for information that helps us engage with you, for example, to process your donation and provide a receipt, or to send you requested information about our programs. It is your choice how much information you provide (however we might not be able to fulfil your request if you don’t provide information).

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of all personally identifiable information submitted by visitors to Jesuit Social Services via the website or provided when donating including via telephone or post.

Below are some examples of the information we commonly collect and store:

  • Personal details, like name or date of birth
  • Contact details
  • Payment information for donations
  • Online activity
  • Your past and potential support for our work
  • Your communication preferences

Under our Privacy Statement, “personal information” has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

In most cases, we’ll ask you for this information directly (for example asking you to complete a donation form), however some information is collected automatically (like online activity by visitors to our website) or from another source (such as updating mailing addresses from Australia Post information listed in public directories).

No personally identifiable information will be collected without your consent.

How we use your personal information

Jesuit Social Services collects personal information to fulfil our core work: working with people and communities increase their participation in society, engaging with the public to change hearts and minds towards love and justice and influencing decision makers to move away from harmful policies and practices. To help us be effective, efficient and informed, we collect information to ensure a complete and accurate record of your history and engagement with us. For example, we will use this information to keep you updated with issues you are interested in, to provide opportunities for you to support Jesuit Social Services’ work, or to notify you of special events or of volunteering opportunities with us.

Jesuit Social Services will only use your personal information for the purpose for which it was submitted. This may be to:

  • contact you regarding your request for or use of data
  • transfer data to you
  • contact you in response to any enquiry you make
  • send you information regarding any of the above
  • supply you a receipt for a donation or seek clarification about a donation

De-identified personal information may be used for other purposes, such as to help us analyse user behaviour on our website.

How do we secure and store your information?

Jesuit Social Services endeavours to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personally identifiable information submitted to us via our website and other web-based tools. Jesuit Social Services periodically reviews and updates security measures, to meet or exceed best-practice and ensure the security of the information shared with us.

To protect your privacy and personal information, when you contact us, we may ask you to confirm your identity by getting you to confirm details which we have on record.

We keep your personal information secure in our supporter database, or in our cloud-based case management system, and conduct regular tests and audits to ensure the safety and security of this information. All cloud-based data is stored in Australian data centres.

Physical copies of your information, such as donation forms, are kept securely and destroyed when no longer needed. Staff and volunteers are subject to our policies relating to privacy, and police checks are conducted for roles that handle sensitive information.

When you send information to us, please know that Jesuit Social Services cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information in transit, as no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. Once Jesuit Social Services receives your transmission, strict security procedures are used to protect it on our systems.

We occasionally require external suppliers to assist us in our activities and may provide your information to them to do this – for example, when we provide information to our mail house to print letters to our supporters.

In any case where we need to share your information with a third party, we ensure this is done securely and only for the purposes outlined above or as required by law.

Online Activity

When visiting our website, Jesuit Social Services’ web server makes a record of that visit and logs the information for statistical and administrative purposes. Any personal information that we collect is purely for the purposes of site administration and will not be used for any other purpose. A third-party service called Google Analytics (GA) is used to enhance this record.

We use GA to track visits to our website, and use this information to measure the effectiveness of our website. This data includes number of visits, length of visit, viewed pages and the technical capabilities of our visitors. While this data is mostly anonymous, sometimes we will connect it to you, for instance in personalising a webpage, or prefilling a form with your details if they have been previously provided. For more information on our analytics tools, read Google’s Privacy Policy.

The browsing data and personal information that is collected using these methods may include your IP server address, to see the geographical regions Jesuit Social Services website visitors are located in while accessing the site. It may identify the town or suburb you are browsing from but not the street or building number.

Web cookies

A cookie is a piece of information that a website sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Cookies are either stored in memory (session cookies) or placed on your hard disk (persistent cookies).

The Jesuit Social Services website may use both types of cookies.

If logged in, upon closing your browser, the session cookie set by this web site is destroyed, you are automatically logged out, and no Personal Information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our web site at a later date.

Persistent cookies may be used to communicate non-personally identifying data for web analytics purposes. You may opt to decline or block such cookies, using your browser preferences, without it affecting the way the website functions.

Changes to these terms

Jesuit Social Services will review this policy periodically and reserves the right, at its discretion, to modify or remove portions of this policy at any time.

This policy is subject to regular review and you are advised to revisit this policy page periodically to be informed of changes to the policy.

Maintaining your information

For donors and other supporters who receive news from Jesuit Social Services, you can manage and update select information through our Communication Preferences pages here.

You can also request to access the personal information we hold about you, update or correct the information we have collected, or let us know of your preferences for how we communicate with you by contacting our team:

  • By phone on 03 9421 7600 (Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, AEST/AEDT)
  • By emailing jss@jss.org.au
  • By mail:
    Jesuit Social Services
    PO Box 271
    Richmond VIC 3121

Further information

If you require further information about this Privacy Statement; want to ask for access to your information; have a complaint concerning your information, or wish to have your information corrected, please email jss@jss.org.au.

Information about links on this web site

Links to other websites are inserted for convenience and do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service.

Read our privacy policy