Privacy Policy.
FOS Collective Pty Ltd ("FOS Collective")
This document outlines FOS Collective's policy regarding its handling of the personal information we collect about individuals, including customers and potential customers.
FOS Collective (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) refers to FOS Collective Pty Ltd, with ABN 89 655 956 013.
We have adopted this Privacy Policy to ensure that we have standards in place to protect any and all of the personal or sensitive information that we collect about individuals, including personal information that is necessary and incidental to providing the services that FOS Collective offers to you, as well as information that is necessary and incidental to maintaining the normal day-to-day operations of our business.
This Privacy Policy follows and is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) set out by the Australian Commonwealth Government for the handling of Personal Information under the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’) and the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth) (‘PAEPP Act’). The 13 Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act and the PAEPP Act regulate the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal information, including sensitive information, by Australian businesses and by some government agencies. We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act and we comply with all the Privacy Act’s requirements with respect to the collection and management of personal information.
By publishing this Privacy Policy we aim to make it easy for you, our customers and the general public to understand what personal and sensitive information we collect, use, store, and disclose.
This Privacy Policy also aims to explain why we collect this information, to provide details about how and when we may receive, request, or obtain that information, and to inform you about the rights that you hold with respect to any of your personal and/or sensitive information that is in our possession.
1. Why do we need your personal information?
Understanding and meeting our customers’ needs is central to FOS Collective's business. We meet our customers’ needs by providing our services. To understand and provide for our customer's needs effectively, we need to collect certain personal information from you (and from all of our customers), including information that is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, FOS Collective's business activities.
Personal information is information that identifies an individual, or which could be used to reasonably identify an individual. It may include an individual’s signature, address, telephone number or numbers, email address, age and/or birth date; profession, occupation, and/or job title; or their bank account details.
We collect, hold, use, and disclose customers’ personal information so that we may establish, manage, and administer the services and products that we provide to our customers in an effective manner. We may also collect, hold, use, and disclose such personal information in a manner that enables FOS Collective to comply with all of our legal and regulatory obligations.
In addition, we may use or disclose your personal information for other purposes, including:
• to assist with inquiries, questions, and complaints;
• to arrange for services to be provided to you by third parties;
• to enhance our customer service, improve our products, and expand our options (see the section below, ‘Will my personal information be used for direct marketing?’); and
• to undertake or comply with international operations, such as record keeping, data analytics, auditing, training, or compliance.
Will my personal information be used for direct marketing?
We use and disclose your information to keep you advised and informed about the full range of products and services that we offer. We hope that by doing so, our customers will further benefit from our products and services. Nevertheless, you may opt out of receiving any or all direct marketing information from FOS Collective at any time (see the section below, ‘How can you contact us about privacy?’).
What happens if I do not provide the information that has been requested?
It’s completely up to you whether you provide your personal information to us or not. However, if you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we might not be able to fulfill all of your needs or meet your requests. For instance, if we do not obtain all of the information we require from you in relation to your personal details, we may be unable to provide a specific service or product to you. We may also be prevented from identifying you for the purposes of protecting you against fraud.
2. What types of personal information do we collect?
We may ask for different kinds of personal information to assist us in providing you with the relevant product or service. We may request personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, and contact details.
What if I provide information about others to you?
In order to provide our services to you, we may sometimes require you to provide information to us about third parties, such as the personal information of your customers, who may include vendors of properties and certain trades or consultants. The personal information we require from you about such vendors or other customers may include, without limitation, such information as their.
• address or addresses;
• telephone number or numbers; and
• email address or addresses.
If you provide any such personal information to us, or if you provide any information that includes information about someone other than yourself, then, in doing so, you warrant to us that you have that other person’s consent to provide such information to us for the relevant purpose. The same principles that apply to your personal information under this Privacy Policy and under the Privacy Act will apply to any information about others that you provide to us.
What form does the information take?
When we collect information from you, it may take a physical or digital form or both. This Privacy Policy applies to all information we collect, whether it is stored electronically or in hardcopy.
How do we collect personal information?
We will obtain some of the personal information we collect from you directly, such as if/when you register for a FOS Collective newsletter, when you complete an information form, or if you email our support services for assistance.
We may gather information about the kind of web browser that you use to access our services and the amount of time that you spend on our application, including through the use of cookies.
We may also receive personal information from sources such as advertising, promotions, mailing lists, recruitment agencies, and our business partners, such as:
• when you register or subscribe for a service, account, or when you request to receive or access something from us;
• when you submit your details to us to open an account or to become a registered user of our services;
• when you supply us with goods or services;
• when you contact us;
• via pixel tags, which enable us to send email or other messages or proposals to you and other customers in a format that you can read. Pixel tags may also tell us whether the specific email, message, or proposal has been opened by you.
In some circumstances, we might collect information about you from external sources, including but not limited to:
• employers;
• credit providers;
• credit reporting bodies;
• real estate agencies;
• public sources of information;
• market research organisations; and
• third-party brokers (such as insurance and mortgage brokers).
We will only seek to collect your personal information from external sources when or if it is impracticable to collect that information directly from you, or when we are permitted to do so by law.
3. How do we protect your personal information?
We take steps to store your information securely, no matter how we collect it. Whether we solicit information directly from you through online or hardcopy forms or collect it by other interactions with you (such as by mail, telephone communications, or in an online setting), we store your personal information in a combination of secured computer servers and in other formats.
We have procedures in place to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, modification, theft, fraud, and improper disclosure. In order to keep your information as secure as possible, we instruct all staff members who handle your personal information to respect your confidentiality, respect your information, and respect the privacy of all individuals who use FOS Collective's products and services.
When we no longer require your personal information, we will destroy it, delete it from our storage servers, or de-identify it.
With whom do we share personal information?
We may share or disclose information about you where we have obtained your consent, where we have obtained the information from another party for a specified purpose, or as required by law.
We will not share or disclose information that personally identifies you to any third party other than as set out in this Privacy Policy. In order to deliver the services that we provide, we may disclose your personal information to other organisations directly related to FOS Collective, and only in relation to providing our services to you. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.
Do we send personal information to overseas recipients?
Some of the entities we share information with may be located overseas, or have operations in countries other than Australia. For this reason, your information may be stored or accessed in countries other than Australia.
If and when we send your personal information to recipients outside Australia, we take steps to ensure that responsible data handling arrangements are in place.
How do we update your personal information?
In almost all cases you may update your personal information by contacting us by email or by means of our website. We may also update your personal information if we believe that the personal information we have on file is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. In such cases, we may seek to correct, complete, or update our records by gathering data from other sources, including public records or other organisations.
4. How can you contact us about privacy?
You may send an email to info@foscollective.com.au or write to us at Mezzanine level, 168 Rocky Point Road, Kogarah NSW 2217. By these means, you may
• seek more information about anything outlined in this Privacy Policy;
• update, correct, or complete your personal information;
• opt-out of receiving direct marketing material;
• ask about accessing or correcting the personal information we have on file about you; or
• make a complaint with respect to our Privacy Policy or our privacy processes.
How can you find out about the personal information we hold about you?
You may email or write to us regarding the personal information that we hold about you, and we will respond to your enquiry within twenty-eight (28) days, in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. If it is going to take longer to provide you with the specific information that you have requested, we will get in touch to explain why it will take longer and ask you for more time.
In some specific situations, we may be allowed or required to refuse or limit your access to information, such as when the information is commercially sensitive. If a situation like this arises, then we will write you or contact you to explain why we are unable to comply with your request.
It is your responsibility to provide us with accurate and truthful personal information, and we cannot be liable for any information that is provided to us in error or that is incomplete, incorrect, or out of date.
How can you make a complaint about privacy?
If you wish to make a complaint about our collection or handling of your personal information, you may address your complaint in writing via the contact channels listed at the start of this section (‘How can you contact us about privacy?’).
We take all privacy complaints seriously and will consider all complaints in a careful manner as a part of our commitment to transparency, honesty, integrity, and fairness in dealing with our customers and their concerns. Upon receiving a complaint we will endeavor to contact you within 5 (five) working days to let you know what actions we are taking to resolve or address the substance of the complaint.
If we become aware of any unauthorised access to your personal information, we will inform you at the earliest practical opportunity once we have established what was accessed and how it was accessed.
Alternatively, you may contact an external body. If your complaint is related to our handling of your personal information, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by calling 1300 363 992 or via their website at oaic.gov.au.
5. What about privacy and the internet?
This statement is specific to the website at foscollective.com.au.
What are cookies and how do we use them?
Cookies are small lines of text or code that are stored on your computer to help websites determine the browser settings that you use, where you have been on the website, when and how often you return to the website, and where you came from. Cookies also ensure that your personal information, including information that you have entered while using the website, is secure. The purpose of this information is to provide you with an optimal, customised, and more effective and enjoyable experience while using our websites, including by presenting web pages that are relevant to your personal needs or preferences.
FOS Collective may use cookies (now or in the future) to give you access to particular web pages without requiring you to log in each time, or to re-enter details each time, you visit. We may also use external service providers, such as analytics software, to track the traffic and usage of our website and related services.
While cookies are used on many websites on the internet, you may adjust your browser settings so as to disable or control whether, or the way in which cookies will be accepted. If you disable your browser’s acceptance of cookies, you may not be able to access parts of our website or web services, such as the secure parts of our website.
Links to third-party websites
Our website and our mobile device application may provide links to external third-party websites of benefit to the user.
Since these external websites are not controlled by FOS Collective, they should contain their own privacy statements not authored by FOS Collective. We recommend that you review those privacy statements when using those websites, as such third party websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and these websites are not subject to FOS Collective's privacy standards or procedures.
Website analytics
We may use website analytics software to assist us collect data about your use of our website, to track traffic patterns to and from our website and web-based software applications, as well as to anonymously survey you and other users of the website and applications. We may use this analytics software to know how many unique visitors use our website and applications, how long each visitor spends on the website and applications, what they do on our websites and applications, and where the common entry points and exit points are with respect to our website and applications.
This information is generally non-personal and non-identifying information that is collected by third party software and then provided to us in order that we may better analyse the use of our websites by our users, and improve our products and services.
6. About this Privacy Policy
This policy is effective as of March 2022. We will update this policy when our information handling practices change, or when any amendments apply to the information we hold at the time of that update.
Whenever we update this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated policy on our website. In that regard, we encourage you to check our website regularly to view our current privacy policy.