Privacy Policy | NECA

Privacy Policy

THE NATIONAL ELECTRICAL AND COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION (NECA)

Our privacy commitment to you

The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal information.

NECA maintains all personal information in accordance with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988, which regulate how NECA collects, uses and keeps secure your personal information.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we deal with your personal information.

If we agree with you to use or disclose any of your personal information in ways which differ to those stated in this Privacy Policy, our agreement with you will prevail to the extent of any inconsistency.

In this Privacy Policy, the National Electrical and Communications Association, NECA Legal Pty Limited, NECA Group Training Limited and NECA Training Limited are referred to as ‘NECA’, ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’.

Collection of Personal Information

We will not collect or retain your sensitive personal information without your consent. Personal information that we may collect and hold about you includes your name, date of birth, the organisation you work for, position held, business addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, information on the services you use (including details of your registration and attendance at NECA functions and events), information based on the services your business provides and the qualifications required by your business to provide those services. In some cases we may also record home contact details and e-mail addresses where these have been provided. NECA will not retain personal information that it could not have obtained from you or is not contained in a Commonwealth record.

Wherever possible, we will collect personal information directly from you.  You may decide to provide your personal information to NECA for and in a range of different reasons and means.  By way of example:

  1. when you complete a membership application
  2. when you complete an annual return
  3. when you register to attend events held by NECA
  4. when you request NECA to undertake services on your behalf
  5. when you wish to provide services to NECA
  6. when you enter a competition or promotion being conducted by NECA
  7. when you email NECA or contact NECA by telephone or mail
  8. when you engage in NECA Social Media activities
  9. when you purchase tickets to attend a NECA event
  10. when you send us documents containing your personal information
  11. if you become an office holder of NECA or one of its Chapters

We may also collect information from other sources such as written material sent to us, and publicly available sources such as newspapers, directories and public registers.

Use of Personal Information

In general, we will only use information that we hold about you for the purposes of performing our function as an industry representative organisation, and in the provision of products and services to you.

The personal information we collect from you may be used in some or all of the following ways:

  • to deliver and invoice you for any product purchases or event attendance
  • to provide you with information that we think may be of assistance or interest to you or your organisation
  • to assist in market research
  • to improve our service and communications
  • to attract new members and clients to NECA
  • to lobby government agencies and to publicise issues of concern to member organisations
  • to comply with a law that requires the furnishing of such information to a Government regulator.

We may use your personal information to provide you with information about NECA products, services and events which we consider may be of interest to you.

We will consider that you consent to this, unless you opt out. You may opt out at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing information or do not wish to receive marketing information through a particular channel, like email. You can make this request by contacting Wendy Ramjee (see Contact details below).

The personal information that NECA collects from or about you may also be used for secondary purposes such as assisting NECA to develop products and services suitable to our membership.

What happens if you don’t provide the information requested?

If you choose not to provide the personal information that we ask for, or the information that you provide to us is incomplete or inaccurate, it may mean that NECA will be prevented from efficiently managing your membership, offering the full range of benefits and services that may be available to you and maintaining contact with you.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Generally, we will not provide your personal details to any other person or organisation other than:

  • organisations to which you have authorised us to provide your personal details
  • service providers such as printers and posting services and organisations involved in the provision and maintenance of our business systems and infrastructure
  • organisations to which by law we may be required or authorised to provide your personal details,
  • external agencies providing services for the purpose of data matching, cleansing or enrichment
  • external agencies engaged to survey the membership on behalf of, or at the request of NECA
  • our auditors and other professional advisers
  • our representatives, such as our legal advisers
  • organisations engaged by, in partnership with or other service providers of NECA for the purpose of establishing or administering services and promotions to NECA members and prospective members, such as Insurance, Uniforms, software providers and Access Hire

We do not disclose personal information we collect to third parties for the purpose of allowing those third parties to direct market their products and services to you or your organisation.

Where your personal information is disclosed to service providers and other organisations, NECA will seek to ensure that your personal information is handled in accordance with privacy laws and is not disclosed for any purpose other than those to which you have consented (unless required or authorised by or under an Australian law or court/tribunal order). 

Strict procedures are in place to ensure that our service providers have appropriate systems in place to comply with privacy laws and keep your personal information confidential and secure.

We will not disclose your personal information overseas.

Use of mail house

NECA may use mail houses to send you magazines, newsletters and/or information about third party products and services.  When this occurs, a non-disclosure agreement is signed by the mail house to ensure that your personal information is not disclosed to any other party and remains under the control of NECA.

Opting out of receiving this additional information

If you do not want to receive marketing material from NECA, you can by contacting Wendy Ramjee (see Contact details below) or use the Unsubscribe function on electronic communications.

Credit Cards

If you purchase a product or service using a credit card, your credit card information is used to process the payment. Credit card details are not stored and our database only records that you purchased a product or service and how much you paid for it. We will protect the security your credit card details when processing your payment.

Storage and Security of Personal Information

NECA will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. When the information is no longer needed for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed, it will be destroyed or permanently de-identified.

Links on our website

Our website contains links to other sites. The terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to external websites and NECA is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

Access to your personal information

You have the right to know what personal information NECA holds about you and to obtain access to it if required. 

To access personal information that we hold about you please contact Wendy Ramjee (see Contact details below). You may need to provide proof of your identity before access is provided.

We will respond to your request for access within a reasonable timeframe. If we refuse to give you access to any of your personal information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal. You can contact us (see Contact details below) if you would like to challenge our decision to refuse access.

Updating your personal information

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. You can update your personal information anytime via our secure Member Access online facility or you have the right to request that NECA take reasonable steps to correct any personal information that you believe is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading having regard to the purpose for which it is being held..  You may need to provide proof of your identity before access is provided.

You can also contact us in writing at the address provided below (see Contact details below).

Our Online Services

If you log into your Membership online account, NECA will collect personal information from you including your name, contact details and changes to your account such as a change in address, purchase of products and services.  We can only collect personal information via our website with your consent, as you must log in and/or click on a ‘submit’ button provided on each transaction before any information is recorded.

You can only access the Member online facility with your membership number and password.  You should keep your password secure and change it periodically. You should also ensure that you log off once you have finished accessing the Member online facility to ensure that no one else can access your personal information.

There are security risks associated with transmitting your personal information via the internet.  You should assess these potential risks before deciding whether or not to use NECA’s Member online services.  If you would prefer not to transmit your personal information via the internet, you can provide it to NECA by mail or telephone.

Use of your email address

It is our policy to record and use your email address to communicate with you about the activities of NECA, including but not limited to events, industry new, benefits of membership, member benefits, member services and member promotions.  If you do not wish to receive information from NECA via email you can make this request by contacting Wendy Ramjee (see Contact details below). 

Your email address will only be used by NECA for the purposes identified above and it will not be added to a general mailing list.

Questions and complaints

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about this Privacy Policy, or our handling of your personal information, please contact us (see Contact details below). Once a complaint has been lodged, we will respond to you as soon as possible. If you are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to lodge a complaint with the Federal Privacy Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or www.privacy.gov.au.

Contacting Us

If you have any comments or questions regarding this Privacy Policy or if you have any concerns or complaints regarding the way in which we handle your personal information you should contact:

Wendy Ramjee
Ph: (02) 9439 8523
Email: necanat@neca.asn.au
Address: Locked Bag1818, St Leonards NSW 1590

If we receive a privacy complaint it will be treated seriously and dealt with promptly, in a confidential manner, and in accordance with NECA internal complaints handling procedures.

In the event that your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) using the online Privacy Complaints Form, which can be accessed via the OAIC’s website at //www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint. The OAIC can also receive complaints via mail, fax or email using the details provided below.  If you need help lodging a complaint, you can call the OAIC enquiries line on 1300 363 992.

Director of Compliance (Investigations)

GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Ph: 1300 363 992
Fax: (02) 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Additional Information

NECA reserves the right to modify and change this Privacy Policy at any time. We will post our changed policy here and under Privacy on our website – we will not separately notify you of these changes.

You may request a copy of this Privacy Policy in a particular form and we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to give you a copy in that form, free of charge.  However, should your request for access in a particular form be declined, or an access change in imposed, we will explain this decision to you.