Privacy and Client Records

At Relationships Australia South Australia (RASA) we care about your privacy and want to make sure you understand how we handle your personal information. RASA operates under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) and we collect, use, store, and share your personal information in compliance with the Act.

Your Personal Information

Personal information means information about you that can identify who you are. When you join our programs or participate in our activities, we may collect some personal information about you. Here are the types of information we may collect:

  • Your name
  • Your age or date of birth
  • Your contact information (like your address, email, or phone number)
  • Information about your health or medical needs (if necessary for your service)
  • Photos or videos of you (with your permission)
  • Any other information we need as part of working with you

How We Use Your Personal Information

We only use your personal information for things that help us provide our services to you. Here’s what we use it for:

  • To run our programs and activities for you
  • To let you know about upcoming events or activities
  • To keep you safe and healthy while you’re with us
  • To make our programs even better by learning from your feedback
  • To follow the law and do what we’re supposed to do

Keeping Your Information Safe

Your privacy is important to us, and we want to keep your information safe. We have special security measures in place to protect it. We also make sure that only authorized people can access your personal information. We keep your information for as long as we need it, and when we no longer need it, we make sure to get rid of it safely.

Information Collection and Retention

When you engage with us, we collect and retain your information in line with our record retention policies. We’re careful with different types of information and keep only what we truly need, for the right reasons and the right amount of time.

Mandatory Information:

Mandatory information is a type of information we collect because it’s really necessary. We need it in order to provide the best service to you, and to follow the rules set by contracts and laws. This kind of information includes things like names, birthdates, addresses, and contact information of RASA clients. We also keep information about important people related to the situation, like family members. Additionally, we note down details about why someone needs help and how things are going.

We make sure to keep this important data for as long as we’re supposed to, according to the laws we follow. RASA operates in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Essential Information:

In addition to the really important Mandatory information, there’s also another kind of information that’s really useful for our work. This information helps us run things smoothly and be safe. Some examples are working with children checks, serious matters records, and DOORs records.

Sometimes, we make this information anonymous, meaning we take out the personal details so nobody knows who it belongs to. And we keep it for a certain amount of time, depending on the work we do.

Discretionary Information:

Discretionary information is extra information we collect, but don’t keep forever. While we’re working with you, we might record extra information that’s not essential. This could be notes we take, draft versions of documents or records, and personal things like photos or financial information that we don’t really need to keep.

Once we’re finished working with you, we don’t hold onto this extra information anymore. We let it go because we believe in keeping only what’s important and helpful. This helps us use our resources wisely and keep everyone’s personal information safe.

Sharing Your Information

Sometimes, we may need to share your personal information with others. But don’t worry, we only share it for good reasons. Here’s who we might share it with:

  • Our staff and volunteers who help us run our programs
  • Other companies or people who provide services to us (but only if they agree to keep your information safe)
  • When we have to by law or to keep you and others safe

Your Rights

You have rights when it comes to your personal information. If you want to see or change the information we have about you, just let us know. We’ll do our best to help you. If you have any concerns or questions about how we handle your information, you can talk to us, and we’ll listen.

Privacy and the RASA Website

This is a summary of how we handle and protect your personal information gathered while you are using our website (including responding to your inquiries via our contact forms).

Contact Us

If you have any questions or would like to access your information, you can contact our Client Records Officer at inforequests@rasa.org.au.

For more information about how we collect, use and store your personal information, please refer to our Privacy and Confidentiality booklet.

Click here to view the easy-read version

Request to Amend or Correct Records

If you find that your records held by RASA are incorrect, incomplete, or outdated, you can request to have your information updated. To make a request you can complete a Request to Amend Record Form and submit it following the instructions on the form.

Complaints

If you are concerned about the management of your personal information, you have the right to submit a formal complaint. We take all complaints seriously and regard mistakes as an opportunity to learn and thereby improve our services and service systems. See the Client Complaints page for more information.