Our Privacy Policy
“Personal Information means information or an opinion about an identifiable individual, or individual who is reasonably identifiable:
- whether the information or opinion is true or not;
- whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.”
To find out more about the APP you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) by email at the following address: enquiries@oaic.gov.au. Specific information about the APP may be accessed via the following link: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles/
This Privacy Statement is the Privacy Policy of New South Wales Probate and sets out the way that we manage personal and other information that our customers may provide to us. It also details how you can make a complaint to the office of the OAIC if you feel that we are not adhering to our obligations under the Act.
The Kinds of Personal Information Collected and Held by New South Wales Probate
Depending upon the circumstances, New South Wales Probate may collect and hold a range of Personal Information associated with its commercial dealings with you. This information may include the following:
- your name, and contact details including phone numbers, addresses and e-mail;
- financial information including, but not limited to, credit card information and financial institution accounts.
How New South Wales Probate Collects and Holds Your Personal Information
New South Wales Probate collects your personal information via a range of different means including but not limited to:
- directly from you during the completion of your on-line applications for Probate, the course of a meeting, by telephone, written correspondence in electronic or paper form;
- via our website and mobile Apps. (ie. online forms, cookies, log files etc).
New South Wales also uses Google analytics to collect information about how individuals use its website. The information obtained is used to help New South Wales Probate understand its user’s needs so that we can offer a better user experience. Google analytics uses cookies to collect information about which pages you visited, how long you were on the site, how you got there (for example from a search engine, a link, an advertisement, etc) and what you select. Information collected by the cookies (including your IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in Australia and overseas. You can opt out of Google analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt out service provided by Google. Our online services may contain links to other websites. New South Wales Probate is not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites and we recommend that you review their privacy policies.
Under the APP, you have the right to anonymity and pseudonymity in your dealings with us. However, if you fail to provide us with the Personal Information, we may decline to enter into business dealings with you.
However, it needs to be noted that once the documents for obtaining Probate are filed in the Court, third parties will have access to Personal Information concerning you and the estate of the deceased.
New South Wales Probate may hold your Personal Information in electronic and/or hard copy format, both at our head office and branch premises and with our agents and/or service providers. We implement a range of reasonable measures to ensure the security and integrity of your Personal Information. Careful measures are also undertaken in respect of destroying personal information that is no longer required to be held or needed for any lawful purpose.
How New South Wales Probate Uses Your Personal Information
New South Wales Probate collects and holds your information for the following reasons:
- To provide updates, news, information and promotions on New South Wales Probate;
- To comply with laws applicable to it;
- For our administrative, strategic and marketing purposes.
New South Wales Probate will not use your personal information for marketing purposes if you expressly indicate that you do not wish it to do so.
New South Wales Probate may disclose your personal information:
- To its related entities, business partners and/or associates for purposes related to any supply of goods and/or services requested by you;
- To its legal advisors and/or recovery agencies for purposes associated to any debt collection and/or dispute concerning you;
- With your consent, any credit reporting agency for purposes associated to the acquisition of information about your credit worthiness and financing;
- To any party or institution as may be required by law.
New South Wales Probate may also disclose your information to your authorised representatives when you provide us with written authority to do so.
Access to and Correction of Personal Information Held by New South Wales Probate
You may access information held by us about you by submitting a request in writing by email or hard copy using either of the following address:
Email for privacy enquires [insert email address]Or
The Privacy Compliance Officer
New South Wales Probate
[Insert address]
You will need to provide New South Wales Probate with sufficient proof of identity before we will respond to any request for access or correction.
New South Wales Probate will typically respond to your request with 30 days. The information will only be supplied:
- if New South Wales Probate is required to disclose same under the APP;
- if New South Wales Probate chooses to do so.
New South Wales Probate declines your request for access to your Personal Information, it will provide you with written reasons for doing so.
New South Wales Probate will require you to pay its administrative fees for obtaining access to its Personal Information about you including the costs of locating, retrieving, compiling, copying and delivering the requested information.
Once you have obtained access to the Personal Information held by New South Wales Probate about you, you may request that we attend to the correction of any errors and/or omissions. Any request must be put in writing and sent to either of the addresses set out above. New South Wales Probate will typically process your request within thirty (30) days and will notify you of any changes applied by us by return. If New South Wales Probate declines to make any requested changes, it will provide you with written reasons for doing so.
How You May Complain about New South Wales Probate for an Alleged Breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or a Registered APP Code
If you wish to make a complaint about the way in which New South Wales Probate deals with personal information and/or its adherence to the APP and/or any registered APP Code, you may direct your complaint in writing to either of the following addresses:
email address for privacy enquiries [insert email address]Or
The Privacy Compliance Officer
New South Wales Probate
[Insert address]
New South Wales Probate will typically respond to your complaint in writing within thirty (30) days unless your complaint requires us to obtain further information from you or to make its own enquiries. New South Wales Probate will endeavour to deal with your complaint as quickly as possible given the circumstances. If it is likely that a conclusive response will not be given within thirty (30) days of receipt of your complaint, New South Wales Probate will notify you of the reasons for the delay and provide you with a revised timeframe for delivery of its response.
If you are dissatisfied by our response, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. For detailed information on how to make a complaint to the OAIC, please visit the following web link:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/
The contact information of the OAIC is set out below:
1300 363 992
enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax 02 9284 9666
Post: Sydney Office, GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
How Eligible Data Breaches are Handled
Eligible data breaches happen where there is an unauthorised access to, or unauthorised disclosure of or loss of personal information held by us which may result to serious harm to an individual.
Pursuant to the Australian Privacy Protection Principles, New South Wales Probate must take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.
A data breach response plan outlines processes as to how a data breach will be contained, evaluated and managed. The plan also outlines how we decide whether it is necessary to notify an individual of a data breach.
Our data breach response plan is as follows:
- Contain the breach;
- Initiate a preliminary assessment by the Data Breach Response team;
- Assess the risks for individuals associated with the breach;
- Determine who needs to be made aware of the breach;
- Review the incident and take action to prevent future breaches
When deciding whether an individual is required to be notified, the following factors will be considered:
- Whether there is a risk of serious harm to the individual;
- whether notification will avoid or mitigate possible harm;
- whether the compromised information is sensitive or likely to cause humiliation or embarrassment for the individual;
- whether there are legal and/or contractual obligations to notify.
If we reasonably believe there is a risk of serious harm to the individual due to a data breach, we will notify the Commissioner. In some situations, we may also notify other third parties.