Privacy Policy

The Institute of Actuaries of Australia (Institute) respects the privacy of all of our Members, event registrants and business contacts, and is committed to safeguarding the personal information that you provide us. The Institute is subject to the National Privacy Principles that are contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended from time to time).

The Institute uses personal information collected by it in order to fulfil its objectives under its Constitution. Our Privacy Policy outlines how the Institute will handle personal information about you and is divided into the following sections:

1. How is personal information collected?
2. What personal information does the Institute collect, and why?
3. Will personal information be provided to or accessible by anyone else?
4. Security of personal information.
5. Access and correction of personal information.
6. Online privacy issues.
7. Additional privacy information and how to contact the Institute.

1. How is personal information collected?

The Institute is the professional body representing actuaries in Australia and provides a range of services for its Members, including education courses, seminars, conferences, publications, and information that is distributed via mailings and the Institute website. Personal information is provided to the Institute via various means including:

• membership application forms and annual subscription forms;
• registration forms for attendance at events;
• data survey forms issued by the Institute to its Members;
• emails and postal correspondence for the purposes of updating personal information.

These information channels reflect the different ways in which the Institute collects personal information about Members and customers. The provision of such information is entirely the decision of the Member or customer.

2. What personal information does the Institute collect, and why?

If you apply to become a Member of the Institute, it is a requirement in the Constitution that you provide us with personal information about you including your name, date of birth, residential address and actuarial and other qualifications in detail. If you do not provide that information we may not accept your application for membership.

From time to time, we may need to collect further information about you such as your email address, telephone number and other business details. Unless you tell us otherwise, the Institute will use the personal information you give us to make contact with you and to mail information to you.

For the purposes of assessing educational standards, exemptions, examination results and professional designations, the Institute will need to access personal information about you from universities where you have undertaken appropriate studies or from other actuarial or professional bodies of which you are or have been a member. Unless you tell us otherwise, the Institute will use the personal information obtained from third parties for these educational and membership purposes.

If you register for an Institute event, either online or by mail, the Institute will collect personal information that you provide as part of that registration. Unless you advise us otherwise, this information may be shared with event sponsors or partners so that they may contact you directly. If you choose to pay by credit card for an Institute event, the Institute will collect your credit card information, however such information is used only for the purposes of processing your payment and is not retained. Similarly, if you enrol in a course or order a publication (either online or otherwise), and pay by credit card, the Institute will collect personal information you provide. Again, credit card details you supply will only be used for the purposes of processing your payment and will not be retained.

3. Will personal information be provided to or accessible by anyone else?

The Institute does not sell, rent or trade personal information about you to or with third parties. However, on occasions, the Institute uses the services of third parties including a mailing house to post information to Members and customers and for this purpose your personal information needs to be provided to those third parties. If the Institute provides your personal information to the third party we require the third party to agree to comply with our Privacy Policy and with strict conditions governing how personal information is to be handled.

Unless you tell us otherwise, the Institute will use the personal information you give us for occasional mailings. For those Members or customers who have not provided the Institute with an email address, information sent by email to other Members or customers will be posted to you instead, unless you tell us otherwise.

The Institute uses information technology service providers to provide technical support for its computing network, website and database. These companies have incidental access to the Institute database. For these particular companies the Institute has written confidentiality agreements that they will comply with our Privacy Policy and with the strict conditions governing how personal information is to be handled.

The Institute is associated with various international actuarial organisations. Individual Members of the Institute may subscribe to these organisations through the Institute. Fellows of the Institute automatically become members of one of these organisations, the International Actuarial Association (IAA). These memberships necessitate the transfer of personal information by the Institute to these organisations for administrative purposes. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will forward those details to these organisations as part of your membership application and annual subscription to these bodies.

4. Security of personal information

The Institute protects the personal information it collects in a database, in proprietary data format, which can only be read using proprietary tools. The Institute database is interfaced with the password protected Members’ section of the Institute website. However, it only accesses information selected according to the instructions you provide. Unless you tell us otherwise, the Institute will use the personal information you give us so that Members can access contact details for other Members via the password protected Members’ section of the website.

Institute staff are required, as a condition of their employment, to treat personal information held by the Institute as confidential, and to maintain the confidentiality of that personal information.

5. Access and correction of personal information

Under the Privacy Act you have a right to seek access to information that the Institute holds about you. You also have the right to ask us to correct information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

If you have access to the internet you check the information that the Institute holds about you at any time by simply logging onto the Members’ section of the Institute website. There is a facility available in that section for you to email the Institute with corrections to your personal information. It should be noted that internet communications may be intercepted and therefore the Institute cannot ensure the security of personal information sent through the internet.

The same access and correction rights are available if you do not have access to the internet. To provide you with access to personal information held about you, the Institute would usually provide you with a print-out of the relevant personal information from our database or, if relevant, with photocopies of information stored in paper files. If you wish to access the personal information that we hold about you, please set out your request in writing, including your phone number, and forward your request to our Membership Officer at Level 7, 4 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000.

In the interests of protecting the privacy of individuals about whom we hold personal information, we will require that you verify your identity by citing personal information we hold about you. Ordinarily, the Institute will not charge you for the cost of providing this type of access to these records. However, if we do propose to charge you, we will advise you of the relevant charges before we provide you with access. If you wish to discuss our method of providing access please contact our Membership Officer with your query.

If you wish to change personal information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact our Membership Officer, using the contact details below, with your request for correction. The Institute will generally consider any requests for access or correction within 21 days of receipt of the request.

6. Online privacy issues

When you deal with the Institute, whether online or otherwise, the Institute takes its privacy obligations seriously. To the extent that this Privacy Policy applies to online privacy issues, this section is to be read as forming part of the terms of use of the Institute’s website. Generally, the Institute will handle personal information collected online consistently with the way that it handles personal information collected offline.

The Institute website does not collect information via browsers, cookies or tracking programs. The only personal information it collects about you is what you manually provide to the Institute via the website.

There are numerous links from the Institute website to third party websites, for your convenience and information. When you access a non-Institute website, please understand that the Institute is not responsible for the contents or operation of that site, including its privacy practices. We suggest you review the terms and conditions and privacy policies of each site you visit.

7. Additional privacy information & how to contact the Institute

The Institute reserves the right to change its Privacy Policy at any time. The Institute will make available this policy to anyone who requests it, whether at our offices or by use of our website.

For further information about privacy issues and the protection of privacy visit the Australian Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website at www.privacy.gov.au

If you feel that the Institute is not complying with this Privacy Policy, or if you have other privacy concerns, please contact the Chief Executive Officer (using the following contact details):

• by email to actuaries@actuaries.asn.au
• by letter to Level 7, Challis House, 4 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
• by telephone on (+612) 9233 3466
• by facsimile on (+612) 9233 3446
• in person at our offices at Level 7, Challis House, 4 Martin Place, Sydney NSW.

As at June 2009