Griffin Counselling & Supervision values the privacy of our website viewers and our clients and is committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988, The Australian Privacy Principles and the privacy principles of all applicable legislation. This Privacy Policy covers our website https://griffincounselling.com.au and all services associated with Griffin Counselling & Supervision. This policy sets out how we handle your personal and client information. In this document we refer to Griffin Counselling & Supervision as “we”, “our” or “Griffin Counselling & Supervision”.
Griffin Counselling & Supervision
5/1 Clifton Dr
Bacchus Marsh VIC 3340
1. Definitions
“Client”
refers to persons who have received services provided by Griffin Counselling
& Supervision.
“Client Records” means personal data, reports, services history,
communications, and information supplied by the client to Griffin Counselling
& Supervision and any information recorded by Griffin Counselling &
Supervision for the client.
“Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable
natural person; in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name,
location data, IP address, email and phone number.
“Public Area” means the area of our website that can be accessed both by users
and visitors, without needing to login.
“Restricted Area” means the area of our website that can be accessed only by
users who have login access.
“User” means an employee, agent or representative of a client, who primarily
uses restricted areas of our website.
“Visitor” means an individual who uses the public area of our website only and
does not access restricted areas or request our services.
2. Information we collect
We may collect personally identifiable information about our clients and users, such as your full name, phone number, email address, mailing address, geographic area, or similar, when you contact us or request our services. We may use the contact details you provide to get in touch with you to provide additional information about services we provide.
2.1. Client Records
As part of providing a counselling or supervision service, Griffin Counselling & Supervision will need to collect and record personal information from you. This information will be a necessary part of the counselling or supervision process. The information is retained in order to document what happens during sessions and enables Griffin Counselling & Supervision to provide a counselling or supervision service. Client records include but are not limited to; emails, phone calls, session notes and letters.
Whereby an individual choses not to provide the requested information, we will advise that individual of the consequences non-disclosure may have. For example, withholding certain information may limit our ability to provide relevant services.
Griffin Counselling & Supervision will take reasonable steps to ensure that client records are valid and that information in these records is kept up to date and complete.
If we collect sensitive information (as defined under the Act), we will treat it with the utmost security and confidentiality. We will ensure that it is not collected for any purposes other than those for which we have obtained the individuals consent, unless the law requires, or other exceptional circumstances prevail as described under the Act or as outlined in section 2.2 of this policy.
2.2 Disclosing Information
All personal information gathered by Griffin Counselling & Supervision during the provision of the service will remain strictly confidential and secure except where:
- It is subpoenaed by a court, or
- Failure to disclose the information would place you or another person at serious and imminent risk; or
- Your prior approval has been obtained to;
- provide a written report to another professional or agency. E.g. a GP or a lawyer; or
- discuss the material with another person, e.g. a parent or employer;
- or if disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law.
If you have any questions or concerns about your personal information, please contact griffincounselling@gmail.com.
2.3 Access to personal information
Individuals will be able to access personal information upon request. However, Griffin Counselling & Supervision may occasionally need to deny access to information in accordance with the exemptions contained in the Act.
2.4 Website Users
We may collect basic visitor and user data when you navigate our website, including IP address, browser and device type, geographic location, and information about previous visits. Further personal details may be collected from those who engage our services or contact us, such as when filling in a form on our website or contacting us using other channels of communication.
Tracking technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by Griffin Counselling, to analyse trends, administer the services provided on the website including user preferences, track user interaction, as well as for security purposes. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by such companies.
We use Google Analytics for tracking analytics and this may track your behaviour on our website. For more information see https://policies.google.com/privacy. We take measures to protect the technical information collected by our use of these tracking services, and the data is not used to identify visitors or users.
2.5 Social Media Widgets
Our websites may use social media features such as social sharing buttons and social widgets. These features may collect your browsing information including IP address and the page that you are visiting on our websites and set cookies to enable the feature to function correctly. Social media widgets are either hosted by a third-party or hosted directly on our websites; as such your interactions with these features is governed by the privacy policies of the third-party organisations that are providing the widget.
2.6 Embedded Content
Articles on the Griffin Counselling & Supervision website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
3. Access and retention of data
We retain client records including personal data for as long as needed to provide our services and to comply with our legal obligations. An individual who wishes to correct, amend or delete inaccurate personal data should email to griffincounselling@gmail.com.
4. How we use your information
We use the information we collect to operate and maintain our website and our services. Client records such as personal data is used to provide services.
Website visitor data is used to enhance our website by understanding how visitors are using our site in order to continually monitor traffic, performance and security.
4.1 Cookies
Cookies automatically collect information and this is used to personalise our service, provide customised content, for authentication, to monitor and to analyse site usage metrics. Users and visitors can control the use of cookies at individual browser level or by using cookie settings options. If you choose to reject cookies you may still use our site, however some features may be limited or not work as intended.
5. How we share your information
5.1 Personally identifiable information
Any personally identifiable information you make public on our sites through public profile pages, including social media, or posting comments on our blog will be available to others. If you remove information that you have made public, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of our website, backups, or if other users have copied or saved that information.
5.2 Non-personally identifiable information
We may provide certain automatically collected, non-personally identifiable information to third parties for various purposes including compliance with reporting obligations and for business and marketing purposes. We take reasonable measures to maintain secure transfer and storage of information, however electronic communications and databases are subject to errors, tampering and unauthorised access.
5.3 Testimonials
We may display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our site in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may also post your name alongside your testimonial. In the instance that your name appears on our site, we will receive written consent from you prior to uploading this publicly. If you wish to delete your testimonial please contact us at griffincounselling@gmail.com
6. How we protect your information
Griffin Counselling & Supervision takes the protection of privacy and data of users on our website extremely seriously, however due to the nature of the internet, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Griffin Counselling & Supervision online, or guarantee that your information stored on Griffin Counselling & Supervision website and third party services may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of any of our industry safeguards. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. When you enter sensitive information on our forms we use secure socket technology (SSL), however no method of electronic transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure. When we store your information on third party services we use password protection, to further protect access to your information. If you have any questions about our security please contact us.
7. Changes
Griffin Counselling & Supervision reserves the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately. If you have any questions about the content of this privacy policy, please contact Griffin Counselling & Supervision at griffincounselling@gmail.com.
Last updated: 1st March 2019.