AFES

Introduction

Your privacy is important to us. The following document outlines the AFES procedure on how we collect, use and disclose the personal information we hold about our members and supporters. It is an AFES policy to respect the confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals. We are also bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) made under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

This document will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing environment. The latest version will always be made available on our website. Any information we hold will be governed by the most current AFES Privacy Policy. We are committed to being open about how we use personal information. Where our documents ask for personal information, we will generally state the purpose for its use and to whom it may be disclosed.

Purpose of collecting information

AFES is committed to training people in their understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. This training will take place in the context of personal relationships and may extend over many years. As such, personal information about people who we are involved with and who attend the activities of AFES is collected primarily for the purpose of maintaining contact with students in our groups or supporters of our work.

We also collect information directly from individuals who wish to use our services, attend our activities, work for us, volunteer with us, donate, or otherwise support AFES.

AFES supporters may provide personal banking information to us in order for us to collect funds from them by various means as donations to the ministry activities of AFES.

What information do we collect and hold about you, and how do we collect this information?

Because of the nature of the services provided, we may ask for a range of personal information. The type of information we may collect can include (but is not limited to):

your name;
your date of birth;
your address;
contact details
the type, name and date of events attended; and
your banking or payment card information (financial information).

We obtain most of this information directly from our members and from maintaining records of information provided in the course of ongoing ministry. This information may be collected at public meetings, smaller group meetings, from responses to our communication to you, filling in our Financial Response Form or from other public sources (e.g. publicly available directories or social media platforms).

Given that we are dealing with large numbers of staff, students and supporters and as we need to identify you within our record keeping, we may seek to collect a piece of personal information from you that is in some way unique. This will not be any government identifiers (e.g. Medicare number). For example, we may ask you for only the day and month of your birth. This will help us keep your records unique from other members, especially if we have members with similar names, and no current address information.

If an individual wants to make a financial payment to AFES, other information such as bank account details and credit card information may need to be collected. We will always endeavour to provide a mechanism whereby the individual will be able to give anonymously.

Sensitive Information

At some of our activities we may ask for sensitive information to be collected.

Some personal information we hold is ‘sensitive’. Sensitive information relates to a person’s:

racial or ethnic origin;
membership of political bodies, religions or trade unions;
sexual preferences or activities;
criminal record;
state of health; or
medical history.

We undertake to collect only the following information that is deemed to be ‘sensitive information’:

Racial or ethnic origin

The form of information collected may include country of origin or ethnicity.

Membership of political bodies, religions or trade unions

The form of information collected will be restricted to the denomination, location and name of the church that the individual may attend. We will not be seeking to collect information regarding membership of political bodies or trade unions.

Sexual preferences or activities

We will not be seeking to collect information regarding sexual preferences or activities.

Criminal record

During the course of collecting and processing information for the Working with Children Check (under Child Protection legislation) it may be made apparent that an individual has a criminal record. This information will only be held as according to the guidelines set down in Child Protection legislation. Under circumstances other than the collection of information pertaining to Child Protection legislation, sensitive information regarding criminal records will not be collected.

State of health, medical history

On occasions we may seek to collect this information, when we consider that the collection is necessary.

Web Information

When you visit any of our websites, the relevant site server by automated means (such as cookies) makes a record of the visit and collects the following information:

your server address – to enable us to tailor the website interests and requirements;
the date and time of your visit – to understand the website’s busy times;
pages accessed and documents downloaded – to inform us about popular documents;
duration of the visit – to understand how interesting and informative the website is;
the type of browser used – for browser specific coding; and
your domain name or IP address, computer operating system, browser type and screen resolution – to enable us to optimise the website for different browsers.

You can change the privacy settings of your browser, in particular, you can refuse all cookies or opt to be notified each time a cookie is sent to your computer. But by blocking or deleting cookies used on our website(s), you may not be able to take full advantage of services offered via our website(s).

How do we use this information and whom may we disclose it to?

While we may, from time to time, send you information regarding the activities of AFES that we think may be of interest to you, we are conscious of the need to respect your privacy.

We will only use and disclose personal information for the purposes for which you provide it or a related secondary purpose which you would reasonably expect (including as stated in our collection statement). This includes, for example:

maintaining contact with you;
providing you with news and updates of our activities and events;
responding to any enquiries, feedback or complaints made by you; or
assessing any application for employment or volunteering with us.

We may disclose your personal information to like-minded ministry organisations who collaborate with us or with our service providers who support our work.

Your personal information will only be disclosed to recipients outside Australia if you expressly ask us to do so, or where trusted service providers are located overseas. At all times, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is handled by any overseas recipients in accordance with the APPs.

Web information will only be used for statistical and administrative purposes.

The personal contact information you give to us may be made available to AFES employees at the discretion of the relevant staff members. This availability of information will also extend to other AFES paid employees, as well as other volunteers who AFES deem it appropriate to see your personal information. At all times we will maintain a record of those employees, and volunteers. This is in keeping with our stated purpose for the collection of the information. We may also use your personal information in certain other circumstances, for example, where required or authorised by law.

We will not disclose your banking details such as card numbers, expiry dates, account numbers and the like to any other party without your explicit consent, unless compelled to do so by law.

In the event of a listing of AFES members being produced which would then be made available to friends of AFES, we will produce a separate application form for the collection of the information. This form will include (but is not limited to):

the nature of the information being collected;
the purpose of the collection;
the nature of the distribution of the list; and
an avenue for people to not have their information listed.

Handling of financial information

The personal contact information you give to us may be made available to AFES employees at the discretion of the relevant staff members. This availability of information will also extend to other AFES employees, as well as other volunteers who AFES deem it appropriate to see your personal information. At all times we will maintain a record of those employees, and volunteers. This is in keeping with our stated purpose for the collection of the information.
We may from time to time make offers to you for your information to be passed to like-minded ministry organisations. If you consent to this offer then we will keep a record of your intention as well as pass on the information you have indicated to the nominated organisation(s).
If you are a financial supporter of AFES we will, unless expressly requested otherwise, disclose your name, contact details, method, amount and frequency of your donations to the following persons:
- The staffworker you are supporting, or if you are supporting a campus generally then to the staff team leader at that campus or their nominee;
- To the treasurer or person responsible for monitoring the financial situation of the campus or area the staffworker/campus group you are supporting is associated with.
We will not disclose your financial account numbers or details to any other person or organisation, unless we have your express written authority or unless compelled to do so by law.
If you wish your donation to be made anonymously, in terms of the staff you are supporting, we have facilities in place to enable this.

Management of personal information

AFES seeks to train its staff and volunteers who handle personal information to respect the confidentiality of information and the privacy of individuals. AFES regards any breaches of your privacy to be a very serious matter. We have appointed a Privacy Officer to ensure that the management of your personal information is in accordance with this policy.

Safeguarding the privacy of your information is important to us, whether you interact with us personally, by phone, mail, over the Internet, or via other electronic media. We hold personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities, paper-based files and other records, and take steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We may need to maintain records for a significant period of time. However, when we consider information is no longer needed, we will remove any details that will identify you or we will securely destroy the records.

Data breaches

AFES will manage the process of dealing with an actual or suspected breach in the manner required by law. A data breach involves the loss of, unauthorised access to, or unauthorised disclosure of, personal information.

How you can access your information – requests to view and make amendments

Subject to certain exceptions, you can view or seek to amend the information AFES holds about you, or you can request the deletion of your personal information.

AFES endeavours to ensure that the personal information it holds is accurate and up-to-date. We realise that this information changes frequently with changes of address and other personal circumstances. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records. We can update your information over the telephone or via email.

Requests to view or amend personal information can be made by contacting our office.

We may not be able to comply with all requests. For example, if we reasonably believe that giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to the public health or public safety; if giving access would unreasonably impact the privacy of other individuals; if the request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or for legal or business reasons.

We will respond to the request for access within a reasonable period after the request has been made, and give access to the information in the manner requested by you, if it is reasonable and practicable to do so.

Complaints and enquiries

If you have a complaint concerning the manner in which we maintain the privacy of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer. All complaints will be considered by our Privacy Officer and we may seek further information from you to clarify your concerns. We will, in consultation with you, take reasonable steps, if any, to remedy any valid complaint.

You may also direct complaints about a breach of the APPs to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au.

Our contact details are as follows:

Bec Kimpton, Privacy Officer
+612 9697 0313
[email protected]

This policy was last updated on: 7/5/2024

Privacy Statement

AFES is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information that we collect and to complying with applicable obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). Personal information includes information or an opinion which identifies a person.

Privacy Collection Notice

This collection notice relates to personal information collected by AFES in connection with its activities, including ministry activities, fundraising activities, business activities, and engaging with its members, affiliates, university students, staff, volunteers, board members, local churches, mission organisations, contractors, suppliers and the wider community.

Who is collecting the information?	Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (ABN 91 509 626 599) (AFES). Our contact details are as follows: Bec Kimpton, Privacy Officer +612 9697 0313 [email protected]
How is the information collected?	We obtain information directly from individuals who wish to use our services, attend our activities, work for us, volunteer with us, donate, or otherwise support AFES. This information may be collected at public meetings, smaller group meetings, from responses to our communications to you, from you filling in one of our forms, or from other public sources.
Is the collection required under a law or Court order?	No.
What are the purposes of collection?	AFES is committed to training people in their understanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. Personal information about individuals who we are involved with and who attend the activities of AFES is collected primarily for the purpose of maintaining contact with students in our groups or supporters of our work. This includes the personal information of AFES volunteers and employees. AFES supporters may provide personal banking information and credit card information to us in order for us to collect funds from them by various means as donations to the ministry activities of AFES.
What happens if we don’t collect this information?	If we cannot collect your information, we will not be able to contact you in relation to the activities of AFES or to process your donation or application to be a member, volunteer or be employed at AFES.
Can you be anonymous?	People have the right to remain anonymous or to use a pseudonym when dealing with AFES. However, for a significant proportion of its activities, it is impracticable for AFES to deal with individuals who have not identified themselves or who have used a pseudonym. If an individual makes a financial payment to AFES, then other information such as bank account details and credit card information may need to be collected. Where reasonably practicable, we will accept anonymous donations; however, we reserve the right to refuse to do so.
To whom do we share this information?	In order to achieve our mission we may from time to time share your information with like-minded ministry organisations who collaborate with us or with our service providers who support our work.
Do we share the information overseas?	Your personal information will not be disclosed to recipients outside Australia unless you expressly ask us to do so, or where trusted service providers are located overseas.
How can I access and seek correction of this information?	Information about how to access and seek correction of personal information we hold about you is contained in our privacy policy.
How can I complain?	Information about how to complain is contained in our privacy policy. You may also direct complaints to the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.