BCF | PROCEDURES & INFORMATION PAPERS
PRIVACY POLICY
1. INTRODUCTION
Brisbane Christian Fellowship (BCF) was established as a local church in the Samford Valley as a place for Christians to meet. BCF is a vibrant fellowship of individuals and families, who live, work and relate in the local community and gather together every Sunday for a communion service.
This Brisbane Christian Fellowship Privacy Policy (Privacy Policy) outlines how BCF will handle your personal information, in accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (the Act). This document provides a ‘plain English’ outline of BCF’s privacy obligations under the Act and Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Employees of BCF should also refer to relevant internal policies.
2. COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION
2.1 PERSONAL INFORMATION
Personal Information is defined in the Act as information or an opinion about an individual, whether the information or opinion is true or not.1
BCF collects personal information from time to time that enables us to carry out certain functions and activities which include:
The employment of staff;
Providing pastoral care to BCF members;
Receiving prayer requests from BCF members for various needs;
Organising and facilitating events held at the BCF property, including weddings and working bees;
Running training programs, including bible studies and seminars;
Facilitating various age-specific programs such as teenagers and Son Seekers;
Communicating to BCF members to provide information on upcoming BCF-organised events.
2.2 SENSITIVE INFORMATION
Sensitive information is defined under the Act as “Personal Information that relates to an individual’s:
racial or ethnic origin,
political opinions,
membership of a political association,
religious beliefs or affiliations,
philosophical beliefs,
membership of a professional or trade association,
membership of a trade union,
sexual orientation or practices,
criminal record,
health information.”2
1 Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), s6.
2 Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), s6.
BCF may, from time to time, collect Sensitive Information from you to ensure that you are adequately cared for in the context of carrying out our functions and activities. We will not collect this information from you without your consent or use that information for a purpose outside our stated functions and activities.
3. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION AND SENSITIVE INFORMATION
BCF only collects information required for the particular function or activity we are carrying out. We may collect Personal Information and Sensitive Information from you in the following ways:
through our church administration office
collection forms required to facilitate the functions and activities of BCF
via our website (www.bcf.org.au)
via the Lampstand website (www.lampstand.bcf.org.au)
photographs or video that may be taken of you while at the church property.
The Personal Information and Sensitive Information you submit through the Lampstand website is done so in accordance with the Lampstand Terms of Use. These Terms are available on the Lampstand website.
The BCF website may use cookies to track site visits and navigation within the site. A cookie is a small text file created by a web server and stored on your computer, enabling a unique identification to be given to your computer. Cookies enable our systems to track your clicks as you browse and move between pages on the BCF website. The cookie also helps us. We do not use cookies to retrieve or store Personal Information about you from your computer. Most Internet browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can adjust your Internet browser to disable or to warn you when cookies are used.
Our service provider records your visit to our web site and logs information from your browser including your IP address, the date and time of your visit, the pages accessed, documents downloaded, and the type of browser used. This is a fraud prevention measure, and enables us to evaluate our web site usage and improve our online service. This information is not linked back to individual users except in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the service provider’s logs.
The BCF website may contain links to the web sites of associated organisations. However, BCF is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such web sites.
4. ANONYMITY
Where possible, we will allow you to interact with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. For example, if you contact our organization with a general question, we will not ask for your name unless we need it to adequately handle your question. However, for most of our functions and activities we usually need some form of personal information in order to provide you with a greater level of care.
5. USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
BCF uses the Personal Information it collects about you only in accordance with the Act. We will not sell or rent your Personal Information to any third party without your prior consent. BCF may use the details you have provided us in order to contact you about church-related matters or regarding upcoming events at BCF.
BCF will only disclose your personal or sensitive information for the purpose under which it was collected. We may disclose your Personal Information for a secondary purpose that is related to the primary purpose of collection, or if you have provided consent for the disclosure.
We may also be required by the Act to disclose your Personal Information in the following situations:
the use or disclosure of the Personal Information is required or authorised by an Australian law, court or tribunal;
a permitted general situation exists in relation to the use or disclosure of the Personal Information by BCF;3
3 a ‘permitted general situation’ is defined in the Privacy Act at s 16B
BCF reasonably believes that the use or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary for one or more enforcement related activities conducted by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body.
6. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
BCF will protect your Personal Information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by a range of security measures including computer network security systems, restricted access and building security systems, firewalls, expert computer monitoring and passwords for checking identity before disclosing information. Any information submitted via our website uses standard technology to ensure your information is kept private. Information on our web site is protected by encryption and firewall technology. Your Log-in details for the Lampstand website enables BCF to verify your identity and to helps us to ensure your Personal Information is kept secure. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your login details.
Personal Information that is collected by BCF is stored in our office with restricted access. We will take reasonable steps to implement and maintain security precautions and prevent unauthorized access to, disclosure or use of Personal Information. Only authorised employees and volunteers are permitted to access your Personal Information. BCF employees and volunteers are required to comply with this Policy
7. OVERSEAS RECIPIENTS
BCF will not transfer your Personal Information overseas or into a “cloud” based system unless we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information which is being transferred will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient in a manner inconsistent with the APPs.
The Personal Information held on the Lampstand website may be accessible to Overseas Recipients who have been given access to the website. Overseas Recipients may include members of affiliated organisations from countries that include Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland. BCF will take reasonable steps to ensure that the Overseas Recipients deal with personal information in accordance with this Policy and the Act.
8. ACCESSING AND UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
You have the right to request access to, and correction of, the Personal Information which BCF holds about you.
If you wish to update your Personal Information, you can make changes directly through the Lampstand website. Alternatively, you can contact our office in the ways provided below. To update your information via the Lampstand website, login and click on the ‘Update your Phone Book Details’ link. This will provide you with access to your Personal Information. BCF reserves the right to refuse access to certain information. If we deny your access to Personal Information, we will, on request, provide you with the reasons for that denial. Where we receive a request from you, including an unsubscribe request, we will take reasonable steps to delete the relevant Personal Information from our records. However, we cannot guarantee that the information has been deleted as there is a possibility that a residual copy of the information will be maintained on a back-up system.
9. MAKE A COMPLAINT
If you wish to make a complaint or have a query about how BCF deals with your Personal Information, or you wish to access your Personal Information, you can contact us in the following ways:
by post to PO Box 240, Samford, Qld, 4520, Australia
by phone to (07) 3289 2888
We will endeavor to respond within two weeks of receiving your request, query or complaint. Complaints will be handled in accordance with BCF’s internal complaint handling procedure.
10. REVIEW OF PRIVACY POLICY
BCF's information practices and Privacy Policy will be monitored and periodically updated in accordance with the Act. BCF will notify you of any amendments to its Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on its web site: www.bcf.org.au.