Privacy Policy

Our commitment to your privacy

Messages On Hold abides by Australia’s National Privacy Principles and is committed to respecting your right to privacy and your right to control the accuracy of your personal information.

We are committed to protecting your privacy in all your dealings with us: when you contact us, visit our websites, respond to one of our surveys or promotions, buy something from us or share your experiences with us.

We only collect personal information that is needed for or directly related to the functions and activities of Messages On Hold — for example, to deliver the advice, goods or services you have requested or to communicate promotional offers.

We protect your details through encryption and building and computer security systems.

We never share information about you with any other organisation beyond what is necessary to deliver the goods or services you have requested from us.

You are welcome to review the information we hold about you.

You have the right to opt out of individually addressed promotional mailings.

We deal with complaints about privacy breaches promptly.

This policy covers information that identifies you as an individual. It also covers information from which your identity is apparent or could reasonably be ascertained (eg, by matching different sets of data held by Messages On Hold).

Information we collect

We only collect personal information about you if it is:

• Necessary to supply you with what you request or give you the access you need — for example, if you want to subscribe to one of our email newsletters; respond to one of our promotional offers; buy a book or other item from us; ask us for advice in relation to a consumer issue; or share your experiences regarding a product or service.
• Necessary to the research, planning, product development and marketing requirements of Messages On Hold — for example, to communicate promotional offers.
• Necessary to protect the rights or property of Messages On Hold, any Messages On Hold publication, any Messages On Hold subscriber or any member of the public.
• Necessary to lessen a serious threat to a person’s health or safety.
• Required by law.

We will only collect information by lawful and fair means and we will take steps to ensure that the information we collect does not intrude to an unreasonable extent on your personal affairs.

• Who we are and how to contact us;
• What information we need and why we’re collecting it;
• How you can get access to the personal information you give us if you want to check or change it;
• Any law that requires us to collect it; and
• The main consequences (if any) if all or part of the information is not provided;

We will usually collect personal information directly from you.

Sensitive information

Sensitive information is information that identifies an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record or health information.

Messages On Hold does not collect sensitive information about you unless you specifically choose to volunteer it to us, for example in a letter to us about your experiences or concerns.

Anonymity
Wherever it is lawful and practicable we will give you the option of not identifying yourself when contacting or dealing with Messages On Hold. So, for example, you can visit the public parts of our websites, respond to surveys, or ask us questions about consumer rights without identifying yourself. However, if you want to receive one of Messages On Hold’s subscription products or services, ask a question about the personal information we hold about you, buy a book directly from us, or participate in one of our promotions you will need to give us certain personal information.

Information you may choose to provide

If you take part in an online, mail or phone survey the information we collect is usually anonymous and is only used in aggregated form unless we specifically tell you otherwise at the time we collect it. You may always choose not to participate. All information gathered in this way is kept strictly confidential.

We may also collect general demographic data so we can check aggregated results against ABS statistics to ensure they’re representative, but the identification is no more specific than your postcode and is never used on an individual basis.

Where you give us information about your experiences with products or services this may be interesting to others when we publish articles on those topics. If we wish to use your experience and you’ve provided it to us in a private communication (letter, fax, email, phone call, survey) we will always ask your permission before we publish it. You always have the right to refuse or to request anonymity.

How your personal information is used and disclosed

We will not use or disclose or permit the use or disclosure of personal information that could be used to identify an individual except in the following circumstances:

When you purchase something from us or respond to one of our promotions we will use the information you provide to deliver any information, goods and/or services you have requested. For example, if you subscribe to our Get The Message newsletter, we will send you it on a quarterly basis.

For customers we may also:

• Ask you for your email address so we can send you our e-newsletters — you can always opt out of these
• Tell you about related products or services that Messages On Hold provides. For example we may send you promotional material on our On Hold services.
• Invite you to participate in research to improve Messages On Hold’s products and services, for example, telephone you to ask about your interest in a free demonstration message.
• Invite you to participate in surveys about consumer products or services, for example, send you a survey about your experiences with your bank.

We may use information about you that was collected by another organisation to send you promotional offers on Messages On Hold’s products or services. In this case we will take all reasonable steps to make sure you gave informed consent for the information to be used in this way and we will give you the option not to receive further contact from Messages On Hold.

We will from time to time use the information we hold about you to send you promotional offers either individually addressed or promoted within existing products. These offers are to do with other Messages On Hold services. We will always give you the option not to receive any further individually addressed promotional contact from Messages On Hold.

Where personal information you give us is disclosed to an agent of Messages On Hold (for example to phone technicians) it will only be disclosed to the extent necessary to enable them to undertake the specific task we’ve contracted them to do and we will require them to operate under conditions of confidentiality, which will be specified as a term of the contract between Messages On Hold and the agent. Personal information collected by Messages On Hold will not be given, sold or rented for use by any other organisation or for any other purpose. Any partners of Messages On Hold are also required to abide by Australia’s National Privacy Principles. Messages On Hold does not transfer personal information about individuals to anyone else or any other organisation in a foreign country.

The quality and security of your personal information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we hold about you is relevant, not excessive, accurate, complete and up-to-date.

Our customer records are protected by a range of security measures: encryption, firewalls and/or computer network security systems, restricted access and building security systems. Personal information about former customers is retained for a period of time after the customer relationship ceases as required by law — for example, financial records must be kept for 7 years — and as part of Messages On Hold’s intellectual property base. During this time we may contact you to tell you about Messages On Hold products or services or to ask you why you left Messages On Hold. You can request not to receive further contact from us either by indicating so on the material we send you or by contacting us directly.

How to opt out

If you do not wish to receive further promotional material from Messages On Hold you can:

• Ring us on 1800 350 700
• Fax us on (08) 9260 4445
• Write to us at Messages On Hold, PO Box 8214, Perth Business Centre, WA 6849

You will need to give sufficient information for us to identify you, for example, your name, company name and address.

Our commitment to your privacy

Messages On Hold abides by Australia’s National Privacy Principles and is committed to respecting your right to privacy and your right to control the accuracy of your personal information.

We are committed to protecting your privacy in all your dealings with us: when you contact us, visit our websites, respond to one of our surveys or promotions, buy something from us or share your experiences with us.

We only collect personal information that is needed for or directly related to the functions and activities of Messages On Hold — for example, to deliver the advice, goods or services you have requested or to communicate promotional offers.

We protect your details through encryption, firewalls, and building and computer security systems.

We never share information about you with any other organisation beyond what is necessary to deliver the goods or services you have requested from us.

You are welcome to review the information we hold about you.

You have the right to opt out of individually addressed promotional mailings.

We deal with complaints about privacy breaches promptly.

This policy covers information that identifies you as an individual. It also covers information from which your identity is apparent or could reasonably be ascertained (eg, by matching different sets of data held by Messages On Hold).

Complaints
We are committed to dealing quickly and appropriately with any complaint you make about your privacy in relation to Messages On Hold’s publications, services or practices. If you are concerned that this privacy policy may have been breached or that your privacy may have been compromised please contact us in writing immediately, setting out your concerns.

• Fax us on (08) 9260 4488; mark your fax: Attention Privacy Officer
• Write to us at Privacy Officer, Messages On Hold, PO Box 8214, Perth Business Centre, WA 6849

Please do not contact us by email to make a specific complaint, as it is relatively insecure.

Unresolved complaints

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can refer it to the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner.

The central office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner is located in Sydney at: Level 8, Piccadilly Tower, 133 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000. Contact details are as follows:

Please note: Complaints should be made in writing to the Federal Privacy Commissioner at the above address. If you need help to make a complaint, you can phone the hotline for assistance.

Information we collect online

We do not include on our site any functionality allowing third parties to perform ‘reverse searches’ to identify individuals from email addresses.

We do collect information on site usage. This information is aggregated so we can track and analyse overall use the kymillman.com website to help us improve the site to give you the information, service and features you want. In addition, the number of times you access the site in a given period may be checked as part of our site usage monitoring. This information is kept strictly confidential, available only to selected senior Messages On Hold staff, and may be used to query what we determine is unusually heavy use of the site.

Your name and address and login email and password are stored on our server so that you can have access and so that you can change your details online. When you first join or register these details are sent to us in non-encrypted email.

We do not currently collect personal information about you from other sites.

We may contact you

If you are a customer we may contact you to advise you of changes to our services or other important information. You may opt out at any time. Every email we send you will have information on how to do this.

We don't spam

We don't spam and we never pass email addresses to third parties.

Your consent

By using this site you consent to the collection and use of this information by Messages On Hold.

Security of your information online

Messages On Hold will take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we have relating to you is correct and up-to-date.

Your credit-card number is protected by encryption, so it cannot be read as it is transmitted over the Internet. The encrypted data is transmitted using a secure 128-bit socket layer (SSL - a Netscape browser standard, adopted by Microsoft for their Internet Explorer and by some other browsers) connection as well as Encryption of the data stream itself. .

Look for one or more of these ‘secure connection’ indicators on your browser:

A security alert window tells you that you are about to use a secure connection. Some browsers let you choose whether to display this window.

An SSL icon shows when you're in a secure connection.

• A symbol of an open padlock changes to a closed padlock when you're in a secure connection.
• A symbol of a ‘broken key’ icon is replaced by an unbroken key.
• A blue line runs across the top of the content window.

The web site's address changes to one that begins with ‘https’ (check for the ‘s’).

Links to other websites

Messages On Hold provides links to other websites when we consider you may be interested in the content on those sites. This in no way constitutes an endorsement of those sites or their content and Messages On Hold has no control over the conduct of the companies or organisations operating those sites. Before you disclose any personal information to such a site, we advise you to check its terms and conditions, including its privacy and security policies.

Tell us what you think

Messages On Hold welcomes your comments about our privacy policy. Please email us at Kym.

This article last reviewed April 2005