The Privacy Act 1988 provides the requirements relating to what information a business can collect and how such information must be used, stored and disclosed. The Spam Act 2003 imposes restrictions on sending emails and other types of commercial electronic messages
This Policy describes how birdwood energy handles information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Spam Act 2003. It also details how individuals and organisations may contact us regarding concerns about electronic communications sent by us or by third parties on our behalf
What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold about customers and prospective customers?
We may collect and hold:
• name (personal, business and company name)
• role/occupation within your current or past organisation
• contact details such as business address, email, facsimile, telephone number
• Gender
• Bank account, payment information
• Credit history
• Details about services we provide or have been provided to you in the past (such as provision of metering data, payment details, recommendations, consultancy and project management works, etc)
• Your browsing history on the birdwood energy website
• Records of your communication and interactions with us, whether verbally or otherwise
• Records of any transactions between us
• Records of applications for employment with birdwood energy
How do we collect personal information?
We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. We collect information in a variety of ways including:
• Your access and use of our website
• Via authorised access to meters and/or other energy measuring devices installed on sites you or your organisation control
• By telephone, business cards, letter, electronic communication including email
• By entering into a commercial contract with us
• By providing us a product or service
• By applying for employment with us
• Completing surveys, entering competitions, subscribing to a newsletter, providing feedback to us
• requesting information or material from us
• from other energy retailers (if you are transferring from to us) or your network distributor
We may also collect personal information from third parties including:
• Third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, regulators
• Your representatives (lawyers, accountants)
• Your current or previous employer
• Publicly available sources of information such as business and telephone directories or address validation software
• Any other organisation’s where you have given consent
• Your current or previous employer
• Publicly available sources of information such as business and telephone directories or address validation software
• Any other organisation’s where you have given consent
In relation to prospective customers, we also receive information about you from third parties who have identified you as a person who may wish to receive offers relating to our products and services.
Web browser cookies
We may send a “cookie” which is a small summary file containing a unique I.D. number to your computer. This enables us to:
• Recognize your computer and enable you to log in to our website and customer portal
• Measure traffic and search patterns on our public and secure (customer only) website
• Log IP addresses (which is the electronic address of a computer connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer our website, track user movements and gather broad demographic information
Cookies may also be placed in online advertisements (on our website or third party websites) for our products and services. The cookies allow us (or a third party engaged by us) to measure the effectiveness and customer interest in our online advertising (e.g. recording when you click on our advertisement) and to target advertisements that may be presented to you in future on our website and on third party websites.
The use of cookies does not involve the collection or use of any information that could identify you as an individual. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser to refuse them or alert you to them being sent. Customers should note that if you block cookies, some parts of the customer web site may not work or function properly.
What happens if we do not collect your information?
If we are unable to collect your personal information, some or all the following may happen:
• We may not be able to provide the requested products and services to the desired standard or at all
• We may not be able to perform or comply with regulatory and statutory requirements related to the provision of products and services
• We may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want; or
• We cannot tailor the content, functionality or design of our websites or web enabled services to enhance the experience or value for you
How do we use and disclose your information?
As a customer or prospective customer, we use personal information to:
Provide you with information, a proposal or offer of our products and services
To respond to your queries and provide information or documents as requested
To provide access to protected or secure areas of our website
To assess performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website
To conduct business processing functions including personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers (e.g. financial institutions for payment processing, our auditors and lawyers, metering service providers etc.) and third parties (e.g. data analysis or information processing)
If you make a complaint; to investigate and respond to your complaint
To update our records and keep your contact details up to date
To comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or directive of a regulator
If you are a customer, to provide products and services and to communicate with you about your account including issuing bills and seeking payment of bills
If you agree, to set up a payment account; to conduct a credit assessment of you and establish or report and monitor your credit worthiness in accordance with law
For marketing purposes including using email and SMS where we have your express or implied consent to contact you using one or more types of personal information that we hold about you or are otherwise permitted by law to do so
If you are a customer, you can manage marketing preferences via your customer portal. If you are not an existing customer and you do not wish to receive communication about our products and services, you can opt out using the opt out/unsubscribe function provided in the communication.
We do not use your personal information or disclose it to another organization unless:
It is reasonably necessary for one of the purposes described above
Having regard to the nature of the information or the circumstances of its collection, we believe you would expect us to use the information or make the disclosure
Employees and Contractors
If you are applying for a position with us as an employee or contractor, we will collect, use and hold personal information such as your name, email address, telephone numbers, proof of right to work in Australia, qualifications and resume. This information is collected to consider you for current and future employment or engagement as a contractor. This information or the fact of your application may be disclosed to external advisors who assist us in selection and recruitment processes and assessment.
If you application is unsuccessful, the Privacy Act applies to any personal information we collect, use, hold and disclose about you. As such we may retain the information for a reasonable period and may use it to contact you in relation to other employment or contracting opportunities.
If you are engaged as a contractor, we will collect, use hold and disclose personal information to administer your engagement. This may include disclosing as appropriate, personal information to our employees and contractors as necessary to perform the services under the contract, provide training and review and pay invoices.
If you are a current or past employee, the handling of your personal information is exempt from the Privacy Act if it is directly related to you current or former employment. We will not disclose your personal information for any purposes other than is required by law or to administer your current or past employment with us.
How do we hold and secure your information?
We store your information in paper and electronic form and take reasonable measures (including electronic and physical security measures) to prevent it from misuse, loss, or unauthorized access, modification and disclosure. In relation to electronic data, we adopt appropriate data collection, storage, use and security measures to ensure the above including user names and passwords stored on our web site and your customer portal. Personal information is stored on servers located in Australia.
We take reasonable measures to require organisations to whom disclosure is made to comply with the Privacy Act and/or (if a small business exempt from the Act) to ensure that information is held securely and is only used for the purposes it was collected from you.
Disclosure Overseas
We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate, third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above. For example, our billing is processed overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients of personal information in accordance with standards required under the Privacy Act or the Spam Act.
How can you access and correct your personal information?
You may access personal information that we hold about you by contacting the Compliance Manager (details below) in writing. You may also request the correction of any personal information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We will then take reasonable steps to correct or amend information if required.
In certain circumstances we may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of providing access to your personal information. We anticipate this would only occur in exceptional circumstances. If such circumstances exist, we will advise the fee in advance.
If we do not believe there are grounds for amendment, you will be advised in writing stating the reason for refusal. However at your request, we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.
We may refuse to grant you access to your personal information or credit related information in circumstances prescribed by the Privacy Act. For example, providing access would have an unreasonable impact of the privacy of another individual or customer, it is unlawful or would prejudice legal proceedings or regulation, etc.
What is the process for complaining or obtaining further information?
If you would like to make complaint about our handling of your personal information under the Privacy Act or electronic communications under the Spam Act, please contact us via the mediums below. You may also use these contact details to ask questions or request further information in relation to our policies and practices relation to Privacy and Spam.
We will contact you within a reasonable time frame (and within the time frame required by applicable legislation) and take reasonable steps to provide timely information or investigate and respond to a complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our response or our proposed resolution of your complaint, you may choose to advise us of such and continue to work directly with us to seek a resolution or you may lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (for more information see www.oaic.gov.au) who handles complaints related to the Privacy Act. Complaints in relation to Spam may be referred to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (www.acma.gov.au)