Linux Australia, Inc. (“Linux Australia”) operates under the Australian Privacy Principles as defined in the Australian Privacy Act 1988. While Linux Australia is not required to be bound by the Privacy Act, Linux Australia has chosen to follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the interests of openness and transparency. To this end, this Privacy Policy outlines the personal information handling practices employed by Linux Australia.

This policy is written in simple language. The specific obligations of Linux Australia when collecting and handling your personal information are outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 with particular reference to the Australian Privacy Principles found in that Act. Linux Australia will update this privacy policy when our information handling practices change. Updates will be provided on our website.

This policy was last updated on 16 December 2019.

Linux Australia represents users of Open Source and Open Technology in Australia and New Zealand. Linux Australia is not active outside this geographic area.

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information in order to carry out activities as permitted under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).

These functions and activities include:

  • Coordinating the organisation’s activities
  • Managing events
  • Accepting payment for products and services
  • Delivering items
  • Providing support to members as deemed appropriate

Linux Australia only collects the minimum amount of information required to carry out its activities and functions.

Personal information is primarily collected when supplied to us in the course of our interaction with you. For example, when you send an email with an enquiry we will store your email address to allow us to send a reply.

To facilitate communication with you, Linux Australia may collect and store your name, the company you work for, your email address, fax number and phone numbers.

Linux Australia will collect and store your address when you apply to become a member. This is required by law under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 in New South Wales, Australia, where Linux Australia is incorporated. Linux Australia may also collect and store your address if needed to arrange billing or product delivery.

Linux Australia does not collect or store any other information about you for the purposes of running Linux Australia because the organisation does not need it. However, events facilitated by Linux Australia may collect additional personal information in order to run the event or to help plan future events. Unless overridden by an event-specific privacy policy, the collection and management of the additional information will be governed by this privacy policy.

Some jurisdictions restrict the collection of personal information from people under certain ages. Since Linux Australia does not collect or store birth dates we are unable to actively police this. By providing personal information to Linux Australia you are warranting that your information can be collected and stored by Linux Australia.

Your personal information is only collected when supplied by you. Linux Australia does not collect personal information through any other means.

When you interact with us electronically there are a number of other ways in which information about you may be collected.

Analytics

Linux Australia may employ third party analytics companies to provide data about how you interact with our website. Presently this service is provided by Google Analytics. Information which may be collected when browsing our website include:

  • Your device’s IP address
  • Device screen size
  • Device type, operating system and browser information
  • Geographic location
  • Referring domain and out link if applicable
  • Pages visited
  • Date and time when website pages were accessed

This information is not linked to you personally and cannot be traced to an individual. Linux Australia does not disclose this information to any third parties.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files transferred onto computers or devices by websites for record-keeping purposes and to enhance functionality on the website. No cookies are created or used by the Linux Australia website itself.

Browsing the Linux Australia website will typically cause a Google Analytics cookie to be set due to the use of the third party Google Analytics service. The handling of Google Analytics cookies by Google is governed by Google’s Privacy Policy and Google’s Cookies Policy.

Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website. You may also wish to clear any associated cookies which were stored before making this change. Some functionality of our website (such as member login) will not be available or work correctly if cookies are disabled.

Website enquiry form

If you use the enquiry form offered on our website, your name and your contact email address provided by you on the form will be stored to allow us to respond to your enquiry.

Social networking services

We use social networking services such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to communicate with the public about our business. When you communicate with us using these services we may collect your personal information as supplied by you through these platforms, but we only use it to help us to communicate with you and the public. Your use of social networking services for any purpose (including but not limited to communication with Linux Australia) gives the social media providers access to your personal information. These services have their own privacy policies and Linux Australia has no control over how these services operate. You can access the privacy policies for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube (a part of Google) on their websites.

Mailing lists

Linux Australia run a number of opt-in mailing lists for the benefit of members and the community. These mailing lists are publicly accessible and are archived for future reference. Subscribers to these mailing lists are responsible for all material they choose to post.

Credit card information

Linux Australia accepts credit card payments for certain products and services (mostly conference registration fees). These payments are handled entirely by our third party payment gateway. Credit card details provided in connection with such payments are never seen by Linux Australia. The provision of information to the credit card payment gateway will be subject to the terms and conditions of that gateway.

Linux Australia events

Events associated with Linux Australia use their own systems to manage the event. This may include a website, and services like Google Drive for administration. These services are managed by the conference organising teams and as such may make use of third party services beyond those outlined in this Privacy Policy. The provision of personal information to these systems is controlled by the Privacy Policy of the event (if different from this policy) and the terms and conditions of the respective online services.

Regardless of how the information was collected, Linux Australia does not disclose your personal information to any third parties unless this is required to carry out normal activities or we are compelled to by law enforcement.

When shipping products you have purchased, Linux Australia will disclose your delivery address to the courier company used to deliver your goods. Your address may also be disclosed to the postal service if there is a requirement to send items to you.

Linux Australia will never sell the personal information it collects.

Information collected by analytics companies and social media platforms is subject to the retention and disclosure policies of the respective companies. Linux Australia has no control over these processes. This information may be held outside of Australia.

Linux Australia considers it a privilege to be entrusted with information about you and secures this information accordingly against unauthorised access. All personal information is primarily stored in Australia, and we ensure that only people who require your information have access to it.

Linux Australia makes use of “Google Drive” to store some correspondence and other documentation related to the administration of the organisation. Examples include formal written letters and extracts from electronic communication which are the subject of discussion by the Linux Australia Council. Personal information contained in such documents may therefore be incidentally stored on Google servers. When stored on Google Drive, such information is subject to the Google terms and conditions. If communication with Linux Australia includes a clear statement requesting that personal information not be stored on Google Drive, Linux Australia will honour that request.

Upon discovery of a data breach, Linux Australia will:

  • Initiate immediate action to secure the affected systems and the information held on them.
  • Make every effort to inform victims of the breach and its nature.
  • Alert relevant authorities as required under the Australian Privacy Act.
  • Comply with all requests by law enforcement authorities.

Under the Privacy Act (Australian Privacy Principles 12 and 13) you have the right to ask for access to personal information that we hold about you, and ask that we correct that personal information. You can ask for access or correction by contacting us and we must respond within 30 days. If you ask, we must give you access to your personal information, and take reasonable steps to correct it if we consider 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.

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.

You may request that we delete any personal information we have stored about you. Such a request must be in writing. If we receive such a request and after verifying your identity we will take all reasonable steps to remove your information from all of our systems.

If you wish to complain to us about how we have handled your personal information you should complain in writing. Please contact us if you need help with this process.

If we receive a complaint from you about how we have handled your personal information we will determine what action we could and should take to resolve the complaint.

Linux Australia’s contact details are provided on our website.

Privacy related matters can be raised by sending an email to privacy@linux.org.au, which is directed to the President and Secretary of Linux Australia. To facilitate any future requirements to conduct a privacy audit, messages sent to this address are archived by Linux Australia in accordance with this Privacy Policy.