Privacy policy.
1.0 Privacy Policy
We are an international organisation committed to responsible privacy practices and managing personal information in accordance with the relevant local privacy and data protection laws which apply to us such as the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”), the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and other local applicable privacy laws. GDPR clauses only apply to the extent that the GDPR itself applies to an individual and a particular type of processing.
This Privacy Policy sets out our policies on the management of personal information including how we collect personal information, the purposes for which we use this information, and to whom this information is disclosed.
We may change or update our Privacy Policy from time to time. At any time, the latest version of our Privacy Policy is available from our website at www.thetailingsnetwork/privacy-policy.
2.0 Transparency
By using any of our services including, but not limited to, events, websites, emails, communities, memberships and products, you agree and consent to the collection, use, holding, processing and disclosure of your personal information (that is, information or an opinion about you, whether true or not, which identifies you or from which your identity is reasonably identifiable) as set out in this Privacy Policy.
The Tailings Network is a professional organisation that relies on the use of personal information to provide support and services to members and to non-member stakeholders and customers of The Tailings Network services. Bound by the Australia Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act, we rely on comprehensive and accurate personal information about our members and non-members who engage with The The Tailings Network in order to deliver appropriate products and services. We collect, hold, use and disclose information from members and non-members so that we can provide services, manage our professional relationships, manage our business, comply with our legal obligations, communicate effectively and enhance the level of service being offered.
We are committed to abiding by the Privacy Act in the conduct of our business. As an international organisation, The Tailings Network manages all the personal information it holds in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the requirements of the Australian Privacy Act, GDPR and other local applicable privacy laws.
Our working relationships include members and non-member stakeholders and customers who are based around the world. This Privacy Policy applies to all activities of The Tailings Network, including when the organisation is managing personal information and conducting business on behalf of affiliated organisations.
3.0 Information Collected
‘Personal information' means any information or an opinion about an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
We collect and hold personal information about you when it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. The personal information collected and stored by The Tailings Network includes, but is not limited to:
Your official and preferred names, titles, post-nominals, prefixes, suffixes, addresses, telephone, email and facsimile contact details (private and business), date of birth and gender, and any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status.
Your qualifications, education and academic history, work experience and skills, occupation, employer information, insurance details, areas of practice, personal awards.
Your membership information relating to your interactions with The Tailings Network.
Your areas of professional interest, either by explicit means through self-selection of interests, primary disciplines and communities; or implied through the use, interaction with and consumption of our online resources
Your username and password storage to enable you to access The Tailings Network’s online services. The Tailings Network holds an encrypted copy of your password in order to allow you to access your login, but under no circumstance do we have access to this password – we can only provide you with a reset
Details of complaints lodged, the resulting investigations and disciplinary action for The Tailings Network members
Details of transactions with The Tailings Network such as financial status of membership, and the purchase of The Tailings Network products and services.
Except as described above, we do not generally require you to disclose any sensitive information (e.g. details of race, religious belief, sexual orientation or membership of a trade union) to us. If you do provide us with sensitive information for any reason, you consent to us collecting that information and using and disclosing that information for the purpose for which you disclosed it to us and as permitted by the Privacy Act and other relevant laws.
In addition to the types of personal information identified above, we may collect personal information as otherwise permitted or required by law.
4.0 Respecting the decision to not provide personal information
You can always decline to give The Tailings Network any personal information we request, but that may mean we cannot provide you with some or all of the services you have requested or we may not be able to do business with you effectively. If you have any concerns about personal information we have requested, please let us know.
5.0 How personal information is collected
We will collect and hold your personal information in a fair and lawful manner, and not in an intrusive or unlawful way. We prioritise collecting your personal information directly from you, via www.thetailingsnetwork.com (the Website).
We may also collect the personal information you directly give us by other means, for example:
When you make an inquiry or order in relation to goods or services through our Website.
When you register for or attend an event or conference.
Directly from members and non-members when they complete an application for membership, a membership grade transfer, or when they purchase an The Tailings Network product (eg a publication or event registration), through membership applications, applications for a change in membership grade or in members voluntarily providing updated personal and career information for their The Tailings Network membership file.
Directly via communication, including over the telephone, written correspondence, or communication via our Website.
When individuals choose to nominate for a role on a The Tailings Network committee (for example in seeking election to the The Tailings Network Board or to join the leadership committee for an The Tailings Network Branch or participate in a task force); when members are nominated for an award, or when a Complaint is received. In these cases the personal information may be provided by a third party.
From members when paying membership subscriptions, and also by members and non-members who purchase The Tailings Network products (such as publications and event registrations).
From non-members who subscribe to communications from The Tailings Network (including newsletters and social media feeds) and engage with the The Tailings Network online dashboard.
From members and non-members in order to keep a databank of both past and current members and non-members.
6.0 How information is used
6.1 Members' personal information
We will use personal information to administer memberships, to provide products and services and to inform members of opportunities available to them. In doing this we are regularly in contact with members about their The Tailings Network membership and participation in The Tailings Network activities. This includes (but is not limited to) the following:
assessing membership and professional accreditation applications
annual membership renewals
promoting and marketing The Tailings Network services, products and events
processing payments of applications and assessments
matters related to nomination or election to a position on an The Tailings Network Board, Committee or group
providing membership services such as the The Tailings Network Bulletin, email notifications, news and branch updates and other member communications and member benefits
invitations to participate in The Tailings Network events, initiatives and surveys, as well as events that The Tailings Network supports
contacting The Tailings Network to provide them with documentation and support information relevant to their roles with the Institute
offering and providing you with our goods and services, including via our Website
managing and administering those goods and service, including account keeping procedures
communicating with you, including (but not limited to), emailing you tax invoices and dispatch and tracking information
retaining information of past members and non-members for heritage purposes
combining your personal information with information that we have collected from our service providers, third parties, cookies or web beacons in order to provide you with a better or more relevant and personalised experience and to improve the quality of our services and the services of third parties. For example, we may combine behavioural data we have collected about you through the use of cookies or web beacons and combine it with your personal information from requests you send to third parties through our website.
In the event of a complaint made against a member, we use the personal information provided in the complaint, along with the members' own contributions and existing information The Tailings Network holds about that member, to support the complaint investigation.
The Tailings Network will enter into sponsorship and commercial benefit partnership arrangements with third parties from time to time. When we enter into a sponsorship agreement, we may use personal information to provide members with information about products, services and promotions offered by our sponsors or benefit partners. The Tailings Network will not provide members' personal information to those third parties without your consent to do so.
6.2 Non-members' information
We will use non-members' (Affiliates) personal information to provide a particular product or service, to inform them about The Tailings Network activities and to promote The Tailings Network products and events. For this reason, we insist on Affiliates registering on our Website to interact with us online. This grants access to a user dashboard where contact information is held and displayed to the user in the interests of transparency. For Affiliates, we use personal data for, but not limited to, the following purposes:
promoting and marketing The Tailings Network membership, services, products and events
processing payments of applications and assessments
providing information updates about The Tailings Network activities
invitations to participate in The Tailings Network events, and events that The Tailings Network supports
combining your personal information with information that we have collected from our service providers, third parties, cookies or web beacons in order to provide you with a better or more relevant and personalised experience and to improve the quality of our services and the services of third parties.
6.3 Information may be used for ancillary purposes
We may use personal information for purposes related or ancillary to the main reason we collect it, such as:
internal accounting and administration
regulatory reporting and compliance
providing benefits to members through partner organisations (although we will not provide personal information to partner organisations without your consent unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy).
identifying other products and services that may benefit members and non-members.
We have a legitimate interest in using your information in all the ways listed above. It is also fundamental to the nature of the service we provide.
In some cases it will be lawful for us to collect and use your personal information, for example where it is necessary as part of our, or a third party’s, statutory or public functions or because the law permits or requires us to do so.
In addition to the specific circumstances above, we will only use your personal information with your consent (if required under the Privacy Act, GDPR or applicable privacy or other laws) when we process your personal information in order to send you carefully selected marketing materials about our products and services (or those of our third party partners) by email, text or push notification, depending on your account or operating system settings. You have the right to opt out of receiving such direct marketing at any time (as explained in more detail below). We will also rely on your consent where we use cookies other than those cookies that are necessary to provide our service for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
6.4 Disclosure and use of personal information internally
The Tailings Network may disclose your personal information to third parties in connection with the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This may include disclosing your personal information to the following types of parties:
a membership applications committee
the The Tailings Network Complaints and/or Ethics Committee to investigate and determine complaints received
members authorised to vote on candidates who are seeking to be elected to office bearing positions
• other members of Committees, Branches or other groups of The Tailings Network which the member joinsrelevant The Tailings Network committees when you are nominated for a The Tailings Network award or scholarship, or to an external person or agency when the member is nominated for a non-The Tailings Network honour or award.
The The Tailings Network Bulletin is published and distributed through external partner organisations. The name and email address information for those members is provided to the publisher and distributor for that purpose.
The Tailings Network may disclose personal information to third parties when we contract out specialised functions and activities. These may include printing of renewal invoices, membership cards, arrears notices and conference information. We may also provide names, addresses and membership details to a mailing house to mail information to members and to create a contact store. In these situations, we prohibit the third parties from using personal information about members except for the specific purpose for which we supply it to be used on our behalf.
We may disclose the The Tailings Network membership status of individuals to third parties on request and where there appears to be a valid reason for the third party seeking that information. Third parties include employers, statutory authorities, customers or members of the public. Third parties could ask for confirmation of membership grade, chartered status or currency of membership. Such inquiries are normally handled by referring the person to the The Tailings Network register of members. Members can choose to opt out of the register of members listing.
7.0 Anonymity
The Tailings Network will provide individuals with the opportunity of remaining anonymous or using a pseudonym in their dealings with us where it is lawful and practicable (for example, when making a general enquiry). If we do not collect personal information about you, you may be unable to utilise our services. Generally it is not practicable for The Tailings Network to deal with individuals anonymously or pseudonymously on an ongoing basis.
8.0 Opting out
Members may opt out of the use of their personal information for marketing and promotion of The Tailings Network events, publications, information updates and other resources at any time emailing the The Tailings Network member services team via marketing@thetailingsnetwork.com – and request that information be erased or unsubscribed.
As mentioned under “Transparency”, The Tailings Network relies on personal information to provide support and services to members. While members are free to opt out of allowing The Tailings Network use of their personal information for the purposes of administering their membership, this option prevents The Tailings Network from engaging with this member.
9.0 Disclosure to third parties and direct marketing of third-party products and services
To deliver you the best possible membership and customer experience, we partner with a number of third parties to facilitate functional requirements of our operations. These include, but are not limited to, events management platforms, email campaign management, etc.
We disclose information to third parties that fit only the following two categories:
Companies that participate in or provide The Tailings Network Members with benefits in favour of the member, as deemed by The Tailings Network. These partner organisations offer special rates or benefits on services such as travel services, car hire, professional development, financial and insurance. These suppliers are reviewed annually.
Companies that are involved specifically to improve or enhance services provided to members. These partner organisations run our email providers, manage your membership information, support and build our Website and operate the technology behind all our events. These suppliers are reviewed annually.
Where consent has been provided to use personal information (whether explicit or implied), that consent will remain current until we are advised otherwise.
10.0 Public lists/registers of members
The Tailings Network makes publicly available lists/registers of members including:
The Tailings Network award recipient announcements
The Tailings Network office bearers' names and in some cases contact details (eg for The Tailings Network Board members).
The disclosure is usually limited to names, post-nominals and jurisdiction (country or Australian state/territory) of residence. Where appropriate it may include biographical, career and contact details.
Members can choose to opt out of publicly available lists/registers. Members can choose not to accept awards. The Member Register and Register of Mineral Industry Consultants operates on an opt-in basis.
11.0 Overseas transfers of personal information
As The Tailings Network is an international organisation with members who live and work in many countries around the world it is likely that your personal information will be transferred outside of the jurisdiction you are located.
The Tailings Network also conducts work in many countries around the world, including delivering events, selling publications and providing support services to members living and working beyond Australia. As such, we may disclose your personal information to service providers and to members located in other jurisdictions including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hong Kong
Where working to deliver a service in an overseas location (for example a conference being delivered online or overseas) personal information may be disclosed to partners working with The Tailings Network in delivering that service. Unless specific approval is granted, any personal information transferred will only be used for the purpose of delivering that specific service to the person (whether they are an The Tailings Network member or non-member).
In an effort to maintain maximum security for our online resources, our Website and online platforms sit on, and are distributed across, a wide number of international servers. Personal data is processed by majority locally in Australia, and where required, online via third-party data centres based in the United States of America and Australia.
We will take all steps that are reasonably necessary to ensure your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy as well as applicable data protection laws, including, where relevant, by entering into EU standard contractual clauses (or equivalent measures) with the party outside the European Economic Area. The EU standard contractual clauses are available here.
12.0 If the GDPR applies to you
12.1 Lawful grounds
Under the GDPR, we are permitted to process your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, by relying on one or more of the following lawful grounds:
you have explicitly agreed that we may process your information for a specific reason;
the processing is necessary to perform the agreement we have with you or to take steps to enter into an agreement with you;
the processing is necessary for us to comply with our legal obligation; or
the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests, which include: (a) to prevent fraud; (b) to protect our business interests; (c) to ensure that complaints are investigated; (d) to evaluate, develop or improve our products and services; and (e) to keep you informed of relevant products, services and events, unless you indicate that you do not wish us to do so.
12.2 Your rights
If the GDPR applies to you, you have the following additional and specific rights in relation to your personal information (where applicable):
Access: you have the right to request a copy of any personal information we hold about you. Any request for access to or a copy of your personal information must in writing and we will endeavour to respond within a reasonable period and in any event within one month (in compliance with the GDPR).
Rectification: you have the right to the rectification of your personal data, if you consider that it is inaccurate.
Deletion: you have the right to request that we delete personal information that we process about you, except we are not obliged to do so if we need to retain such personal information in order to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Restriction: you have the right to erasure of your personal information, if you consider that we do not have the right to hold it.
Portability: you have the right to ask us to transfer a copy of your personal information to you or to another service provider or third party where technically feasible.
Objection: you have the right to object to your personal information being processed for a particular purpose or to request that we stop using your information.
Complaint: If you are unhappy with our treatment of your personal information, and you have contacted us as set out below, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the local data protection authority (see details below).
If you have consented to our processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw, at any time, any consent that you have previously given to us for use of your personal information. In certain circumstances even if you withdraw your consent we may still be able to process your personal information if required or permitted by law or for the purpose of exercising or defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.
If you are a resident of the EEA and have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the data privacy authority where you reside. Please see here for contact details of your local Data Protection Authority:
13.0 Accuracy of personal information
The Tailings Network takes reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. We also provide members with the ability, via your online login, to see and amend any information that may be deemed inaccurate or out of date. However if you consider any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete or misleading you are entitled to request correction of the information. After receiving a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to correct your information.
We regularly audit our information and request members to update our records whenever possible. If you believe your records require updating, please use the online dashboard, or email us at marketing@thetailingsnetwork.com.
We seek updated information where member communications are returned from our use of outdated contact details.
14.0 Right to access personal information
You have a right to request access to the personal information held by The Tailings Network and to request that the information be updated or corrected as and when necessary, unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information. Any request for access to personal information will be dealt with in a reasonable time and should be made in writing to our Privacy Officer or can be requested by emailing us at marketing@thetailingsnetwork.com.
15.0 Right to erase
Members have a right to request their information and any record of themselves be erased from The Tailings Network data stores. We respect the privacy and security of every member and will require certified proof of ID to complete the request. Any request for erasure will terminate an individual's relationship with The Tailings Network and will be dealt with in a reasonable time after ID confirmation is complete.
Requests can be made by emailing us at marketing@thetailingsnetwork.com.
The Tailings Network will keep personal information for as long as necessary to provide members and non-members with products and services. We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information no longer needed. The Tailings Network will retain information relating to past members for heritage purposes unless requested to do otherwise.
16.0 Links, cookies and use of our websites and applications
Our Website may contain links to other sites. This Privacy Policy applies to our website and not any linked sites which are not operated or controlled by us. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of each website that collects your personal information.
We may use “cookies” and similar technology on our websites and in other technology applications. The use of such technologies is an industry standard, and helps to monitor the effectiveness of advertising and how visitors use our websites/applications. We may use such technologies to generate statistics, measure your activity, improve the usefulness of our websites/applications and to enhance the “customer” experience.
If you prefer not to receive cookies you can adjust your Internet browser to refuse cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used. However, our websites may not function properly or optimally if cookies have been turned off.
17.0 Security of personal information and retaining your personal information
The Tailings Network protects personal information from misuse and loss. The steps we take to ensure protections include, but are not limited to, the use of firewalls, encryption, anti-virus software, anonymous password protection, cloud distribution networks (CDNs), internal compliance and training and managed hosting services. In addition, access is restricted to authorised personnel and training is provided to staff on adherence to the Privacy Act.
Hardcopy documents, if and when required, are physically secured through the use of restricted access facilities.
The Tailings Network will keep personal information for as long as it is needed to provide members and non-members with products and services. We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information no longer needed. The Tailings Network will retain information relating to past members for heritage purposes unless requested to do otherwise.
We will regularly review our files to check that information is accurate, up-to-date and still required.
We normally destroy or erase data 7 years after the end of our agreement with you, or as required by applicable laws. However, we may retain your information after you cease to be a member for longer than this, if permitted for a legal, regulatory, fraud prevention or other legitimate business purpose.
18.0 Complaints and contacting us
If there is a complaint about the way The Tailings Network has collected, stored or used personal information, this Privacy Policy or you otherwise have any questions or comments about our collection, use or disclosure of personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer via email to marketing@thetailingsnetwork.com.
A written complaint must include your contact details, and identify the conduct that is the basis for the complaint. There are no fees for lodging a complaint.
The The Tailings Network Privacy Officer will endeavour to deal with the complaint and take any steps to resolve the complaint within one month of receiving the complaint. If the complaint cannot be resolved within that period we will write to the complainant setting out the status of the complaint, any further steps needed to be taken and an estimated length of time required to resolve the complaint. We will inform the complainant whether it is considered that any breach of the Privacy Act, GDPR or other local applicable privacy laws has occurred and, if so, the steps being taken to rectify the situation.
If, after giving The Tailings Network a reasonable opportunity to resolve the complaint, there is no resolution, the matter can be progressed to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au