Introduction
IP Attorneys is committed to respecting the privacy of individuals’ personal information. This document explains our policy for dealing with personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to personal information we handle about clients, visitors to our website and other members of the public.
Application of privacy law
We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including the National Privacy Principles (as amended or replaced from time to time), and other laws which protect privacy. Those laws include some exceptions which we may rely on despite this Privacy Policy, for example in relation to employee records, related bodies corporate and our provision of services to some government agencies.
Collection of personal information
In the course of conducting our business we collect personal information such as name, professional and contact details, information relating to dealings with us or our clients, and interests and preferences in relation to our services and events. Generally, we try to collect personal information directly from you, however sometimes we may collect personal information from publicly available records, information brokers and third parties such as those identified in the ‘use and disclosure of personal information’ section below.
If we are not provided with personal information that we request, we may not be able to fully provide our services to you or do the other things mentioned in the following section.
Use and disclosure of personal information
We may use and disclose the personal information we collect
- to meet your or your business’ requests
- to provide our services
- to obtain your products and services
- to maintain our relationships with you and others
- for research, planning, service development, security or risk management, and
- where a third party acquires or wishes to acquire, or makes inquiries in relation to acquiring, an interest in us
We may also use your personal information on an ongoing basis to keep you informed of our services, events, developments in the law and other matters including by telephone, email and other electronic means. If you do not wish to be contacted for those purposes, please let us know using the contact details set out below. We aim to provide you with information and invitations that we consider may be of interest or relevance to you and your business.
Please note that in some situations such as emergencies and law enforcement, we may be called on to assist government agencies by providing access to certain personal information that we hold.
We may share personal information where permitted by law with members of the Herbert Smith Freehills Group and with third parties including our clients, your employer or place of business, your professional advisers and any barrister, expert, private investigator or other law, patent, or renewal agent engaged in connection with the matter in relation to which we hold your personal information. We may also share personal information with other service providers, including organisations that assist us by providing archival, auditing, professional advisory (including legal, accounting, financial and business consulting), mailhouse, delivery, technology, website, research, banking, payment, customer contact, data processing and security services.
Our clients trust us with their confidential information every day, and we are required to protect that information in accordance with strict professional confidentiality duties, including where that confidential information contains personal information.
Accessing and updating personal information
If you wish to seek access to or to request correction of any personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the ‘contact details’ set out below. We request that you provide us with as much detail as possible about the particular information sought, in order to help us retrieve it. An access fee may be charged to cover our costs of providing that information. In certain circumstances, we may not be required by law to provide access to or to correct personal information. If that is the case, we will give you our reasons for that decision.
Security of personal information
Irrespective of whether personal information is stored electronically or in hard copy form, we take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Our website and electronic communications
If you visit www.ipattorneys.com.au (the ‘Website’) to read, browse or download information, our system may record information such as the date and time of your visit to the Website, the pages accessed and any information downloaded. This information is used for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes only.
The information about you which we may collect through the Website includes:
- information collected when you register or update an online profile, which may include personal information such as your name and contact details
- the content of electronic forms you submit via the Website, requesting us to provide services or information or take actions
- any messages or comments you submit to us via the Website, eg through an email or ‘Contact Us’ form, and
- information collected when you participate in an online survey.
Like many websites, our Website may use ‘cookies’ from time to time. Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser. Cookies may also be used to record non-personal information such as the date, time or duration of your visit, or the pages accessed, for website administration, statistical and maintenance purposes. The default settings of browsers like Internet Explorer allow cookies, but users can easily erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. We may use Google Analytics who may also use cookies to collect anonymous traffic data about our Website. Please note that some parts of the Website may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.
When we send you emails or other electronic messages, we may record where you open the message and click on particular links. This helps us to better understand what information is of interest to you.
From time to time, some sections of the Website may protect your personal information by requiring you to use a password. For your own protection, we require you to keep this confidential and to change your password regularly. If you are considering sending us any other personal information through our Website or other electronic means, please be aware that the information may be insecure in transit, particularly where no encryption is used (e.g. email, standard HTTP).
The Website may contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites.
Contact details
If you have any questions, concerns or feedback about privacy, or the way in which we handle your personal information, you may contact us in the following way:
IP Attorneys
address: 409/188 Shafston Avenue, Shafston Institute of Technology, Kangaroo Point Qld 4169
Email: mail@ipattorneys.com.au
IP Attorneys ABN 58 070 153 618
Last updated: 1/11/2014