Protecting your privacy

Vardon Legal ABN: 99 663 668 780 (together, us, we or our) is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy outlines how we manage privacy protection of your personal information.

We may change this policy from time to time by publishing changes to it on our website. We encourage you to check our website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.


Personal information we collect and why we need it

We may collect the following types of personal information:

  • name;
  • mailing or street address;
  • email address;
  • telephone number and other contact details;
  • job title;
  • employer;
  • age and date of birth;
  • credit card information;
  • device ID, device type, geo-location information, computer and connection information, page view statistics, site traffic, internet protocol address and web log information;
  • details of products and services we have provided to you or that you have enquired about, including any additional information necessary to deliver those products and services and respond to your enquiries;
  • any additional information that you provide to us directly through our website or app or indirectly through your use of our website or app or online presence or through other websites or accounts from which you permit us to collect information;
  • information you provide through customer surveys; and
  • any other personal information that may be required in order to facilitate our relationship and dealings with you.

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • for the purpose of provision of our services to you and communicating with you about the same including in relation to billing;
  • to operate, protect, improve and optimize our services, business and our clients’ experience, such as to perform analytics, conduct research and for advertising and marketing;
  • to send you service, support and administrative messages, reminders, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and information requested by you;
  • to send you marketing and promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you, including information sent by, or on behalf of, our business partners;
  • to disclose the fact we have represented you in tender documents and marketing publications and otherwise to prospective clients;
  • to disclose your name and contact details on a confidential basis for the purposes of the recipient assessing whether to include us in a business listing or publication or to give us an award;
  • to administer surveys or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by us or our business partners; and
  • to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes that we may have with any of our clients and contacts, and enforce our agreements with third parties.

For the avoidance of doubt we will not disclose confidential details of matters we have assisted you with or the services we have provided to you.

We may provide access to your information to third parties who assist us to use this information for these purposes.

We and our business partners may use your information to send you direct marketing communications and details of other products and services that may be of interest to you. If you no longer wish to receive this additional marketing material let us or our business partner know, and your details will be removed from the relevant database.

If we do not collect the personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the services or assistance you have requested.

In addition, when you apply for a job or position with us we may collect certain information from you (including your name, contact details, working history and relevant records checks) from any recruitment consultant, your previous employers and others who may be able to provide information to us to assist in our decision on whether or not to make you an offer of employment or engage you under a contract.

How we collect and hold personal information

We collect the information in person, in writing, by telephone, through our website and by other electronic communication channels. We collect this information through our staff and through our contracted agents and other service providers.

Wherever reasonable or practicable, we will ask you for the information directly. We may also obtain your information from public sources or from private databases and records including those maintained by your employers, business associates, bankers, credit reference agencies and referees.

Who will see or have access to personal information

We may disclose personal information for the purposes described in this policy to:

  • our employees and related entities;
  • barristers, other legal specialists (including mediators), consultants or experts engaged in your matter;
  • foreign law firms for the purpose of obtaining foreign legal advice;
  • third party suppliers and service providers we use in marketing and operating our business;
  • professional advisers, agents and dealers;
  • card payment merchants and other payment systems operators; 
  • our current or potential agents, business partners or partners;
  • our sponsors or promoters of any competition that we conduct;
  • third parties authorised by you to receive your information;
  • any person who acquires our assets or businesses (or part of them); and
  • government or law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, or other persons as required, authorised or permitted by law.

Some of these people may be located in countries outside Australia.

Our information systems and files are kept secured from unauthorised access and our staff and contracted agents and service providers have been informed of the importance we place on protecting your privacy and their role in helping us to do so.

Overseas disclosure

Our business is affiliated with other businesses and agents located overseas, we are also members of a number of international associations.

In the course of doing business with you, we may disclose some of your personal information to overseas recipients. However, we will only do so where:

  • it is necessary to complete the transaction you have entered into; and
  • you have provided consent; or
  • we believe on reasonable grounds that the overseas recipient is required to deal with your personal information by enforceable laws which are similar to the requirements under the APPs; or
  • it is otherwise permitted by law.

Some of our administrative, marketing and IT computer systems and platforms are hosted by service providers located overseas. Currently, these hosting service providers are located in Australia. 

We may also engage Australian service providers to assist with our IT systems or undertake administrative tasks not directly related to your legal matters. They may have personnel located overseas. In any such engagement these providers and their staff may have access to some of your personal information.  However, we take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from improper use or disclosure.

Data Subject Rights (European Economic Area only)

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) you have the following rights in relation to your personal data (as that term is defined in the General Data Protection Regulation):

  • Subject to certain exceptions, you have the right to request a copy of the personal data we are processing about you, which we will provide to you in electronic form. At our discretion we may require you to prove your identity before providing the requested information. If you require multiple copies of your personal data, we may charge a reasonable administration fee.
  • You have the right to require that any incomplete or inaccurate personal data that we process about you is amended.
  • You have the right to request that we delete personal data that we process about you, unless we are required to retain such data to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
  • You have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data where:
  • you believe such data to be inaccurate;
  • our processing is unlawful; or
  • we no longer need to process such data for a particular purpose, but where we are not able to delete the data due to a legal or other obligation or because you do not want us to delete it.
  • You have the right to request that we transmit the personal data we hold in respect of you to another data controller, where this is:
  • personal information which you have provided to us; and
  • we are processing that data on the basis of your consent or in order to perform our obligations under contract to you (such as to provide legal services).
  • Where the legal justification for our processing of your personal data is our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to such processing on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will abide by your request unless we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests and rights, or if we need to continue to process the data for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.
  • If you have consented to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, free of charge. This includes cases where you wish to opt out from marketing messages that you receive from us.

If you are in the EEA, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the local data protection authority if you believe that we have not complied with applicable data protection laws.

Use of our website and cookies

We may collect personal information about you when you use and access our website.

While we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the IP address of your device. 

We may also use cookies or other similar technologies on our website to track your website usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your internet-connected device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and browsing sessions. You can disable cookies through your browser however our websites may not work as intended if you do this.

We may also use cookies to collect data that may include personal information (eg where a cookie is linked to your account, it will be considered personal information under privacy laws). We will handle any personal information collected by cookies in the same way that we handle all other personal information as described in this policy. 

Other websites

This site may contain links to other websites. Unless it is one of our websites, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of the owners of those websites.

We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any website that asks you to provide your personal information.

Accessing personal information and seeking correction of the same

You can access the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the details provided below. Sometimes, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of your personal information and, where this is the case, we will tell you why. We may also need to verify your identity when you request your personal information.

Please contact us if you think that any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected.

Complaints

If you think we have breached a privacy law, or you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information, please contact us using the details provided below. Please include your name, email address, telephone number and the details of your complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you regarding your complaint within a reasonable period of time. If you think that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, we will provide you with information about the further steps you can take. 

Contacting us

If you would like further information on this policy or if you have any concerns or complaints regarding the protection of your personal information, please contact us at:

Telephone:  +61 8 8311 9000

Email: info@vardons.com.au