+61 2 9325 5777
Privacy Policy |
McSweeney CA is committed to managing your personal information openly and transparently and to keeping your personal information safe. We will take all necessary measures to fulfil this commitment, including to:
This policy is intended to explain clearly and in plain language some of the key processes and procedures that we have implemented to manage your personal information, to protect your privacy and to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (including the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 and the Australian Privacy Principles) (“Act”), the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 (Cth), Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015, and the Taxation Administration Act 1953.
References to “our”, “us” and “we” in this policy are references to McSweeney CA Pty Limited A.C.N. 093 134 215 (“McSweeney CA”) and its related bodies corporate.
www.mcsweeneyca.com.au is owned and administered by McSweeney CA (“Website”). This policy gives a broad overview of our policies in relation to privacy but if you require further information, you are welcome to contact us or to read any of the privacy statements or notices that will be issued to you as and when personal information is collected.
You must read this privacy policy before providing us with any personal information. By providing us with your personal information, you are confirming your agreement to the policies and procedures described in this privacy policy.
We will only collect from you information that is necessary and relevant to our relationship with you, including to enable us to provide to you the best possible service and customer experience.
Depending on the exact nature of our relationship with you, we may request that you provide some or all of the following information:
We will only collect personal information from you that we reasonably require in order to satisfactorily perform the services that you require from us.
The Act places restrictions on us collecting sensitive information about you (which includes information about your religion, political views, ethnicity, criminal records and sexual preferences). Generally we will not collect this type of information, however we may need to collect some sensitive information if you are applying for a job with us, and you have provided us with your consent to do so.
There are various reasons why we might need to collect, hold, use or disclose your personal information and this will depend upon the specific services that we are providing to you but we will tell you the main reason for asking for your personal information at the time when we ask you to provide it.
Usually, the main reason that we will need to collect your personal information will be relating to a service that we are providing to you or are about to provide to you and for contacting you in relation to those services. Our main services include accounting services, superannuation services, audit services, investment services, business services, tax consulting, GST consulting, strategy consulting, risk assessment, commercial advice, corporate compliance, information systems, succession and estate planning.
We may also use your personal information for other reasons and these other reasons are set out below under the heading “How do we use or disclose your personal information?”.
There is no obligation for you to provide us with any of your personal information but if you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide the information, products or services that you require.
The means by which we collect your personal information will depend on the nature of the service that we are providing to you.
We may collect your personal information:
(a) directly from you, in person, over the phone, by email or via our Website;
(b) from publically available sources, for example, the electoral role, the telephone directory or from other websites; or
(c) from other sources.
We will always collect your personal information directly from you unless it is impracticable to do so.
Your personal information will not be collected if you are only browsing our Website but we do use cookies to better tailor our information and our services to meet your needs. A cookie is a small piece of text that is placed within the memory of a computer and can be later retrieved by web page servers. Cookies are used to enhance your interaction and convenience in using our Website and we do not use cookies to record any of your personal information. Cookies may record information about your visit, including the type of browser and operating system you use, the previous site you visited, your server’s IP address, the pages you access and the information downloaded by you. While this anonymous statistical data may be aggregated and used in broader statistical analysis by us and our web monitoring service provider to improve our services, at no time can we personally identify you as the source of that data.
At the time of collecting your personal information, we will remind you of the following, usually by issuing to you a disclosure or collection notice:
(i) our details, including our contact details;
(ii) that we are collecting your information and the reasons why we are collecting your information;
(iii) if the collection is required or authorised by law, the details of the law, court or tribunal order;
(iv) what happens if we cannot collect your personal information;
(v) any third parties to whom we may disclose the personal information;
(vi) how you can access and correct your personal information;
(vii) how you can complain about any breach of the APPs and how we will handle any such complaints; and
(viii) whether your personal information is likely to be disclosed to anyone overseas and if practicable, the countries in which those recipients are located.
You represent to us that where you provide personal information to us about another person, you are authorised to provide that information to us, and that you will inform that person about the contents of this privacy policy including who we are, how we use and disclose personal information, and that they can gain access to, and correct, that information.
From time to time we may receive personal information about you that we have not requested or taken steps to come to know. In these circumstances, we will only hold onto such information where the information is necessary in our dealings with you. If we determine that the information received is not necessary to our relationship with you then we will take steps to de-identify or destroy the information as soon as is practicable. Any determination as to whether or not the information is required to be retained by us will be made within a reasonable period after the information is received by us. Any information that has not been requested but is subsequently retained by us will be subject to the procedures and requirements set out in this privacy policy.
We may use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which it was collected or for a related purpose such as:
(a) to enable us to properly provide our services to you;
(b) to contact you in relation to the services, including obtaining instructions, responding to queries and sending documentation;
(c) to invoice you;
(d) to prevent fraud and other criminal activities;
(e) to assist us to run our business and improve the quality of our services and performance, including staff training, accounting risk management, record keeping, archiving systems development, developing new products and services, addressing IT requirements and issues and undertaking planning, research and statistical analysis;
(f) to comply with our legal regulatory and reporting obligations;
(g) to provide to our third party service providers, including to assist us in providing and improving our services to you;
(h) for debt collection purposes;
(i) to contact you in relation to seminars or events that you may be interested in attending whether or not they are hosted by us;
(j) to send you information that may be of interest or assistance to you;
(k) to include in a database compiled by us to use in direct marketing or promotions, products and services;
(l) to seek your feedback in relation to particular products, service satisfaction and our relationship with you and to manage any complaints or concerns you may raise against us; and
(m) to engage other third party service providers on your behalf, where required, to perform services.
By agreeing to accept the terms of this privacy policy and in providing your personal information to us, you are taken to have consented to the use of your personal information for the above purposes.
At the time that we collect your personal information, we will make it clear to you why we are collecting your information, including through this privacy policy where appropriate.
We will not use your personal information for any other purpose without your consent or where we do use your information for another purpose, it will either be for a purpose which we believe is related to the purpose for which you first provided us with the information or for a purpose which you would expect.
We may also provide your personal information to third parties as outlined below.
Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless disclosure is either necessary to prevent a threat to life or health, authorised or required by law, reasonably necessary to enforce the law or necessary to investigate a suspected unlawful activity.
We deal with third party service providers who may assist us with a variety of functions including with research, mail and delivery, security, support, insurance, professional advisory (including legal, financial and auditing advice), banking, payment processing, credit reporting or technology services. Where we engage third party service providers to perform services for us, those third parties may be required to handle your personal information.
Under these circumstances, those third parties must safeguard this information and must only use it for the purposes for which it was supplied and we will make all reasonable enquiries to try to ensure that this is the case.
Wherever possible, we will limit the information provided to independent third parties to that information required for those third parties to properly perform their functions.
Further, our contracts with these third parties will always require the third parties to comply with the APPs (or equivalent standards).
As part of the services that we provide to you, we may:
(a) use personal information that we have collected about you to identify a product or service that may benefit you;
(b) contact you from time to time to let you know about a product or service that we believe you might be interested in; and
(c) disclose your personal information to our related entities or business partners to enable them to tell you about a product or service that you might be interested in.
By providing your personal information to us, you consent to your personal information being included in our database to be used for direct marketing purposes, including those described above, however, you can opt-out, unsubscribe or make a request to not receive direct marketing communications from us, by calling on +61 2 9325 5777 or by writing to us at Level 15, 799 Pacific Highway, Chatswood, NSW, 2067, Australia or by email at mca@mcsweeneyca.com.au or by logging such a request through our Website at any time.
Additionally, each direct marketing communication, including all emails and SMS, will include an opt-out or “unsubscribe” option which will immediately indicate to us that you no longer wish to receive materials of this kind. If you make a request not to receive direct marketing communications from us, we will stop sending you these materials.
You may make a request that we do not disclose your personal information to facilitate direct marketing by another organisation and you may request that we provide you with the source of any personal information we use for direct marketing purposes. Any such requests will be actioned within a reasonable period and there will be no charges to you for making, or to you from us actioning, such requests.
We have implemented appropriate processes and techniques (including physical security such as locks and security systems and computer and network security, including firewalls and passwords) to protect personal information from loss, misuse and interference and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. In addition, access to your personal information is limited to those who specifically need it to conduct their responsibilities.
We and our third party service providers take all necessary steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information where it is no longer required and to protect your personal information from loss, misuse and interference and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
While care is taken to protect your personal information on our Website, unfortunately no data transmission over the Internet is guaranteed as 100% secure. Accordingly, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you send to us or receive from us online.
This is particularly true for information you send to us via email as we have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your personal information, we are required to protect it in accordance with the Act.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that:
(a) the information that we collect about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date at the time of collection;
(b) when we use your personal information, it is accurate, up-to-date, complete and accurate at the time of use; and
(c) if we disclose your personal information, it is accurate, up-to-date, complete and accurate at the time of disclosure.
There may be circumstances where we need to disclose personal information that we hold about you to a third party overseas (“Overseas Recipients”).
Prior to us disclosing your personal information to an Overseas Recipient, we have an obligation under APP 8.1 to take reasonable steps to ensure that the Overseas Recipient does not breach the APPs in relation to your personal information, as well as an obligation under APP 6 to only disclose your personal information to an Overseas Recipient for the primary purpose for which that personal information was collected (unless an exception applies under APP 6) (the “Overseas Disclosure Obligations”).
We will take all reasonable steps to satisfy our Overseas Disclosure Obligations.
The countries to which we are most likely to send your personal information include the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and India.
Usually we will be able to provide you with access to your personal information upon receipt of your written request, either by email sent to mca@mcsweeneyca.com.au or by post sent to Level 15, 799 Pacific Highway, Chatswood, NSW, 2067, Australia, and confirmation of your identity. There are some limited circumstances in which we may not be able to provide you with access to your personal information when requested. Such circumstances might include where access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of another person or where such access would unreasonably impact on the privacy of others.
Where you request access to your personal information, we will respond to any such request within a reasonable period after the request is made and if possible, we will provide you with access to your information in the manner requested by you, if specified. In any event, we will take all reasonable steps to give you access to your information in a way that meets your needs.
If we deny you access to your personal information for any reason, or if we are unable to provide you with access to your information in the manner requested by you, then we will provide you with a written notice confirming:
(a) the reason for such refusal; and
(b) the procedure to complain about the refusal.
We may recover from you our reasonable costs of supplying you with access to your personal information but we will not charge you for any request you might make to access your information.
We do what we can to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading. To assist us to do this, please ensure that you provide us with correct information at the time you provide it to us and immediately inform us if your details change at any time. If we are concerned that any of your information is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading, or if you request that we correct any of your information, then we will take all reasonable steps to correct the information to ensure that it is accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading in the context of the purpose for which it is held.
If we correct any of your personal information and that information has previously been disclosed to another entity that is required to comply with the APPs, then, upon your request to do so, we will take reasonable steps to notify that other entity of the correction unless such notification is impracticable or unlawful.
If we refuse to correct your personal information following a request by you to do so, then we will provide you with a written notice confirming:
(a) the reason for such refusal; and
(b) the procedure to complain about the refusal.
If we refuse to correct your personal information following a request by you to do so and you request that we associate with the information a statement that the information is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading then we will take reasonable steps to associate the statement with the information so that the statement is apparent to users of the information.
We will respond to any requests regarding the correction of your personal information within a reasonable period after the request is made.
We will not charge you for any request to correct your personal information, nor will we pass on to you any costs incurred by us in correcting your personal information or for associating a statement with your personal information.
According to information provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), the OAIC expects organisations to develop their own procedures for assessing a suspected data breach. Examples of a data breach may include:
We have reviewed our practices, procedures and systems for securing personal information to comply with these new provisions. We have processes in place for:
The NDB scheme requires organisations covered by the Privacy Act to notify any individuals likely to be at risk of serious harm by a data breach. If a data breach occurs, we will provide recommendations to you about the steps that should be taken in response to the data breach.
An eligible data breach occurs when three criteria are met:
Generally, the actions we will take following a data breach follows four key steps:
Step 1: Containing the data breach to prevent any further compromise of personal information.
Step 2: Assess the data breach by gathering the facts and evaluating the risks, including potential harm to affected individuals and, where possible, taking action to remediate any risk of harm.
Step 3: Notify individuals and the Commissioner if required. If the breach is an ‘eligible data breach’ under the NDB scheme, it may be mandatory for us to notify.
Step 4: Review the incident and consider what actions can be taken to prevent future breaches.
In general,we:
We are committed to maintaining and protecting your privacy but it is possible that in limited circumstances, mistakes might be made. If you are concerned with the way your personal information has been handled then you are entitled to make a complaint. If you would like to lodge a complaint, please contact us through our Privacy Compliance Officer, whose details are set out below.
Privacy Compliance Officer
Level 15, 799 Pacific Highway
CHATSWOOD, NSW, 2067
Telephone: +61 2 9325 5777
Fax: +61 2 9325 5757
Email: mca@mcsweeneyca.com.au
If your personal information has not been handled in an appropriate way, we will do our best to remedy your concerns as quickly as possible, including by acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 48 hours and trying to resolve the complaint within 10 working days.
Where this is not possible, we will contact you within this period to let you know an anticipated time frame within which your complaint will be resolved.
If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, you may approach an external dispute resolution service or apply to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) to have the complaint heard and determined.
Wherever it is practicable, we will always provide you with the option not to identify yourself when dealing with us. Alternatively, you may elect to use a pseudonym to protect your identity.
Our Website may contain links to websites which are owned or operated by other parties.
You should make your own enquiries as to the privacy policies of these parties. We are not responsible for information on, or the privacy practices of, such websites.
From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and revise this privacy policy. We reserve the right to change our privacy policy at any time.
Please find below our contact details. Please do not hesitate to contact us in relation to any privacy-related concerns and we will use our best endeavours to address any such concerns thoroughly and in a timely manner.
If it is practical to do so, you can contact us without identifying yourself. However, if you choose not to identify yourself, it may be more difficult for us to assist you with your enquiry. This will depend on the nature of your enquiry.
Address:
Level 15, 799 Pacific Highway
CHATSWOOD, NSW, 2067
Telephone: +61 2 9325 5777
Fax: +61 2 9325 5757
Email: mca@mcsweeneyca.com.au
Website: www.mcsweeneyca.com.au
Please note that the Act contains certain exemptions which may permit us to use your personal information in a particular way if specific circumstances arise. Any such exemptions under the Act will take priority over this privacy policy to the extent of any inconsistency.
Express consent to collection, storage, use and disclosure In addition to the other consents provided by you above, by agreeing to accept the terms of this privacy policy, or by providing your personal information to us, or both, you are taken to have expressly consented to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information for each of the purposes and to all of the parties outlined in this privacy policy.
Book Appointment
Make an Enquiry
Upcoming Events