Accessibility Contrast Layout A A Refresh 1300 227 827

Our Privacy Policy

Community Based Support Ltd (CBS) is committed to treating personal information we collect in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988. Our Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, store, use, amend and disclose your personal and sensitive information.

Purpose of Collection and Use of Personal Information

CBS collects personal information, including sensitive information, about you in order to deliver services to you. Information collected about you may be in writing, obtained verbally or in some cases collected from third parties such as My Aged Care, Support Coordinators, other Service Providers, General Practitioners and Allied Health Professionals (with your consent).

The primary purpose of collecting information from you is to enable CBS to deliver the most appropriate services to you, based on your needs. We will obtain your consent to collect and use this information during your first assessment contact with us.

The types of personal information we collect depends on the nature of the service we provide to you. Examples of the types of information we collect include:

  • General identification information such as your name, address, and phone number;
  • Government issued ID numbers, such as your My Aged Care number, Medicare number, pension or DVA number;
  • Information about your health status.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is any information or opinion about you that can identify you as an individual. The information may or may not be recorded in a material format, and includes information that may not necessarily be true. Personal information includes basic information such as your name, gender and contact details, and information related to services we have offered you.

We may also use or disclose personal information for a secondary purpose if:

  • the use or disclosure is required or authorised by or under an Australian law (e.g. mandatory reporting) or a court/tribunal order (e.g. court subpoena to release information)
  • it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain the individual’s consent to the use or disclosure, and
  • we reasonably believe the use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety.

What is Sensitive Information?

We also collect and maintain personal information that is classified as “sensitive information”. This includes health, racial or ethnic origin, for example. We collect, use or disclose sensitive information only if:

  • we have received your express consent to do so; and
  • it is used for the primary purpose for which it was collected (i.e. to deliver a health service to you); and
  • there is a permitted secondary use (if an exception applies – for example you would reasonably expect for us to disclose information for a secondary purpose which is directly related to the primary purpose of collection).

What is Health Information?

Health information is any personal information about your health or disability. It includes information or opinion about your illness, injury or disability.

Some examples of health information that may we collect and hold include:

  • notes on your health status
  • information about a health service you’ve had or will receive
  • specialist reports and test results as they apply to the services we provide to you
  • pharmaceutical or medical supply purchases
  • your wishes about future health services
  • appointment and billing details

Examples of Permitted Secondary Use?

The following are examples of how we may use your personal or sensitive health information that is directly related to the primary purpose of collection:

  • If you are eligible to receive services under a different program that CBS offers, we may, subject to the period of time that has passed between service provision, use your personal information (such as your address and contact details) we hold from your previous admission to streamline the intake process in our digital system.
  • At times we may refer you (with your consent) for assessment by a third party provider (for example My Aged Care or an Allied Health Provider) for the purpose of reviewing the level of service that you are eligible for. In these cases, CBS may disclose your personal information to the third party provider for that purpose.

Security and Unauthorised Access of your Personal Information

We hold your personal information in:

  • our computer systems;
  • electronic databases;
  • digital records; and/or
  • hard copy or paper files.

These storage mechanisms are managed in a number of ways by us or a third party storage provider with whom we have a contractual relationship.

We will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We employ a number of means to protect your personal information including:

  • external and internal premises security;
  • restricted electronic and physical access to personal information;
  • entering into confidentiality agreements with all employees, contractors and third party organisations;
  • having in place a business continuity plan to deal with major business disruptions;
  • maintaining technology products to prevent unauthorised computer access;
  • regular reviewing and testing of our technology in order to improve the level of security; and
  • destroying or de-identifying personal information pursuant to the law.

We have an ongoing program of review and enhancement of our security measures. E-mail transmissions are not necessarily secure. If you have any concern about the security of the contents of your email or any other transaction over the Internet then you should consider contacting us by other means. Once we receive and store personal information, it is protected by a range of security controls, including network firewalls, user identification requirements and audit trails.

CBS will destroy or permanently de-identify any of your information which is in its possession or control and which is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected provided we are not required under an Australian law or court/tribunal or otherwise to retain the information.

We induct employees and representatives to understand privacy obligations, apply confidentiality obligations to them and oversee their user identifiers, passwords or other access codes.

Direct Marketing

From time to time we may use your personal information to provide you with information about our range of products and services. We will provide you with a choice to receive promotional material or any marketing offers from us and we will respect your choice in regard to receipt of further information.

CBS will take all necessary steps to opt such individuals out of promotion materials or marketing offers. Requests to opt out will in the first instance be treated as a request to opt out of the particular promotion, event or campaign to which the communication relates.

Individuals who have opted out of direct marketing will still receive administrative emails to assist CBS to comply with its regulatory obligations.

Overseas Disclosure

CBS does not disclose your personal or sensitive information to overseas recipients.

Access to Your Personal Information

We rely on the personal information we hold about you to efficiently conduct our business with you. It is important that you make sure that the information that we hold about you is accurate, up to date and complete. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that all your personal information is accurate prior to using it and will correct it where required, or when you notify us it requires correction. Where we refuse to correct information we will provide reasons in writing within a reasonable time and the details of the mechanisms by which you can make a complaint.

You can request access to any of the personal information we hold about you. In most cases a summary of personal information such as name, address and contact numbers is freely available by calling us at our office.

We can refuse to give you access to some or all of your person information where:

  • we reasonably believe that giving access to you would pose a threat to the safety of any individual or to public health or safety;
  • giving you access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
  • your request is frivolous or vexatious;
  • your request relates to imminent legal proceedings between us and would not be allowed in those proceedings;
  • access would be unlawful;
  • access would enable you or someone to engage in misconduct or unlawful activity that would compromise our functions; or
  • access would reveal evaluative information connected to our commercially sensitive decision making processes.

Any decision to refuse a request for personal information will be made by the CEO. We will provide reasons for any refusal in writing and any details of the mechanisms by which you can make a complaint (refer Complaints below).

Complaints

If you believe we have not protected your personal information as set out in this privacy policy please let us know. You can also use our complaints resolution procedure to lodge a complaint by contacting us:

  • telephone on (03) 6208 6600
  • by writing to our CEO
  • via email to admin@cbsaust.org.au
  • or postal address (24 Sunderland St, Moonah Tas 7009)

If you are not satisfied with the result of your complaint to us you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as follows:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

Director of Compliance
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5288 or 1300 363 992 or email foi@oaic.gov.au
Sydney    NSW  2001

Our Contact Details

We can be contacted in any of the following ways:

  • by telephoning (03) 6208 6600;
  • by writing to us at 24 Sunderland St, Moonah, Tasmania 7009;
  • by visiting us at the above address;
  • via our website cbsaust.org.au

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We constantly review all policies and procedures and keep up to date with changes in the law, technology and industry practice. Changes made will be updated to this Policy on our website.