Privacy policy

ECOllaboration Ltd. (‘ECOllaboration’, ‘we, ‘us’, ‘our’) collects Personal Information from and about individuals, companies, associations and other entities, such as our volunteers, members, event participants, clients, project partners and other contractors (‘ECOllaborators’).

The purpose of this Policy is to ensure that all Personal Information collected about ECOllaborators is managed in an open and transparent way, used only for recognised purposes, and is stored and handled in compliance with relevant Australian law. This policy is not relevant to ECOllaboration employees to which a separate internal privacy policy applies.

By commencing membership, project partnership, attending our events, volunteering with ECOllaboration, or otherwise engaging with our operational or charitable services, an ECOllaborator is giving consent for ECOllaboration to collect, store, use and disclose Personal Information on the terms set out in this Policy.

Definition of Personal Information

For the purposes of this Policy, ‘Personal Information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not; and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Purpose for which Information is collected and used 

We collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information and other information for legitimate business purposes, including to:

• provide membership services to members;
• provide, monitor and improve our operational and charitable services;
• provide induction training and ongoing volunteer managements services to our volunteers;
• provide information about our events and services to participants;
• carry out risk and safety assessments, conduct background checks and apply for licensing or training on behalf of ECOllaborators;
• assess the identity and eligibility of individuals for our services;
• provide news and information on promotional offers or competitions, upcoming events and activities offered by us or our business partners;
• provide support and communicate to project partners;
• investigate any complaint or issue arising in connection with our services;
• process payments, transactions and delivery of goods or services;
• collect or pay any amount to an ECOllaborator;
• provide to our third party external service providers and related bodies corporate who assist us in providing our services, such as our payment processors and data hosting partners;
• initiate or respond to a claim or other legal action;
• exercise or defend our rights, including disclosing information to credit reporting agencies, courts, tribunals and other regulatory agencies; and
• use as otherwise permitted or required by law.

Collection of Data 

How we collect and store Personal Information depends on how ECOllaborators interact with us and our services. We gather Personal Information about ECOllaborators from a variety of sources, including when ECOllaborators complete forms provided by us (such as in person or online), or provide us with information via emails or telephone calls or via entering into an agreement with us. We may also gather Personal Information about ECOllaborators from other companies with which we maintain business relationships. We collect Personal Information from third parties only where it is necessary for our business operations.

The types of Personal Information we collect about an ECOllaborator may include, without limitation:

• name;
• age and date of birth;
• e-mail address;
• residential and mailing address;
• contact number;
• payment details such as bank accounts and credit card details; and
• photographic identification.

We may also collect sensitive health information about an ECOllaborator only where it is necessary for the purpose of risk and safety assessments or training with respect to that ECOllaborator. This could include information about medical history, medical conditions, allergies and medications used.

Unsolicited Personal Information 

We may receive Personal Information from third parties.

Where that information is necessary or an immediate adjunct to providing our services or complying with the law, we will retain that information and deal with it in the same way as all other Personal Information.

Where that information is not necessary or an immediate adjunct to providing our services or complying with the law, we will destroy that information as soon as it comes to our attention.

Client Information

We may obtain Personal Information from clients, including direct contact lines where the client is representing a larger organisation, and other contact information not available in public forums. Where this occurs, this information will be stored in a client database or contact list document as per our internal procurement policies, and will only be available to approved ECOllaboration personnel with a need to use this information for the purposes of client interactions as was the understanding at the time the client made the Personal Information available. This client contact information will not be shared with third parties without prior client consent.

Some clients may permit ECOllaboration to set up a credit purchase account for ongoing provision of goods or services, which will require the sharing of financial details. Such information will be stored only in ECOllaboration’s secure accounting software and not made available in a database otherwise. Invoices and purchase orders which contain financial or private information from the client or vendor will only be accessible by staff with the need to access this for management of the client’s project. To maintain client confidentiality, such sensitive information will not be accessible to general employees within ECOllaboration.

Photographic and/or Film Privacy

ECOllaboration is involved in a variety of community engagement activities, including events held on school grounds, and which involve participation from minors (under 18). It is our policy that any media recorded during these events in the form of video or still photo where the minor may be easily personally identified will not be shared in a public forum by ECOllaboration unless the school/parent/guardian of the minor gives consent. Public forums may include but are not limited to social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), the ECOllaboration website, promotional materials designed to encourage participation by these groups, or ECOllaboration newsletters.

Consequences of not providing Information 

If Personal Information requested by us is not provided, then an ECOllaborator may be denied access to certain services of ECOllaboration.

Quality of Personal Information

ECOllaboration takes reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information collected is accurate, up to date and complete for the purposes for which we use that data, and that any Personal Information that ECOllaboration uses or discloses is also accurate and up to date.  We do this by actively confirming Personal Information when in consultation with the ECOllaborator and ensures this information is promptly updated to all relevant records. 

How to Access or Correct Data 

On request by a ECOllaborator, we will take all reasonable steps to inform the ECOllaborator of the purpose or relevance of the Personal Information about them that we have collected. 

ECOllaborators can request a copy of their Personal Information, as held by us, via the contact details at the end of this Policy. We will respond to such a request as soon as practicable, but in any case, within 14 Business Days.  We do not charge a fee to ECOllaborators to enable them to access their Personal Information.

An ECOllaborator may also request a correction of factual errors in their Personal Information, as held by us, by sending a request to us that credibly shows the error. We will respond to any such request in a reasonable and practical time.

We may refuse access to Personal Information requested by a ECOllaborator where we believe it is reasonably necessary. We will provide a reason for any denial of access to some or all Personal Information requested.

Disclosure of Data

We may disclose Personal Information about ECOllaborators to third parties that we retain to assist us in the conduct of our business. We take reasonable steps to require third parties to which we grant access to Personal Information to agree to be bound by the conditions of this Policy, or to similar privacy standards, however we are not responsible for, and accept no liability in respect of, any unauthorised use or disclosure of Personal Information by a third party that is inconsistent with this Policy.

In addition to the other purposes set out in this Policy, we may also disclose Personal Information:

• in response to requests from law enforcement and government agencies, which will have their own privacy and disclosure policies;
• with the consent of a volunteer, to another volunteer, as necessary to allow direct communication for co-ordinating volunteer activities. If consent is not obtained from volunteers for this purpose, authorised ECOllaboration employees will facilitate the organisation between the volunteers as necessary for the purposes of the activities;
• to any entity in connection with a proposed or actual sale, merger, transfer or exchange of all or a portion of a business or operating unit;
• to relevant licensing or training organisations/authorities as necessary for an ECOllaborator to receive a license or training in conjunction with us.

Cross border disclosure of Personal Information 

We may disclose Personal Information outside of Australia if our data hosting provider has their servers/cloud-based services situated overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients handle Personal Information in accordance with our Policy or other similarly compliant privacy standard.

Marketing

We may aggregate and analyse all of the Personal Information we hold about ECOllaborators to enable us to develop targeted marketing programs and service offerings that we consider are tailored to the needs of particular groups of ECOllaborators. We may then use the Personal Information about those ECOllaborators to contact them regarding programs and services (both our own programs and services and third-party programs and services) which may be of interest to them.

We provide ECOllaborators with a simple method of requesting not to receive direct marketing communications from ECOllaboration with the provision of an ‘Unsubscribe’ button for ‘opting out’ included in our marketing emails, or ECOllaborators can also notify us directly either in writing or via telephone to be removed from our marketing database.

Retention of Personal Information

With the exception of duplication of records, we may retain Personal Information about ECOllaborators indefinitely, or until the ECOllaborator requests us to delete the Personal Information. However, when conducting our informational audits from time to time, we will take reasonable steps to de-identify or destroy Personal Information where it is no longer needed for the purposes provided for in this Policy.

Data Security 

We maintain reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect Personal Information about ECOllaborators from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. As part of those precautions, we utilise technologies designed to safeguard data during transmission. However, there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely secure.

When we decide what data to seek from or communicate to our ECOllaborators, or how to seek or communicate it, we try to strike a reasonable balance between the security of ECOllaborators’ Personal Information and their convenience. If a ECOllaborator has reason to believe that any email account or other contact method with us is no longer secure, they must immediately notify us.

Third Party Websites 

Our website and email communications may contain links to third party websites. We do not monitor or control the information collected when ECOllaborators choose to “click through” links to these websites. The treatment of Personal Information by the operators of third party websites may be different from ours and ECOllaborators access those third party sites at their own risk.

Future Changes in Policy 

We reserve the right to amend this Policy in the future. Subject to applicable laws, any changes to this Policy will be effective upon posting of the revised version on our website.

This Policy includes examples of the types of information we may collect and the kinds of companies to which we may disclose information. These examples are illustrative and should not be considered a complete inventory of our information collection or sharing practices.

Complaints 

An ECOllaborator may make a complaint about the handling or misuse of their Personal Information, by contacting us in writing, via mail or email via the details set out at the end of this Policy. We will endeavour to respond to the complaint within 30 days.

Contact Details

Mailing Address: PO Box 311, Nambour, QLD, 4560

Phone:   07 5476 4777

Email:     [email protected]

Version: 1.0

Last Amendment Date: 16 March 2026