Privacy Policy

1. Privacy and Security Policy
V.I.P. Australia Pty Ltd and its related companies (V.I.P.,we, our and us) are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.

V.I.P. is required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

This policy is intended to provide a general overview of our policies for the handling of your personal information. Other policies may apply instead of, or in addition to, this Privacy Policy in certain circumstances. Please note that in some circumstances, there are exemptions or exceptions under the privacy laws that may apply to V.I.P., including in relation to the handling of employment related personal information. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit the operation of those exemptions or exceptions to V.I.P. or to otherwise restrict us from collecting and handling personal information in a manner that would be otherwise permitted by law.

By using our website at www.viphomeservices.com.au and/or providing your personal information to us you consent to us handling your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. Collection of your personal information
We may collect your personal information in a variety of ways, such as in person, by telephone, by email and by other electronic means (such as social media or through our website).  
The kinds of personal information we collect and hold about you, and our use of that information, depends on our dealings with you. 

Generally this personal information may include (but is not limited to) your name, address, telephone number, email address and:

• if you are a customer or prospective customer of V.I.P. or of our network of franchisees, then this personal information may also include (but is not limited to) information about the service you require (including any information needed to arrange for the service to be provided to you), along with details of the other quotations, products and services that we and the other members of the V.I.P. network provide to you (such as our franchisees). We may also contact you after services are provided, to collect information about the services that were provided to you. In addition we may collect your bank account or credit card details from you if these details are required for payment of the service;
• if you are enquiring about becoming a V.I.P. franchisee (whether yourself, or through a corporate structure such as where you are a director or shareholder of a company that is applying to become a V.I.P. franchisee) then we will collect a range of personal information for the purpose of assessing your franchise application and if you are successful, we will continue to collect personal information for the purpose of managing our relationship with you. Such information may include information about your proposed structure, information about your financial position such as any assets/liabilities, information about your qualifications and work history, education, professional associations, residency status, criminal history (or other screening checks) and other information relevant to your application or operation of a V.I.P. franchise; 
• if you are applying for a position with V.I.P. then we will collect personal information about you required for the recruitment process (for example, your resume, qualifications, skills, work history and residency status, licences, screening checks such as police checks, health information, professional and trade association memberships and other information related to your engagement with us), and if you are successful, we will continue to collect personal information for the purpose of managing your engagement with us. In some cases we are required or authorised by law to collect personal information, including by the Fair Work Act, Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act, Taxation Administration Act and Work Health and Safety legislation; and
• if you are a supplier or contractor of V.I.P., or work with one of our suppliers or contractors, then we may collect personal information about your title, work contact details and other information related to your dealings with us such as any qualifications or expertise you have).

Where possible, we collect your personal information directly from you unless it is impracticable or unreasonable to do so. We may also collect personal information about you from third parties (for example, from our franchisees, our master franchisees, a credit reporting agency, your referees and from public records).

If you provide us with personal information about a third party, you represent, and we collect it on the basis that, you have that person’s consent for us to collect and handle their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Generally, if we are unable to collect the personal information we require we may not be able to provide you with the products and services you seek. If the information provided is incorrect or incomplete this may also prevent, limit or otherwise affect our ability to provide products or services to you.

3. Purposes for which personal information is collected, held, used and disclosed
We will use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, and for other related purposes that you would reasonably expect.

If you are a customer, then generally, these purposes include responding to your enquiries, providing you (or arranging for our franchisees to provide you) with products and services, processing payments, providing you with marketing information or special offers for our products and services, obtaining your feedback on your customer experience, conducting marketing and other promotional activities and for our general business operations (for example, maintenance of our business records, compliance with our legal and insurance obligations and statistical purposes).

If you are a franchisee or prospective franchisee, these purposes include responding to your enquiries, assessing your franchise application, managing your ongoing franchise relationship with V.I.P., connecting you with customers and for our other general business operations. 
If you are one of our service providers, these purposes include to manage our relationship with you, connect you with our franchisees or customers (if relevant) and for our other general business operations.

If you are an employee or prospective employee of V.I.P., these purposes will primarily be to manage your engagement with us (or in the case of prospective employees, to access your application) and may include such purposes as administering training, disciplinary matters, performance reviews, payroll, superannuation and tax matters as well as for our other general business operations. 

By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using your personal information for these purposes. You agree that we may send you such information by post or by electronic means (including e-mail and SMS). You can opt-out of marketing and promotional communications at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer via the details shown below.

We may exchange your personal information within the V.I.P. corporate group. We may also disclose your personal information to our master franchisees, franchisees, licensees, agents, service providers and contractors for the purposes set out above, and for the purposes of those parties providing services to us or performing business services or functions on our behalf (for example, our technology service providers, marketing service providers, mailing houses, payment processing providers etc).

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may however, from time to time, send you information on behalf of a third party that we think may be of interest to you. In such circumstances the third party will not be provided with your personal information by V.I.P.
If we are considering selling our business, or any part of our operations or assets then, we may disclose your personal information to a purchaser (or potential purchaser) in connection with that process or sale.

Apart from the above instances, we may also use and disclose your personal information with your consent and as otherwise required or permitted by law.

4. Sensitive Information
We will only collect 'sensitive information' with your consent. We will assume that you have consented to us collecting all information, which is provided to us by you for use in accordance with this Privacy Policy, including any 'sensitive information', unless you tell us otherwise.

5. Storage and security of your personal information
The transfer of data over the Internet is inherently insecure. We cannot guarantee the security, during transmission, of any personal information provided to us via our website at www.viphomeservices.com.au. Please bear this in mind when transmitting information by this means to us.

We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information when we no longer require it for any purpose for which it was collected. We may retain your personal information for as long as necessary to comply with any applicable law, for insurance and corporate governance purposes, for the prevention of fraud and to resolve disputes. Your personal information may also be retained in our IT system back-up records.

6. Access and correction of your personal information
You may lodge a request to correct personal information that we hold about you if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading. To do so please contact our Privacy Officer via the contact details shown below.

You may request that we provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you. Generally, we will provide you with access, except in limited circumstances where the APPs permit us to deny access. Any such requests must be made in writing and directed to our Privacy Officer via the details shown below. Under the APPs we are permitted to charge you a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information. Please note that no fee will be incurred for requesting access, and if your request for access is accepted we will inform you of the fee (if any) that will be payable for providing access if you proceed with your request.
You may ask us to inform you of the source of any personal information about you that we have collected from a third party. We will provide this at no cost, except in limited circumstances where the APPs or other law permit us to withhold this information.

7. Making a complaint
You may lodge a complaint with us if you believe we have handled your personal information other than in accordance with the APPs. To do so please contact our Privacy Officer via the contact details below. We will confirm receipt of your complaint and set out the time frame we require to investigate your complaint and provide you with a response. We will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible, which generally, will be within 14 days of receiving your complaint.

8. V.I.P. website
V.I.P. and our third party service providers may use cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies in connection with your use of our website at www.viphomeservices.com.au.   We may also collect click-stream data when you use the website.  This data which is logged by our server includes the date and time of your visit, the pages you accessed, your server's IP address, the type of browser and system you are using and the websites you come from and move to. This information is collected for statistical purposes to assist us to find out how our website is used and navigated and to improve our website.  The information from cookies, tracking technologies and click-stream data may be used for statistical purposes, to assist with your use of the website, to analyse usage of the website and may also be used to provide targeted advertising including on third party websites.

We may share the usage information within our corporate group and with our licensees and services providers (for example, ad agencies, analytics service providers) for similar purposes.
You may refuse to accept cookies, or remove cookies, by editing the privacy and security settings of your web browser. For browser add-ons, such as Adobe Flash cookies, you may be able to disable or delete similar data by changing the add-on’s settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer. 

Some features of the website may require cookies.  If you disable to delete cookies then depending on the particular cookie you reject, you may not be able to use such features of the website.

We may use certain Google Analytics Advertising Features, including Google Analytics Demographics.  You can adjust your cookie settings as set out above, or you can opt out by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add on (see https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en-GB)

The V.I.P. website may contain links to third party websites. V.I.P. is not responsible for the privacy, security or handling of your personal information via those websites. You should review the privacy policy and terms of use for those websites each time you visit.

9. Overseas disclosure of your personal information
Generally, we will not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients, except upon your request, or if we are authorised or required to do so by law.
We may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients who we engage for the purposes of data storage or processing. We will contractually obligate any such recipients to keep any data disclosed confidential.

10. Changes to our Privacy Policy
We may amend, modify or replace this Privacy Policy at any time. You should review our Privacy Policy each time you visit our website or provide us with personal information.

11. Contact us
If you would like further information about the way we manage your personal information, or if you have a privacy-related complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Privacy Officer
V.I.P. Australia Pty Ltd
P.O. Box 2079
HILTON SA 5033

Phone 08 8220 4500
Fax 08 8220 4588
privacy@viphomeservices.com

12. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
More information about your rights and our obligations in connection with your personal information are available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au.