Privacy policy

Environment Victoria gives you all the facts and details you need to help safeguard our environment. That means we never want to lose your trust, so we promise to respect your privacy and your personal information at all times.

This Privacy Policy helps you understand what information we collect, how we use it, why we collect it, and what to do if you have any queries, concerns or complaints. It’s based on the Australian Privacy Principles, and we’ll update it from time to time as laws change.

As you read through, please remember that any personal information we do use is for a good cause – a healthy, harmonious environment for us all. Read more about what we do here.

What personal information we collect

When you add your name to a petition, donate to Environment Victoria or sign up for a regular e-bulletin, you’ll need to provide us with personal information such as your name, mailing or street address, email and telephone number. We may also ask you for details we need to enable your participation in events and campaigns such as but not limited to dietary requirements and accessibility information.

If you’ve bought something from us or have donated money, we may also collect your payment card details. Or if you sign an online petition or complete a survey, we may collect information about what you’re interested in.

We may also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else. For example, we may collect anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how people use our website.

We use ‘cookies’ to track visitors to our website. If you are concerned about the use of cookies (see below) they can be disabled in your internet browser setting.

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly. That includes information provided via a website, over the phone, in person, by email, when you complete an order, or when you sign an online or hard copy petition for a campaign we’re running.

We might also collect information from third parties. For example, you might join an email or petition list and then that list is obtained by us. Or we might partner with a company or organisation that shares your information with us. We might also receive your personal information when we obtain a list of potential future supporters from like-minded organisations.

When possible, however, we will always collect personal information from you directly – after all, it’s yours to share!

Cookies

When you access our website, we may send a ‘cookie’ (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer and greet you each time you visit our website without bothering you with a request to register. It also enables us to keep track of products, services, campaigns or online actions you view so that, if you consent, we can send you news about those things. We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited, and to measure transaction patterns.

We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our services, campaigns and online actions. Our cookies do not collect personal information.

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer doesn’t accept them.

Google Analytics

We use a tool called Google Analytics to measure the traffic to our website. While most of this data is anonymous, sometimes it will be connected to you, or we might use it to track the success of a campaign or donation page. For more information about this analytics tool, see Google’s Privacy Policy.

Why we collect personal information

As an environment organisation, all our actions aim to fulfil our ‘charitable purpose’. In our case, that means we strive to bring about a just society that is in harmony with the natural environment. The same applies to collecting personal information – we do it because it helps us to achieve our larger goals. For example, a petition you sign with your personal details helps to show that members of the community like you care about a particular environmental issue. Or the information you provide in a survey helps us to identify which campaigns our supporters value most highly, or to provide insights to support our planning and design relevant programs.

How we disclose personal information

While we respect your privacy, we sometimes have to share your personal information with third parties who provide services to us, such as web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses and couriers. We may also disclose your personal information to employees or volunteers who help us with tasks.

If you sign an online petition that is being sent to someone (such as a government minister), then it’s reasonable to assume that person might see your personal information (bearing in mind your signature will be one of thousands, or tens of thousands).

Finally, we might disclose your personal information to like-minded third parties that are aligned with our charitable purpose of environmental education and protection or with our affiliate groups. This could include organisations or companies. If we do this, we will treat your personal information very, very carefully – including using confidentiality agreements where appropriate.

Opting out

If you don’t want to hear from us anymore, then it’s easy to opt out. Our main form of communication is email, and each email we send has an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom. If you’ve heard from us in another way (via a letter or phone call, for example) you can opt out by using the contact details provided below. (Or, if it’s a phone call, you can just tell us.)

How you can access your personal information

Please get in contact with us, using the details below, if you want to request any personal information we hold about you. Where we do have that information and can share it, we’ll try to provide you with a suitable means of accessing it (e.g. mail or email).

We can’t always grant access to the personal information we hold – for example, if doing so would breach the privacy of others or a confidentiality agreement.

If you believe the personal information we hold about you is incomplete or just plain wrong, please ask us to amend it.

Complaints

If you have any queries or concerns about the treatment of your personal information by Environment Victoria or you would like to make corrections to inaccuracies in that information, please contact us in any of the following ways:

Environment Victoria

By Post: PO Box 12575, A’Beckett Street, Melbourne Vic 8006

By Email: admin@environmentvictoria.org.au

By Phone: (03) 9341 8100

Security

When providing your sensitive information online, such as financial information to make a donation, we’ll redirect you to a secure server. Your credit card information is never stored.

Affiliate Websites

Several websites are directly affiliated with Environment Victoria and governed by this policy. To find out if a website is affiliated with us, use the Whois Lookup service.

Disclaimer: did we really say that?

It’s important to us that we provide you with the best information we have available to us. We work hard to make sure that the information we give you is as accurate as possible. Nevertheless, sometimes we may make mistakes. Unfortunately we can’t take responsibility for how you use the information and advice you get from the site. So if in doubt, check it before you use it.

The legal stuff

This site is copyright of Environment Victoria. We’d love you to display, print, download or reproduce any of the material on this site for your personal use or to share with your friends – check the Creative Commons licensees displayed on various pages for other ways you can share and use the information. All other rights are reserved.

This privacy policy was last updated 7 May 2015.