Regional Arts Victoria (we, our, us) backs regional Victorians to make, participate in, and experience creative work. We are an independent, not-for-profit, membership-based organisation. We foster contemporary and innovative regional cultural practice. We engage with people across Victoria and beyond online, via e-news and in person.
1. The Purpose of this Policy
This Policy explains how we comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Act). We also hope to answer your questions, but if you have more questions please get in touch at [email protected]
This Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share the personal information that we collect from you. Anyone has the right to remain anonymous when dealing with RAV however this may prevent the provision of some services, e.g. membership or grant applications or event bookings.
2. The information we collect from you
We collect Personal Information:
- directly from you when you apply for a grant, a job or other role with Regional Arts Victoria or complete a survey
- directly and indirectly from you when you visit or use the Website
- directly from you when you interact with our social media accounts
- directly from you when you become a Regional Arts Victoria member
- directly from you when you contact us via email or phone
- indirectly from you via any third-party sites or platforms through which you access our products and services, or interact with us (Third Party Sites).
This information may include:
- information provided in registering to use the Website and Third Party Sites – for example, your name, email address, contact details and an outline of your creative practice
- information provided directly by you as a participant on the Website and Third Party Sites, such as information you disclose in forms, in sending messages or emails to us directly or via our social media accounts, or any other spaces where you are able to make comments
- information provided directly by you to us, such as in grant or other opportunity applications correspondence, phone calls and other direct means of communication
- information provided directly by you when you book times to meet with our staff
- information provided indirectly by you as a result of your use of the Website and Third Party Sites – for example, the frequency with which and the times at which you use the Website and Third Party Sites and information about your preferences and interests.
Personal Information:
Personal Information is any information or an opinion about you where your identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained (Personal Information), whether true or not. Sensitive Information is a subset of Personal Information and includes information or opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation, criminal record, and health, genetic or biometric information (Sensitive Information).
By using the website located at www.rav.net.au (Website), including to submit applications to us, apply for a grant, become a member or participate in an event (online or in person), you are consenting to Regional Arts Victoria making use of the information we collect from you, including your Personal Information, in accordance with this Policy.
Health and Sensitive Information:
You may elect to disclose health or Sensitive Information to us when applying for grants, contracts or employment with Regional Arts Victoria.
Where we ask for Sensitive Information, we will only use that information to assess your application and for our internal reporting mechanisms. We may also de-identify the data and use it for our external reporting obligations, such as reporting to our funding bodies on our audience reach or diversity. We will not retain the Sensitive Information in a manner which identifies you once it is no longer relevant e.g. your grant agreement has ended.
When you submit an application to us via the Website, the application will be stored on reputable third-party servers based overseas, as disclosed below under the heading ‘Security’. If you are concerned about the transfer of your data overseas or the effect this has on your rights and remedies, please contact us at [email protected] and we will work with you to find an alternative solution in accordance with our obligations under the Act.
You may also elect to disclose Sensitive Information to us when advising of special access requirements prior to or when attending our events. We will only use that information for the purpose for which it is provided.
If you provide us with unsolicited health or Sensitive Information, please advise us and we will take steps to delete such information in accordance with our obligations under the Act.
Information collected indirectly from you from the Website:
We wish to provide the Website’s users with a positive user experience. To assist us in doing this, we may collect visitor information related to browser and operating systems.
‘Cookies’ are alphanumeric identifiers that are stored by your web browser on your computer’s hard-drive that enable our system to recognise you when you visit the Website. This helps Regional Arts Victoria track basic visitor information so we can better tailor the Website to our visitors’ needs. Where you make online transactions, we may also use cookies to assist in providing security for that transaction.
Many web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can disable this function by changing your browser settings if you so wish.
3. What we do with this information
We collect information to improve and expand our engagement with our stakeholders. We also collect information to provide you with your use of the Website.
We may also use information we collect about you and your Personal Information for related purposes such as:
- communicating with you, including advising you of upcoming opportunities. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.
- tracking information about our users’ usage, preferences and behaviour in relation to the Website and Third Party Sites, as well as any site feedback you share with us. The RAV website links to some Third Party Sites. These linked sites are not under our control, so we are not responsible for the conduct of any third parties. Before you enter information on to those sites, you must consider whether you accept their privacy policy and terms and conditions of use;
- to perform statistical analyses of user behaviour;
- maintaining our relationship with you, including responding to your questions;
- helping us to identify and inform you about other events, awards or information that is likely to be of interest to you;
- providing targeted third-party advertising to you on the Website;
- performing internal accounting and administration, including for reporting purposes;
- protecting you and Regional Arts Victoria from fraud; and
- any other use for which we obtain your permission.
We may share overall visitor trends and other generic information collected on this Website with our sponsors, advertisers, funding bodies and other third parties, but we do not pass on any Personal Information other than in accordance with this Policy.
4. Sharing your information with others
Other than disclosure to service providers (explained below) or as required by law (for example, disclosure to various Government departments or to courts), we will not give your Personal Information to other organisations unless we have disclosed the use in this policy or you have specifically given us your consent to do so.
The service providers we may share your Personal Information with are the providers of the electronic systems we use to collect and store your Personal Information: PayPal, banks and financial institutions you use to make payments to us; and other service providers we use to help us run aspects of our business efficiently or to communicate with you. Occasionally we might also use your Personal Information for other purposes or share your information with another organisation because:
- we believe it is necessary to provide you with a service which you have requested;
- we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of another Website user;
- we believe it is necessary to do so to prevent or help detect fraud or serious credit infringements – for example, we may share information with law enforcement agencies and fraud prevention units;
- we believe it is necessary to protect the interests of Regional Arts Victoria – for example, disclosure to a court in the event of legal action to which Regional Arts Victoria is a party; or
- the assets and operations of Regional Arts Victoria’s business are being transferred to another party as a going concern.
When we share information with other organisations and service providers as set out above, we do so in accordance with this Policy. To the extent that these organisations and service providers gain access to your Personal Information, their use is governed by the Act.
5. How long we will you keep your Personal Information
We will keep your Personal Information for as long as it is required to provide you with our services and to comply with our legal requirements.
If we no longer require your Personal Information for any purpose, including legal purposes, we will take reasonable steps to securely destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information in accordance with our obligations under the Act.
6. Accessing information we keep about you
You can access the Personal Information we hold about you at any time. Simply contact us to make your request.
We will always endeavour to meet your request for access. However, in some circumstances we may decline a request for access. This includes the following circumstances:
- we no longer hold or use the information;
- providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other persons;
- the request is frivolous or vexatious;
- the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings and would not normally be disclosed as part of those proceedings;
- providing access would be unlawful;
- providing access would be likely to prejudice the detection, prevention, investigation and prosecution of possible unlawful activity; and
- the information would reveal our commercially sensitive decision-making processes.
If we decline your request for access, we will give you reasons for our decision when we respond to your request.
We reserve the right to charge you a reasonable fee for access to some types of information. These charges will be limited to the cost of recouping our expenses for providing you with information, such as document retrieval, photocopying, labour and delivery.
7. Changing or deleting the information
To provide you with the best possible service and to comply with our obligations under the Act it is important that the information we hold about you is accurate. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up-to-date at the time of collecting, using or disclosing the information. If you are a Regional Arts Victoria member you are responsible for updating your own information via our Members Dashboard.
If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, you should notify us. We will do our best to correct it or delete it, unless we need to keep if for legal reasons.
8. Security
Regional Arts Victoria endeavours to take all reasonable steps to keep your Personal Information secure.
Data collected from the Website:
The data collected directly and indirectly from you via our Website is not shared with any third parties and is accessed only by Regional Arts Victoria.
Data stored in emails and internal documents:
Regional Arts Victoria uses Microsoft SharePoint and our email is facilitated through Microsoft Exchange. All SharePoint and email data is stored within Australia, no data is stored overseas. The servers are located in Australia, in access-controlled facilities. Once it is stored on our servers, only authorised users can access your Personal Information, and access is only for approved purposes
No liability:
Regional Arts Victoria is not responsible for any third-party access to your Personal Information as a result of:
- interception while it is in transit over the internet
- spyware or viruses on the device (such as a computer or phone) from which you access the Website, nor as a result of your failure to adequately protect your usernames or passwords
- nor for any losses, expenses, damages and costs, including legal fees, resulting from such access.
Data Breach:
If we have reasonable grounds to believe that your Personal Information may be subject to unauthorised access or disclosure (eligible data breach), we will investigate and assess the suspected eligible data breach to determine whether the eligible data breach is likely to result in serious harm to you (Notifiable Data Breach). If a Notifiable Data Breach occurs, then we will notify you and the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable after we become aware of the Notifiable Data Breach in accordance with our obligations under the Act. We will comply in every way with our obligations under Part IIIC – “notification of eligible data breaches” of the Act.
9. Providing information on Third Party Sites
We accept payments via PayPal and Stripe, and engage with other providers: payment processors such as Trybooking or Humanitix, data entry service providers, CRM providers (Salesforce), CRM integration partners (Zapier, Conga, Form Assembly), electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, our local Government partners in the Regional Cultural Partnership program, business advisors and consultants.
We may disclose your personal information to entities located outside of Australia, including the following:
- our e-newsletter distribution services, namely Campaign Monitor (see Campaign Monitor’s Privacy Policy here: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/trust/privacy-hub/); and,
- website data hosting and other IT service providers, (see the WordPress Privacy Policy here: Privacy – WordPress.org )
If you follow a link on our Website to a Third Party Site (such as when you pay a Membership Fee) any personal information you disclose on that Third Party Site will be subject to that Third Party Site’s privacy policy. In some instances, that Third Party Site may share your information with us in accordance with its privacy policy.
10. What to do if you have a problem, question or complaint
If you have any further queries relating to this Policy, please contact Regional Arts Victoria. If the Regional Arts Victoria becomes aware of any concerns or problems with customer information, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns as soon as practical.
11. Changes to this Policy
From time to time, our policies will be reviewed and may be revised. Regional Arts Victoria reserves the right to change this Policy at any time and notify you by posting an updated version of the Policy on the Website. Before providing us with Personal Information, please check this Policy on the Website for any changes.
This privacy policy was last updated on 30 May 2023