PRIVACY POLICY
Version 2 - September 2019
YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Parallax Accounting is also subject to the requirements of the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board.
In this Privacy Policy, the terms ‘we’ and ‘our’ mean the entity Parallax Accounting Pty Ltd. The terms ‘you’ and 'your' mean the client or perspective client.
WHAT IS 'PERSONAL INFORMATION' AND ‘SENSITIVE INFORMATION’?
As per the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), ‘Personal Information’ is any information or any opinion that could identify an individual or reasonably ascertain their identity, including whether this information or opinion is true or not, and whether this information is recorded in a material form or not. Personal information could include information such as your name, date of birth and contact details.
‘Sensitive information’ is any information or opinion that relates to health, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual preferences or practices, membership/s to professional associations, criminal record, and Tax File Numbers (TFNs). Sensitive information requires consent for collection unless required by law.
TYPES OF INFORMATION & INFORMATION COLLECTION TYPES OF INFORMATION
Parallax Accounting collects personal information in order to conduct activities in relation to the running of the firm and to provide you with a satisfactory service. Due to the nature of these activities, we ask for a range of personal and sensitive information from our clients.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
The types of personal information we may collect can include:
- Name and contact details
- Date of birth and gender
- Personal information about your spouse and dependents
- Company/Trust details
- Employment/education details and history
- Bank account details
- Details of current financial circumstances including assets, liabilities, income, expenditure, investments, insurance cover and superannuation
- Documentation used for verification purposes
- Online interaction with our website, publications and social media activity
SENSITIVE INFORMATION
The types of sensitive information we may collect can include:
- Tax File Number (TFN)
- Details of any membership/s to any professional associations
- Health status
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Political or religious beliefs
COLLECTION METHODS
Parallax Accounting collects the above information to provide clients with accounting, tax, bookkeeping, business development and self-managed super fund services. The firm uses a variety of formats for the collection of this information.
These formats include:
- Completion of the ‘New Client Profile Form’
- Telephone calls
- Receipt of emails, letters and other correspondence
- Appointments in person
- Verbal or in writing
We attempt only to collect personal and sensitive information directly from our clients or prospective clients. Parallax Accounting must gain consent to collect ‘sensitive information’. If this is unfeasible, we will attempt to collect this information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
COLLECTION OF SOMEONE ELSE’S PERSONAL
INFORMATION
Clients must only provide personal information of someone else if they have given explicit consent to do so. The topics discussed within this policy must also be communicated to any person whose information has been provided by the client.
UNSOLICITED PERSONAL INFORMATION
There may be times where Parallax Accounting receives personal information that we did not solicit. In such situations, it will be determined if the firm under Australian Privacy Principle 3 could have collected the information, or whether law requires collection. If it is determined that the information could not have been collected and is not required by law, Parallax Accounting will destroy or de-identify the information unless the information collected is contained in a Commonwealth record.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE THE INFORMATION?
If the information required is not provided, Parallax Accounting may be unable to provide our service sufficiently. Parallax Accounting will communicate the disadvantages of not providing this information to the client before the service is provided.
TAX FILE NUMBERS
USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
DISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS
Personal information may need to be disclosed to external service providers engaged by Parallax Accounting in order for those service providers to fulfill their service obligations to the firm. For example, IT service providers who assist in managing Parallax Accounting's servers and networks may need to access client data in order to maintain the servers and networks. Where personal information is disclosed to an external party, Parallax Accounting will take steps to ensure that the external party treats such information confidentially and in accordance with the federal Privacy Act 1988.
DISCLOSURE OVERSEAS
Parallax Accounting does not engage in any overseas outsourcing activities. However, the firm does disclose and transmit personal information via email to overseas clients only where consent is given. When disclosing information overseas Parallax Accounting will take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient abides by the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information.
SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Parallax Accounting is committed to ensuring that all personal information collected is secure. We will take all reasonable precautions to protect the data from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We retain information in both electronic and paper-based forms and provide suitable physical and electronic controls and managerial procedures to safeguard the information.
SECURITY MEASURES INCLUDE:
- Restricted access to the premises
- Restricted electronic access with computer passwords
- Virus protection software
- Encryption to protect electronic information
- Electronic back-up at an IT service provider within Australia
- Hard-drives backed-up daily and stored off-site
- Confidentiality regulations with all staff
RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Parallax Accounting will only retain information as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. Please note that personal financial records are required to be kept for 5 years, however, there are some exceptions where records must be kept for 7 years. Once the information is no longer necessary Parallax Accounting will take reasonable steps to destroy the information to ensure the information is de-identified.
CORRECTING AND ACCESSING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, please let us know and in most cases, we will use all reasonable efforts to update the information. You are able to do this by telephoning our office, emailing us with corrected information or visiting our office.
You may request us to provide you with access to personal information we hold about you. We will process all requests for access to personal information in accordance with the National Privacy Principles. In most cases, we will provide you with access to your personal information. However, we may refuse access in certain situations as listed in the National Privacy Principles. If we refuse access, we will provide you with reasons for our refusal.
COOKIES
This relates to cookies for Parallax Accounting, accessible from www.parallaxaccounting.com.au
What Are Cookies
As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny text files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the sites functionality.
For more general information on cookies see the Wikipedia article on HTTP Cookies.
How We Use Cookies
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
Disabling Cookies
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.
The Cookies We Set
Account related cookies
If you create an account with us then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.
Login related cookies
We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.
Third Party Cookies
Third party analytics are used to track and measure usage of this site so that we can continue to produce engaging content. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site or pages you visit which helps us to understand how we can improve the site for you.
More Information
Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren't sure whether you need or not it's usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site.
However if you are still looking for more information then you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods: https://www.parallaxaccounting.com.au/contact.html
CONCERNS AND COMPLAINTS
If you have any concerns or complaints with our compliance to or breaches of The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, please feel free to send in detail your complaint or concerns to our Privacy Office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
At Parallax Accounting, we take complaints very seriously. Once the complaint is received, it will be assessed and acted upon. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
Please be aware the Privacy Policy will be updated as required, due to new laws, changes to operations and practices, and changes in business environment and technology. If a change is made, Parallax Accounting will post the updated version of the Privacy Policy on their website. Our clients should regularly review this Privacy Policy for any changes, as any amendments to the policy will be effective immediately after being posted to the website. This policy was last updated September 2019.
CONTACT US
Contact us via the details supplied on this page. https://www.parallaxaccounting.com.au/contact.html
PARALLAX ACCOUNTING PTY LTD PRIVACY COMMITMENT
Parallax Accounting Pty Ltd respects the privacy rights of our clients, members and other organisations with whom we deal. We are committed to complying with all applicable privacy laws including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and the National Privacy Principles. We will only collect, use and maintain your personal information if we require it to provide an adequate service, or to meet our obligations under applicable laws. If we receive personal information that we did not solicit, appropriate steps will be taken in regards to de-identifying this information or collecting, if allowed by law. We will only disclose personal information to third parties for the purposes of managing, delivering and administering the product or service required, and disclosure of information to overseas clients will only be done where consent has been given to do so. Parallax Accounting Pty Ltd is committed to ensuring that all personal information collected is secure; therefore, suitable physical and electronic controls and managerial procedures are set in place to safeguard personal information.
Information collected will only be retained until the purpose for which it was collected is fulfilled, or until specified by law. Furthermore, we endeavour to ensure that the personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up-to-date, and will take all reasonable efforts to update information when informed of changes. If you request access to personal information we hold about you we will process each request in accordance to the National Privacy Principles, however, access may be refused in certain situations. Parallax Accounting Pty Ltd reserve the right to modify their privacy policy at any time. Changes will take effect immediately upon their posting on our website. If you have any concerns or complaints with our compliance to The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles, please feel free to contact our office.