Samantha Waldon – Commercial and Intellectual Property Law – Privacy Policy
Samantha Waldon (ABN 21 96 118 599) (we, us and our) operates an online website located at www.https://samanthawaldon.com.au (Website).
This Privacy Policy explains our approach to dealing with your Personal Information. We set out how we collect, hold, manage and use Personal Information, including when you visit or interact with our Website.
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time by posting a new version on our Website and it will be binding on you and us from the date it is posted on our Website.
This Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Information we hold.
“Personal Information” under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) is defined to mean information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
Your Consent
By using our Website and accessing our goods and services, you consent to us using any Personal Information that we collect for any of the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
Collection of Personal Information
Why do we collect Personal Information?
We collect and hold Personal Information that is reasonably necessary for the services we provide.
We are required to collect the full name and address of our clients by the Solicitors Rules made under the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW). Accurate name and address information must also be collected in order to comply with the trust account record keeping requirements in the Legal Profession Regulation 2005 (NSW) and to comply with our duty to the courts.
How do we collect Personal Information?
We will generally collect Personal information from you directly:
- You contact us with a question or inquiry;
- When you engage or instruct us to provide legal services for you;
- Through your use of our Website including when you visit, access or use other services provided on our Website.
We may also collect Personal Information through applications, email, written communication, telephone conversations and when with you give us information about you or other people (including employees, contractors and other persons).
What form of Personal Information do we collect?
We may collect and hold the following types of Personal Information:
- Your name;
- Your gender;
- Your phone number;
- Your email address;
- Your mailing address and physical address;
- Verification of identity information, such as passport or drivers licence details;
- Information from publicly available registers;
- Payment details;
- Information relating to your circumstances and affairs relevant to the matter/s in which we are instructed;
- Information about your legal interests and requirements and the legal services that you may wish to purchase
- Information provided by you when you use services available on our Website; and
- If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses.
Security of your Personal Information
We will endeavour to protect your Personal Information from unauthorised interference and we take reasonable steps to keep any personal information we hold about you secure.
We will store personal information as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, and as required by law or business governance.
How we use your Personal Information
We collect, use and disclose Personal Information for purposes associated with conducting our business activities, providing services you requested, marketing and promotional efforts and to improve our content and service offerings, including:
- Facilitating transactions between you and us;
- Providing legal services;
- Communicating with government intellectual property agencies and offices;
- Processing your payment for services;
- With other professional advisers where necessary for us to provide legal services, including engaging third parties to provide agency services for overseas intellectual property services;
- Monitoring the use of our Website;
- Improving the quality of our services;
- letting you know about legal developments, our expertise and legal services that may be of interest to you;
- Administrative purposes;
- Statistical analysis of the usage of our Website; and
- Complying with the law, including privacy legislation.
Occasionally, we may also use the Personal Information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Website and services we think you will find valuable. You may notify us at any time if you do not wish to receive these notices by emailing us at the link provided on notifications or by contacting us at sam@samanthawaldon.com.au.
Direct Marketing
If you have given us your express consent to provide you with direct marketing communications we may collect, hold, use and disclose Personal Information in accordance with that consent to enable us to provide you information about, and offer you, goods and services.
If you give us consent to provide you with direct marketing communications, you can later request not to receive direct marketing communications.
Disclosure
Personally identifiable information or business information will not be shared with third parties except as required by law or where you have given us your express consent to do so.
We may need to provide your Personal Information to third parties who we engage to assist us to provide goods and services to you, such as:
- Information technology service providers;
- Legal practice management software providers, including Wise Owl Legal;
- Accounting software providers, including QuickBooks Australia;
- Payment processors.
Where your Personal Information is disclosed to these third parties, they will only be authorised to use your Personal Information for the purpose that we supplied it to them. If those third parties are located overseas, then your Personal Information may be transferred overseas.
Cookies and Data Activity
We may use standard technology called ‘cookies’ and similar technologies on our Website. Cookies are small data files that are stored on your computer when you visit a particular website, which allow your web browser to remember certain information.
By using our Website, you agree to our use of cookies and our Website will issue cookies as soon as you visit our Website. You may disable cookies by turning them off in your browser, however some functions of our Website will not be available to you if you do this.
Sometimes information that you upload is provided with associated metadata. If you do not want us to use the metadata you must remove it before uploading it onto our Website and other applications and tools.
We may collect data that is associated with your visit, including the pages you visit, the activities you do and the purchases you make etc. We may collect, use and disclose and store this information in any of the ways set out in this Privacy Policy.
Links to other Applications and Websites
Our Website may contain links to other applications, websites and tools that are not owned, controlled or operated by us. We are not responsible for the practices employed by applications linked to or from our Website or the information or content contained on them.
Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Website to another application, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other application, including applications that have a link on our Website, is subject to that application’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.
Legal Disclosure of Personal Information
We reserve the right to disclose any Personal Information which identifies you as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us.
How to Opt-out or Access your Personal Information
If you:
- Want to find out what Personal Information we hold about you;
- Believe any of your Personal Information held by us is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or it is not necessary for us to continue to hold it;
- Want to request not to receive direct marketing communications; or
- Wish to make a complaint about a breach of the Privacy Act, Australian Privacy Principles or a privacy code that applies to us,
please contact us by emailing us at sam@samanthawaldon.com.au
If you are not happy with our response, you may complain directly to the Australian Privacy Commissioner.