NSW Synod Privacy Policy

The Privacy Officer for the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT is Cathy Tunbridge, Chief Operating Officer, Uniting Resources, 8267 4318, PO Box A2178, Sydney South, NSW 1235. If you have any questions about this policy please contact the Privacy Officer.

Overview

The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act No 155 of 2000 came into effect on December 22, 2001, and requires private sector organisations, such as the Uniting Church, to develop a privacy policy outlining how personal or sensitive information is handled and managed. All Uniting Church entities (ie Boards, Presbyteries, Congregations, Child Care Centres, Aged Care Centres, Schools, Lifelines and all other Agencies) are currently performing an audit, by a locally appointed Privacy Officer, to ensure they comply with the basic principles of the new legislation. In the future, an annual assurance that the Privacy Principles have been adhered to and effectively maintained will be sought from the appointed local Privacy Officer.

The Uniting Church is not structured as a national church, but actually is made up of Synods - bodies that are essentially state-based. Consequently each synod has produced it's own privacy policy and these can be found on each of the synod websites.

The Primary Privacy Policy

This policy has been adopted by the Synod of New South Wales and the ACT in order to comply with the requirements of the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act No 155 of 2000. The policy should be read together with the ten National Privacy Principles (NPPs) set out below:
1. Collection of Personal Information
2. Use and Disclosure
3. Data Quality
4. Data Security
5. Openness
6. Access and Correction
7. Identifier
8. Anonymity
9. Transferring Personal Information Overseas
10. Sensitive information
For more detail on each of these 10 NPP's please refer to the detailed policy document.

The Synod of New South Wales and the ACT has produced a Privacy Kit to ensure all Uniting Church entities have procedures and policies on collecting, storing, using and disclosing personal/sensitive information that complies with the Act. Click onto the caption "Privacy Policy of the Synod" at the bottom of this page to view/print a copy of the Privacy Kit.

1.In this policy, a reference to:
• "Church" means The Uniting Church in Australia;
• "The Synod" means the Synod of the Church comprising New South Wales, the ACT and Norfolk Island.

2.The Synod will comply with the NPPs. If there is any inconsistency between this policy and the NPPs, then the NPPs prevail.

3.Subject to paragraph 4, the Synod will only use personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected. In most cases, the purpose will relate to the spiritual, pastoral, social, educational and administrative functions of the NSW Synod.

4.Those functions include maintaining personal information for the purpose of analysing the role of the Church in society and recording the family histories of its members. The information may be disclosed to scholars studying the Church and to relatives of Church members.

5.The Synod will only use personal information about an individual for a secondary purpose (i.e. something beyond the scope of the primary purpose) if that individual has consented or the use is otherwise permitted by the NPPs.

6.The Synod will take reasonable steps to keep personal information secure and will, subject to the NPPs, comply with any request from a person to correct or remove his or her information. The Synod will appoint a Privacy Officer who will be responsible for storing, correcting and giving people access to personal information collected about them. The Synod may charge fees for access to personal information.

7.Personal information collected by the Synod may be sensitive information for the purpose of the NPPs (e.g. information about a person's religious beliefs). As a non-profit organisation, the Synod is permitted to collect sensitive information without a person's express consent. However, the Synod will endeavour to seek consent from a person if sensitive information is sought for something other than the primary functions of the Assembly described in paragraph 3.

8.The operating procedures (whether or not they are formalised in a manual) of the Synod will comply with this policy and the NPPs.

9.The Synod's Privacy Officer will be empowered to receive and deal with any complaint that the Synod has not complied with this policy or the NPPs.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact the Synod's Privacy Officer, Cathy Tunbridge, Chief Operating Officer, Uniting Resources, 8267 4318, PO Box A2178, Sydney South, NSW 1235.