Ryan Kruger Lawyers is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) which incorporates the Australian Privacy Principles (APP). This policy applies to any person for whom we currently hold personal information or any person from whom we may collect personal information in the future.
Collecting your personal information
Ryan Kruger Lawyers are subject to professional obligations, including confidentiality obligations, in dealing with a person’s information. We may collect this information by telephone, correspondence or in person.
We will collect personal information directly from the individual to whom the information relates where it is reasonable and practicable to do so. With the individual’s consent, if it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect personal information from the individual or it is otherwise required by law, we may collect personal information about the individual from another person or entity. In those circumstances, all reasonable steps will be taken to notify the individual if personal information has been collected without their knowledge from a third party.
In the course of your dealings with our firm, we will collect information that is necessary to enable us to provide you with our legal service. The types of information that we may collect and hold may include contact information (such as your name, telephone number, address, job title and email address), financial information, business or family circumstances, information about assets and investments, employment history, your place and date of birth, together with identification documents, your banking and credit card details, tax file numbers, information otherwise required by law and any other personal information required to perform the legal service to the individual.
Certain circumstances may also require us to collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) as:
information or an opinion about an individual’s:
- racial or ethnic origin; or
- political opinions; or
- membership of a political association; or
- religious beliefs or affiliations; or
- philosophical beliefs; or
- membership of a professional or trade association; or
- membership of a trade union; or
- sexual orientation or practices; or
- criminal record;
that is also personal information; or
- health information about an individual; or
- genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information; or
- biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification; or
- biometric templates.
The nature of the information collected is dependent upon the nature of our dealings with you.
We only collect and use sensitive information if it is necessary to do this to provide you with our legal service and with your consent, or as otherwise specifically authorised under the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth).
We provide you with the opportunity to interact with us anonymously whenever it is practical to do so and subject to our professional obligations. In most cases, our professional obligations will require the individual to deal with us using their real name, however in certain circumstances it may be possible for you to remain anonymous (for example, when you are making an enquiry as to the legal services offered by our firm).
Holding, using and disclosing your personal information
Ryan Kruger Lawyers hold personal information:
- physically on our premises and by a third party storage provider in Brisbane; and
- electronically through our internal server, on electronic storage devices and by an email filtering host.
We take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, modification, unauthorised access and disclosure. We use both physical and electronic security measures to protect our premises and computer network. Protective measures include locks, security systems, firewalls and user passwords. However, we do not guarantee that personal information cannot be accessed by an unauthorised person or that unauthorised disclosures will not occur. Any information that you send to us over the internet or by email is at your own risk.
We use and disclose your personal information to provide and market our legal services to you. We may also disclose your personal information to external service providers or agents (eg. Barristers, accountants and other consultants and agents) for the sole purpose of obtaining required external services. We shall obtain your consent to disclose your personal information to external service providers or agents.
If it is necessary to provide personal information to external service providers, everything reasonably within our power will be done to ensure that there is no unauthorised use and disclosure.
We do not disclose personal information to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to send marketing material to you.
Collecting your personal information from this website
The information collected by our web server is for statistical purposes only. The information collected by our web server may include the following:
- Your server address and domain name;
- The pages visited at our website; and
- The date, time and duration of your visit to our website.
Access to your personal information
We usually keep records of personal information for a period of up to 7 years after your last association with us. We will provide you with access to your personal information unless we are required to refuse access under any law. If we refuse to provide you with access, we will inform you of our reasons for refusal.
We will deal with your request for access as quickly as possible. Some requests for access may take more time, depending upon the nature of the request or location of the information. We may recover from you any reasonable costs associated with providing you with access. We will maintain the accuracy of your personal information by correcting, deleting and adding to our existing information. If you request us to amend your inaccurate personal information and we disagree with your view, we will take reasonable steps to attach to that record a statement of the correction, deletion or addition sought by you.
Transfer of information overseas
We will not transfer your personal information overseas unless:
- We are required or authorised to do so by law; or
- You have consented to the transfer of information to assist the provision of our legal service to you.
It may be necessary in the course of providing a legal service to you for our firm to disclose your personal information to persons overseas. We cannot guarantee that the person overseas will be bound by the obligations under the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) and that they will protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. Whilst we will take all reasonable steps, we cannot and do not warrant that personal information disclosed to an overseas recipient with your consent will be protected.
You may not have any right of action against the overseas recipient for any misuse or disclosure by the overseas recipient of your personal information.
Management of your credit information
In the course of providing legal services to you, we may collect and hold personal information pertaining to your credit history and credit information. We do not use this information to make any credit eligibility assessment. You may access any credit information that we hold about you, seek correction of this information or enquire about how we have used your credit information by contacting our Privacy Officer.
Links to third party websites
Our website contains “helpful links” to websites which are hosted by third parties. Third party websites linked to our website are not subject to the Ryan Kruger Lawyers Privacy Policy and we do not endorse, approve or recommend the services or products provided on third party websites. You should carefully check the third party websites for information regarding their privacy policy.
Contact our Privacy Officer
If you have a query or concern, or wish to make a complaint about the handling of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:
Mark Ryan or Margie Kruger
Ryan Kruger Lawyers
(07) 3238 5400
Changes to our privacy policy
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time without prior notification to you. The Policy may be reviewed and amended to ensure compliance with privacy legislation, changes in technology and changes to our operations and practice. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be notified on our website.
This Privacy Policy was recorded in March 2015.