Newcastle Writers Festival – Privacy Policy
Newcastle Writers Festival Incorporated (ABN 47 817 243094) is committed to protecting your privacy.
The Organisation is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 as well as other applicable laws protecting privacy. In some circumstances, we may undertake contractual obligations to observe additional privacy obligations. Where appropriate, the Organisation will handle personal information relying on the employee records exemption and the related bodies corporate exemption in the Privacy Act.
Newcastle Writers Festival Incorporated may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time and if we do so, we will post any updated Privacy Policy on the website (www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au). We encourage you to check the website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy. Please note also that this Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with (and is subject to) any other privacy statement that the organisation may provide to you when we collect your personal information or provide a particular program or service.
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND WHY?
The Organisation collects the personal information we need to produce our programs, conduct related activities and operations, involve the community in Organisation programs and activities and promote and seek support for our Organisation.
The following are the main purposes for which personal information is collected by the Organisation and the main types of personal information collected.
To sell tickets to Festival events
Tickets can be purchased in several ways, including through electronic means such as visiting our website. When you purchase a ticket, your information may be used to facilitate payment, provide you with your ticket, provide you with any applicable discounts, notify you in case of changes in date or time of an event, send out information about upcoming festival events and for marketing and other research purposes by the Organisation.
With your consent, we may collect your health or other sensitive information such as access seating requirements. Where we partner with ticketing organisations, other arts organisations, or publishers in relation to an event (known as the Co-Presenter), we may collect ticketing information (including personal information) from, and/or share such ticketing information with, those other organisations. In these instances, customers who consent will receive future communications from both the Co-Presenter or Presenter and the Organisation. This Privacy Policy applies to patrons who purchase tickets directly from the Organisation and to patrons who purchase tickets from Co-Presenters or Venue Presenters.
To communicate with our donors and supporters
We collect personal information about our current and potential donors and supporters so that we can encourage, record, and acknowledge their support and communicate with them about the Organisation and our programs.
To operate our website
When you use the website, you may choose to provide your name, email address or other personal details for us to send you ticketing or other information about the Organisation or its programs or other related programs or services or to respond to your queries.
As part of our general operations
The Organisation also collects personal information about individuals who are, or are employed by, our partners, our suppliers (including service and content providers), contractors, agents and other partners. Generally, if appropriate, we will state why we are collecting personal information when we collect it and how we plan to use it, or these things will be obvious when we collect the information.
Employees and contractors
When you apply for a job or contract with us, we may collect certain information from you, from any recruitment consultant and from your previous employers and others who may be able to provide information to us to assist us in our decision on whether to make you an offer of employment or engage you under a contract. This Privacy Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to employee records of our current and former employees which are exempt from the Privacy Act.
HOW DO WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION?
When we collect personal information, we generally use it for the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise authorised or required by law.
If you have purchased tickets from us, or if you have asked to make such a purchase, we may use your information to send you material (including by email) about the Organisation or its programs or other related programs or services, unless you tell us not to using the contact details set out below.
If at any time you do not want us to use your personal information to send you any further information, you can always let us know by contacting our Privacy Officer through the contact details given below.
From time to time we may send you special offers and promotions from third parties. We will not disclose your personal information to those third parties. If you do not wish to receive offers from third parties, please contact our Privacy Officer through the contact details given below.
DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION
For the purposes we have described, we may disclose your personal information:
• To our related bodies corporate;
• To our suppliers (including service providers such as mail houses and IT companies), contractors, agents or promoters and persons who help us to deliver programs and events, such as judges of competitions and other persons who collaborate with us to deliver our programs;
• Where we partner with other organisations for an event, to those other organisations, in relation to those events;
• Where you have otherwise consented; or
• As otherwise required or authorised by law.
Some of the persons or organisations to whom we disclose personal information may be situated outside Australia, including in the United States. In addition, some of our promotional material that
may include photographs and other personal information about our artists and audiences may be made available to the public, including on the internet and outside Australia.
The data protection laws in other countries may not provide an equivalent level of protection to Australian privacy law. You acknowledge that by giving consent to the disclosure of your personal information to the overseas recipients, the Organisation will not have an obligation under Australian privacy law to take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients do not breach Australian privacy law. However, where practicable in the circumstances the Organisation will take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipients of your personal information only use and disclose such information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Cookies
A type of anonymous information shared between your browser and our server is a cookie. A cookie is a small text file that a server places on your hard drive to identify those subsequent requests to a site have come from the same user.
The Company may use cookies to ‘remember’ your browser between page visits. In this situation, the cookie identifies your browser, not you personally. The Organisation may use cookies on this web site to facilitate online transactions and develop patterns of site usage.
If for any reason you do not wish to take advantage of cookies, you may configure your browser so it does not accept them. However, this may disable or render unusable some of the features of the website.
Secure Transmissions
While the Organisation endeavours to provide a secure internet environment, users should note that there are inherent risks associated with transmission of information online.
Access and correction and complaints handling
If you would like to access your information or to find out what information we have about you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact details given below. We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period. When you request access, we will need to take measures to verify your identity. We will provide you with access to most personal information that we have about you, but sometimes that will not be possible, in which case we will tell you why (except to the extent it would be unreasonable for us to do so).
If you think that any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete, or up to date, you may request that we correct that information by contacting our Privacy Officer. We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period. Although in most circumstances we will be able to correct the personal information we hold about you, in some circumstances it may not be possible for us to correct some or all your personal information in the way you have requested. Where this is the case, we will notify you and give you the reasons why (except to the extent it would be unreasonable for us to do so).
If you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information (including if you think we have breached the Privacy Act), you may do so by contacting our Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below. If you make a complaint, please include contact details such as your name, address, telephone number and email address and clearly describe your complaint. We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable period and will endeavour to deal with your complaint in an efficient manner. If we are unable to resolve your complaint and you believe that we have breached the Privacy Act, you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
More information
If you have any queries or would like further information about our privacy policies or practices, please contact our Privacy Officer by emailing admin@newcastlewritersfestival.com.au or by writing to: The Privacy Officer, Newcastle Writers Festival, PO Box 99, Mayfield NSW 2304