This is the privacy policy of AusBiotech Ltd ACN 006 509 726 (AusBiotech).

This Privacy Policy describes how AusBiotech collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) found in that Act.

This Privacy Policy is also notification to individuals of the matters required to be notified by the APPs.
We will review this policy regularly, and we may update it from time to time to ensure we are complying with any legislative changes. Updates will be published on our website.

In its role as Australia’s leading industry body representing and advocating for the life sciences sector, AusBiotech routinely collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information to carry out its activities. We are committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information we collect and receive.

Collection of Personal Information

The kinds of information we collect will depend on how we interact with you, e.g. whether you are a member or a representative of a member, a supplier of goods or services or a representative of a supplier, a representative of another organisation with whom we are collaborating or you are applying for a job with us.

At all times we try to only collect the information we need for the particular context in which we interact with you. The kinds of personal information that AusBiotech collects and holds include:

• Name.
• Gender.
• Contact details (for example, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number(s), facsimile number) and communication preferences.
• Financial information (bank and credit account details) – for event payment and membership purposes. Partial details are held via a secure third-party payment gateway.
• Dietary requirements.
• Photographs taken at events.

If you are a job applicant, we may collect information including:

• Date of birth.
• Citizenship/visa status.
• Qualifications.
• Occupation.
• Work experience.
• Details of referees

AusBiotech generally collects personal information directly from you.
AusBiotech may also collect personal information (including sensitive information) about you indirectly from publicly available sources or from third parties such as our member organisations, event partners or sponsors who provide your information in connection to events that we coordinate, and from recruitment agencies and referees as part of our hiring processes.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with membership, benefits or services. Where possible we will allow you to interact with us anonymously. For example, if you contact our team with a general question, you do not need to provide your name unless we need it to adequately handle your question.

However, for most of our functions and activities, we usually need your name, contact details and enough information about the particular matter to enable us to handle your inquiry, request, complaint or application.

Social networking services
AusBiotech uses social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, X , YouTube,Instagram and others to communicate with the public about its activities. AusBiotech may collect your personal information when you communicate with us by using these social networking services. We will only use this information to help us communicate with our members, students and the public. The social networking platforms will also handle your personal information for their own services. These social networking sites have their own privacy policies.
Use and disclosure of information

AusBiotech will not use your personal information for any purpose that you would not reasonably expect AusBiotech to use it for. If we need to use your personal information for a purpose other than one that we believe you would reasonably expect we will seek your specific consent.

The purposes for which AusBiotech uses personal information include:

To fulfil our role as an industry association, including maintaining membership records, providing education programs, events, and services available to members and the wider sector, communicating with members regarding inquiries, or requests for information.

• To communicate with you with industry updates and information on our advocacy.
• To undertake marketing activities directed to members, prospective members and the wider sector.
• To communicate with you regarding payments for our services or for financial record-keeping.
• To work with you in the context of committees, policy discussions or advocacy
• To ask you to complete surveys or provide feedback regarding our services.
• To process job applications.
• To comply with any regulatory requirements or lawful requests from government agencies.

AusBiotech will not generally disclose personal information to parties outside AusBiotech, other than for a purpose directly related to our activities and provision or improvement of our membership services or education programs.

In order to carry out these purposes, we may need to disclose personal information to our agents, contractors or third-party service providers, such as providers of administrative, telecommunications, learning management systems, information technology, payment gateway, or other services. These service providers, including cloud-based providers, may be located in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, or selected countries in the Asia-Pacific. These service providers support the operation of our business and are under contract to AusBiotech to keep personal information confidential and secure.

AusBiotech does not provide or sell any personal information to external organisations for those organisations’ commercial purposes.
Your personal information may also be disclosed to other parties where you have agreed, or where it is required under an Australian law or by the order of a court or tribunal.

We only disclose your sensitive information for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for directly related purposes that you would reasonably expect or if you agree, for example when dealing with a complaint.

In addition, at our events we sometimes take photographs of our participants sitting within the audience and may publish these images to advertise future events. Please inform the photographer at the event if you do not allow us to publish your image.

When you communicate with us through a social network platform such as Facebook, LinkedIn or X , the social network provider and its partners may collect and hold your personal information overseas.

Data retention
The information that AusBiotech collects is retained only as long as necessary for the stated purposes it was collected or to meet compliance requirements under the APPs. When it is no longer required, information is securely destroyed or de-identified and deleted. We routinely monitor and update our data retention policies.

Security
AusBiotech maintains strict standards to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We usually hold personal information electronically on AusBiotech systems and with contracted third parties, including enterprise‑grade cloud providers that use encryption in transit and regular backups.

Access to your membership account is restricted with a log‑in name and secure password. Internally, AusBiotech applies strong password standards, role‑based access controls, endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication and device management so that only authorised employees and contractors can access personal information on a need‑to‑know basis. Staff receive privacy and security training at induction and periodically.

Following the lapse of your or your organisation’s membership, your personal information may be retained in case of a restoration or information request by you or where the provision of membership history is required or authorised by law or by the order of a court or tribunal.

We take steps to protect the security of the personal information we hold from both internal and external threats by:

• Regularly assessing the risk of misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure of that information.
• Taking measures to address those risks by, for example, keeping a record (audit trail) of when someone has accessed our electronic databases.
• Conducting regular external audits to assess whether we have adequately complied with or implemented these measures.
• Maintaining an incident response policy consistent with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme established by the Privacy Act.

Automated Decision-Making
Automated decision‑making (ADM) is the use of technology to automate a decision‑making process. AusBiotech may use ADM or artificial intelligence (AI) agents to conduct standard productivity or analytics operations on the personal information we collect. However, sensitive or personal information is not entered into ADM or AI agents unless absolutely necessary and appropriately safeguarded.
AusBiotech does not use ADM or AI agents to make decisions with legal or practical effects without final review by an employee.

Website policy

Internet transmission of information
Encryption technology is used to ensure that information is protected when being transmitted over the Internet. AusBiotech cannot ensure the security of any information transmitted over the Internet and individuals send personal information at their own risk. However, once we receive a transmission, we take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is secure on our systems and those of our agents and protected from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access.

Cookies
We use "cookies" to enhance functionality and to keep track of visits to our website.

A cookie is a small data file that contains information about your visit to a website. Your computer provides this information during your first visit to a web server. The server records this information in a text file and stores this file on your hard drive. When you visit the same website again, the server looks for the cookie and structures itself based on the information provided. A cookie only identifies your computer to a web server when you visit the site.
If you visit our website to browse or download information, our web server will record the date and time of your visit to our site, the pages viewed, and the information downloaded. We generally use this information for statistical purposes to improve your experience when visiting our website. We also use this data to understand and report on which content pages and downloads are accessed.

Most web browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to warn you before accepting cookies. If you have set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser.

If your browser is configured to reject all cookies, you will be unable to use services on the website that require cookies in order to participate. You may still be able to use some information-only pages if you do not accept cookies.

Embedded videos
We use YouTube to host embedded videos on our website. When you play an embedded video from our website the video and associated assets will load from the domain www.youtube-nocookie.com and other domains associated with YouTube.

Employee Records
AusBiotech is generally exempt from the Privacy Act when it collects and handles employee records. However, our policy is to protect the personal information of our employees as we do for other personal information.

Links to other sites
Our website contains links to other websites and this policy does not apply to these linked websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Access to information

In order to provide you with services and benefits, AusBiotech relies on the accuracy of personal information that you provide. You should promptly notify AusBiotech if there are any changes to your personal information. You can do this by logging on to your membership account on the AusBiotech website, or by contacting AusBiotech directly.

Under the Privacy Act (Australian Privacy Principles 12 and 13) you can request access to personal information that AusBiotech holds about you, and you can request that AusBiotech corrects that personal information. AusBiotech will give you access to your personal information and will take reasonable steps to correct it if AusBiotech considers that it is incorrect, unless there is a law that allows or requires us not to.

We will ask you to verify your identity before we give you access to your information or correct it, and we will try to make the process as simple as possible. If we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information, we must notify you in writing setting out the reasons.
The steps appropriate to verify an individual’s identity will depend on the circumstances. We will seek the minimum amount of personal information needed to establish an individual’s identity. For example, during a telephone contact it may be adequate for us to request information that can be checked against our records.

If we make a correction and we have disclosed the incorrect information to others, you can ask us to tell them about the correction. We must do so unless there is a valid reason not to, and will provide you with avenues to make a complaint if you wish to do so.

If AusBiotech refuses to give you access to your personal information, or to correct it, AusBiotech will notify you in writing and will provide reasons.

If you would like to access or correct your personal information, contact our Privacy Officer (details are below).

Opt-out rights
You also have the right to opt out of our direct marketing.
To seek to exercise any of these rights, please contact our Privacy Officer.

To contact our Privacy Officer
If you have an enquiry or a complaint about the way we handle your personal information, or to seek to exercise your privacy rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you, you may contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

Phone: 0419 583 911
Email: [email protected]
Post: Privacy Officer
AusBiotech
Level 33, 477 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

We will endeavour to resolve complaints quickly and informally. If you wish to proceed to a formal privacy complaint, we request that you make your complaint in writing to our Privacy Officer, by mail or email as above. We will acknowledge your formal complaint within a reasonable timeframe and we will endeavour to respond within 30 days of receipt. 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.