WeedSmart (we, us or our organisation) is committed to privacy protection. We understand the importance of keeping personal information private and secure. Accordingly, we are committed to protecting any personal information about you, our staff, and representatives that we hold. This privacy policy (Privacy Policy) describes generally how we manage personal information and safeguard privacy.  If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are committed to protecting confidential information and all information received from you is subject to strict duties of confidentiality. We will not disclose such information except in accordance with your instructions.

We will treat all personal information in accordance with any and all obligations that are binding upon us under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). The Privacy Act lays down 13 key principles in relation to the collection and treatment of personal information, which are called the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Personal information held by us may include your:

• name and date of birth;
• residential and business postal addresses, telephone/mobile/fax numbers and email addresses;
• any information that you provided to us during your registration, account creation process or added to your user profile;
• preferences and password for using this site and your computer and connection information; and
• any information that you otherwise share with us.

On our website, we only collect personal information that is necessary for us to complete a function or activity, e.g. email you a newsletter, answer an enquiry or provide your courses.

From our Website

We may collect personal information that you provide to us about yourself when you use our website, including (without limitation) when you:

• add comments in any elements of our website that permit user-generated content;
• register for courses; and
• complete an online contact form to contact us;

When you visit our website or download information from it, our web host makes a record of your visit that shows:

• the pages you visited of our website;
• the date and time that you visited our website; and
• the kind of browser that you used.

If you provide information to us by corresponding with us, our staff and/or volunteers via electronic mail or through marketing or enquiry forms, our mail server makes a record of:

• your full e-mail address and the full recipient address; and
• the time and size of your e-mail.

Sensitive information 

We only collect sensitive information if you consent to the collection of that information, or it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities, or collection of the sensitive information is required for the purpose of the challenges or authorised by law.

IP addresses

Our website may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. Our website collects and manages IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes. We may also collect and use web log, computer and connection information for security purposes and to help prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, our website.

Our website uses "cookies" to help personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file or a packet of information that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server to identify and interact more effectively with your computer. There are two types of cookies that may be used at our website: a persistent cookie and a session cookie. A persistent cookie is entered by your web browser into the "Cookies" folder on your computer and remains in that folder after you close your browser, and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to our website. A session cookie is held temporarily in your computer’s memory and disappears after you close your browser or shut down your computer. Cookies cannot be used to run programs. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. We extend the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources.

You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions to learn more about these functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our website.

Why we use cookies

Our website uses cookies in order to:

• remember your preferences for using this site;
• manage the signup and registration process when you create an account with us;
• recognise you as logged in while you remain so. This avoids your having to log in again every time you visit a new page;
• show relevant notifications to you (eg, notifications that are relevant only to users who have, or have not, created an account or subscribed to newsletters or email or other subscription services); and
• remember details of data that you choose to submit to us (eg, through online contact forms or by way of comments, forum posts, chat room messages, reviews, ratings, etc).

Many of these cookies are removed or cleared when you log out but some may remain so that your preferences are remembered for future sessions.

Third party cookies

In some cases, third parties may place cookies through our website. For example:

• Google Analytics, one of the most widespread and trusted website analytics solutions, may use cookies de-identified data about how long users spend on this site and the pages that they visit;
• Google AdSense, one of the most widespread and trusted website advertising solutions, may use cookies to serve more relevant advertisements across the web and limit the number of times that a particular advertisement is shown to you; and
• third party social media applications (eg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc) may use cookies in order to facilitate various social media buttons and/or plugins in this site.

Any personal information which we collect about you will be used and disclosed by us so that we can provide you with the services that you have requested. It may also be used and disclosed for the further purposes for which it was collected, including those listed below or for secondary purposes related to those purposes, to the extent lawful.

The purposes for which we collect your information may include, to:

• provide you with information regarding the Diversity Era courses and their contents;
• verify your identity;
• respond to any queries or feedback that you may have;
• prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving, our website;
• prepare general statistics on the usage of our website;
• contact you (including via electronic messaging such as SMS and email, by mail, by facsimile, by phone or in any other lawful manner);
• develop and improve our services, challenges and obtain feedback.

We may also provide you with information from time to time about our services, marketing information and updates on challenges, unless you ask us not to do so in writing.

‘Opt-out’

Each time we send you a direct marketing communication we will provide you with a simple way to ‘opt out’ of receiving similar communications in the future.

You can also let us know that you do not wish to receive any further communications by contacting us by email to [email protected].

We will not pass on the personal information you have given us to anyone without first asking your permission, unless we are required or permitted to do so by law.

If you would like more information about the way we manage personal information that we hold about you, or are concerned that we may have breached your privacy, please contact us by email to [email protected]. 

Access to your personal information 

You have the right to request access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you. We will handle requests for access to your personal information in accordance with the APPs. We encourage all requests for access to your personal information to be directed by e-mail to [email protected]. 

We will deal with all requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible. In some cases, consistent with the APPs, we may refuse to give you access to personal information we hold about you. This includes, without limitation, circumstances where giving you access:

• would be unlawful;
• would have an unreasonable impact on another person’s privacy;
• would be likely to prejudice the taking of appropriate action in relation to suspected unlawful activity or misconduct of a serious nature, that relates to our functions or activities; or
• would be likely to prejudice enforcement related activities carried out by, or for, an enforcement body.

If we refuse to give you access to personal information, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal. Generally, on your request we will amend any personal information we hold about you which is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

Correcting your personal information 

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information you provide us is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information which you think is inaccurate. If you would like to amend any of your details or the information you have provided to us, you can contact us by e-mail to [email protected].

We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of the information that you provide us and we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from unauthorised use or alteration. In our organisation, personal information may be stored both electronically (on our computer systems and with our website hosting provider) and in hard-copy form. Firewalls, anti-virus software and email filters, as well as passwords, protect all of our electronic information. Likewise, we take all reasonable measures to ensure the security of hard-copy information.

We use a number of mechanisms to protect the security and integrity of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet (or otherwise) can be guaranteed as completely secure. This means that we cannot guarantee that someone else will not read the information you choose to give us when you transmit or send it. Therefore, any information you send to us over the Internet or otherwise is transmitted or sent at your own risk.

Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

We exclude all liability (including, without limitation, in negligence) for the consequences of any unauthorised access to your personal information, except to the extent liability cannot be excluded due to the operation of statute. 

You may click through to third party websites from our website, in which case we recommend that you refer to the privacy statement of the websites you visit. This Privacy Policy applies to our website only and we assume no responsibility for the content of any third party websites.

Please note that your personal information will additionally be held by our platform host, Thinkific (thinkific.com). We encourage you to peruse their Privacy Policy at https://www.thinkific.com/privacy-policy/. 

Re-marketing

We may use the Google AdWords and/or Facebook re-marketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to this site based upon their activity on this site. This allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and to only display advertisements that are relevant to you.  Such advertising may be displayed on a Google search results page or a website in the Google Display Network or inside Facebook. Google and Facebook may use cookies and/or pixel tags to achieve this. Any data so collected by Google and/or Facebook will be used in accordance with their own respective privacy policies. None of your personal Google and/or Facebook information is reported to us.

You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ads Settings page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads). Facebook has enabled an AdChoices link that enables you to opt out of targeted advertising.

Complaints regarding a breach of privacy should be addressed by e-mail to [email protected] in order to seek resolution of a complaint.   Following contact with us, if you are still not satisfied you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate your complaint further.

Complaints must be made in writing by mail to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW. 

From time to time, it may be necessary for us to revise this Privacy Policy. Any changes will be made in accordance with any applicable requirements under the Privacy Act and the APPs. We may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on our website.

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If you require any further information about the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, you can visit the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website (see www.privacy.gov.au).