Privacy Policy

Privacy

Background

We’re Victoria’s business events company. This Policy sets out how we handle personal information.

About Melbourne Convention Bureau

Melbourne Convention Bureau Limited (ACN 072 324 933) (MCB) leads the acquisition and delivery of national and global business events for Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Our primary purpose is to build Melbourne and Victoria into Australia’s number one business events destination.

This Policy

This Policy applies to all personal information that we collect. This includes the information that we collect from:

people that use our services, both in-person and online, including those who sign up for our newsletters, participate in our surveys and competitions, and attend our events
people we work with, including employees, contractors and sub-contractors, partner and third-party provider representatives, business contacts, volunteers, and participants in MCB events.

We’ll update this Policy from time to time. You can always find the most up-to-date version on our website at www.melbournecb.com.au/privacy

You can request a printed copy of this Policy, free of charge, by contacting us at the details set out below (see ‘Contact us’).

Our legal obligations

We’re required to comply with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic). We may also be required in some cases to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

We’re also required to comply with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) when we collect and handle health information. References in this Policy to 'personal information' include 'health information' and 'sensitive information' as defined in those Acts.

2. What personal information do we collect?

We collect the information about you that we need for our work.

We may collect your personal information where you agree and when we reasonably need it to carry out our functions and activities, manage our business, or comply with the law; see ‘Why do we collect personal information’, below.

For example:

when you sign up for one of our newsletters, we may collect your name, organisation, general location (country, state or postcode), and email address
when you participate in one of our surveys or competitions, we may collect your name, organisation, contact details, general location (country, state or postcode), information about your nationality and language, information about your interests, preferences, or travel plans, information about our events (for example, which events you attend and how you participate in our events)
when your organisation partners with us, we may collect the name, job title and contact information of the organisation’s representatives
if you are one of our business contacts (including sales, partnership, media etc.), we may collect your name, job title, contact details, company name, and general location (country, state or postcode)
when you volunteer or participate in one of our events, we may collect your name, contact details, and health information required for workplace safety
when you apply to work with us, we will collect your name, personal contact details, work history and qualifications, and reference information
when you are employed by us, we will collect information that we need to manage our professional relationship, such as your name, personal contact details, work history and qualifications, information about your work and performance, payment information, and health information relevant to your work or required for workplace safety
when you ask us to process a payment, we will collect billing information.

What if you don't want to give us your personal information?

We give people the option of not identifying themselves or using a pseudonym, where it is lawful and practical.

However, in some cases, if you don't give us your personal information, we may not be able to give you the service you want or respond to your request. For example, you must identify yourself to subscribe to receive our newsletter, receive funding, register for an event, or enter one of our competitions.

Cookies and web analytics

When you visit our websites, we may use ‘cookies’ and similar processes to collect de-identified information and statistics such as your IP address, general location, and which pages you visit, and to help show you relevant content on our sites and other sites. We may use and share this de-identified information with advertising partners. You can read more on our Legal Notices page.

3. How do we collect personal information?

We may collect information about you when you agree.

We generally only collect personal information with your consent.

We may do this when you, for example, sign up for our newsletters, attend our industry trade shows, respond to our surveys, enter our competitions, attend our events, call or email us, interact with us on social media, request a bid proposal from us or provide your information to one of our partners.

We also collect personal information about:

our volunteers and job applicants when they apply to work with us, and
the representatives of our professional contacts, partners, contractors, and third-party providers during our working relationship with them.

4. Why do we collect, use and disclose personal information?

We collect, use and disclose your personal information to carry out our functions and activities, manage our business and comply with the law.

Purposes of collection

For example, we collect, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes:

providing news and information about MCB and hosting a business event in Victoria, including registering subscribers for newsletters and delivering newsletters
running or managing events, competitions or promotions, including providing invitations or offers, and managing user accounts and ticketing
managing business leads and clients
promoting and marketing MCB and Victoria, including through direct marketing and events
managing our staff, including advertising staff or volunteer roles, engaging employees, contractors or volunteers, and managing those relationships
managing our relationships with partners and third-party providers
conducting surveys, other research and statistical analysis to improve our services, and to provide (de-identified) statistics to the government departments that fund us and to our donors, sponsors and promotional partners
processing payments, and
managing individual questions, requests and complaints.

We collect your personal information where:

you have consented to give it to us, or
where it is in our legitimate interests – that is, where we need it to carry out our business, and our collection does not unreasonably impact your rights and freedoms.

We may also use or disclose your personal information for other purposes that are allowed or required by law.

Direct marketing

Where you’ve agreed to receive information about our events or services, we may use your personal information to send you marketing messages. This may include our contacting you in a variety of ways, including by mail, email, SMS or phone.

Where you’ve agreed to receive marketing from us, we will consider your consent to be valid until you opt out. You can opt out of receiving marketing messages at any time:

For emails and SMS messages, you can use the unsubscribe option included in the message.
For phone calls, you can tell the caller that you no longer wish to receive calls or other marketing messages
You can also contact us directly - see ‘Contact us’, below.

Retention

We only keep your personal information for as long as we need it to do our work. If we no longer need it, we’ll destroy or de-identify it.

Third parties

We sometimes partner with other organisations or hire other companies to help us do our work (‘third parties’). These third parties may collect your personal information on our behalf, and provide it to us. We may also share your personal information with these third parties. These third parties may include:

information technology and data storage providers;
partner or affiliated organisations;
research and statistical analysis providers;
third party program evaluators;
ticketing agencies; and
mail houses.

When we work with third parties, we take steps to ensure they handle your personal information safely and responsibly.

We may also report de-identified statistics to the government departments that fund us and to our sponsors and promotional partners for information purposes.

5. Transfer of personal information outside Victoria

We sometimes disclose or store personal information outside of Victoria. When we do this, we take steps to keep it safe.

In some cases, we may disclose personal information outside of Victoria or Australia – for example, to a partner or third-party provider. We also may store information on computer systems physically located outside of Victoria or Australia. These partners, providers or systems may be in the United States of America, or in other countries including countries in which we promote Victoria. When we do this, we take steps that your personal information is handled securely, and in a way that is consistent with Victorian and Australian privacy laws.

6. Personal rights

You can ask to access the personal information that we hold about you, update or correct it, ask for a copy of it, or exercise other personal rights. To do this, we may need to first confirm your identity.

What are your rights?

You have the right to:

access the personal information that we hold about you, and ask us to update or correct it if it is not right;
ask for a copy of the personal information that we hold about you – for example, photocopies, or copies of digital files;
ask us to stop using your personal information for certain purposes; and
ask us to destroy or delete your personal information.

There are some exceptions to these rights. For example:

we can’t give you access to personal information about other people, commercially sensitive information; or
we may not be able to destroy or delete the personal information we hold about you if we are required by law to keep it.

We’ll agree to your request if it’s reasonable and lawful for us to do so. If we don’t agree, or we only partially agree, we’ll:

write to you to explain our decision (except if it’s unreasonable to do so); and
give you information on your options, including how to make a complaint.

Is there a fee?

There is no fee to make a request. If you make an access request, we may charge a fee to cover the time we spend finding and putting together the personal information you want. If there is a fee, we will let you know how much it is likely to be, so you can choose if you want to go ahead.

How long will it take?

We’ll try to make your personal information available within 30 days after you ask us for it, but complicated requests may take more time.

Before we manage your request, we may need to confirm your identity. We do this to ensure that we keep the personal information that we hold secure.

How can you contact us?

See ‘Contact Us’, below.

7. Complaints

If you’re concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please let us know and we’ll try to fix it.

If you’re not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint, you can contact the Office of Victorian Information Commissioner or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

How can you make a privacy complaint?

If you’re concerned about your privacy or how we’ve handled your personal information, you can complain to us and we’ll try to fix it (see ‘Contact us’, below).

How do we manage privacy complaints?

We will:

keep a record of your complaint;
write to you within 7 calendar days to acknowledge your complaint;
investigate your complaint (including, for example, gathering the relevant facts, locating and reviewing relevant documents and speaking to relevant individuals); and
write to you with our final response, including our view on whether we have not complied with this policy or relevant privacy laws, and what we will do to fix the issue.

In most cases, we’ll give you a final response within 30 calendar days of receiving your complaint. If we can’t give you a response in this time, we’ll get in touch to tell you why and work out a new timeframe with you.

What else can you do?

If you are not satisfied with how we have managed your complaint, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Victoria Information Commissioner:

Phone: Toll free on 1300 666 444; International callers may call +61 3 8684 7565

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.ovic.vic.gov.au

Complaints form: https://ovic.vic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/make-a-complaint/

Or you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.oaic.gov.au

Complaints form: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints