Privacy

The Good Shepherd Orthodox Church Inc.

Reg. No.: A0101236T

Privacy Policy

Introduction

The Good Shepherd Orthodox Church Incorporated (hereinafter “the Church”) is a Christian church that worships in accordance with the Divine Liturgy, services, traditions and usages of the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. It uses the English language in all its liturgical services. The Church is committed to safeguarding the privacy of all those from whom we collect personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in some way or not, about you, or that identifies you, or on the basis of which you may reasonably be identified.

A subset of personal information is sensitive information, which often concerns health or the provision of a health service but also includes an individual’s religious beliefs and affiliation, racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, sexual orientation and criminal record.

What is a parishioner?

For the purposes of this policy, a parishioner is a person who regards The Good Shepherd as their regular parish or church home and who has provided personal information to the Church for pastoral, sacramental, ministry, volunteering, membership or administrative purposes. Merely subscribing to the Church’s newsletter, attending a single event or making an enquiry does not, by itself, make a person a parishioner.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

We collect your name, address, telephone number(s), email address, baptismal/chrismation status, baptismal/chrismation name, employment or voluntary positions held in the Church, the dates of pastoral visits and related notes, Working with Children Check (WWCC) number, if any, the birthdates of those with a WWCC, and Child Safety Code of Conduct declarations, if any. We also collect details of the medical conditions of children who attend the Sunday School and the names and contact details of their parents or caregivers.

Why do we collect personal information?

The Church collects and holds your personal information for a variety of reasons, which we generally inform you about at the time of collection, and which may include:

• to administer the Eucharist and other sacraments and to provide spiritual and pastoral care;
• to compile mailing lists and to maintain a database for such purposes as to provide you with a weekly newsletter about the Church’s activities and to assess applications for voluntary or employment positions;
• to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements, particularly the Victorian Child Safety standards; and
• to manage the Good Shepherd Orthodox Church Incorporated (the incorporated association).

If you choose not to provide your personal information, or you provide us with incomplete or inaccurate information, we may not be able to provide you with the information or services that you seek.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information directly from registration forms completed by you or a responsible person or guardian, from face to face meetings and interviews, from telephone calls, emails and post, or via our website. We do not collect information from sources other than you, save that we do ordinarily collect information about your children from you, as parent or guardian, unless extraordinary circumstances require that we collect it directly from the child.

You have the right in certain circumstances to provide information anonymously or under a pseudonym, but in most circumstances we will have to identify you in order, for example, to minister the Eucharist to you or to provide you with other assistance.

How do we use personal information?

We use and disclose your personal information for the particular reason or reasons for which it was collected and for such secondary related purposes as you reasonably expect us to use and disclose your personal information.

Consent

We require that you consent to any collection, use or disclosure of your personal information. Your consent must be either direct, i.e., in writing or orally, or implied by your conduct; normally it is implied by your conduct.

Disclosure of your personal information

We will disclose your personal information to a third party only:

• where you give us direct permission in writing;
• where required or authorised to do so by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order; or
• where the Church reasonably believes that the use or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary for one or more enforcement related activities conducted by an enforcement body.
• to appropriately authorised personnel of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines where reasonably necessary for the related ministry, governance and administrative functions of the Church and the Archdiocese, including administration of the Breeze church-management system.

In no circumstances will we disclose your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing.

Cross-border storage and processing

The Church uses Breeze, a cloud-based church-management system, to store and administer parishioner information. Information held in Breeze may be stored or processed outside Australia, including in the United States.

The Church will otherwise only disclose personal information outside Australia with consent, which may be express or implied, or where the disclosure is permitted by applicable privacy law.

How we manage and secure your personal information

The Church takes all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

We manage personal information using Breeze and other communication and email systems. Access to parishioner information in Breeze is limited to appropriately authorised personnel of the Church and the Archdiocese. Electronic systems are protected by access controls and other security measures intended to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Electronic management systems are secured by passwords known only to a limited number of authorised users. Hard copy Sunday School information is kept in a locked cupboard in the Sunday School room. All Child Safety records are kept in a locked file box by the Child Safety Officer.

We do not track individual use of our website, but do use de-identified data to compile statistical reports on usage of the website.

The Church will retain your personal information while it can use or disclose that information for a legitimate purpose under the Australian Privacy Principles (see next section). When it can no longer use or disclose your information for such a lawful purpose, it will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information, where it is lawful for it to do so.

Compliance with legislation

The Church complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles in the Act. In relation to health information it complies with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic), which creates a framework to protect the privacy of individuals’ health information and regulates the collection and handling of health information in Victoria.

Access to your personal information

You are entitled to access the personal information we hold about you, and you may request this using the contact details given below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period and normally within 30 days, and will normally give you access unless an exception in either the Privacy Act or the Health Records Act applies. In the rare event that we deny your request, we will advise you of our reasons in writing and how to complain if you believe that our decision is inappropriate.

Correction of your personal information

If we are satisfied that, for the purposes for which it is held, the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, or if you request that we correct your information, we will take all reasonable steps to correct your information to ensure that it is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading. If your information changes, please let us know so that we can keep your information up to date.

If you wish to correct or modify your information, please write to us using the contact details given below.

Complaints

If you believe that we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles and wish to lodge a complaint about it, or if you have a question about this policy, please write to the Church’s Privacy Officer using the contact details given below. If you make a complaint, we will conduct an internal investigation of your concerns and endeavour to resolve them as soon as possible. We will advise you in writing of the outcome of your complaint.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

The Church may update or amend this policy from time to time to reflect its current practice and any changes in the law. Any changes will take effect from the time they are posted on the website www.thegoodshepherd.org.au

Privacy Officer contact details

Fr. Geoff Harvey, Parish Priest
PO Box 8061
MONASH UNIVERSITY VIC 3800

Telephone: (03) 9905 3179

Email: privacy@thegoodshepherd.org.au

Privacy Statement approved by Parish Council for publication on 2 August 2018.