Privacy and Ethics
OriginsInfo has approached the Australian Privacy Commission (now the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) with a detailed outline of the Origins product and its potential applications. While it is not the role of the Privacy Commissioner to approve individual cases or otherwise, the advice from the Commission indicated that the analysis of names to assess their likely cultural origin is a legitimate activity and is unlikely to conflict with the spirit or purpose of Australia’s privacy regime.
Specifically, it was felt that the Origins Protocols (a set of rules designed to prevent inappropriate use and which all users must accept) demonstrated a commitment to promote activity that was not in conflict with the public interest. In fact, three users of the Origins product in Australia are government organisations – they do not consider privacy to be a barrier to their use of the product.
An OriginsInfo client’s obligations to its customers or employees are protected through a robust confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement between the client and OriginsInfo. OriginsInfo is committed to protecting any individual’s personal information and will only collect, use or disclose an individual’s personal information as permitted by the National Privacy Principles as outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as amended to extend to the private sector, effective December 2001.
In addition, OriginsInfo supports and is fully compliant with the Australian Direct Marketing Association’s Code of Practice. We also require contracted clients to agree to similar level of compliance.
Originsinfo supports and promotes the best examples of positive practice by those organisations seeking to increase opportunity and minimise social disadvantage. Origins is a tool to be used for legitimate targeting of individuals to better meet their needs and secure their rights.
Legitimately, different levels of government in Australia make frequent requests for collection of data in order to monitor the use and experience of services by ethnic minorities. Examples include monitoring the outcomes for school students belonging to different groups, and the monitoring of hospital diagnoses by ethnic group.
In addition to research and monitoring, government now expects public sector service providers to be proactive in targeting communications to particular ethnic groups. This practice of 'social marketing' is a feature of the health sector where, increasingly, ethnicity data is used as a basis for directing messages as well as treatments.
It is legitimate in the private sector to target information to members of those minority groups for whom the products are well suited. For example, targeting information about Asian foods to loyalty card holders of Asian origin; targeting information on Sharia-compliant savings products to Islamic bank customers; and, offering Greek Cypriot competition entrants a prize flight option to Paphos rather than Los Angeles.
These examples represent appropriate and legitimate examples of ethnic marketing.
Nevertheless, there are potential applications and processes which members of all communities would consider as inappropriate. These include ventures that contribute to further residential segregation, or campaigns designed to recruit individuals to organisations whose aim was to promote divisions between cultures.
It is also inappropriate, from a marketing viewpoint as well as an ethical viewpoint, to use names as a basis for selecting the language in which a communication is written. However, such insight would be appropriate if used as a basis for offering a wider variety of language and channel options.
Originsinfo incorporates a specific code of conduct relating to ethical use in the licensing contract which Origins clients are required to sign.
Privacy
Use of our site and engagement with OriginsInfo constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy. Please note that changes to this policy may occur from time to time and updated versions will appear on this website.
Four categories of information apply to the OriginsInfo business.
We collect personal information provided by you in the following ways:
1. We may use your IP address to help us understand visitor behaviour on this website - such as the time of the visit, the duration, and the pages visited. This information helps us to understand the parts of our site that are most popular, and to help us to increase the relevance of the information for future visitors. No personally identifiable information can be linked to your IP address.
2. If you choose to contact us, we will collect personal information so we can respond to you and engage in dialogue about your request and our products.
If you choose to purchase goods or services from us, we will collect such information as is necessary to process and complete the transaction, and to service and maintain our commercial relationship.
OriginsInfo may send you communications to let you know about new features or other offers of interest, or to assist in meeting service needs and requests. If you do not wish to receive such communications, you may opt out at any time by communicating your preference to us.
The core databases that underpin the Origins product have been developed from a wide range of international publicly available and privacy compliant sources. We have sought independent legal advice to confirm that the Origins product itself is not subject to Australian privacy legislation.
From time to time, OriginsInfo will request data from prospects or clients so we can demonstrate the benefits of our products and services, or as a necessary part of any project-based contract we may have with clients.
Any data supplied by clients to OriginsInfo is confidential and used in strict accordance with client instructions.
Any information supplied to OriginsInfo under the above four categories will not be provided to an unrelated third party in any circumstances, unless we are directed to do so by law, or to uphold the rights of OriginsInfo.
OriginsInfo has specific processes to ensure compliance with the National Privacy Principles:
Data Quality
We use industry-standard password security and encryption processes to protect personal information from unauthorised access, modification, disclosure, misuse and loss.
Access and Correction
You may request access to any of the personal information about you that we keep on record. If you believe that any of that information is incorrect, or no longer current, we welcome your request to correct it.
Trans-border Data Flows
It is our policy not to transfer sensitive or personal information to countries with a lower level of privacy protection, unless the recipient is legally bound to keep information in a manner consistent with the National Privacy Principles.
For further information regarding the National Privacy Principles, please consult the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner - www.privacy.gov.au or www.oaic.gov.au
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect and use is accurate, complete and current. When the information has no further use, we destroy the personal information.