Privacy Policy

Abel Services Commitment to our clients:

Our staff and managemnet team are aware of the importance of protecting the privacy of individuals who come in contact with us.

We are committed to ensuring the privacy of the personal information we collect in the course of our business dealings. We believe that respect for your privacy forms part of the ongoing trust we wish to develop with you.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the 13 Australian Privacy Principles contained in that Act. The Australian Privacy Principles set out the way in which organisations can collect, use, keep secure and disclose personal information. It also gives individuals the right to know what information an organisation holds about them and the right to correct that information if it is wrong. Further information on the Australian Privacy law is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to tell you what types of personal information we may gather or hold about you (and how we collect that information), how we may use and hold that information, whether we disclose it to anyone (including anyone outside Australia), the choices you have regarding our use of that information, your ability to access or correct that information and how you may make complaints about any breach by us of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with those complaints.

Members of Abel Services:

Abel Services is a Family Partnership with interests in residential and commercial cleaning and pest management services.

Personal Information:

‘Personal information’ is information or an opinion about an individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether or not it is recorded in material form.

What types of personal information does Abel Services collect and hold?

The personal information we may collect and hold varies and is dependent on the product requested or the service to be provided or the other circumstances in which we deal with you. Details can include but are not limited to:

• name
• date of birth
• gender
• current and previous address (including postal address)
• contact details including telephone numbers
• E-mail address
• occupation
• bank account details
• taxation, banking and superannuation information in relation to employees
• bank statements and statements for electricity / gas accounts
• credit references or reports from a third party
• driver licence details
• geographical location
• passport and visa details
• images of you from surveillance camera footage
• property ownership
• financial information including assets and liabilities, investment and loan accounts, insurance application details,
• consumer spending
• credit information
• consumer and commercial credit reports
• rental references and prior rental contacts
• if you apply for employment with us, details regarding your employer, employment history, education qualifications and similar information, and
• consumption habits and preference information.

The above information is collected and recorded about individuals who interact with us such as:

• our customers, potential customers and their representatives
• our suppliers and their representatives
• contractors and their representatives providing goods and services to us
• our employees past and present
• applicants for employment with us, and
• any other person who comes into contact with Abel Services.

In most cases, if we do not collect personal information from you, then we may be unable to undertake certain activities, such as providing you with the requested information, goods and/or services.

The Privacy Act does not apply to employee records where used in relation to acts or practices directly related to a current or former employment relationship. An employee record is a record of personal information related to a current or former employment relationship.

Please contact the Privacy Officer for more details.

How does Abel Services collect personal information?

Generally, we collect personal information directly from you where reasonable and practical.

We may collect personal information directly from you when you:

• provide information to us in any way (including by completing a form, disclosing information over the phone, providing us a business card or applying for employment with us)
• visit our website or premises from which we operate
• acquire goods from us or use our services
• provide goods or services to us
• request information about us, our products or our services
• provide feedback
• fill in a form on our website, or
• where we are required or authorised by law to do so.

We may collect personal information directly from you via our security or other cameras installed at our premises.

We may also collect information about you from other sources such as:

• your nominated representatives (e.g. spouse, accountant, power of attorney, brokers and other professional advisors)
• other credit providers
• credit reporting bodies and mercantile reporting agencies
• publicly available sources of information
• related companies and businesses within Abel Services
• from referees, if you submit an employment application to us, or
• lawyers, medical providers, investigators, insurers including (WorkCover in relation to insurance claims).

We will only collect your personal information from third parties if it is unreasonable or impractical to collect the necessary information directly from you or if we are otherwise permitted by law to do so.

How does Abel Services handle sensitive information?

The Privacy Act describes ‘sensitive information’ as including information relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional or trade association membership, sexual orientation or criminal record which, in any case is also personal information, and health information about an individual.

Occasionally it may be reasonably necessary for us in connection with our functions or activities to collect sensitive information about you (such as health information, racial origins and criminal records). If you or third parties provide us with sensitive information, we will only use and disclose the information for the purpose for which it was provided or another directly related purpose, unless you agree otherwise, or where permitted or required by law.

We will only collect sensitive information with your consent or as otherwise permitted by the Australian Privacy Principles.

Why does Abel Services collect, hold and use personal information?

Abel Services is committed to providing quality customer service to internal and external clients and to operate its businesse/s within statutory requirements and comply with its legal obligations.

We collect, hold and use your personal information in order to operate our businesse/s efficiently as well as to provide and market our products and/or services for the benefit of our customers.

We collect, hold and use your personal information:

• to identify and communicate with you
• to enable us to provide requested goods and services
• to assess any request you make for the supply of goods and services on credit by establishing your financial position and credit status
• to assess your ability to repay a loan
• to collect payments
• to place insurance policies
• to process any job application submitted by you
• to manage and maintain credit accounts for the provision of goods and services on credit
• to help us to manage and enhance goods and services we provide to you
• to help us to manage and enhance goods and services we purchase from our suppliers
• notify and assess insurance claims, pay settlements and finalise claims, determine liability
• to develop and tell you about goods and services that we consider may be of interest, unless you advise us not to do so
• to protect you and us from fraud
• for security purposes
• for business support purposes including maintenance, backup and audit
• to comply with our statutory and legal obligations
• to produce marketing material and to allow us to provide advertising material to you regarding us, our clients and other business partners,
• to respond to any queries or complaints you may have.

When does Abel Services disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information to our related entities, to third parties where it is necessary to enable us to provide a product or service or to other third parties (such as your referees in connection with a job application you have submitted).

We may disclose your personal information to any such third parties for any of the purposes set out above.

We may disclose your personal information to:

• the members of Abel Services including any internal divisions of the individual members
• your nominated representatives
• credit reporting bodies and mercantile reporting agencies
• financial planners
• other credit providers or trade suppliers
• mercantile agents
• banks, mortgage insurers, lenders, valuers, real estate agents (referees), insurers, brokers, auditors, business consultants and IT service providers
• other companies or individuals who assist us in providing products and services to you
• professional service providers and advisors who perform functions on our behalf, such as lawyers
• medical providers including medical and rehabilitation practitioners for assessing insurance claims; and
• Government, regulatory authorities and other organisations as required or authorised by law (such as Centrelink or the Police).

To manage and provide cost effective services, we outsource various administrative functions to third parties that provide mailing services, invoice and statement printing services, graphic and design services, human resource and workplace health and saftey services, procurement and contract services, archiving functions, marketing services, and other services and functions as deemed necessary by management from time to time. We may also disclose your personal information to our website host or software application providers in certain limited circumstances, for example when our website experiences a technical problem or to ensure that it operates in an effective and secure manner.

Organisations providing professional services to us are required to keep those dealings and personal information provided by us as confidential unless required to disclose such information by statute or law.

In general we do not send your personal information to any overseas recipient. However, we, or one of our third party providers may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients including insurers, IT service providers, auditors and medical providers if:

• our related entities are overseas
• we outsource certain activities to an offshore entity, or
• transactions, services, or products have an overseas connection.

Some divisions of Abel Services disclose personal and sensitive information to persons located in Papua New Guinea for one or more of these reasons.

We do not otherwise disclose your personal information, unless the disclosure is:

• in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any agreement you enter into with us
• required or authorised by law, including without limitation the Australian Privacy Principles, or
• made with your consent.

Marketing

You consent to us using your personal information (other than sensitive information for sending you information, including promotional material, about us or our products and services, as well as the products and services of our related entities and third parties, now and in the future. You also consent to us sending you such information by means of mail, email, SMS and MMS messages. You can opt out of receiving direct marketing communications by using the opt out link or details provided in the direct marketing communication or you can contact us using the contact details specified in Enquiries if you do not want to receive marketing information from us.

We may use images from security cameras for marketing of our projects.

How does Abel Services manage personal information security?

We take reasonable steps to protect the security of your personal information by ensuring it is protected from misuse, loss, interference and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Our personnel are required to respect the confidentiality of your personal information and the privacy of individuals.We maintain strict standards and security procedures to prevent unauthorised access to the personal information whether it is in an electronic or paper format, and to ensure the correct use of this information. Personal information is stored in a central database that is password protected with access available only to authorised persons (such as Abel Services employees or our external database administrator) or otherwise your personal information is securely held within Abel Services offices and only available to authorised persons.

Where we no longer require your personal information we will take reasonable steps to de-identify or destroy all record of the information held.

You can access and update your personal information

You are generally entitled to access the personal information that we hold about you (in a manner you request, if this is reasonable and practicable) by contacting the Abel Services Privacy Officer. We will respond to any request you make within a reasonable period of time. If Abel Services cannot provide access to your information, it will provide you with the reasons why. Depending on the nature of the request, Abel Services may charge for providing access to this information, however such charge will not be excessive.

If the information Abel Services holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or not up to date you may request that Abel Services corrects the information by contacting the Abel Services Privacy Officer. We will respond to any request you make within a reasonable period of time. If you establish that the personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete and up to date, we will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date. If we do not agree that the information requires correction or there are no reasonable steps we can take to correct the information, we will provide reasons for denial of correction.It would assist us to ensure we properly understand your request, and allow us to respond more promptly, if requests are made in writing and include as much detail as possible.

How Abel Services deals with complaints?

If you feel that we have not respected your privacy or that we have conducted ourselves inconsistently with this Privacy Policy or otherwise breached the Australian Privacy Principles, please contact our Privacy Officer and advise us as soon as possible. We will investigate your queries and complaints within a reasonable time frame depending on the complexity of the complaint. It would assist us to respond to your complaint promptly if it is made in writing. Please detail information relevant to your complaint and to those parties involved in the alleged breach.

If you feel that we have not satisfactorily addressed your complaint, you may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in the manner specificed at www.oaic.gov.au.

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may from time to time, update this Privacy Policy including to take into account new laws, regulations and technology. All the personal information we hold will be governed by our most recent Privacy Policy located at abelservices.com.au. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be advised to you by updating this page on our website. We encourage you to check this page from time to time for any changes.

Enquiries

If you have any concerns or queries about our Privacy Policy, or if you would like more information about privacy-related issues please contact our Privacy Officer at:

• e. nicole@abelservices.com.au
• a. attn: Nicole Roy
• The Privacy Officer
  290 Byrnes Street, Mareeba, Queensland 4880
• p. 07 4092 2160
• m. 0417 758 302

This policy was last updated on 16 March 2020 by Modia Design & Development Pty Ltd. If you have any general comments on this policy, please feel free to contact our Privacy Officer.