Purpose
This privacy policy applies to Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers (ABN 95 161 152 969) and any entity owned or controlled by Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers (“Related Entity”) in relation to Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers’ and its Related Entities’ (together “Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers”) operations in Australia. This policy explains how Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers handles personal information and complies with the requirements of the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). If you have any further questions in relation to this policy, please contact us.
Exclusions
This policy relates to Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers’ collection and handling of personal information that is covered by the Privacy Act. It is not intended to cover categories of personal information that are not covered by the Privacy Act.
Policy
Email and digital correspondence
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers email content is intended for the named recipient only. It may contain privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient/s, then any use or reliance upon it, saving, disclosure, forwarding or copying of this email and/or any attachments is unauthorised by law. If you have received an email in error, please reply to it regarding incorrect receipt and then delete it from your system. Thank you in advance.
Collection of personal information
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers collects and holds personal information from clients, employees, contractors and other individuals. We collect and hold this information when it is necessary for business purposes.
The main types of personal information Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers collects and holds relate to the contact details and organisational roles of our clients, suppliers and other business contacts. Typically, this information includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and job titles. In the course of providing professional services to our clients. We may collect and hold more detailed personal information (for instance financial details, dates of birth and tax file numbers if we are engaged to perform more complex services).
We collect most information directly from individuals when we deal with them. The personal information we collect may be provided in forms filled out by individuals, face to face meetings, email messages, telephone conversations or by third parties. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that contact.
Because of the nature of our business, it is generally impracticable for us to deal with individuals on an anonymous basis or through the use of a pseudonym, although sometimes this is possible (for example, when seeking staff or client feedback generally).
Use of personal information
The main purposes for which we collect, hold and use personal information are:
- to provide our services;
- to respond to an individual’s request;
- to maintain contact with clients;
- to keep clients and other contacts informed of the services we offer and industry developments that may be of interest to them, and to notify them of service offerings, information and other events we are holding;
- for general management and reporting purposes, such as invoicing and account management;
- for recruitment purposes;
- for purposes related to the employment of our personnel and providing internal services to our staff; and
- other purposes related to our business.
If you choose not to provide us with personal information, we may be unable to do such things.
We may collect, hold and use personal information about individuals to market our services, including by email. However, individuals always have the opportunity to elect not to receive further marketing information from us.
If we collect, hold or use personal information in ways other than as stated in this policy, we will ensure we do so pursuant to the requirements of the Privacy Act.
How we use and disclose your personal information
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers does not routinely disclose personal information to other organisations unless:
- use or disclosure is permitted by this policy;
- we believe it is necessary to provide you with a product or service which you have requested (or, in the case of an employee or contractor of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers, it is necessary for maintaining or related to your role at Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers);
- to protect the rights, property or personal safety of any member of the public or a customer of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers or the interests of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers;
- some or all of the assets or operations of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers are or may be transferred to another party as part of the sale of some or all of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers’ business;
- you give your consent; or
- such disclosure is otherwise required or permitted by law, regulation, rule or professional standard.
Except as set out in this policy, we do not sell to or trade personal information with third parties.
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers uses a range of service providers to help us maximise the quality and efficiency of our services and our business operations. This means that individuals and organisations outside of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers will sometimes have access to personal information held by Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers and may collect or use it from or on behalf of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers. This may include, but is not limited to, independent contractors and consultants, off-site security storage providers, information technology providers, event managers, credit managers and debt collecting agencies. We require our service providers to adhere to our privacy guidelines and not to keep, use or disclose personal information we provide to them for any unauthorised purposes.
If Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers’ staff obtain products or services offered by a third party pursuant to an agreement or arrangement between that third party and Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers, such as a credit card provider, we may provide your personal information to that third party, including information that relates to your use of such services.
Privacy on our websites and applications
This policy also applies to any personal information we collect via our websites, including sparksandpartners.com.au. In addition to personal information you provide to us directly (such as where you make a request or complete a registration form), Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers may also collect personal information from you via its applications and websites.
Cookies may be used on some areas of our websites. Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers uses cookies to improve the navigational experience of visitors to our websites and to make them easier to use.
If you are concerned about cookies, most browsers recognise when a cookie is offered and permit you to opt out of receiving it. If you are not sure whether your browser has this capability, you should check with the software manufacturer or your internet service provider. In most cases, you can refuse a cookie and still fully navigate the Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers websites.
In order to properly manage our websites and applications, we may log certain statistics about the users of the facilities, for example the users’ domains and browser types. None of this information specifically identifies an individual and it is used solely to ensure that our websites and applications present the best possible navigational experience for users.
Because Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers wants your user experience to be as informative and resourceful as possible, we provide a number of links to websites operated by third parties. Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers is not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites. We encourage you to review each website’s privacy policy, especially if you intend to disclose any personal information via that site. A link to another non-Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers website is not an express or implied endorsement, promotion or warranty of the products or services offered by or accessible through that site or advertised on that site.
Security of personal information
Depending on the purpose for which we have collected personal information we may store some of the information electronically. Some or all of this personal information may be available to partners and authorised staff of Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers for use in accordance with this policy.
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, whether electronically or in hard-copy, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. We also require our employees and contractors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers.
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers aims to achieve industry best practice in the security of personal information which it holds. It is our policy not to retain personal information once there is no longer a legal or business need for us to do so.
Access to information
We will provide access to personal information upon request by an individual, except in the limited circumstances in which it is permitted for us to withhold this information (for instance, where granting access would infringe another person’s privacy).
If at any time you want to know what personal information we hold about you, you may contact us
Corrections and concerns
If you believe that information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, or if you have concerns about how we are handling your personal information, please contact us and we will try to resolve those concerns.
If you wish to have your personal information deleted, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to delete it (unless we need to keep it for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons).
If Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers becomes aware of any ongoing concerns or problems concerning our privacy practices, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have any further queries relating to our privacy policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact us. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your problem or complaint you may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner.
Effect of Policy
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers operates in a dynamic business environment and we aim to review this policy annually to keep it current.
Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers may update this privacy policy at any time by publishing an updated version on this website.
The amended policy will apply between us whether or not we have given you specific notice of any change.
Contacting us
If you would like more information about the way Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers handles privacy, or if you wish to make a privacy complaint in relation to Sparks & Partners Consulting Engineers, please contact us via mail.