PRIVACY POLICY
ABOUT THIS POLICY
This Privacy Policy (Policy) applies to tekFoundation Australia Limited (ABN: 21 679 029 826) ("tekFoundation", "we", ”our" or "us"), and describes how tekFoundation collects, handles and protects the privacy of your personal information.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and understand the importance of protecting your personal information. This Policy outlines the types of personal information that we usually collect, the purposes for which we collect it, to whom we disclose it, how we hold and keep it secure and your rights in relation to your personal information, including how to complain and how we deal with complaints.
We will handle your personal information in accordance with this Policy, legislation including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and any other relevant Commonwealth or State-based laws.
In this Policy:
personal information means any information or opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether true or not. It does not include information that is de-identified.
sensitive information means personal information that is 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; criminal record; health information; genetic information; biometric information used for automated biometric verification or identification or biometric templates.
health information means personal information which is also about the health of an individual, an individual's expressed wishes about the future provision of health services or a health service provided or to be provided to the individual, as well as other personal information collected to provide, or in providing a health service, other personal information collected in connection with the donation of body parts or organs or genetic information that could be predictive of the health of the individual or a genetic relative of the individual.
AI system means a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.
This Policy does not apply to our employee records.
We may change this Policy from time to time, by publishing changes on our website.
TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The types of personal information we collect about you depend on the dealings you have with us, and can include (but is not limited to):
name, gender, date of birth, address, email address and phone number;
employment status, professional associations, your professional title and social media user names or handles;
the name and details of the organisation(s) you work for, are affiliated with, or volunteer with;
any additional information you provide through our forms, website, or associated group chats or online forums we facilitate;
your skills, interests, areas of expertise and preferences;
source or referral information (e.g., how you heard about us or were referred to us);
event-related information, including your event registrations and attendances with events associated with us;
donation history and related information where you make a donation to us;
your interactions with our marketing communications and customer relationship management records;
records of our interactions including calls or meetings, including by AI tools (eg by note taking or transcription tools); and
information about the matter you are seeking assistance with.
We do not generally collect your sensitive information. However, we may incidentally collect your sensitive information and health information, including but not limited to:
dietary requirements or food allergies (e.g., provided in connection with event registrations), which may constitute health information;
your or a family member's current and/or past medical history, including relevant lifestyle and/or ethnic background (e.g. provided in connection with availability or absence from volunteer role or events);
social history, lifestyle information and/or ethnic background (e.g., provided in connection with access to social media accounts);
information voluntarily disclosed by individuals in community group chats or forums that may constitute sensitive information (e.g., information about disabilities, neurodivergence, or health conditions shared in the context of ways of working or otherwise).
If you volunteer for, or are applying for a role with us, we collect information, including some or all of the following:
employment history and qualifications;
academic records;
references;
medical information;
personal alternative contact details;
superannuation fund details; and
criminal history record.
DEALING WITH US ANONYMOUSLY OR USING A PSEUDONYM
Where possible and lawful, you can interact with us anonymously or using a pseudonym. For example, if you contact us with a general question, we will not record your name unless we need it to adequately handle your question.
However, for many of our functions and activities we usually need your name, contact information and other details to enable us to provide our services or products to you.
WAYS WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect personal information in different ways, including:
from you directly when you interact with us, e.g. from our discussions with you, when you complete a form (including in electronic form), your emails, your telephone calls and your interaction with our website or group chats or online forums we facilitate;
photography or videography for the purpose of creating marketing materials, promotional content, or other communications;
from your authorised representatives or relevant government agencies;
through third parties with whom we interact in order to provide our services;
publicly available sources, including social media; and
personal information generated by an AI system, such as AI-generated summaries of recorded conversations, tags or classifications assigned based on information you provide (e.g., skills or interests), engagement scores generated by our customer relationship management platform and recommendations or suggestions generated by our matching tools.
If you apply for a job or hold a volunteer or contract position with us, we may also collect personal information about you from third parties and publicly available sources, including:
recruiters;
government departments to verify your entitlement to work in Australia;
police agencies to obtain your criminal history record;
academic institutions;
superannuation fund provider;
your current or previous employers;
your referees; and
publicly available sources such as professional networking platforms.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION VIA OUR WEBSITE
When you visit our website, we also use 'cookies' or other similar tracking technologies that help us track your website usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, mobile phone or other device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and/or browsing sessions. You can disable cookies through your internet browser but our website may not work as intended for you if you do so.
Whilst we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, search engine referrals and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer.
Certain sections of our web pages and emails may contain electronic images, known as web beacons. These electronic images enable us to count users who have visited certain pages on our website. Web beacons are not used by us to access your personal information, they are simply a tool we use to analyse which web pages are viewed, in an aggregate number.
PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect your personal information for the following purposes:
to provide and maintain our services, including to monitor the usage and impact of our services;
to manage and conduct our business, including to manage your account and registration as a user of our services;
to contact you;
to offer or promote our products and services;
to obtain feedback or respond to complaints and queries;
to help us manage, develop and enhance our services, products, and marketing, including our websites and applications, and for related purposes such as data analysis;
to request or process donations; and
to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our agreements and rights with third parties.
If you have applied for employment, or are engaged as a contractor or volunteer we may also collect your personal information for the following purposes, including (but not limited to):
to consider your suitability for employment or a contractor or volunteer position and (if successful) engaging the applicant or contractor;
administering the individual's employment or contract; or
for insurance purposes.
AUTOMATED DECISION MAKING
We use personal information in the operation of computer programs to make, or assist us in making, certain decisions (automated decisions). The personal information we use for this purpose is your name, skills, interests, areas of expertise, and information you submit through our volunteer registration or expression of interest forms. No decision significantly affecting your rights or interests is made by a computer program, solely or otherwise. The decisions we make using this personal information in the operation of computer programs, are as follows:
the categorisation, classification and tagging of your skills, interests, and areas of expertise to assist us in matching you with relevant volunteer opportunities, initiatives, or communications; and
other decisions as notified by us from time to time.
DISCLOSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
In the course of providing our products and services to you, we may need to disclose your personal information to third parties, including the following:
related entities or affiliated recruitment services (such as tekFinder) where you have expressed interest in employment opportunities or we reasonably believe an opportunity may be relevant to you in which case we may share your CV, professional profile or contact details;
payment processors and financial services providers (which may include but are not limited to Stripe and Xero) to process payments, donations, invoices, or refunds;
event management platforms (which may include but are not limited to Humanitix) to facilitate event registrations, ticketing, and related services;
cloud storage and workspace providers (which may include but are not limited to Google Workspace for Nonprofits) for the storage and management of data in connection with our operations;
customer relationship management and marketing platforms to manage communications, mailing lists and marketing activities;
other organisations we contract to provide services on our behalf such as software suppliers and IT service providers;
anyone to whom part or all of our assets or businesses are transferred or sold;
our professional advisers, including lawyers, insurers, accountants and auditors;
government agencies, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies, or other similar entities;
where disclosure will prevent or lessen a serious or imminent threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety; and
the disclosure is reasonably necessary to take appropriate action in relation to a suspected unlawful activity or serious misconduct.
Some of these organisations may be located outside of Australia. In particular, our financial services providers may store data in New Zealand, and our cloud storage and payment processing providers may store data in the United States and other countries in which they operate data centres. Other service providers we engage from time to time may also be located in overseas jurisdictions.
See further the section below 'Sending and storing information overseas'.
DIRECT MARKETING
We may use your personal information to identify a service, opportunity, or event that we believe you may be interested in or to contact you about sponsorship or making a donation. We may, with your consent, use the personal information we have collected about you to contact you from time to time whether by phone, email or SMS to tell you about new products or services, volunteer opportunities and initiatives, upcoming events, new services or updates, news or content relevant to our community that we believe is of interest to you.
You may opt out of receiving direct marketing communications from us at any time by using the unsubscribe facility in any electronic marketing communication, or by contacting us using the details set out in this Policy.
SECURITY AND STORAGE
We store your personal information electronically. Electronic information is stored using third party cloud-based storage and workspace providers (including Google Workspace for Nonprofits) and within our customer relationship management platform. We take all reasonable and appropriate steps (including organisational and technological measures) to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
We implement and maintain processes and security measures to protect personal information, which includes the following processes and systems:
the use of identity and access management technologies to control access to systems on which information is processed and stored;
requiring all employees to comply with internal information security policies and keep information secure;
requiring all employees to complete training about information security; and
monitoring and regularly reviewing our practice against our own policies and against industry best practice.
We only keep your personal information for as long as it is required for the purpose for which it was collected or as otherwise required by applicable laws. If we no longer need to hold your personal information for any reason or we are no longer required by law to keep it, we will take reasonable steps to de-identify or destroy that information. These steps can vary depending on the nature of the information, the way it was collected and how it was stored.
Our AI systems are also subject to governance processes to ensure they comply with privacy laws and cybersecurity standards.
We may use online or 'cloud' service providers to store personal information and to provide services that involve the use of personal information. See further the section below 'Sending and storing information overseas'.
SENDING AND STORING INFORMATION OVERSEAS
We may disclose personal information about an individual to overseas recipients in certain circumstances, for instance:
our invoicing and financial services provider (Xero) may store data in New Zealand;
our cloud storage and workspace provider (Google Workspace for Nonprofits) and our payment processor (Stripe) may store data in the United States and other countries in which they operate; and
other service providers we engage from time to time may be located in overseas jurisdictions.
We use online or 'cloud' service providers to store personal information and to provide services that involve the use of personal information, such as services relating to email, document storage, customer relationship management, and event management. Some limited personal information may also be provided to these service providers to enable them to authenticate users that access their services and provide technical support. This personal information may be stored in the 'cloud' which means that it may reside on a cloud service provider's servers which may be situated outside Australia.
We use AI systems that are provided by third parties e.g., meeting transcription tools. These third parties may store or have access to personal information input into, and/or generated by, these AI systems. These third parties may be located outside Australia, including in the United States.
ACCESS TO AND CORRECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION
We will endeavour to ensure that the personal information collected from you is up to date, accurate and complete.
You can request access to, or correction of, the personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting our privacy contact using the details set out in this Policy. We will need to verify your identity before responding to your request. Subject to any applicable exceptions or requirements, we will provide you with access to the personal information you request within a reasonable time and usually within 28 days. If we decide to refuse your request, we will tell you why in writing and how to complain.
COMPLAINTS
You can make a complaint in writing to our privacy contact using the details set out in this Policy. We will respond to you within a reasonable period of time to acknowledge your complaint and inform you of the next steps we will take in dealing with your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) via the OAIC website, www.oaic.gov.au.
CHANGES TO THE POLICY
From time to time, we may change this Policy, including how we handle personal information or the types of personal information that we hold. Any changes to this Policy will be published on our website.
You may obtain a copy of our current Policy from our website or by contacting us at the contact details below.
CONTACT US
If you have a question or comment regarding this Policy or wish to make a complaint or exercise your privacy rights, please contact our privacy contact on the following details:
Address: tekFoundation, Level 31/52 Martin Pl, Sydney NSW 2000
Email: hello@tekfoundation.org.au
Last updated: 25 August, 2026