Watsons Lawyers has adopted the National Privacy Principles which are set out in the Privacy Act 1988 as amended by the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.
Although not strictly required to comply with the Privacy legislation because of its size, Watsons Lawyers recognises the importance of protecting personal information that it may be required to collect from individuals who become associated with its business.
Watsons Lawyers takes the obligations under the Privacy Act seriously and, as such, will take all reasonable steps in order to comply with the Act (as if it did apply to Watsons Lawyers) and protect the privacy of personal information that it holds.
COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION
Watsons Lawyers may need to collect personal information from individuals to enable it to provide legal advice and assistance.
Personal information (including sensitive information, as defined in the Act) that may be collected and held includes, but is not limited to, names of employees and proprietors of organisations, addresses, telephone numbers, facsimile numbers, email addresses, titles and professional associations.
The reasons for the collection of personal information include, but are not limited to:
| • | providing and marketing our services; |
| • | maintaining contacts with our clients, their other advisers, other people involved in their transactions and the advisers of those other people; |
| • | developing a knowledge base concerning our clients, their people and their businesses; and |
| • | taxation and other legal obligations. |
DISCLOSURE
Watsons Lawyers respects the confidentiality of the information you provide to us and, as such, any personal information that we collect will only be used for the purpose for which it has been provided. This information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, unless such disclosure is required by law. Additionally, no information will be sent overseas for any purpose whatsoever.
Watsons Lawyers may disclose personal information to service providers, agents, contractors and strategic partners from time to time to help provide and market our services to you. If we do this we generally require these parties to protect your information the same way we do.
COLLECTING YOUR INFORMATION USING THIS WEBSITE
When you visit this website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) makes a record of your visit. The following information is logged: your server address; the date and time of your visit to the website; the pages you access; the documents you download; the previous site you visited; and the types of browser you use. This information is obtained for statistical and website development purposes only and does not include any personal information.
Users should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the Internet.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Where possible, Watsons Lawyers will collect information directly from individuals and clients. However, Watsons Lawyers may collect personal information from other sources and in those instances it will endeavour to verify such details with the person concerned.
Watsons Lawyers acknowledges that there is no obligation for an individual to provide it with personal information. However, if an individual chooses not to provide Watsons Lawyers with personal details, it may not be able to provide the requested service.
SECURITY
Watsons Lawyers will take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal information that it holds from loss, misuse or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes appropriate measures to protect electronic materials and materials stored and generated in hard copy.
Where information held by Watsons Lawyers is no longer required to be held, and the retention is not required by law, then Watsons Lawyers will destroy such personal information by a secure means.
ACCESS AND CORRECTION
You have a right to access most personal information we hold about you. If the information is inaccurate, a request can be made to correct it. We may deny your request in some circumstances, such as where disclosure would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual, the information would reveal a commercially sensitive decision-making process or we are prevented by law from making disclosure, but if this is the case we will provide reasons for our refusal.
LINKS
This website contains links to a number of other websites that are provided only for your convenience and interest. We do not have any association with those sites and do not take any responsibility for their content. When you click on a link to another site, you leave the Watsons Lawyers site and are no longer protected by the Watsons Lawyers Privacy Policy.
FURTHER INFORMATION
If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this Privacy Policy please contact Stephanie Blair on (08) 8418 8580, write to 60 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide SA 5000, or send an email to steph.blair@watsonlaw.com.au