Privacy Policy

ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Vegetation Link Pty Ltd ACN 169 702 032 (Vegetation Link/ we/our) provides end-to-end biodiversity offset (including native vegetation credit) brokering services.

This document (Privacy Policy) explains how Vegetation may collect, use, disclose and otherwise handle your ‘personal information’.

By using our services, or otherwise providing us with your information, you consent to Vegetation Link collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

If we are not able to collect, handle, use and disclose personal information about you as set out in this Privacy Policy, we may not be able to provide you with our services or with access to our website.

STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT

Vegetation Link is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

Vegetation Link may not be an ‘APP Entity’ within the definition of the Privacy Act. This Privacy Policy will apply even if Vegetation Link is not an ‘APP Entity’.

WHAT IS ‘PERSONAL INFORMATION’?

‘Personal information’ is defined in the Privacy Act. Broadly, it means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether it is recorded in a material form or not.

‘Sensitive information’ is also defined in the Privacy Act. Broadly, sensitive information is a subset of personal information which is generally afforded a higher level of protection. It includes information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual orientation or practices, and criminal record. It also includes health information about an individual, genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information, biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification, and biometric templates.

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, references to ‘personal information’ means ‘personal information’ as defined in the Privacy Act, and includes ‘sensitive information’ (as defined in the Privacy Act).

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DOES VEGETATION LINK COLLECT?

The personal information Vegetation Link collects will depend on whether you are a client (or consultant, employee or officer of a client), consultant, employee, job applicant, director, officer and/or which Vegetation Link services or products you use or provide to Vegetation Link.

Clients

• Personal information that we collect about Vegetation Link clients typically includes (but is not limited to):
• name, address, phone number, email and other contact details
• financial and billing information

If a client is a corporate entity, we may collect personal information about its employees, officers, agents, representatives and consultants, including (but not limited to):

• name, address, phone number, email and other contact details
• roles and responsibilities

Officers, employees and consultants

Personal information that we collect about Vegetation Link’s employees and consultants (including prospective consultants or employees) typically includes (but is not limited to):

• name, address, phone number, email address and other contact details
• information about next of kin
• date of birth
• employment details
• education and professional qualifications
• bank account details
• tax file number
• superannuation details
• other sensitive information such as health information and whether the person identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander

Personal information that we collect about Vegetation Link’s directors and officers (including prospective directors and officers) typically includes (but is not limited to):

• name, address, phone number, email address and other contact details
• date of birth
• information about next of kin (including name, address, phone number, email address
• and other contact details for next of kin)
• employment details
• education and professional qualifications
• superannuation details

Others

We may also collect personal information of other individuals with whom we deal in the course of conducting our business, such as:

• third party providers of services and goods to Vegetation Link (and employees, officers, agents, representatives and consultants of third party service providers)
• parties that deal with our clients, for example parties that sell or purchase native vegetation credits

The personal information we collect from these individuals typically includes (but not limited to):

• name, address, phone number, email address and other contact details
• date of birth
• education and professional qualifications
• roles and responsibilities

HOW DOES VEGETATION LINK COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Vegetation Link may collect personal information directly from you (in person, by phone, electronically or online) including when:

• you request information about Vegetation Link's products or services, or the products or services of one of our business partners
• you become a client of Vegetation Link (or the entity you are employed by, an officer of or provide services to, becomes a client of Vegetation Link)
• you apply for employment with Vegetation Link or to provide a service to Vegetation Link

Vegetation Link may also collect personal information from third parties about you, including (but not limited to):

• other Vegetation Link clients
• third parties involved in matters in which we are involved or provide services
• government agencies
• state registration boards and professional associations
• your employer or advisers
• financial or educational institutions
• publicly available records, including LinkedIn or other social media websites
• other companies who provide services to Vegetation Link, including (but not limited to)
• market research companies, and psychometric testing service providers, recruitment
• agencies
• personal referees or references
• These third parties may have their own privacy policies that set out how they manage your personal information.

PURPOSE OF COLLECTION

Vegetation Link may collect, use, hold and disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected, for reasonably expected secondary purposes which are related to the primary purpose and in other circumstances authorised by the Privacy Act.

Vegetation Link collects personal information primarily to:

• conduct our business, including to facilitate the transfer of biodiversity offset credits (including native vegetation credits) between clients and third parties
• provide services and products to our clients
• promote our services and products
• to communicate with you, and build and maintain our relationship with you
• to purchase goods or services from third parties
• to consider the suitability of prospective employees and contractors
• to process and respond to your requests, inquiries or complaints
• to administer, maintain, support and provide upgrades to our services and website
• for billing and payment purposes
• for accounting and record keeping purposes
• to comply with our legal obligations, including to maintain any approvals or accreditations we
• hold
• to protect, exercise or defend our legal rights

Clients

If you are a Vegetation Link client (or a consultant, employee or officer of a client), we may collect, store, use and disclose personal information for any of the following purposes:

• to facilitate the transfer of biodiversity offset credits (including native vegetation credits) between you and a third party
• to provide regulatory, policy and technical advice and related services
• to manage our relationship with you
• to promote and market Vegetation Link's current and future services and products (for
• example, by sending you newsletters)
• to conduct research concerning Vegetation Link's services and products, and develop
• new services and products for the benefit of clients
• for record keeping purposes such as maintaining our register of clients
• to comply with our legal obligations, including to maintain any approvals or
• accreditations we hold

Officers, employees and consultants

If you are a Vegetation Link employee or consultant we may collect, store, use and disclose personal information for any of the following purposes:

• to assess your eligibility for employment opportunities at Vegetation Link
• to manage our relationship with you
• pay you for the services you provide to Vegetation Link
• to comply with our legal obligations, including to maintain any approvals or
• accreditations we hold

If you are a job applicant, we may collect, store, use and disclose personal information for any of the following purposes:

• to assess your suitability for employment opportunities at Vegetation Link
• to undertake background or reference checks to assess your eligibility for the position
• for which you applied
• to consider your eligibility for, and advise you of, suitable employment opportunities in
• the future
• to comply with our legal obligations, including to maintain any approvals or
• accreditations we hold

If you are a Vegetation Link officer or director (or an applicant to become one), we may collect, store, use and disclose your personal information for any of the following purposes:

• to assess your suitability to be a director or officer of Vegetation Link
• to undertake background or reference checks to assess your eligibility to be a director or
• officer
• to comply with our legal obligations, including by providing your personal information to
• government authorities and maintaining registers as required by law or to maintain any approvals or accreditations we hold

Others

We may also collect, store, use and disclose personal information of other individuals, such as third party service providers, for any of the following purposes:

• to receive products or services from you
• to administer our business
• to manage our relationship with you
• to comply with our legal obligations, including to maintain any approvals or
• accreditations we hold

WILL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION BE DISCLOSED TO ANYONE ELSE?

Vegetation Link may disclose your personal information to:

persons employed or engaged by Vegetation Link to conduct its business (including Vegetation Link directors, officers and consultants)

• Vegetation Link's contractors and service providers performing services including (but not limited to) marketing, market research, customer support services,]
• third party service providers of information technology platforms (for example, to assist Vegetation Link in storing or accessing personal information you provide to us)
• State and Federal government authorities, as required to transact the business of brokerage of biodiversity offsets (including native vegetation credits)
• parties to any Credit Trading Agreement, as required for brokerage of biodiversity offsets (including native vegetation credits)

Additionally, Vegetation Link may disclose your personal information to any third party:

• if you authorise Vegetation Link to do so to whom you have granted authority to act on your behalf (for example, any powers of
• attorney or legal representatives)
• if your health and safety or that of others in the community is at risk
• if it is permitted under the Privacy Act to do so
• if Vegetation Link is required or authorised to do so by or under an Australian law or
• court/tribunal order on a de-aggregated or de-identified basis

Some of the entities to whom we disclose personal information may be located overseas and may not be bound by the Privacy Act or other Australian law. To the extent practicable, and if Vegetation Link is aware that such entity is located overseas, Vegetation Link will obtain your prior consent to disclosure of your personal information to an entity located overseas.

IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURE?

Vegetation Link takes reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is kept secure, and is not subject to misuse, interference and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. In particular:

• We destroy or de-identify personal information we no longer need, wherever possible
• Any health records collected by Vegetation Link will be held in accordance with health
• records legislation in the relevant Australian State or Territory
• All digital records are password protected
• Personal information collected by, or provided to, Vegetation Link may be stored:
• on physical computer servers or storage devices within Australia
• using cloud-based storage facilities

The security of electronic methods of provision, storage (including cloud-based storage) and disclosure of personal information cannot be guaranteed by Vegetation Link and may be out of Vegetation Link’s reasonable control. You accept the risks in relation to the electronic provision, use, storage (including cloud-based storage) and disclosure by Vegetation Link of your personal information.

AUTHORISATION OF DISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTIES

You can authorise Vegetation Link to disclose your personal information to specific persons or entities (for example, to your family members or professional bodies of which you are a member) by notifying Vegetation Link of the name and contact details of those persons/entities which you consent to your personal information being disclosed to.

This notification must be made in writing to Vegetation Link by letter signed by you or in such other manner approved by Vegetation Link.

DIRECT MARKETING AND OPTING OUT

Vegetation Link uses personal information to communicate with its clients and potential clients (e.g. by mail, telephone, email and/or sms) about current and new Vegetation Link services and products.

You can ask us at any time to stop sending you direct marketing from any particular channel or at all, by contacting Vegetation Link using the contact details below.

VEGETATION LINK WEBSITE AND COOKIE POLICY

For each visitor to the Vegetation Link website, Vegetation Link may use minimal required cookies and may collect the following information:

• Browser type, version and language
• Operating system
• Pages viewed while browsing Vegetation Link site
• Page access times

Vegetation Link does not collect any personally identifiable data using cookies

Vegetation Link’s website may contain links or references to other third party websites, including those of Vegetation Link affiliates and Vegetation Link service providers. You should check the privacy policies of any third party before disclosing personal information to any third party.

HOW DO I OBTAIN ACCESS TO MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

You can access your personal information held by Vegetation Link.

To do so, please make a request by contacting us using the contact details below. We will respond to your access request within a reasonable period. Please note:

We will need to verify your identity before we can provide you with access to any information.

There may be circumstances in which we cannot provide you with access in the manner requested or at all. If this happens, we will advise you in writing of our reasons and how you can complain about the decision.

You will not be charged for making an access request, however we may need to charge for the reasonable cost of processing your access request, including photocopying, administration and postage.

IS MY PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCURATE? CAN IT BE CORRECTED?

The accuracy of your personal information is important to us.

Vegetation Link will take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is accurate, complete, up to date and not misleading, and also relevant for any purpose for which we use or disclose it. However, we rely on you to advise us of any changes to your contact details and any other personal information.

If you believe that any personal information Vegetation Link holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, irrelevant or misleading, please advise Vegetation Link immediately using our contact details below.

If we are satisfied that your personal information needs to be corrected, we will take reasonable steps to do this. However, there may be circumstances in which we may have to refuse a request for correction. We advise you of any refusal in writing and our reasons and how you can complain about our decision. In such a case you can also request that we associate a statement with that personal information that you believe should be corrected.

You will not be charged for making request for a correction or requesting us to associate a statement with your information.

INFORMATION AND COMPLAINTS

For further information regarding this Privacy Policy, or to make a complaint or raise any other concerns about the steps Vegetation Link has taken to protect your personal information or privacy, please contact Vegetation Link using our contact details below.

We will investigate any complaints we receive and do our best to resolve them as soon as possible.

If you are not satisfied with the result of your complaint to us, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Contact details for the OAIC are as follows:

Address:

Phone:
Website:
Online privacy complaint form:

HOW DO I CONTACT VEGETATION LINK?

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner 
GPO Box 5218
Sydney
NSW 2001

Phone: 1300 363 992
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
Online privacy complain form

You can contact Vegetation Link by telephone, email or by post as follows:

Address: PO Box 10, Castlemaine, Vic, 3450
Telephone: 03 8578 4250
Email: offsets@vegetationlink.com.au

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy was last updated: 30 June 2021

This Privacy Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and practices and the changing business environment.

The most current version of this Policy can be obtained (without charge) by contacting us using the details above.