Albury Conveyancing Service Privacy & Confidentiality Policy
This privacy and confidentiality policy is dated 16 January 2023
Your consent
By proceeding with an enquiry if you are a pre-client, or by continuing to instruct us in your matter if you are a client, you are taken by us to have provided your consent to us obtaining your information for the purposes outlined in this policy and to disclose your information to third party service providers for the purposes of providing you with our services.
Providing the information we request at both the pre-client and client stages and consenting to have your information handled in accordance with this policy is required for us to provide you with our services.
How we handle your personal and confidential information
Personal information is information that allows others to identify you. Confidential information is information provided by you as our client in the course of acting on your behalf in your legal matter that is not publicly available. Together, these are referred to as ‘information’ in this policy.
While we are required by law to protect your information, we also value your trust and aim to build a relationship with you to service a range of legal needs that you may have over a long period. We understand that the protection of your information is an important part of this relationship. We will keep your information confidential and will not disclose your information to a third party without your consent, or unless compelled by law.
We collect information at the pre-client stage when you make an enquiry with us to allow us to identify you and to assess whether we are able to act on your behalf. We are required for our business purposes to retain this information to keep a record of your contact with us and the nature of your enquiry. We need to know of your earlier contact in the event that you call us again and it also makes our dealings with you more efficient. It also allows us to contact you in the future in relation to other services we offer that may be of interest to you, unless you tell us not to. You can make a pre-client enquiry by calling our New Client Services team or by submitting and online enquiry. In both cases, the information collected is governed by this privacy policy. We may monitor and record telephone calls for training and security purposes.
You become a client when we offer you a retainer and you commence instructing us to act in your matter. As a client, we collect all information necessary to conduct your legal matter. We are required to keep client matter files for a period of 7 years from the closure of your file, unless you contact us to make an alternative arrangement. You will be provided with further information about this at the conclusion of your matter. Once your matter is completed, we may also use your information to contact you in the future in relation to other services we offer that may be of interest to you, unless you tell us not to.
Your cyber security is important to us. As you would be aware, email is not a secure means of communication. As part of your conveyancing transaction to maintain security we:
- Will NEVER send you an email requesting you transfer funds to an account that is different to the bank account details provided in our initial correspondence to you or provided to you in person.
- Will advise if a change to account details is required by calling you first to verbally advise the details and then follow up with an email for dual verification.
- Require that no funds are transferred without having a initial phone call with our office.
- Will not act on any email from you requesting we transfer funds to a bank account that is different to the bank account details you advised to us in our appointment letter without verifying this with you via mail or telephone using your original contact details provided in our letter of appointment.
Website
You can visit our website without providing us with any personal information. For statistical purposes we collect information on website activity (such as number of users who visit our website, the date and time of visits, the number of pages viewed, where you are accessing our site from). This information does not identify an individual but it provides us with statistics that can be used to analyse and improve our website.
We do however have online enquiry forms and also, from time-to-time, registration forms or questionnaires on the website, which require you to input your name and contact details and the nature of your enquiry. The purpose of these include, but is not limited to: submitting an online enquiry for legal services, registering your interest in a class action, registering your interest in receiving legal updates from us, to assist our understanding of your legal needs so that we can better tailor our services or obtaining feedback on your experience of our services so that we can improve. This policy will apply to information you submit online through our website.
Disclosure and Outsourcing
Your information may be accessed by employees of our practice when that becomes necessary to provide you with our services.
We also disclose information to third parties when we outsource certain functions, including data storage, bulk mailing, document production, market research, direct marketing, debt recovery and information technology support.
We also seek expert help from external consultants from time to time to improve our services.
All employees are bound by the same or equivalent privacy and confidentiality laws and standards.
We have contractual arrangements in place with all our service providers to protect your information up to the same standards as if we stored the information ourselves and to prevent them using the information for any purposes than our own.
We also conduct due diligence on any third party provider to ensure that they take the protection of our client’s information as seriously as we do.
Information quality
We aim to keep the information we hold accurate, complete and current. Please contact us if any of the details you have provided change or if you suspect there is an error in the information we hold. We may take steps to update or verify personal information by collecting personal information from publicly available sources, for example, telephone directories or electoral rolls.
Information security
We are committed to keeping your personal information secure. We take all reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold about you.
Our security measures include: education of our employees, password protected access, protecting our IT systems from unauthorised access and viruses, protection of our office premises from unauthorised access and secure physical storage of archived information. When information we hold is no longer needed we ensure it is effectively and securely destroyed.
Marketing
In order for us to better understand our customers needs, information is shared within our practice. Information is also provided to third party service providers to assist us with market research and marketing.
We may provide you with information on our services which may be of interest to you. To opt-out of marketing information you can email admin@alburyconveyancing.com.au.
Access to information
You can request us to provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you.
In certain circumstances, we are permitted to deny your request for access, or limit the access we provide. For example, we will give an explanation of a decision not to offer you a retainer, rather than direct access to evaluative information connected with this decision.
We are also entitled to withhold your legal matter file unless and until you have made satisfactory arrangements to pay our legal costs.
Contact us about Privacy
If you have any questions or would like further information about our privacy and information handling or would like to make a complaint please contact us on 02 6021 5700 (AEST) 9:00am- 5:00pm Monday to Friday. If possible the issue will be resolved straight away, often a telephone call is all that is needed.
Alternatively you may prefer to contact our Feedback service in the first instance, or if you were not happy with the way that your complaint has been resolved.
