Privacy Policy

Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Incorporated Privacy Policy

We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth). We are required to comply with this law to the extent that it is not inconsistent with our law enforcement functions under the Companion Animals Act 1998 and regulations made under that Act (see specific statement in this respect below). We respect your right to privacy and have outlined our commitment to protecting your personal details and privacy below.

1. About us
We are an animal rescue charity that works with the people of Newcastle, Central Coast, The Hunter areas and beyond to rescue, rehome and rehabilitate animals in need. We offer community services and conduct programs to assist pet owners whose personal circumstances limit their ability to properly care for their pets. As we receive no funding from the government, we rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters to maintain our vital community services.

2. Protection of your privacy and personal information
This Privacy Policy sets out how we deal with your personal information. We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We are required to comply with applicable Australian privacy laws to the extent that such laws do not conflict with our law enforcement functions under the Companion Animals Act 1998 and the regulations made under that legislation. We respect your right to privacy and have outlined our commitment to protecting your personal details and privacy below.

3. What personal information does Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc collect?
‘Personal Information’ is information about an identifiable individual, and may include information such as the individual’s name, email address, telephone number, residential address, postal address, occupation, extracurricular commitments. The personal information we collect is that which is necessary to ensure Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc is doing its due diligence for the benefit of each animal within its legal and moral care.

The nature of personal information that we collect and maintain includes information pertaining to:

volunteer contact details
member contact details
customer contact details
legal records
records of purchases
donations

Personal information held by us may include your name, date of birth, current and previous addresses, telephone or mobile phone number, email address, occupation, driver licence number, photos of your premises (in the event of an adoption, we require photos of your home residence to ensure an adequate and safe environment for the animal/s) as well as certain details about your personal interests.

We also want to present information that is tailored to your needs. For this reason, we may ask you to provide personal information when filling out official paperwork (such as adoption information) or an online form. We will use this information to try to ensure that the animal up for adoption or fostering is appropriate to your home environment and suitable to your current and future needs.

4. How Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc collects personal information
Generally, we collect personal information directly from you, for example when you deal directly with us in person, over the telephone, by completing Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc. standard forms, social media or email.

We sometimes collect personal information from a third party or from a publicly available source, but only if:

We require written approval from a landlord or housing agent to allow for animal/s to be living in the rental property.

We use personal information you provide us for the purpose for which it was provided to us, other related purposes or as permitted or required by law. Such purposes include:

processing donations, memberships and animal pledges
issuing receipts
adoption and veterinary hospital paperwork and forms
responding to your comments or questions
providing follow-up information about community programs offered by Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc.
requesting financial or animal welfare support
providing clinic, hospital, consult room follow ups, including post-adoption surveys and calls, and scheduled health check reminders
improving our websites, for example by conducting research groups
any other purposes identified at the time of collecting your information

If we also obtain your sensitive information (within the meaning of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)), we will only use this information for the purposes listed above, or other directly related purposes or purposes to which you otherwise consent.

Also, your personal information is collected so that we can contact you regarding services, products, or animals within or whom have left our legal care, including by way of websites, social media, email, SMS and MMS messages.

5. Disclosing and sharing of personal data
Your informed consent is important to us. As such, we will endeavour not to use or disclose your personal information in any way that is contrary to your expectations. However, you should be aware that if you do not consent to certain uses and disclosures of your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with our services, products, adopt of foster an animal in our legal care to you.
We will make reasonable endeavours to prevent the disclosure of your personal information except to the extent:

indicated at the time you supply information to us
expressly permitted under any agreement with you
required for us to provide you with the goods and services requested from us
required under compulsion of law or provided in cooperation with any government authority
where it is already publicly available
required by us to comply with our constitution

Your personal information may be disclosed on a confidential basis to organisations/agencies within and/or outside Australia including, but not limited to:

in the course of normal business practice, including our solicitors, accountants, recruiting consultants, collection agencies, product manufacturers, printers and other suppliers
the NSW Police and/or other authorised bodies and persons under the Companion Animals Act 1998
municipal councils
microchip animal registries
The Office of Local Government

Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc undertakes not to sell, rent or trade your personal information to any individual or entity

6. Data security
We take commercially reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, interference and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

However, data protection and security measures are never completely secure (particularly for information sent online) and, despite the measures we have put in place, we cannot guarantee the security of your information. You must take care to ensure you protect your personal information and you should notify us as soon as possible after you become aware of any security breaches.

7. Cookies
When you visit our websites, we will collect and store your computer’s assigned IP address, the date and time of your visit, the information accessed and the referring page. We will also collect other non-identifying data for statistical purposes. This information is not linked to your personal information unless required by law.

Like many websites, our websites may use cookies from time to time. Cookies are small text files that a website transfers to your computer through your web browser to enable the website’s systems to recognise your computer. 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. Cookies help us monitor how visitors are using our websites and allow us to improve our sites and to deliver a more personalised web experience. Some of the cookies we use are essential for the sites to operate, whereas others are aimed at enhancing and personalising your user experience. Any such information obtained through the use of cookies will be aggregated and not linked to particular individuals unless required by law. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. Please note that some parts of our websites may not function fully for users who disallow cookies.

8. Email monitoring
If you send us an email, the message content may be monitored by our Internet Service Provider or Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc Volunteer Staff. If email abuse is suspected, or for troubleshooting and maintenance purposes. Email is an unsecure communication medium; it should not be used for confidential correspondence.

9. Third party links
Our websites contain hypertext links to other third party websites. Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc is not responsible for the content of such websites or their privacy practices, which will be governed by the privacy policy of third parties.

10. Third party websites
Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc uses the help of third party websites that allow us to advertise the animals in our legal care up on their platforms for adoption or fostering. Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc can ask for private information through these websites in conjunction with those set out in point 3. Helping Hearts Animal Rescue Inc is not responsible for the content of such websites or their privacy practices, which will be governed by the privacy policy of third parties.