Privacy

Purpose and Scope

A.B. Paterson College and any subsidiaries maintains a database of alumni/ friends/ supporters/ parents in order to stay in touch with our community and keep you updated about news, events, careers initiatives, network updates and fundraising activities.

Some of our database (but not all) choose to join our online community by registering on this website and creating an online profile. In both instances (individuals with offline database records and individuals with online profiles), we collect and store personal information (or “data”) about you. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and this Policy sets out what information we collect about you, where and how we use (“process”) it.

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on the website or contact you directly with the information. Please check this page occasionally to make sure you are happy with any changes.

If you have any questions about this Policy or concerning your personal information, please contact A.B. Paterson College via email community@abpat.qld.edu.au.

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any subsequent Australian legislation covering data protection, the Data Controller is A.B. Paterson College.

What is personal information?

For the purposes of the Australian Privacy Principles, personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

If information does not disclose your identity or enable your identity to be ascertained, it will in most cases not be classified as "personal information" and will not be subject to this privacy policy.

Personal information may also be classified as sensitive information, as defined by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

What is sensitive information?

Sensitive information includes information relating to a person's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices or criminal record, that is also personal information; health information and biometric information about an individual.

What type of personal information we collect

The personal information we have about you depends on where we collect it, but may include:

First name
Last name
Email
Address
Phone number
Photographs
Gender
Date of birth
Family relationships
Years at [organisation]
Higher education and work details
Participation in our events, emails, competitions, surveys and other activities
Donations made to [organisation]
Geo-location data (your geographical location based on your IP address)
Log-ins and activity on the website
A record of payments made via the website (but we do not store your credit/ debit card details as these are processed securely externally by a third-party payment provider) which could include event tickets, shop purchases or online donations
Consent options and communication preferences
Content (such as announcements, stories, photos, documents, comments, events, jobs) that you post on this website or provide to us by other means
Messages that you send to other community members via the direct messaging system when logged in to this website

What type of sensitive information do we collect?

The sensitive information we have about you depends on where we collect it, but may include:

Indigenous heritage.

Can you deal with us anonymously?

A.B. Paterson College will provide individuals with the opportunity of remaining anonymous or using a pseudonym in their dealings with us where it is lawful and practicable (for example, when making a general enquiry). Generally, it is not practicable for A.B. Paterson College to deal with individuals anonymously or pseudonymously on an ongoing basis. If we do not collect personal information about you, you may be unable to utilise our services or participate in our events, programs or activities we manage or deliver.

Where we collect information from

We collect personal information when you:

visit this website
create or update your online profile
post content on to this website or other websites and social media sites managed by A.B. Paterson College
take part in an event
attend a meeting with us and provide us with information
contact us in any way including online, email, phone, SMS, social media or post
open an email sent from this website
send a message via the direct messaging system on this website
leave A.B. Paterson College and we transfer some basic details about you from the main A.B. Paterson College database in to our Old Collegians database

We collect sensitive information when you:

provide us with the information
leave A.B. Paterson College and we transfer some basic details about you from the main A.B. Paterson College database in to our Old Collegians database
We will only collect sensitive information if it is:
reasonably necessary for the functions and activities of A.B. Paterson College, with the individual’s consent;
necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to health and safety;
another permitted general situation; or
another permitted health situation.

Purposes of collecting, holding, using, and disclosing your information

We will use your personal information and sensitive information in a number of ways, always with a legal basis for processing your data. A.B. Paterson College only uses personal information that is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities (the primary purpose) or for a related secondary purpose that would be reasonably expected by you, or for an activity or purpose to which you have consented. Our primary purposes include:

providing you with the information or updates that you have asked for
sending you communications (with your consent if required) that may be of interest, including invites to events, newsletters and fundraising campaigns
delivering our obligations under any contract between us
seeking your views on the services or activities we carry out, so that we can make improvements
updating our database records and ensuring we know how you prefer to be contacted
analysing your engagement with our website and other content to help us improve our services for you
running our mentoring programme/ club activities/ reunion events/ sports fixtures
inviting you to participate in fundraising campaigns.

Our legal basis for processing your information

The use of your information for the purposes set out above is lawful because one or more of the following applies:

you have given us your consent for the information to be used
it is necessary for us to hold and use your information to carry out our obligations under a contract entered into with you
it is necessary for our legitimate interests to hold and use your information and we are not impacting your privacy by doing so

Updating your consent preferences

If you have an online profile on this website you can update your consent options by logging-in and clicking on “My Settings” in your profile. Scroll down to find your ‘Consent options’ where you will see a list of consents and the options “opt-in”, “opt-out” and “unspecified”.

Via ‘My Settings’ you can also choose to hide your profile from Google, limit access to your profile so that it’s only viewable to your connections and adjust some of the automatic notifications that you receive from this website. Please note that your name (but not full profile) may appear in various places around the community website, such as a ‘Recent Joiners’ box and in ‘Search’ results irrespective of the privacy settings you have selected.

If we are using consent as our legal basis for processing your data, we must have an explicit “opt-in” from you for this specific type of processing.

If we are using legitimate interests as our legal basis for processing your data, we will process your data responsibly in a way that you would reasonably expect, and you can opt-out at any stage.

If you click ‘unsubscribe’ at the bottom of one of our emails sent you will be automatically opted-out of these types of email communications in the future.

If you want to contact us about your consent preferences please contact the Principal at community@abpat.qld.edu.au.

How we keep your information safe

We understand the importance of keeping your personal information secure and take appropriate steps to safeguard it.

Your data is stored in a variety of formats including, but not limited to:

databases and physical servers;
personal devices, including laptop computers;
on a dedicated, secure cloud server hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) located in Sydney (Australia), North Virginia (United States of America) or Dublin (Ireland) and managed by our website provider, ToucanTech. Industry standard firewalls, anti-virus, encryption and back-up methods are in place, as well as strict data handling protocols.

We always ensure only authorised persons have access to your information, which means only our approved employees and contractors, and that everyone who has access is appropriately trained in data management.

If you have an online profile for this website you are responsible for keeping your login details (email and password) confidential and we ask that you do not share your password with anyone.

No data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. So, whilst we strive to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you provide online and you do this at your own risk.

Who has access to your information?

Third parties who provide services for us, including for example service providers who assist us in operating the website.. We select our third-party service providers with care. We provide these third parties with the information that is necessary to provide the service and we will have an agreement in place that requires them to operate with the same care over data protection as we do.
Third parties if we run an event in conjunction with them. We will let you know how your data is used when you register for any event.
Web hosting, email hosting, analytics and search engine providers that enable us to run our community database and improve our website and its use.
Third parties in connection with restructuring or reorganisation of our operations, for example if we merge with another business.
Third party payment providers used by the website.

In any such event, we will take steps to ensure your privacy rights will be protected by the third party.

A.B. Paterson College may disclose personal information without consent or in a manner which an individual would reasonably expect if:

We are required to do so by law;
The disclosure will lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual or to public safety;
Another permitted general situation applies;
Disclosure is reasonably necessary for a law enforcement related activity;
Another permitted health situation exists.

Other than these, we will not share your information with other organisations without your consent.

Keeping your information up to date

Please let us know if your contact details change. Online members can update your details directly by logging-in to the website and clicking on ‘My Settings’ under your profile. You can also update your details by contacting us at abpat@abpat.qld.edu.au.

Cookies

Some information and data may be automatically collected through the use of cookies on this website. Cookies are small text files employed on the website to recognise repeat users and allow us to observe behaviour and compile aggregate data in order to improve the user-experience we provide for our website visitors.

The law states that we can store cookies on your machine if they are essential to the operation of the website, but that for all others we need your permission to do so.

The list below explains the cookies we use and why:

Cookie DescriptionNamePurpose

Session Cookie_A.B. Paterson College_Member_Code
A.B. Paterson College_PyroCMS

Used to remember you as you travel from page to page in a single session (without leaving the website) in order to provide a continuous and unified experience

Functional Cookie_A.B. Paterson College_Identify

Used to remember your login details when you return to the website after previously logging out, by storing them in your browser. This cookie is turned off by default and is only activated when you select the ‘Remember Me’ check box during login.

Opting out of cookies

If you do not wish to receive cookies from us or any other website, you should be able to turn cookies off on your web browser: please follow your browser provider’s instruction in order to do so. Unfortunately, we cannot accept liability for any malfunctioning of your computer or its installed web browser as a result of any attempt to turn off cookies.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

How long we keep your information for

We will hold your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the relevant activity.

Where we rely on your consent to contact you for direct email marketing/ fundraising purposes, we will treat your consent as lasting only for as long as it is reasonable to do so. This will usually be for two years. We may periodically ask you to renew your consent.

If you ask us to stop contacting you, we will keep a record of your contact details and limited information needed to ensure we comply with your request. If you ask us to remove your personal data from our database we will delete all the information we hold out apart from your name and the dates that you attended A.B. Paterson College and archive your record in our database.

Your rights

You have the right to request access the personal information we hold about you and request details of how we use your personal information through making a subject access request. Such requests have to be made in writing by contacting A.B. Paterson College.

If practical, you can contact A.B. Paterson College anonymously or by using a pseudonym. However, if you choose not to identify yourself, A.B. Paterson College may not be able to give you the information or provide the assistance you might otherwise receive if it is not practical to do so.

You also have the following rights:

to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or out of date;
to erasure of your information (the “right to be forgotten”);
to restrict the way in which we are dealing with and using your information;
to request that your information be provided to you in a format that is secure and suitable for re-use (the “right to portability”);
in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

All of these rights are subject to certain safeguards and limits or exemptions. To exercise any of these rights, you should contact A.B. Paterson College at the above address.

If you are not happy with the way in which we have processed or dealt with your information, please contact us at community@abpat.qld.edu.au.

All complaints will be considered by the Privacy Officer from time to time within a reasonable time and we may seek further information from you to clarify your concerns. A.B. Paterson College does not charge a fee for the handling of complaints. If we agree that your complaint is well founded, we will, in consultation with you, take appropriate steps to rectify the problem. If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commission.

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This policy was last updated in May 2023.