Privacy Policy

Our organisation prides itself on excellence in every aspect of program content, delivery, environment and culture. Our policies and procedures capture our values and ensure the company’s mission and vision remain a vital focus for all.

These policies and procedures are updated when necessary to ensure they deliver on their responsibility, to create transparency and integrity in every aspect of our operations.

In accordance with clause 1.3 of Australian Privacy Principle 1 (Open and Transparent Management of Personal Information), in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act), this is the Actors Centre Australia’s Privacy Policy, effective as of 1 July 2018.

Actors Centre Australia delivers accredited courses under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF Accredited Course) and, provides other performing arts training.

As a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), Actors Centre Australia adheres to the privacy legislation as it collects data from students for the National VET Provider Collection and is therefore, obligated to have and promote a Privacy Policy.

The 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act cover the collection, use, disclosure and storage of personal information. They allow individuals to access their personal information and have it corrected if it is incorrect.

Actors Centre Australia is of the view that these principles are an appropriate foundation upon which to build a sound and equitable Privacy Policy.

Importantly, the objective of Australian Privacy Principle 1 is to “manage personal information in an open and transparent way.”

In this Privacy Policy, personal information and sensitive information (a sub-set of personal information), have the same meanings as defined in subsection 6(1) of the Privacy Act, namely:

personal information” means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

  1. whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
  2. whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

     

sensitive information” means

  1. information or an opinion about an individual’s:
    1. racial or ethnic origin; or
    2. political opinions; or
    3. membership of a political association; or
    4. religious beliefs or affiliations; or
    5. philosophical beliefs; or
    6. membership of a professional or trade association; or
    7. membership of a trade union; or
    8. sexual orientation or practices; or
    9. criminal record;
    10. that is also personal information; or
  2. health information about an individual; or
  3. genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information; or
  4. biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification; or
  5. biometric templates.”

     

Actors Centre Australia’s collection, holding, use and disclosure of personal information:

Actors Centre Australia holds several classes of personal information (some of which include sensitive information). Actors Centre Australia may collect information provided to it in correspondence, from student enrollment documentation, during student training and assessment, in engaging workers, on subscription applications, in response to surveys and questionnaires, and via its online and social media activities.

The information is held in, on or as:

  • Databases of student enrollment, training activities and assessment outcomes
  • Course application and audition records
  • Analysis and reports on surveys and questionnaires
  • Reports about Actors Centre Australia’s activities
  • Correspondence to Actors Centre Australia
  • Government and Regulator communications
  • Complaint files including records generated by this policy
  • Investigation records
  • Records of Actors Centre Australia’s Board of Directors
  • Records of Actors Centre Australia’s Industry Advisory Board
  • Financial records
  • Request for Tender and Contract information
  • Personnel and staffing files
  • Subscription databases and web forms

AVETMISS

Actors Centre Australia collects and holds information from applicants and enrolled students in its AQF Accredited Course as required by the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management of Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS).

This includes but is not limited to personal details relating to residential address, date of birth, ethnic origin, immigration status, languages spoken at home, level of education achieved. This is a requirement of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2011. Actors Centre Australia also collects and holds academic achievement results from learning activities.

Privacy and collection and supply of statistics:

The Australian and New South Wales Governments request from Actors Centre Australia certain encoded student information for statistical research purposes to be supplied to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). With the exception of the NCVER, no personal details identifying individuals is requested or will be divulged.

Information Security:

Actors Centre Australia takes active steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

  • Actors Centre Australia’s systems and internal network are protected from unauthorised access using appropriate technologies. Most system data transferred over the internet is protected by Secure Socket Level protocol (SSL). The inherent risks associated with data transmission over the internet are, however, commonly acknowledged.
  • Access to the Student Management System is protected through user log-on and password, and assignment of user access rights.
  • Third-party providers used by Actors Centre Australia for the delivery of services are required to be compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles and offer appropriate safeguards to protect personal information.
  • Actors Centre Australia’s premises and data storage systems are fully secured. Actors Centre Australia practices clean-desk policy and locking workstations when working with personal information. Paper documents containing personal and/or sensitive information are required to be locked away and shredded when destroyed. All hardware is properly ‘sanitised’ before disposal.

Privacy and Actors Centre Australia marketing:

Actors Centre Australia will from time-to-time send digital communications to students and past students for the purpose of marketing. Other persons who have registered interest in Actors Centre Australia training activities (potential students) may also be contacted. Students and potential students may at any time request that all such marketing cease. All requests will be promptly complied with. Actors Centre Australia will from time-to-time contact students and potential students by other means such as post and telephone for Actors Centre Australia related marketing activities. Students and potential students who request so will be removed from any marketing lists.

Actors Centre Australia does not disclose personal information to overseas recipients.

No sale of personal information:

Under no circumstances will Actors Centre Australia sell or receive payment for licensing or disclosing personal information provided to Actors Centre Australia.

Credit/Debit Card information:

Actors Centre Australia processes the collection of credit/debit card payments at the time of payment and does not retain the credit or debit card information of persons who may pay monies to Actors Centre Australia other than for the transaction concerned.

Third Party Service Providers:

Any third party service provider Actors Centre Australia may use or link to are governed by their own privacy policies under the provisions of the Privacy Act. Actors Centre Australia encourages persons using any such provided facility to access and consult these companies’ privacy policies which are the sole responsibility of that third party service provider.

Disclosure of personal information to overseas recipients:

At this point in time, Actors Centre Australia does not participate in any international projects, activities or research which requires the disclosure of personal information to overseas recipients.

Actors Centre Australia’s office servers which store digital information are located in Australia and are subject to the laws of Australia. However, cloud storage is also used and these IT servers may be located outside Australia and may be subject to differing privacy laws.

Information collected through Actors Centre Australia website:

Subscriptions and web forms

The personal information of subscribers to any of Actors Centre Australia’s regular electronic publications provided via the subscription service form will be used solely by Actors Centre Australia and not be disclosed to any third party.

There are security risks associated with transmission of information via the internet.  Actors Centre Australia has taken reasonable steps to safeguard against unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure of personal information held electronically.  Before deciding whether to use this facility users should make their own assessment of the potential risks to the security of their information.

Cookies and Clickstream Data

Actors Centre Australia uses ‘cookies’ for maintaining contact with a user through a website session. A cookie is a small file supplied by Actors Centre Australia and the web browser software on the user’s computer when accessing Actors Centre Australia website.  Cookies allow Actors Centre Australia to recognise a user as an individual as they move from one Actors Centre Australia web page to another.

All cookies will be immediately lost when a casual user (a non-logged in user) ends an internet session and shuts down their computer.  This information is only used to help casual users to navigate Actors Centre Australia’s website systems more efficiently, not to track the user’s movements through the internet, or to record private information about a casual user.

A logged in user (a user with various assigned privileges) is a class of user restricted to Actors Centre Australia staff members and students. The cookies for logged in users are retained by the site so that session data can be recalled the next time this class of user visits the site.

Any system on Actors Centre Australia website that records information about a casual user will specifically ask for permission first.

When a casual user visits Actors Centre Australia website, Actors Centre Australia makes a record of the visit and logs the following information for statistical or systems administration purposes:

  • server address
  • top level domain name
  • the date and time of access to the site
  • pages accessed and documents downloaded
  • the previous site visited
  • type of browser used

This information is analysed to show broken links in the website, bottlenecks and other site problems.  This information is used to maintain the site for everyone’s efficient use.

No attempt will be made to identify casual users or their browsing activities unless Actors Centre Australia is legally compelled to do so, such as in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider’s log files.

Searches

Search terms entered when using the site’s search engine are collected but are not associated with any other information that Actors Centre Australia collects.  These search terms are used to ascertain what people are looking for on the site and to improve the services that Actors Centre Australia provides.

Google Analytics

Actors Centre Australia uses Google Analytics to assist in fully understanding user experiences of its website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer. The information generated is used by Google Analytics to create reports about the use of websites. Google stores this information. Actors Centre Australia will not (nor will allow any third party to) use Google Analytics to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to its website. Actors Centre Australia will not associate any data gathered from its websites with any personal information from any source as part of its use of Google Analytics.

The Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on can be installed by website visitors who do not wish their visit data reported by Google Analytics. The Google Analytics opt-out page can be accessed at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Unsolicited Personal Information:

If Actors Centre Australia receives unsolicited personal information, it will be treated and managed according to the Australian Privacy Principles.

Gaining access to personal information held by Actors Centre Australia, and requesting the correction of any errors:

Persons who have provided personal information to Actors Centre Australia have the right to request access to any of their personal information held by Actors Centre Australia and to request corrections.

Request to access personal information:

The person concerned can contact Actors Centre Australia’s CEO via any of the methods provided below.

If, after reviewing their personal information, the person concerned considers that it contains errors or requires amendment, a request that these errors be corrected or amended can be made.

To do this the person concerned should contact Actors Centre Australia’s CEO, enclosing the relevant information and setting out the corrections or amendments sought, with appropriate supporting documentation. If there is any uncertainty about how to set out such a request or the supporting material required, the CEO will be able to assist.

Dealing with Actors Centre Australia anonymously or pseudonymously:

A person can ask Actors Centre Australia to deal with them anonymously or pseudonymously (not in the person’s real name) unless Actors Centre Australia expressly identifies that it is not practicable to deal with the person on that basis.

Making a privacy complaint if there is a belief that Actors Centre Australia has breached the Australian Privacy Principles:

If a person wishes to complain that Actors Centre Australia has breached one of the Australian Privacy Principles, contact with Actors Centre Australia’s CEO can be made via any of the methods provided below.

The privacy complaint should be in writing setting out as much detail as possible and include any supporting documentation.

A privacy complaint can be made anonymously or by using a pseudonym.  However, the person concerned should realise that if they wish to communicate with Actors Centre Australia in this way, Actors Centre Australia’s ability to fully investigate and deal with the complaint may be restricted.

How Actors Centre Australia will deal with a privacy complaint:

Actors Centre Australia will usually respond to a privacy complaint within 30 calendar days and provide the person making the complaint with its response in writing.

If Actors Centre Australia takes more than 30 days to respond to the privacy complaint (without prior agreement) or the person is not satisfied with Actors Centre Australia’s response, then the privacy complaint may be taken to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).  A complaint can be made to the OAIC using the online form available at this link:

https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=APC_PC&tmFormVersion=18.0

Accessing a printed copy of this Privacy Policy:

To be provided with a printed copy of this Privacy Policy, please contact Actors Centre Australia’s CEO via any of the methods provided below.

  • phone on 02 9310 4077
  • email to info@actorscentreaustralia.com.au with “Attn CEO: Privacy” in the subject line
  • writing to the following address: Chief Executive Officer, ACA Sydney Pty Limited, PO Box 361, Leichhardt NSW 2040, Australia