St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (“SVI”) recognises the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information. We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and other relevant state laws in relation to the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information.

St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI) complies with the laws governing privacy in Australia and recognises the importance of protecting the privacy and the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information.

This Privacy Policy summarises how SVI collects, handles, and safeguards your personal information. It also outlines how you can seek to access and correct your personal information and make a privacy complaint.

Information we collect and how we use and disclose it

SVI collects personal information by lawful and fair means, and not in an unreasonable or intrusive way.  We only collect personal information which is necessary to conduct our business activities.

Donors and Supporters

1. What information do we collect about you and how?

We may collect personal information from you when you provide your information to us in person, in writing, via email, over the phone, or when you interact with us online via our website or social media channels.The information we collect about you may include your name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and gender. If you donate to us or purchase services from us, we will collect your donation history and payment information, as well as your preferences for receiving further information about our activities. We may also take photographs of you at SVI fundraising or other events.

SVI may also receive your personal information from other charities and third parties that have provided us with lists to identify prospective donors.

2. Why do we need your personal information?

We collect, hold and use your personal information to enable us to:

  • process your donation and issue receipts
  • respond to your queries, feedback and complaints
  • inform you of events, products and services we believe may be of interest to you
  • inform you about our research and fundraising activities
  • enable you to participate in research activities or clinical trials

If you choose not to provide certain personal information, we may not be able to perform these services.

At any time, you may opt-out of receiving communications from us by contacting us (see details below) or by using the opt-out facilities provided in the communications you receive, and we will ensure you are removed from our mailing lists.

3. To whom do we disclose your personal information?

If you donate, SVI may publicly acknowledge you as a donor by publishing your name in SVI promotional material, or acknowledging your contribution at public forums, in accordance with your preferences notified to us. Individuals wishing to remain anonymous should advise SVI of this in writing.

SVI may disclose personal information to third parties for the purpose for which the information was collected or for purposes related to the operation of our business and activities, or with your consent (for example, disclosure to service providers for the purposes of operation of our website, donor database management, IT system administrators, mailing houses, couriers, and payment processors).

If we disclose personal information to an overseas person or organisation, we will comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), as amended from time to time, that relate to overseas disclosures of personal information.

Prospective employees

Our Privacy Policy applies to prospective employees but does not apply to our acts and practices directly related to a current or former employment relationship between us and an employee, or to an employee record held by us relating to an employee.

  1. What information do we collect about you and how?

The kinds of personal information we collect about you include your name, date of birth, contact details, gender, information about your employment history, tax file number, bank account details, referee information, and information you provide in a CV or interview.

We collect this personal information directly from you when you provide your information to us in writing, via email, via the telephone or on our website when applying, enquiring, or registering for employment opportunities with us. We also collect information from your nominated referees.

  1. Why do we need your personal information?

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information to assess your suitability for employment with us and to comply with our legal obligations.

  1. To whom do we disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information to third parties who assist us in our recruitment processes, and to anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

We will not use or disclose your personal information except in accordance with this Privacy Policy unless you have consented to the use or disclosure; or where disclosure is necessary to prevent injury to life or health or to investigate any suspected unlawful activity; or where the use or disclosure is required or authorised by law.

We do not currently disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.

Participants in clinical trials or clinical research studies

If you participate in our clinical trials or clinical research studies, we will collect and/or use your personal and health information if you have provided us with written consent to do so.

  1. What information do we collect about you and how?

The kind of personal and health information we may collect about you include your name, date of birth, contact details, gender, ethnicity, race, medical history, hospital medical record number, and results including (where clinically relevant) a family medical history, pathology results, and current medications or treatments used by you.

We may collect this personal and health information directly from you in writing or in person, or from your doctor, or from your Hospital records where you have given permission.

Your information will be held in a dedicated database that will be password protected and only accessible to authorized SVI staff. These staff will keep this information secure and confidential to protect your privacy. Your information will be stored in a coded or re-identifiable format, meaning that your personal information, such as your name and hospital medical record number are removed from your data and replaced with a unique code known only to authorised staff.

  1. Why do we need your personal information?

This information is used to record your involvement in our clinical trials and clinical research studies, to process the results of these trials and research studies, and to contact you regarding participation in future trials and studies.

  1. To whom do we disclose your personal information?

We may release your data to researchers who have relevant ethics approval for their work but this will always be provided in a coded format to ensure your identity is not disclosed. Providing researchers with coded data in this way means your privacy and confidentiality will be fully protected in any publications produced by these researchers.

Storage and security of personal and health information

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal and health information is stored securely and confidentially, and protected from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes locked storage for paper-based information and network security over electronic data that includes firewalls and password controls.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that when the personal and health information is no longer needed, it is destroyed or permanently rendered anonymous.

Unsolicited information (information about you that was not sought or provided by you) that could not possibly have been sought directly from you, will not be retained.

How to access, correct or delete your personal information

You may at any time request access to, or correction of, or deletion of the personal information we hold about you by contacting the Privacy Officer using the contact details below. We will seek to respond to your request as soon as practicable.

Complaints about a breach of your privacy

If you believe that your privacy has been breached by SVI, please contact our Privacy Officer below and provide written details of the incident so that we can investigate it. If personal information that SVI holds is subject to unauthorised access or disclosure, or is lost, SVI’s Data Breach Response Plan will be enacted. We will contact you within a reasonable period of time to advise you of the outcome of your complaint.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction a complaint can also be lodged with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, would like to request access to your personal information, or to update it, or you wish to make a complaint regarding a breach of your privacy, please contact:

Privacy Officer
Ph: +61 3 9231 2480
E: [email protected]
St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research
9 Princes St,  Fitzroy  3065

We will treat your enquiry or complaint confidentially, and we will aim to ensure that any complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner.

Cookies and use of our SVI website

A cookie is a small file that a website sends your computer. It records information necessary for certain website functions, such as remembering your preferences or settings. SVI may use cookies for statistical and website development purposes. For example, we use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns.

We make limited use of cookies on our website. We only use cookies to improve functionality of our website and services, not to store any of your personal information. If you do not want to accept cookies, you can set your browser and/or firewall to block them. You will still be able to access most SVI content, but some interactive functions will be unavailable.

Our website may contain links to other websites. This Privacy Policy has no application to these other websites. SVI is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other website and has no knowledge of whether cookies or other tracking devices are used on those sites.

This policy was last updated in August, 2018.