Privacy policy
Last updated: Thursday 18 November 2021
Committed to protecting your rights
Oxfam Australia is committed to using your information responsibly. We are guided by the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as the codes that we adhere to.
This Privacy Policy helps you understand why and how we collect and use personal information, and what to do if you have questions, concerns or complaints. We will occasionally make updates to this policy, so we will note the date of the last change at the top of the page).
Remember, you are in control of the personal information you provide to us. You can choose what to provide to us (including being anonymous or using a pseudonym where practicable), and you can request to change or access these details at any time.
What information do we collect?
Oxfam Australia regularly asks for information that helps us engage with you. For example to process your donation and provide a receipt, or to record your support of a petition or letter to your local MP. It is your choice how much information you provide (however we might not be able to fulfil a request if you don’t provide information).
Below are some examples of what information we commonly collect:
- Personal details, like name or date of birth
- Contact details
- Payment information for donations
- Interests and opinions
- Online activity
- Your support for our work, like signing a petition, hosting an event or participating in Trailwalker
- Other areas of our work you might be interested in supporting
- Your communication preferences
- Conversations by phone or email with our staff and volunteers
Oxfam Australia may also collect information about you if you report, are the subject of, or are otherwise involved in a safeguarding or fraud related incident. The information we collect in such circumstances may include your name, your contact details, and information about your involvement in the incident (if applicable). You can also choose to report incidents anonymously, if you do not wish for us to collect your name or contact details.
In most cases, we’ll ask you for this information directly (for example asking you to complete a donation coupon, or sending you a survey), however some information is collected automatically (like online activity by visitors to our website) or from another source (like updating mailing addresses from Australia Post, information that is listed in public directories, obtaining details for potential future supporters from like-minded organisations or third-party suppliers, or information that is reported to us about safeguarding or fraud related incidents).
How do we secure and store your information?
To protect your privacy and personal information, when you contact us we’ll ask you to confirm your identity by getting you to confirm a few details which we have on record, such as your current address, phone number, and supporter number.
We keep most of your personal information secure in our supporter database (or in the case of information relating to safeguarding or fraud incidents, in our cloud based case management system), and conduct regular tests and audits to ensure that information is held securely and safely.
Physical copies of your information, such as donation forms, are kept securely and destroyed if not needed. Staff and volunteers are required to sign our policies relating to privacy, and police checks are conducted for sensitive roles.
Sometimes we may need to store or use your information in a country other than Australia, usually because one of our technical systems is located or needs to process data overseas (for instance, social media channels). Further, the information that Oxfam collects for safeguarding and fraud reporting purposes may be stored on cloud services including services provided by third party service providers, and some of these cloud services may be hosted overseas, including in the UK.
As of the last update of this policy, the countries in which we store data include:
- United Kingdom
- United States
How do we use this information?
We collect personal information in order to fulfil our core work: engaging with the public, raising awareness and fundraising. To help us be effective, efficient and informed, we collect information to ensure a complete and accurate record of your history and engagement with Oxfam. For example we will use this information to keep you updated with issues you are interested in, to provide opportunities for you to support Oxfam’s work, or to notify you of volunteering roles with us.
For personal information relating to safeguarding or fraud incidents, we may use or disclose this information to investigate and take appropriate action in response to the incident. This may involve disclosing the information to other Oxfam affiliates (for example, where an incident relates to activities undertaken or overseen by another Oxfam affiliate, we may disclose your information to that Oxfam affiliate for them to conduct an investigation), to law enforcement, or to government agencies or regulators, for compliance with our reporting obligations.
We occasionally require external suppliers to assist us in our activities, and may provide your information to them in order to achieve these – for example, printing a large number of letters to our supporters.
If you want another person to be able to access or change your details on your behalf (a spouse, legal or financial representative) you can let us know in writing, and we will record this permission.
From time to time, we may also use your details to send you information on behalf of like-minded organisations that you may be interested in supporting as a donor or customer. Your details will not be provided to them, and only the information you supply to them directly will be collected for their records. If you would prefer that we do not consider you for these kinds of communications, please get in touch with our Supporter Services Team (details are below).
In any case where we need to share your information with a third party, we’ll ensure this is done securely and only for the purposes outlined above.
Online Activity and Social Media
We use Google Analytics to track visits to our website, and use this information to track the effectiveness of our website, like visits, length of visit, viewed pages and the technical capabilities of our visitors. While this data is mostly anonymous, sometimes we will connect it to you, for instance in personalising a webpage, or prefilling a form with your details. For more information on our analytics tools, read Google’s Privacy Policy.
We also use tools that tell us when a computer or device has visited or accessed our content, and allow us to tailor advertising both on our websites and through advertising networks on other websites based on your visits or behaviour through cookies on your device. You can control how cookies are used and for what through the settings on your chosen browser. You can also control how your information is used with advertisers through the Network Advertising Initiative, including opting-out from interest-based advertising (click here).
You can also engage with Oxfam Australia through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You can always control how you receive content through each website’s settings. Occasionally, we may get in touch with you via social media if you aren’t a follower by using the details on your record, such as email address and phone number to match to your social media account. We will only do this where you have opted in to marketing emails or phone calls/SMS and using a secure technique known as ‘hashing’. The matching only works where you have previously disclosed your email address and phone/SMS to the social media site. No data is retained by the third party. We may also use your email address and phone/SMS to link to Facebook or other social media sites in order to identify other users of these sites whom we believe would be interested in Oxfam, and we may then show them Oxfam content.
If you prefer we don’t use your data in this manner, you can either let our Supporter Services Team know or update your preferences at the relevant social media site:
Maintaining your information
You can manage and update select information through our myOxfam account pages.
Once you have an account and are logged in you can change your key personal details, see a history of your donations, and manage events you’ve created.
You can also request to access the personal information we hold about you, update or correct the information we have collected, or let us know of your preferences for how we communicate with you by contacting our Supporter Services team:
- By phone on Freecall 1800 088 110 (Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, AEST/AEDT)
- By emailing enquire@oxfam.org.au
- By mail
Oxfam Australia
Locked Bag 20004
Melbourne VIC 3001
Making a query or complaint
If you have a question or a complaint about how we manage your personal information or would like to know more, you can contact Oxfam’s Privacy Officer:
- By phone on Freecall 1800 088 110 (Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, AEST/AEDT)
- By email on privacy@oxfam.org.au
- By mail:
Attn: The Privacy Officer
Oxfam Australia
Locked Bag 20004
Melbourne VIC 3001
If you’ve made a complaint, the Supporter Services Team or Privacy Officer will acknowledge that your complaint has been received, provide you with their contact details and give you an estimate of when they can update you on the status of your complaint.
