Privacy Policy | The Salvation Army Australia

The Salvation Army Privacy Policy APP-Australia

Last updated: 23 February 2022

This electronic version of this policy is the approved and current version. Any printed version is uncontrolled and may not be current.

Personal information

You should read this policy before providing us with any personal (including sensitive) information or before using our website. By providing us with your personal information or by using the website, you are confirming your agreement to the contents of this policy. From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and revise this policy. We reserve the right to change this policy at any time.

The Salvation Army as an organisation

Protecting your privacy is fundamental to the way we care for people.

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, ‘The Salvation Army’ (and ‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’) means:

The Salvation Army (being the unincorporated worldwide religious and charitable association);
The Salvation Army (New South Wales) Property Trust Act 1929 (NSW);
Salvation Army (Queensland) Property Trust Act 1930 (Qld);
Salvation Army (Tasmania) Property Trust Act 1930 (Tas);
The Salvation Army (Victoria) Property Trust Act 1930 (Vic);
The Salvation Army (South Australia) Property Trust Act 1931 (SA);
The Salvation Army (Western Australia) Property Trust Act 1931 (WA);
Salvation Army Property Trust Act 1934 (ACT);
Salvation Army (Northern Territory) Property Trust Act 2002 (NT); and
Any organisations or bodies corporate owned or operated by any of the bodies above.

Your privacy is important to us

The Salvation Army is committed to upholding the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988. We recognise the importance of privacy and community awareness regarding the collection, use, disclosure and security of personal (including sensitive) information which we may collect during the course of our many functions.

Regardless of your relationship with us, we understand that sharing personal information can be confronting, especially for population groups who have experienced discrimination, harassment and bullying based on age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, intersex, marital status or cultural diversity (including Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples).

This Privacy Policy sets out how we manage your personal information and protect your privacy.

The personal information we collect and hold

The Salvation Army performs many functions and provides a wide range of services and programs across Australia. We will only collect personal (including sensitive) information that is necessary for us to carry out these functions and provide these services and programs; we will only collect sensitive information when we have your consent or when we are required or authorised by law to collect such information.

Personal information which fits the definition of sensitive information under the Act generally requires a higher level of privacy protection than other personal information. We do however aim to treat all of your personal information with the utmost care.

The type of information we may collect, hold and use, varies depending on the purpose for which it is collected but may include the following (amongst others):

Supporters — as a supporter of The Salvation Army’s mission and activities, we may need to collect your name and contact details. As a valued financial supporter of our fundraising activities, we may also need to collect your bank account or credit card details.

Service recipients, program participants or clients of our other services — as a recipient of, or participant in, one of our many services and programs (such as aged care, recovery, welfare, employment assistance, social or other services and programs), we may need to collect your personal information like your name, contact details, income status and emergency contact details, or sensitive information like your health, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, ethnicity and criminal record as well as information about gender identity and intersex status.

Customers — as a customer at one of our many stores, we may need to collect your name and contact details at the time of purchase or in connection with your donation of goods.

Personnel — as an officer, employee, volunteer or member of The Salvation Army, we may need to collect personal information like your name, contact details, bank account, taxation details, qualifications, previous experience and emergency contact details or sensitive information like your health, sexual orientation and ethnicity as well as information about gender identity and intersex status.

How we collect and keep safe your personal information

How we collect and store personal (including sensitive) information varies depending on the purpose for which it is collected. We may collect your personal information:

Directly from you, either in person, over the phone or by email;
From third parties where you have specifically authorised us to do so; or
Through our website including through forms on our website.

We will always collect your personal information directly from you unless it is impracticable to do so. This would usually be done in person, over the telephone or by email.

Examples may include:

Copies of your written correspondence with us;
Copies of receipts and/or transaction records in relation to your financial support of our fundraising activities;
Copies of your application form, request for assistance and/or other associated documents (including documents generated during your participation in a program with, or otherwise during your interactions with us) and information that you may provide to us in relation to one of the many services and programs we offer; and
Copies of your volunteer agreement or employment agreement and any associated documents and information you provide to us in connection with your volunteering for or employment with The Salvation Army.

We may keep copies of the above documents (in physical and/or electronic form, at our election) as is necessary to carry out our functions and provide our services and programs. All personal information is securely stored at all times by us or an authorised external service provider and only authorised people will have access to the above documents and information.

Why we collect, hold and use personal information

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal (including sensitive) information for purposes necessary to carry out our functions and provide our services and programs. Generally, these purposes include:

To keep in contact with you as a supporter of The Salvation Army and to inform you about the role and extent of our work and mission;
To manage our fundraising activities and for taxation record-keeping purposes associated with your donation to The Salvation Army;
To assess your welfare needs and to provide you with the welfare and community services and assistance we offer;
To inform and improve our service design, delivery and resourcing;
To provide you with the necessary care and assistance during your time as a resident of, or recipient of services from, one of our services, centres or facilities (such as aged care centres, recovery services, crisis accommodation services, etc.);
To provide you with the services requested by you from us;
To facilitate and manage your purchase from, or donation of goods to, one of our stores;
To comply with necessary business and accounting standards;
To comply with our reporting obligations to the Australian Taxation Office and other government agencies and public sector bodies; or
To facilitate and manage your employment relationship or volunteer arrangement with The Salvation Army.

We are committed to maintaining your privacy and we will only use your personal information for a permitted purpose for which we have collected the information. There is no obligation for you to provide us with any of your personal information however if you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the services that you require.

You have the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym when dealing with us in relation to a particular matter, unless we believe it is impracticable to do so in the circumstances. If you wish to deal with us in this manner, you must tell us in writing so that we can consider if your request is practicable.

We may use personal information (including some sensitive) information to generate aggregated statistical data for the purpose of reporting to Government agencies and to plan for improvements to our services. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we report to Government agencies is de-identified and aggregated, so that the statistical data and reports cannot be used to identify you.

How we may share your personal information

If necessary to carry out our functions and provide our services and programs, we may need to disclose your personal (including sensitive) information to external service providers (such as information technology service providers, legal service providers, mailing houses, call centres, other community service providers, etc.) and other organisations.

We will only share your personal information in accordance with your express consent and instructions, subject to the exclusions set out in the Australian Privacy Principles, or in accordance with the specific Privacy Notice provided to you by us at or near the time of collection of your personal information.

We do not supply our database information to other marketing organisations not acting on our behalf.

How we use Google remarketing

We do not collect any individual personal information on visitors to our website without your knowledge. We do collect non-personal information that allows us to log information about visitors to our website for statistical purposes, such as the:

Number of unique sessions as identified by server address and top-level domain name (e.g. .com, .gov, .org, etc.);
Number of page hits;
Pages accessed or downloaded by session;
Type of browser being used;
Length of time spent on the site and on particular pages;
Device being used (e.g. desktop or mobile); and
Type of mobile device being used

In addition:

We have implemented and use Display Advertising;
We use Remarketing with Google to advertise online;
Third-party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites across the Internet;
We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimise, and serve ads based on someone's past behaviour to our website; and
Users can opt out by utilising Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on and Ads Preferences Manager.

What international disclosure do we make

The Salvation Army is an international movement with a presence in over 130 countries. While every effort is made to keep personal (including sensitive) information we hold in Australia only, in order to carry out our functions and provide our programs and services we may need to disclose personal information to overseas recipients, unless expressly prohibited by law.

In the unlikely event such disclosure is required, it will generally involve disclosure to international territories of The Salvation Army and only to the extent necessary to carry out our functions and provide our programs and services.

How you can access and seek correction of your personal information

You have the right to access your personal (including sensitive) information, subject to some exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to access or seek correction of your personal information, contact our Privacy Office at the contact details below. For security reasons you will be asked to put your request in writing.

To enable us to verify your request we require you to advise the following:

Your full name
Address
Contact phone number
The relevant department or service (if known) that your request relates to

There is no application fee for making a request to access your personal information. While we do not normally charge for providing individuals with access to their personal information, we reserve the right to charge you for our reasonable costs in complying with a request for access. These costs will not be excessive.

How you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles

We are committed to protecting your privacy and upholding the Australian Privacy Principles. If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles please contact our Privacy Office with your concerns at the contact details below.

We take all complaints very seriously and we will endeavour to respond to your complaint and address your concerns as soon as reasonably practicable.

How we comply with the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme

We will notify you in the event your personal (including sensitive) information is involved in a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm.

This notification will include recommendations about the steps you should take in response to the breach. We will also notify The Australian Information Commissioner of eligible data breaches.

Each suspected data breach reported to us will be assessed to determine whether it is likely to result in serious harm, and as a result require notification.

How you can contact our Privacy Office

We welcome and appreciate your feedback or comments in relation to our Privacy Policy and the collection of personal (including sensitive) information. If you have any questions in relation to privacy please contact our Privacy Office.

Privacy Office
The Salvation Army
Locked Bag 3010 Nunawading Vic 3131
Email: privacy@salvationarmy.org.au
Phone: 1800 961 088 9am and 4.30pm, Monday to Friday