Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
Sowhatslocal Pty. Ltd. ACN 129 581 951 (“Sowhatslocal”) is sensitive to the concerns that you, our customers, may have with the confidentiality and handling of your personal information. We take your privacy very seriously.
Therefore, we ask that you take the time to read this document which sets out how we handle, maintain and secure your personal information.
Sowhatslocal strives to offer its visitors the many advantages of Internet technology and to provide an interactive and personalized experience. We may use Personally Identifiable Information (your name, e-mail address, address, telephone number, mobile phone number) subject to the terms of this privacy policy. Please note this policy applies only to information collected by Sowhatslocal online and does not impact information collected or used by Sowhatslocal or its affiliates through other means.
2. Who to contact
If you have any queries with respect to this Privacy Policy, please telephone our Privacy Officer:
General Manager
PO Box 206,
Albury,
NSW
Australia
2640
Email: feedback@sowhatslocal.com
3. Who does this policy apply to
This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected by Sowhatslocal and its associated entities, members, business members and free usage entities.
4. Why we collect personal information
4.1 Information we hold
We generally hold personal information about our customers. This information can include their contact details, buying habits and transactional details.
4.2 Why we need personal information
You are always allowed to deal with us on an anonymous basis. However, as a provider of a website, we sometimes find it necessary to collect certain information from you.
There are a number of ways in which we may collect information from you. These include:
- application forms;
- email;
- our website (including cookies);
- over the phone; and
- when you purchase anything from us via your credit card.
In addition, there may also be certain laws which may require us to collect personal information from you. Where these apply, we will provide you with information about our legal requirements when we collect your personal information.
4.3 What about ‘sensitive information’?
We will not ask you for information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, or details of health, disability or sexual activity or orientation, unless:
(a) you consent to providing that information to us;
(b) the collection of that information is specifically authorised by law;
(c) the collection is necessary to lessen a serious or imminent threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of another person; or
(d) the collection of the information is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.
4.4 What happens if you do not provide personal information
If you do not provide us with accurate or complete information when we request it, we may not be able to provide you with a proper level of service.
5. How we gather information from users
How we collect and store information depends on the page you are visiting, the activities in which you elect to participate and the services provided. You can visit many pages on our site without providing any information. Other pages may prompt you to provide information, such as when you register for access to portions of our site, sign up for membership, request certain features (e.g., event registration and other products), sign up for a subscription or make a purchase.
You may also provide information when you participate in contests, voting and polling activities, message boards and chat rooms and other interactive areas of our site. Like most Web sites, Sowhatslocal also collects information automatically and through the use of electronic tools that may be transparent to our visitors.
For example, we may log the name of your Internet Service Provider or use "cookie" technology. Among other things, the cookie may store your user name and password, sparing you from having to re-enter that information each time you visit, or may control the number of times you encounter a particular advertisement, search for a specific service or event while visiting our site.
As we adopt additional technology, we may also gather information through other means. In certain cases, you can choose not to provide us with information, for example by setting your browser to refuse to accept cookies, but doing so may limit your ability to access certain portions of the site or may require you to re-enter your user name and password. Additionally we may not be able to customize the site's features according to your preferences.
6. How we maintain and manage your personal information
6.1 Who may view your personal information
We will only grant access to others to view your personal information where we believe it is necessary, and in your best interests, for those people to view your personal information.
In general, only our employees or subcontractors may view your personal information.
We will only disclose personal information to a third party if:
(a) that disclosure is required to give effect to the purposes for which we collected the information;
(b) we have your consent to that disclosure;
(c) we believe that the disclosure may lessen a risk of harm to your health or safety, or to the health or safety of another person;
(d) we are required by law to disclose the information;
(e) the disclosure is required for the enforcement of a criminal law or a law imposing a pecuniary penalty or for the protection of public revenue; or
(f) the third party is our agent or contractor and is required by us to keep that personal information confidential and will only use that information for the purposes for which it is disclosed.
6.2 International transfers
If we transfer your personal information overseas, we will first obtain your written consent before doing so.
If it is not practical to obtain your consent, then the information may still be transferred if, as part of the agreement for the transfer of that information, the other organisation agrees to comply with our privacy obligations to you.
6.3 Where is your personal information stored?
We may store your personal information in both hard copy and on computer.
Hard copy information is kept under lock and key. Information stored on computer is generally password protected.
6.4 Updating your personal information
If at any time you believe that any of your personal information that we store is not accurate or is out of date, please let us know by contacting either of our Privacy Officer.
7. Children
Sowhatslocal does not knowingly collect or solicit Personally Identifiable Information from or about children under 13 except as permitted by law. If we discover we have received any information from a child under 13 in violation of this policy, we will delete that information immediately. If you believe Sowhatslocal has any information from or about anyone under 13, please contact us at the address listed below.
Contacting us.
We can be reached by contacting:
General Manager
PO Box 206,
Albury,
NSW
Australia
2640
Email: feedback@sowhatslocal.com
8. What we do with the information we collect
We will use your information only as permitted by law. Aggregated Information (information that does not personally identify you) may be used in many ways. As one example, we may combine information about your usage patterns with similar information obtained from other users to learn which pages are visited most or what features are most attractive.
Aggregated Information may occasionally be shared with our advertisers and business partners, but cannot be used to contact you individually.
We also collect information to enhance your visit and deliver more individualized content and services. For example, we may use Personally Identifiable Information collected on Sowhatslocal to communicate with you regarding our Terms of Service and privacy policy, products and services offered by Sowhatslocal and other Company affiliates and partners, administration of events and services, processing e-commerce transactions and other topics, events and services we think you might find of interest. We reserve the right to share this information with other Company business units and affiliates, including for example our affiliated entities in which Sowhatslocal has an ownership or interest (collectively, "Affiliates"). This policy does not apply to any Affiliate's use of such information.
Personally Identifiable Information collected by Sowhatslocal may also be used for other purposes including but not limited to site administration and troubleshooting. Certain third parties who provide technical support for the operation of our site (our Web hosting service and our Service provider, for example) may access such information.
As we continue to develop our business, we may sell, buy, merge or partner with other companies or businesses. In such transactions, user information may be among the transferred assets. We may also disclose your information in response to a court order, at other times when we believe we are reasonably required to do so by law, in connection with the collection of amounts you may owe to us, and/or whenever we deem it appropriate or necessary to give such information to law enforcement authorities. Please note we may not provide you with notice prior to disclosure in such cases.
9. Our websites and email
Any personal information collected from you via our websites and via email are governed by this policy.
We may collect information about you from our websites via any forms you fill in, any cookies we install on your computer or any transactions you undertake with us. We may also track your viewing habits to allow us to tailor your web surfing experience.
Where we communicate by email with you, we may ask you for personal information which is related to the purpose of that communication.
10. Direct Marketing
If we collect personal information for direct marketing purposes (either to market ours or someone else’s products), then we will try to first obtain your consent before we market directly to you.
If we cannot practically obtain your consent, then we may still directly market to you, provided that:
(a) we advise you that you can be taken off the mailing list at any time;
(b) you have not previously asked to be taken off the mailing list; and
(c) we display our contact details clearly in each direct marketing publication.
If you wish to be taken off any mailing list, please contact our Privacy Officer.
11. Your choice to optout
The quality services and information on Sowhatslocal is supported by contributed revenue and a controlled program of e-mail marketing is an important element of our online business. Like other Web publishers, we sometimes permit our advertising and promotional partners to e-mail you about services, features, products, special offers and unique content we believe might interest you. If you prefer not to receive e-mail communications sent directly from our advertisers or promotional partners, you will be given an opportunity to decline before you provide us information we might use for this purpose. If you decline at the time you provide us such information, we will not share the Personally Identifiable Information you provide with non-Affiliated advertisers for such purposes, though we may on occasion send you information on their behalf.
12. Affiliated sites, linked sites, events and advertisments
Sowhatslocal expects its partners, advertisers and third-party affiliates to respect the privacy of our members, businesses and free entities. However, third parties, including our partners, advertisers, affiliates and other content providers accessible through our site, may have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. For example, during your visit to our site you may link to, or view as part of a frame on a Sowhatslocal page, certain content that is actually created or hosted by a third party. Also, through Sowhatslocal you may be introduced to, or be able to access, information, Web sites, advertisements, features, events, services, contests or services offered by other parties, members and or business members, free entities. Sowhatslocal is not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing information on a feature or page operated by a third party.
While on our site, our advertisers, event organizers, free entities, promotional partners or other third parties may use cookies or other technology to attempt to identify some of your preferences or retrieve information about you. For example, some of our advertising is served by third parties and may include cookies that enable the advertiser to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement, event promotion, their page within Sowhatslocal before. Through features available on our site, third parties may use cookies or other technology to gather information. Sowhatslocal does not control the use of this technology or the resulting information and is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties.
A cookie gets entered by your Web browser into the "Cookies" folder on your hard drive after you close your browser, and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the Site. We use persistent and session cookies to analyze and enhance your experience on the Site, and use third party ad technology to serve ads. The data that is collected is the property of Sowhatslocal, not the third party. We may also allow third parties called ad networks or ad servers to serve ads, events to you on Sowhatslocal. Cookies enable them to compile information about where you, or others who have used your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information makes it possible for the ad technology, ad servers and ad networks to deliver targeted advertisements to you on Sowhatslocal. Sowhatslocal does not have access to the cookies that may be placed on your computer by third-party ad technology, ad servers or ad networks. Sowhatslocal maintains relationships with a number of third-party networks. Those parties that use cookies may offer you a way to opt out of ad targeting. You may find more information at the Web site of the individual ad network or the Network Advertising Initiative.
Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online. Should you choose to voluntarily disclose Personally Identifiable Information on our site, such as in message boards, chat areas or in advertising or notices you post, that information can be viewed publicly and can be collected and used by third parties without our knowledge and may result in unsolicited messages from other individuals or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of Sowhatslocal and this policy.
13. How you may access your personal information
You may access your personal information by contacting our Privacy Officer.
We will use our best efforts to take less than 30 days to respond to your request.
We may also charge you a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information.
14. When we may withhold access to your personal information
14.1 When we can withhold your information
We may withhold access to your personal information in a number of circumstances. These include where:
(a) providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person;
(b) providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
(c) the information is subject to confidentiality where the person who provided the information to us did so expressly on the condition that it remains confidential;
(d) the request is vexatious or frivolous;
(e) the information relates to legal proceedings between us and the information would not be required to be discovered to a court ;
(f) we are in commercial negotiations with you and the information would reveal our intentions;
(g) providing access would be unlawful or we are required by a law to withhold access; or
(h) providing access could prejudice the investigation or detection by our organisation or by a government body of an unlawful activity or some serious or improper misconduct.
Where we do withhold your personal information, we may instead choose to give you a summary of that information.
14.2 Written reasons
If we do withhold your personal information, we will provide you with written reasons.
14.3 Third party intermediary
If we withhold access to your personal information, we will consider whether the provision of access to an independent third party will meet both of our needs.
15. Modifications to our privacy policy
We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time in our sole discretion. We will make all modifications available on our website.