Privacy Policy | IT Hotline

IT Hotline Pty Ltd A.C.N. 158 412 965 (we, us, our or IT Hotline) recognises and values the protection of your privacy. We recognise that in using IT Hotline (the Service) you are entrusting us with your personal information so we understand that you want clarity about how we manage that information.

We have implemented this Privacy Policy in order to ensure that you are informed about what your use of the Service authorises us to do in relation to how we collect, hold, use your personal information and under what circumstances we may disclose your personal information. The Privacy Policy also outlines your rights to gain access to, and seek corrections of, your personal information we hold. Finally, the Privacy Policy provides information about how you can approach us about your privacy-related concerns and complaints, and how we will deal with such communications.

Through this Privacy Policy we have aimed to be as clear, open and transparent as possible about these matters, but if you have any questions, do not hesitate to email us.

Please note that this Privacy Policy forms part of the Terms of Use document, which is displayed at the footer of the Website.

Information we request from you

When you sign up for a IT Hotline account on our website, which is located at www.ithotline.com.au (the Website), we ask only for the following personal information:

First name
Surname
Company name
Phone numbers
Email address
Address

We may also ask you to nominate a User Name, a Display Name and/or a Password and credit details for the purpose of paying for the use of the Service.

From time to time, we may ask you to supply additional personal information for specific purposes. In such cases, we will clearly explain why we request that information and unless we are required or authorised by law to request that information from you, providing such information to us is optional. Under no circumstances will we request any information from you that may disclose your:

political, religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations;
health and sexuality;
racial or ethnic origin; or
criminal convictions;

We may conduct surveys or market research and may seek other information from you on a periodic basis. These surveys will provide us with information that allows improvement in the types and quality of services offered to you, and the manner in which those services are offered to you. Participation in such activities is optional.

Personal information via the Website

Most commercial websites use ‘cookies’, which are pieces of information that websites send to the browser and are stored in the computer hard-drive. Cookies make using the Website easier by storing information about matters such as your preferences on the Website. This allows the Website to be tailored to you for any of your return visits. Cookies will not be used to identify you personally.

If you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter your security settings on your web browser to disable cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used. However, by disabling the cookie function in your web browser you may impede your ability to use parts of the Website.

Your option not to provide your personal information

Providing us with your personal information is optional, but may be required for us to be able to provide you with the services we offer. When you provide us with your personal information, you are consenting to our storage, use and disclosure of that information as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

We may from time to time run competitions or offer additional benefits to you and we may ask you to provide us with your personal details for these purposes. Providing us with this information is optional to you. However, if you do not provide your personal information to us we may not be able to contact you or give you access to the additional benefits.

You may opt out of these additional communications at any time and can do so by emailing us.

User Generated Data

In using the features of your IT Hotline account (such as message, calendar and gallery) you may be providing us with additional information, including personal information and sensitive personal information. We do not request any such information from you, and in providing it to us you consent to IT Hotline managing that information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Use and disclosure of your personal information

Your personal information, including your e-mail address, will be used, either on its own or as part of aggregated data (such as statistical data, trends, and usage information derived from your use of the Service), for the following primary purposes:

to ensure the proper functioning of the Service including the Website;
to ensure the proper functioning of the IT Hotline business; and
to assist IT Hotline with our marketing, planning, product development and research requirements.

We will not use or disclose (or permit the use or disclosure of) personal information that could be used to identify an individual member in any circumstances except:

to ensure the proper functioning of our business, the Service and the Website;
to communicate promotional offers and special events to you;
where applicable law requires, or authorises, us or a company holding data on our behalf to do so; or
where you have given express consent to us for a prescribed purpose.

Under no circumstances will we sell, rent or licence your personal information onto any third parties for profiling or advertising purposes.

Should a third party approach IT Hotline with a demand to access your personal information or your user generated data, including any text, sound, video, image or software files you have stored, posted or transmitted via the Service, we will take reasonable steps to redirect the third party to request the information directly from you, wherever it is lawful and reasonable for us to do so.

If we are compelled to disclose your personal information or your user generated data, including any text, sound, video, image or software files you have stored, posted or transmitted via the Service, to a third party we will take reasonable steps to notify you of this in advance, wherever it is lawful and reasonable for us to do so.

Security of personal information

In our business, personal information may be stored both electronically and in hard-copy form. We are committed to keeping your personal information secure regardless of the format in which we hold it and we take all reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. However, you use the Website and/or Service at your own risk and we accept no responsibility, whether we are deemed to have been negligent or not, in the event of a breach of your privacy.

Note that no information transmitted over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. However, we will endeavour to protect your personal information as best as possible but we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, or receive from us. The transmission and exchange of information is carried out at your own risk.

We recognise that protection and safety of information relating to your personal information and credit card is critical. Therefore, we treat that information with the utmost priority and the highest level of possible care. In doing so, we use the latest Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption technology to transmit your personal and credit card details. This means absolute security and privacy.

SSL is a sophisticated method of scrambling data as it travels from your computer to our website servers, which are located at the Equinix Data Centre in Sydney, Australia. We will not, under any circumstances, transfer your data outside of Australia.

All passwords associated with a IT Hotline account are encrypted. In the event that a password is lost or forgotten, then it can only be reset by IT Hotline. Under no circumstances will a lost or forgotten password be reissued.

Accuracy and quality of personal information

We will take all such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that all information requested from you is kept accurate, up to date and complete. As we do not generally monitor the data you voluntarily upload as part of your use of the Service (such as your use of the message, calendar and gallery features) we cannot undertake to ensure that such data, even where it includes personal information, is kept accurate, up to date and complete.

Access to your personal information

In most cases, you have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you. If you wish to access your personal information, contact us.

We will deal with all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible. Requests for a large amount of information, or information which is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given.

In some cases, we will refuse to give you access to personal information we hold about you. This includes, but is not limited to, circumstances where giving you access would: be unlawful; have an unreasonable impact on other people's privacy; prejudice an investigation of unlawful activity; reveal our intentions in relation to negotiations with you so as to prejudice those negotiations; prejudice enforcement related activities conducted by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body; reveal evaluative information generated within the IT Hotline organisation in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process.

We will also refuse access where the personal information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings. Further, we will refuse access where your request is frivolous or vexatious, and where we reasonably believe that: giving access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or public safety; unlawful activity, or misconduct of a serious nature, is being or may be engaged in against IT Hotline and giving access would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to that matter.

If we refuse to give you access we will provide you with reasons for our refusal, unless doing so would be unreasonable in the circumstances. We will also take reasonable steps to give you access in a way that meets your needs without giving rise to the reasons of our refusal. Further, we will provide details of how you may make a complaint about our decision.

Correction of your personal information

The accuracy of the personal information we have requested from you is important to us. Should you suspect, or become aware of, that personal information we hold as a result of having requested it from you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading, please contact us.

We will deal with all requests for correction of personal information as quickly as possible. Requests relating to a large amount of information, or information which is not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given.

If we refuse to change the personal information as you request, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal, unless doing to would be unreasonable in the circumstances. We will also provide details of how you may make a complaint about our decision. Further, in case of our refusal, you may request that we take reasonable steps to associate, with the relevant information, a statement that you view it as inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading.

In the case we have corrected personal information about you, you may request that we take reasonable steps to give notice of the correction to any third party to which we have disclosed the inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading personal information.

Disposal of personal information no longer required

If we hold personal information about you, and we no longer need that information for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify that information unless we are prevented from doing so by law.

Unsubscribing from our e-mail database

To unsubscribe from our e-mail database, please reply to any of our emails with “UNSUBSCRIBE” typed into the subject line of the e-mail. Note that, while you maintain a IT Hotline account, you are unable to unsubscribe from certain types of e-mails, such as important updates (including information about your account, security concerns and technical issues).

Contacting us

If you have any concerns, complaints or questions about our Privacy Policy, or our privacy practises, please contact us.

Amendments of this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Should any significant amendments occur, notification will be provided by publication on the Website 14 days prior to the changes being implemented (the Notice Period) unless the circumstances of the amendments makes it unreasonable to provide such a Notice Period. Your continued use after the Notice Period has lapsed indicates your consent to be bound by the modified and/or amended Privacy Policy.

For further information about privacy in general, please refer to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website www.oaic.gov.au.