essentialGP Privacy Policy

At essentialGP, we realise that your health concerns are sensitive, and we understand that you trust us to be very careful with your information. We respect your privacy and we're committed to protecting your personal information. That's why we currently abide by the National Privacy Principles in the Australian Privacy Act 1988. From 12 March 2014 our privacy obligations will be embodied in the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

We have provided this policy to explain how your information is collected, used and protected. By accessing the website www.essentialgp.com.au or using our services, you agree to be bound by the terms of this policy. We encourage you to read the policy carefully. We hope it will help you to make informed decisions about sharing your information with us.

This policy covers the following areas:

  1. Your personal information: what we collect and hold, how we collect and hold it, and why we collect and hold it;
  2. Disclosure to third parties: why we might disclose your personal information and who we might disclose it to (including potential disclosure to overseas recipients);
  3. Access, corrections and complaints: how you might access and correct if necessary the personal information we hold about you, and how complaints about any breach by us of the APPs might be made and dealt with and
  4. Our security measures.

If you have any questions or concerns about our policy you can email us: mail@essentialGP.com.au

1. Your personal information

The more we know about you the easier it is for us to deliver helpful, relevant information and services.

We collect both personal and non-personal information about you. “Personal information” is information which can identify you and includes information you provide when you register on our site such as your name, email address, password, contact phone number and date of birth. You are given choices when we ask for personal information and, whenever possible, we try to explain why we ask for information. You can always refuse to provide personal information, but this may mean that some site features will not function properly as a result.

The personal information we collect from you might also include “sensitive information”, which is information or an opinion about your racial or ethnic origin, political persuasion, memberships in trade or professional associations or trade unions, religious beliefs, sexual preferences, criminal record or health information. Sensitive information also includes genetic information and some biometric information and biometric templates.

We will not collect or monitor any personal information about you without your consent. The only personal information we collect is what you tell us about yourself and how you use our site. We use this personal information to verify your identity, provide you with the services you have requested, notify you of new or changed services, tailor the content you see on our website and to contact you as required. By providing us with this information, you are able to use our personalised features, health tools and content, to make appointments, and to join and create groups and take part in discussions.

Specific collections and uses of personal information

Communities and Tools

If you join our health communities and groups and any social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, make appointments or have other interactions with us, you may contribute additional personal information including personal health information, health interests, health goals and/or sensitive information. You provide this information at your own discretion and voluntarily. Any information you provide or comments you make on blogs, social media channels or other third party sites will be governed under the terms of each site's privacy policy and terms of use. We accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the content, actions or policies of third party sites: you access and use these sites at your own risk.

By participating in the health communities and groups, making appointments and through your interactions with us, you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing the personal and/or sensitive information you provide in accordance with the terms of this policy. If you do not wish to have any information you have posted, or would like it to remain only within the health communities and groups or any of the social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter in which it was originally posted, please contact us.

User feedback

From time to time we may ask you for feedback about our site. This information allows us to better understand the needs of our users and to gather information about health issues and trends. We store answers but these are not linked to identifying information about you and they will not be shared with third parties.

Competitions and promotional communications

When you enter a competition on our site we may ask you to provide additional information or answer certain questions. Some or all of the information collected from you during a competition may be disclosed publicly. It may also be shared with a co-sponsor(s) or provider(s) of prizes in order to update you of your status. We may contact you in connection with a particular competition to update you regarding your status, let you know that a competition has ended and for other competition-related messages. If data is to be disclosed or shared, we will include a notice at the time of data collection.

If you prefer not to receive any promotional information from us, please let us know by clicking on the “unsubscribe link” at the bottom of any of our communications.

Search

When you search on our site, we store the search terms and the site(s) visited so that we can continue to improve the quality of our search results.

Log information

When you visit our site, our servers will collect log information. This information may include your page request, Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. Log information helps us to gather information about how our site is being used such as the pages visitors are viewing.

Personalisation

Information you provide when you create your profile, tools you've used and articles you've viewed will be used to personalise your experience of the site. In addition, as an essentialGP member, you have the option to receive regular email newsletters and alerts. You can unsubscribe from newsletters by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any newsletter. You can manage your alerts in your profile.

Cookies

We use cookies to make your use of our website and services as convenient as possible. Cookies do not personally identify you; they are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. Cookies help us to personalize your experience and generate tailored content. We can also use cookies to monitor the amount of people using our site and how they are using it. From time to time, we may use cookies to track online competition entrants. Importantly, we do not store any identifying information in any cookies on your computer. You can set your browser to refuse cookies but this may mean you cannot log in or take full advantage of our website.

2. Disclosure to third parties

We will not use or disclose any personal information about you without your consent unless all identifying information about you has first been removed. There may be exceptional circumstances where this may not be possible, such as if disclosure is required by law, is necessary to protect the rights or property of essentialGP or any member of the public, or to lessen a serious threat to a person's health or safety.

Discussions

 

Any information you post in group discussions and comments you make on blogs and social media channels (including Facebook and Twitter) are open to the public and can appear in search engine results. Your posts will be associated with your profile name and your photo (if you uploaded one).

We may use information you provide on blogs, social media channels and other third party sites either to facilitate discussion on those sites or on essentialGP’s own website. If we use information you have provided on third party sites on our own website, then we shall use and handle that information in accordance with this policy and essentialGP’s Terms of Service.

Emails

Email communication that you send to us via links on our site may be shared with a essentialGP employee(s).

Invitations

If you share any essentialGP content via our Send to a Friend function, we will send them an email on your behalf.

Third Party Links

We may provide links to various third party sites (for example Facebook and Twitter). Any information you provide to third party sites will be governed under the terms of each site's privacy policy and terms of use. We accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the content, actions or policies of third party sites. The inclusion of links to third party sites on our site in no way constitutes an endorsement of the third party sites' content, actions or policies: you access them at your own risk.

Transfer of personal information overseas

We do not currently transfer personal information to persons outside Australia (Overseas Recipients). We do not currently intend to do so in the future. If our policy in this regard changes in the future, we would, before disclosing personal information to Overseas Recipients, take reasonable steps to ensure that Overseas Recipients do not breach the Privacy Act and corresponding Privacy Principles. We would also update this policy, so please check it from time to time.

3. Access, corrections and complaints

Access

We take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You may request access to the information we hold about you.

Your profile

You can change or update your profile information, including your contact details and alerts, at any time. Your profile, along with your photo (if you choose to upload one), may be viewable by anyone on the Internet.

Corrections

We assume that the information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, if you identify that any of the information is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, please contact us at mail@essentialGP.com.au so that we can update the information for you.

Complaints

If you wish to complain about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer:

  1. by e-mail mail@essentialGP.com.au

We will endeavour to:

  1. provide an initial response to your query or complaint within 5 business days; and
  2. resolve your query or complaint within 21 business days.

If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Australian Privacy Commissioner (see http://www.oaic.gov.au/about/contact.html or call 1300 363 992).

Cancelling your membership

You can cancel your membership at any time by visiting your profile. After you have cancelled your membership you will not be able to sign into the site to view or access any information you may have saved or created on the site.

4. Our security measures

We are dedicated to protecting the security of your information and take all reasonable precautions to protect it from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Your electronic information is stored on secure servers that are protected in controlled facilities. Our employees have limited access to your personal information. However, as we cannot guarantee the security of communications over the Internet, we cannot give an absolute assurance that your information will be secure at all times. Transmission of personal information over the Internet is at your own risk, and Healthshare will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information.

5. Future Changes

As we evolve and introduce new services and features our policies will be reviewed and may be revised. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy at any time and notify you by posting an updated version of the policy on our web site. The amended Privacy Policy will apply between us whether or not we have given you specific notice of any change. If you don't agree with the new policy you always have the option of closing your account.