Privacy Policy

1. Introduction and Application

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), ABN 92 003 108 030, is the peak body for the community broadcasting sector in Australia. References to "the CBAA", "we", "us" and "our" in this Privacy Policy are references to the CBAA, and our associated entities, agents, staff, subcontractors, or third-party service providers we engage from time to time in the provision of our business and services.

This Privacy Policy discloses our privacy practices and it applies to personal information collected and held by the CBAA.

In our collection, storage, use and dissemination of personal information, we are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and any relevant APP codes registered under the Privacy Act.

“Personal information” generally includes information or an opinion relating to an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.

2. Consent 

By using this Website, or any other CBAA service, application and/or site that references this Privacy Policy, or by otherwise providing to us directly, or through others, your personal information, you agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Privacy Act and other applicable privacy laws.

We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time at our discretion. You can always locate the current version via our website or by contacting us.

3. Reasons we collect and use personal information

We collect and use your personal information for the purposes of providing our services to you and our broader sector, to meet our legal obligations, for human resources purposes, and for the purpose of marketing our services to you. (See ‘Direct Marketing’ below for more information on this). We may also use your personal information for purposes closely related to our primary purposes, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure.

The kind of personal information we may gather and hold, depends on the nature of the interaction or activity taking place, including via:

  • the course of membership with us, or enquiries or application for membership, • activities as, or with, a community broadcasting licensee,
  • engagement with us as we keep abreast of our member’s and sector’s needs, and provide our services to our members and sector,
  • participation in any kind of electronic or face-to-face meeting or event with us,
  • employment with us, or application for employment with us,
  • contracting with us in exchange for services with us, or offering to do so,
  • our working relationship with the Government agency responsible for regulating the community broadcasting sector, the Australian Communications Media Authority, in this co-regulatory scheme,
  • other related activities.

This means we may collect personal information you provide to us via conversations that take place in person, over the telephone, or in writing, and via all electronic and digital means, including our website/s, cookies, online surveys and forms, webinars, streamed events, social media accounts, and those of our partners and agents.

3.1 Personal information that is also sensitive

We will not ask for personal information revealing your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sexual orientation or practices, health information, or disability, unless:

  • you consent to providing that information to us; and the information is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities; or
  • you work (paid or unpaid) for an organisation that is a member of the CBAA and the information relates solely to you, and you have regular contact with us in connection with our activities, or
  • the collection of that information is specifically authorised or required under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order; or
  • the collection is necessary to lessen a serious or imminent threat to your health or safety or the health or safety of another person; or
  • the collection of the information is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim.

We are committed to not using or disclosing personal information that is sensitive information about you, for the purpose of direct marketing, unless you have provided your consent for us to do so.

Where we collect personal information that is also sensitive information to undertake our functions or activities, (including the activities we undertake to understand the demographic composition and needs of our sector), we are committed to deidentifying that information as far as possible.

If you attend our offices or an event we are hosting face-to-face, we may ask you to declare that you are free of symptoms of a contagious illness that is the subject of a Public Health Order in effect at the time (such as COVID-19 or other declared illness), and free from any quarantine order issued in connection with such a Public Health Order, as a condition of entry.

We also may ask you to provide us with your personal details in connection with registration of your attendance under Public Health Order.

3.2 What happens if you do not wish to provide your personal information?

You may engage with us without identifying yourself or by using a pseudonym, and we will do our best to accommodate such requests unless it is impractical. However, if you do not provide us with accurate or complete information when we request it, we may not be able to provide you with a proper level of service.

There will also be times when it will be necessary for us to collect certain personal information from you, especially where required by law. We will inform you if such circumstances apply.

We can provide you with information about our legal requirements if you ask us to, or you can refer to the Office of the Information Commissioner (see their contact details below).

3.3 Accuracy of information

We are committed to taking reasonable steps to ensure your personal information we hold is accurate. If you believe it is not accurate, please contact us (our contact details appear below).

4. Storage, security, and access to information 

We generally store your personal information via digital/electronic means (including hard drives, servers and cloud storage). Our computer and storage systems are generally password protected, and permission to access your personal information in our systems is limited to our employees and those of our agents and third parties (see “us” in the Introduction above). Where any information is kept in hard copy, it is stored under lock and key.

We are committed to taking steps that are reasonable in the circumstances, to protect your information from loss or unauthorised access, interference, modification, disclosure, or misuse. Despite this, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk.

4.1 Granting of permission for others to view your information  

We will generally only grant permission for others to access your personal information where we believe to do so is necessary to carry on our business and fulfil our responsibilities, or when otherwise required to do so by law (including to the Government agency responsible for regulating the community broadcasting sector), or a court/tribunal order.

Otherwise, we will only disclose your personal information to others if:

  • that disclosure is required to give effect to the purposes for which we collected the information, or
  • we have your consent to that disclosure, or
  • we believe that the disclosure may lessen a risk of harm to your health or safety, or to the health or safety of another person, or
  • the disclosure is required for the enforcement of a criminal law or a law imposing a pecuniary penalty or for the protection of public revenue.
4.2 International transfers

If we transfer your personal information overseas, we will first obtain your written consent before doing so. If it is not practical to obtain your consent, then the information may still be transferred if, as part of the agreement for the transfer of that information, the other organisation agrees to comply with our privacy obligations to you.

5. Direct Marketing

When you provide your personal information to us, you expressly consent to our use or disclosure of your personal information (other than sensitive information) for the purpose of direct marketing (either to market ours or someone else’s products), but only where you would reasonably expect us to do so for that purpose, i.e. given the transaction or communication you have had with us.

In situations where you would not reasonably expect us to use or disclose personal information (other than sensitive information) about you for the purpose of direct marketing, but there is no practical way for us to obtain your consent, we may still directly market to you, provided:

  • we collected your information from you; and
  • you have not previously asked us to remove you from our mailing list.

In each direct marketing publication we send you, we will prominently let you know that you can be removed from our mailing list, and how to make that request.

If you do not wish to receive direct marketing communications from us, simply click ‘unsubscribe’ on the email that you received or contact us, and we will remove you from our mailing list. Our contact details appear at the end of this Privacy Policy.

If you are a Primary Contact for a member organisation, you cannot opt out of emails that directly relate to your membership with the CBAA.

6. How you may access your personal information

You may access a copy of the personal information we hold about you, by contacting us. We will use our best efforts to take less than 30 days to respond to your request. We may charge you a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information.

6.1 Withholding your information

We may withhold access to your personal information in certain circumstances, including where: 

  • providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of a person;
  • providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
  • the information is subject to confidentiality where the person who provided the information to us did so expressly on the condition that it remains confidential;
  • the request is vexatious or frivolous;
  • the information relates to legal proceedings between us and the information would not be required to be discovered to a court;
  • we are in commercial negotiations with you and the information would reveal our intentions;
  • providing access would be unlawful or we are required by a law to withhold access; or
  • providing access could prejudice the investigation or detection by us or by a Government or law enforcement agency into suspected unlawful activity or misconduct.

If we do withhold access to your personal information we may instead choose to give you a summary of that information, and we will provide you with written reasons, and consider whether the provision of access to an independent third party will meet both of our needs.

7. Contact us- queries and complaints 

If you have any queries, comments or complaints with respect to our Privacy Policy, please contact the CBAA as follows:

Enquiries –

May be made by phone

(or in writing)  

02 9310 2999

For hearing or speech assistance, contact us through the National Relay Service then ask for 02 9310 2999. For languages other than English, call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 then ask for 02 9310 2999.

Complaints –

Please submit in writing if you can, by:

Completing this online enquiry form,

or

Post, via:

CEO  
CBAA
PO Box 564, 
Alexandria NSW 1435

8. Complaints 

You may also contact or make a complaint about privacy to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as follows:

Enquiries –

May be made by phone

1300 363 992

For hearing or speech assistance, contact them through the National Relay Service then ask for 1300 363 992. For languages other than English, call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 then ask for 1300 363 992.

Complaints –

Must be made in writing, and addressed to: 

The Director of Compliance,  
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 
GPO Box 5218, 
Sydney NSW 2001

or

complete a complaint form via their website