Your Privacy at Billy Blue
Protecting your privacy at Billy Blue
Billy Blue has always considered the Privacy of its students, staff and clients to be extremely important. As a result, we have in place a Privacy Policy which ensures that we meet our obligations under the new National Privacy Principles (X10) that came into effect on 21st December 2001
The Billy Blue Privacy Policy, a reflection of the 2000 Amendment to the Commonwealth Privacy Act of 1988, sets out the way in which Billy Blue handles and protects the personal information of students, staff and clients.
Your personal information
Any personal Information held by Billy Blue College may include names, date of birth, current and previous addresses, telephone/mobile phone number, e-mail address, fee payment details, bank account or credit card details, nationality, passport number and academic record.
Depending on the service you are accessing, you could be asked to provide some of the information outlined above including information about what you like and do not like. It is entirely up to you as to whether you respond to the questions or not.
If you choose not to provide personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the educational services you require or the level of service that we pride ourselves on at Billy Blue.
How we collect personal information
At Billy Blue, we collect and store personal information in a number of ways:
- Directly from you when you provide information by phone, or in enrolment documents such as an application form
- From Educational Agents, both onshore and off-shore
- From third parties such as your financial representatives (e.g. your bank)
- From publicly available sources of information
- From our own records (now kept for 30 years by obligation under Law)
- When legally required to do so – for example, under the ESOS Act 2000, Immigration Act 1958 and Australian Taxation Office Law.
Essentially, Billy Blue collects two (2) types of Information:
The first type is ‘anonymous information’. For instance, we may collect statistical information to tell us that four thousand people visited this Privacy Policy section of the website today. However, we do not know their names, where they live or their date of birth – they are totally anonymous to us.
(Note, Billy Blue’s website and e-mail messages sometimes create hypertext links to the websites of third parties. Billy Blue is not responsible for the Privacy practices or the content of other websites)
The second type of information that Billy Blue collects is that provided in the Application for Enrolment forms and Enquiry schedules which are completed when general enquiries are made at exhibitions or via telephone. This information is personal information and includes such items as your name, address and date of birth. This information is used to process enrolments and may also be used to inform you of new courses, events, exhibitions and Open Days hosted by Billy Blue. We only collect such information on these occasions so that we can follow up on enquiries and respond to expressions of interest from potential students.
By providing Billy Blue with your personal information, we are able to give you a greatly enhanced educational, counselling and training service that is not available to anonymous users.
How we use personal information
Billy Blue will only use the personal information you have chosen to provide for the purpose for which you have provided it. Billy Blue will not use it for any other purpose without your consent.
In general, your personal information may be used in order to:
- Provide the educational and training services you require
- Administer and manage those services, including the provision of up-to-date news on new courses, events and invoicing procedures
- Inform you of ways in which the educational and training courses could be improved
- Conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness
- Research and develop our courses to reflect best practice industry standards
Storage of personal information
One of our obligations as a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) under the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) is to store information on student enrolments and progress for a period of 30 years.
Billy Blue stores this information both on company computers and in hard copy files. Our computer network has security levels of access (including a firewall) in place to protect us against the loss, misuse or destruction of the information while under the control of Billy Blue. Access to this central information can only be gained through authorisation by the Managing Director, Head of School, Financial Controller or Registrar.
When we disclose your personal information
On occasion, and as required by law, Billy Blue may disclose the personal information of students, staff and clients to organisations outside Billy Blue, providing such organisations are aware of our published Privacy Policy and agree to comply.
The organisations to which we disclose information include:
- Your authorised representatives (e.g. your bank, agent, immediate family or legal counsel)
- Credit providers such as banks for credit related purposes
- Our professional advisers, including accounting auditors and lawyers
- Government and regulatory authorities such as DIMIA (Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs); DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training); VETAB (Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board); ATO (Australian Taxation Office).
Billy Blue may disclose Personal Information to comply with subpoenas, court orders and other legal processes.
Help Us to Ensure We Hold Accurate Information
Billy Blue takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you provide.
That’s why we recommend that you:
- Let us know if there are any errors in your personal information
- Keep us up-to-date with changes to personal information such as your name and address
You Can Access Your Personal Information
You have a right to access your personal information subject to some exceptions allowed by law. If students would like to do so, they should contact their Head of School or the Registrar. Students and Staff may be required to put such requests in writing for security reasons.
Billy Blue reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for and providing access to your information.
If you require any further information, or a response to any specific questions relating to our Privacy Policy or Information handling processes, please contact me.
Academic Director
Billy Blue College
Phone: +61 2 9955 1122
E-mail: info@billyblue.com.au