Privacy policy

In this Privacy Policy, 'us' 'we' or 'our' means the Clean Energy Council Limited (ABN 84 127 102 443).

We are committed to respecting your privacy. Our Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal information. 

We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (APPs). The APPs regulate the manner in which personal information is handled throughout its life cycle, from collection to use and disclosure, security, accessibility and disposal.

We are also required to comply with more specific privacy legislation in some circumstances, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Ch) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth).

By providing personal information to us, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any other arrangements that apply between us. We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time by publishing changes to it on our website. We encourage you to check our website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

Personal information includes information or an opinion about an individual that is reasonably identifiable. For example, this may include your name, age, gender, postcode and contact details. It may also include financial information, including your credit card information.

What kind of information does the Clean Energy Council collect?

We may collect the following types of personal information:

• name
• email address
• phone number
• postcode.

Where necessary for a specific purpose, we may also collect mobile phone and other contact details, credit card information and other types of personal information that may be required to facilitate your dealings with us. 

How we collect personal information

Unless we are permitted by law or it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so, we will collect personal information directly from you. 

We collect personal information in a number of ways, including: 

• in person (for example, at conferences or events or if you attend our places of business)
• through our website 
• through our social media pages
• over the telephone
• through written correspondence 
• on hard copy forms 
• through surveillance cameras. 

We may collect this information when you:

• apply to become a member or for accreditation or for your business to become an Approved Solar Retailer
• participate in a campaign or attend a conference or event
• communicate with us including where you ask for our assistance or make an inquiry
• attend our office
• interact with our website, social media pages, services, content and advertising
• apply for a job with us.

Telephone calls that you make to some or all of the telephone numbers or extensions that we use in our business (such as the telephone advice services that we provide) may be recorded. You will be notified if a telephone call that you make to us will be recorded. We may collect any personal information that you provide in the course of any such recorded telephone conversations.

What does the Clean Energy Council do with the information?

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to enable us to communicate with you and involve you in campaigns to support clean energy in Australia
• to process your application for membership and administer your membership
• to process your application for accreditation and administer your accreditation
• to process your application for your business to become an Approved Solar Retailer and to administer that program
• to register you as a user of our website
• to send you service, support and administrative messages, reminders, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and information requested by you
• to send you marketing and promotional messages and other information that may be of interest to you
• to administer events sponsored or managed by us
• to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes, and enforce our agreements with third parties
• if you apply for a job or a contract role with us, to consider your application for employment for that role (as applicable).
• protecting the security of our offices, staff, customers and the property held on our premises
• answering queries and resolving complaints.

We may also collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for other purposes explained at the time of collection or:

• which are required or authorised by or under law (including, without limitation, privacy legislation); or
• for which you have provided your consent.

Do we use your personal information for direct marketing?

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our campaigns and future events where you have provided your consent or we are otherwise permitted to do so. This may take the form of emails, SMS, mail or other forms of communication, in accordance with the Spam Act and the Privacy Act. You may opt out of receiving marketing materials from us by contacting us at info@cleanenergycouncil.org.au or by using the opt-out facilities provided in our communications (such as an unsubscribe link) or, if you are a member, by logging into the member area of our website and changing your subscription options under ‘Update my profile’.

To whom do we disclose your personal information?

We may disclose personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy to:

• our employees
• third party suppliers and service providers (including providers for the operation of our websites, call recording system and/or our business)
• professional advisers, dealers and agents
• payment systems operators
• specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us, 
• referees whose details are provided to us by job applicants; and/or
• other persons, including government agencies, government departments and statutory bodies in connection with programs administered by those parties (and also to companies engaged by a government agency, department or statutory body to administer a program on behalf of such bodies), and regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies, or as required, authorised or permitted by law.

We do not provide mailing lists to outside organisations for marketing purposes. When you send an email through our website, such as to a newspaper or member of Parliament, the email will include your email address and full name. When you sign a petition, we will publish your name, city/suburb and state, but not your email or physical address.

Disclosure of personal information outside of Australia

We store some of the personal information that we collect in our customer relationship management system, which is provided to us by Salesforce and is hosted in Japan. We disclose this personal information to Salesforce in Japan in order for Salesforce to provide us with their customer relationship management system and related services.

Except as set out above, we do not disclose personal information outside Australia.

Data security

We take steps to maintain the security of personal information we collect.  

The steps we take to secure the personal information we hold include website protection measures (such as firewalls and anti-virus software), security restrictions on access to our computer systems (such as login and password protection), controlled access to our corporate premises, policies on document storage and security, personnel security (including restricting access to personal information on our systems to staff who need that access to carry out their duties), staff training and workplace policies.

The Clean Energy Council uses secure server software (SSL) that is the industry standard and among the best software available. It encrypts all of your personal information, including your, name and contact details, so that it cannot be read as the information travels over the Internet.

What happens when the Clean Energy Council campaign I participated in ends?

When our campaign has finished, all of the personal information collected through it will be used to keep you updated on the Clean Energy Council's ongoing work. Please note that we may monitor and/or keep records of e-mail communications which you send us or phone conversations in the interests of our business.

Collection of information other than personal information through our website

When you visit our website, some of the information that is collected about your visit is not personal information, as it does not reveal your identity.  

Site visit information

For example, we record your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages you visited, any documents you downloaded, the previous site you visited and the type of device, browser and operating system you used.

We use and disclose this information in anonymous, aggregated form only , for purposes including statistical analysis and to assist us to improve the functionality and usability of our website. You are not individually identified, however we reserve the right to use or disclose this information to try to locate an individual where we reasonably believe that the individual may have engaged in any unlawful or inappropriate activity in connection with our website, or where we are otherwise required or authorised by law to do so.

We also transmit website traffic data to Google Analytics who provide us with reports on how our webpage is accessed. By using our website you consent to this data being provided to Google Analytics. Information on how Google uses the data can be found here policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Cookies

A cookie is a tiny element of data our website can send to your browser that can be stored on your hard drive and collect information about your web browsing behaviour. It does NOT access personal information stored on your computer. Our website uses cookies to help us deliver a more personalised experience for you, to improve functionality by recording any difficulties you may experience when using our website and to deliver content or information that may be of interest to you. You may set your web browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, or to disable cookies altogether.

Online Behavioural Advertising

We use advertising programs that place cookies on your computer to collect information about your browsing history (including on external websites). This information, which does not identify you personally, is collected in order to improve your online experience by customising the advertising you see to your interests (including the display of more relevant ads on external websites). 

Links

Our website may contain links to websites operated by third parties. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. Unless expressly stated otherwise, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of, or any content on, those linked websites, and have no control over or rights in those linked websites. The privacy policies that apply to those other websites may differ substantially from our Privacy Policy, so we encourage individuals to read them before using those websites.

Accessing or correcting your personal information

You can access the personal information we hold about you by contacting us at info@cleanenergycouncil.org.au. Sometimes, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of your personal information and, where this is the case, we will tell you why. We may also need to verify your identity when you request your personal information.

If you think that any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is corrected.

Making a complaint

If you think we have breached the Privacy Act, or you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information, please contact us at info@cleanenergycouncil.org.au. Please include your name, email address and/or telephone number and clearly describe your complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you regarding your complaint within a reasonable period of time. If you think that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, we will provide you with information about the further steps you can take.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (see here for further information).

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please use the contact link on our website or contact our Privacy Officer using the details set out below. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your query.

You can contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

Post:
Attn: the Privacy Officer
Clean Energy Council
Level 15, 222 Exhibition Street
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Australia

Tel: +61 3 9929 4100
Email: info@cleanenergycouncil.org.au

Date of last update: 07/08/2024