Privacy Policy

Introduction

Protocol Theory Pty Ltd (hereafter, "we", "us", "our") recognizes the critical importance of maintaining individual privacy and is committed to upholding and respecting your privacy. Our Privacy Policy outlines how we handle any personal data that you provide to us or that we collect from you. It is important to review this document to fully understand our approach and practices concerning your personal data and our treatment of it. The policy provides details on how we gather, uses, and protects the personal information entrusted to us. This policy is relevant to a variety of data collection methods, including but not limited to online, telephone, and face-to-face interactions, as well as survey research.

In our operations, we comply with your rights as outlined in the Australian Privacy Principles included in the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) (“Privacy Act”), which may undergo amendments from time to time, and adhere to the Notifiable Data Breach scheme.

Definition of Personal Information:

The term “Personal Information” encompasses any data or viewpoint, irrespective of its accuracy or physical form, related to an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable. Generally, this refers to information or opinions that can identify you directly (such as your name) or indirectly.

Collection of Personal Information:

The nature of your interactions with us largely determines the personal information we gather. This may include information you voluntarily disclose to us. The personal information we collect about you may include:

1. Name
2. Mailing or street address
3. Date of birth
4. Email address
5. Phone number

In certain situations, we may require collecting sensitive information about you. This could encompass data or opinions regarding your racial or ethnic background, political views, affiliations with political entities, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership in trade unions or professional organizations, sexual orientations, criminal history, or health details.

Whenever we gather such sensitive information, we ensure it's done with your explicit consent, if necessary to avert a serious and imminent threat to life or health, or as mandated or permitted by law. Additionally, we implement stringent measures to safeguard the confidentiality of this information.

You are not obligated to provide us with your personal information. Where feasible, we offer the option to engage with us anonymously or under a pseudonym. However, opting for such interactions or refraining from providing your personal information might limit our ability to offer our services or interact with you effectively.

Collection of Your Personal Information:

Your personal information may be obtained directly from you, with your consent, in the following situations:

• When you communicate with us via telephone
• During face-to-face interactions with our team
• Through your online engagements with us
• While you participate in our surveys, questionnaires, or other research
• If you attend an event hosted by our organization
• Upon subscribing to our mailing list
• Through your application for employment, contractual, or volunteer roles with us

How we Use Your Personal Information

We use personal information for many purposes in connection with our functions and activities, including the following purposes:

• Research Analysis: Primarily, your information is used for conducting and enhancing market research, analyzing consumer trends and behaviors.
• Service Improvement: We utilize your feedback to refine our research methods and tools for better data collection and analysis.
• Report Generation: The data you provide helps us create detailed reports for our clients, offering insights into consumer needs and market trends.
• Personalized Participation: We use your details to tailor your involvement in research activities, ensuring relevance and engagement.
• Administrative Use: Internally, your information aids in database management and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.
• Communication: We may contact you for future research opportunities or updates about our services.
• Quality Control: We review responses for quality assurance in our research.
• Legal Compliance: When required by law, your information is used for legal and regulatory purposes.
  

Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties

In the course of our market research activities, there are certain circumstances under which we may disclose your personal information to third parties. These are outlined below to maintain transparency in how your data is handled:

• Research Partners and Clients: We may share aggregated and anonymized data with our research partners and clients for the purpose of presenting our research findings. This data does not identify you personally.
• Service Providers: Occasionally, we employ third-party service providers to assist with our research activities. These providers, such as data analysis firms, are given access to the information they need to perform their services but are strictly prohibited from using it for any other purposes.
• Legal Requirements: In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including meeting national security or law enforcement requirements.
• Safety and Security: If necessary, we may disclose personal information to third parties to protect the safety and security of participants, to prevent fraud, or to address technical issues.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of the transaction.
• Consent-Based Sharing: We may share your personal information with other third parties outside the scope of the aforementioned circumstances if we obtain your explicit consent to do so.

In all cases of data sharing, we are committed to ensuring that your personal information is protected and used in accordance with our privacy policies and applicable laws. We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Transfer of Personal Information Overseas

As part of our international research activities, we may transfer information to our overseas partners or clients. This is particularly relevant when our research spans multiple countries.

We ensure that any transfer of your personal information overseas adheres to the same level of data protection as provided in our domestic operations. We comply with all applicable data protection laws and strive to apply consistent safeguards across our global operations.

Where applicable, we will seek your consent before transferring your personal information overseas. We will inform you about the destination countries and the protective measures in place. We impose strict contractual obligations on our overseas partners and service providers to ensure that they manage your personal information in line with the high standards we uphold.

Transfers of personal information are conducted in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, including ensuring appropriate legal frameworks are in place, such as data transfer agreements or standard contractual clauses. We maintain control over the data and ensure you retain the ability to access, correct, or delete your information, irrespective of the location of the data. Robust security measures are implemented to protect your information during overseas transfers. This includes encryption and secure data transfer protocols to safeguard your data from unauthorized access or breaches.

We take seriously our responsibility to protect your personal information during international transfers and commit to transparency in all such processes. Our goal is to maintain the trust and confidence of our participants while conducting global market research.

Protection of Your Personal Information

Ensuring the security of your personal information is a top priority for us. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that we hold about you is kept confidential and secure, including by:

• Utilizing advanced encryption, firewalls, and secure server facilities to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
• Limiting access to your personal information to only those employees, contractors, and third-party service providers who need it to perform their duties or provide services to us.
• Conducting periodic reviews and updates of our security policies and technologies to address new challenges and evolving threats.
• Storing personal data on secure servers with controlled access and protection against environmental hazards.
• Providing ongoing training and awareness programs for our staff to ensure they understand the importance of protecting personal data and know how to do so effectively.
• Collecting only the personal information that is necessary for our purposes and retaining it only for as long as necessary to fulfill those purposes.
• Having in place clear procedures for managing and responding to data security incidents, including prompt notification to affected individuals and authorities where appropriate.
• Adhering to applicable privacy laws and regulations governing the collection, use, and protection of personal information.

Through these measures, we are committed to maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of your personal information and providing you with assurance of its security.

Online Activity

• Cookies: Our website uses cookies to enhance user experience, remember login details, and provide customized content. We use both session cookies (temporary cookies that expire once you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your device for a set period or until you delete them). You have the option to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. Note that this may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
• Website Analytics: We employ website analytics tools to collect information about how visitors interact with our site. This includes data like pages visited, duration of visit, and referral sources. This information helps us understand user behavior, improve website functionality, and enhance user experience. All data collected through analytics is aggregated and anonymized, ensuring that no individual user can be identified.
• Direct Marketing: We may use the information you provide to send you promotional materials about our services that we think may interest you. You will have the opportunity to opt-in to receive marketing communications from us. We will respect your choice and refrain from sending you direct marketing if you do not opt-in or if you later opt-out. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

By using our website, you consent to our use of cookies and acknowledge our practices around website analytics and direct marketing. We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have control over your personal information and preferences.

Retention of personal information

We will not keep your personal information for longer than we need to. In most cases, this means that we will only retain your personal information for the duration of your relationship with us unless we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws, for example record-keeping obligations.

How to Access and Correct Your Personal Information

We will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date. If you wish to make a request to access and / or correct the personal information we hold about you, you should make a request by contacting us and we will usually respond within 3 business days. We will deal with such a request by following the procedure outlined below:

1. Submit a formal request for access or correction of your personal information. This can be done through email, postal mail, or our website's contact form, specifying the details you wish to access or correct.
2. To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections. This may involve asking you to provide certain documents or personal information for confirmation.
3. Upon verifying your identity, we will provide you with access to your personal information that we hold, except in circumstances where we are permitted by law to refuse access.
4. If you find that the personal information we hold is inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date, you can request us to correct the data. We will then update our records accordingly.
5. We aim to process all requests for access or correction within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 10-30 days, depending on the complexity of the request.
6. Generally, we will not charge for the making of the request or for correcting your personal information.
7. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information or refuse to correct it, we will inform you of the reasons why and the complaint mechanisms available to you.
8. If we make corrections to your personal information, we will notify any third parties to whom the information was disclosed, where applicable and legally required.
9. We maintain a record of your request and the outcome in compliance with our data management policies.

Links to third party sites

Our website(s) may contain links to websites operated by third parties. If you access a third party website through our website(s), personal information may be collected by that third party website. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party provider or website and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party provider or website. Third party providers / websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Inquiries and complaints

For complaints about how we handle, process or manage your personal information, please contact us at hello[at]protocoltheory.com. Note we may require proof of your identity and full details of your request before we can process your complaint. Please allow up to 5 days for us to respond to your complaint. It will not always be possible to resolve a complaint to everyone’s satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint, you have the right to contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (at www.oaic.gov.au/) to lodge a complaint.

How to Contact Us

If you have a question or concern in relation to our handling of your personal information or this Policy, you can contact us for assistance as follows:

• Email: hello[at]protocoltheory.com
• Post: Level 2, 696 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. (Please address correspondence to Attn: Protocol Theory Privacy Officer).