Privacy Policy

1.1          Introduction

Stellar Conveyancing Pty Ltd (ABN 49 160 054 786) are referred to in this Privacy Policy as we, us or our. Stellar Conveyancing (and any affiliated organisations) (together referred to in this policy as "Stellar Conveyancing ") recognises the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information.

Stellar Conveyancing is subject to the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988.  The National Privacy Principles set out the way in which personal information must be treated.  In summary, "personal information" is information or an opinion relating to an individual which can be used to identify that individual.

This Privacy Policy explains how we manage personal information. It also describes your rights to access and correct personal information we hold about you, and how you can make a complaint about our management of your personal information. This is in addition to our obligations of confidentiality to clients and other parties arising from sources other than the Privacy Act.

1.2          Use of cookies

A cookie is a small message given to your web browser by our web server.  The browser stores the message in a text file, and the message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

We may use cookies to provide us with anonymous aggregate information on how people use our website and to help us to know what they find interesting and useful on our website.  We do not store personal information such as email addresses or other details in a cookie.

Most web browsers are set up to accept cookies.  If you do not wish to receive cookies, you may be able to change the settings of your web browser to refuse all cookies or to notify you each time a cookie is sent to your computer, giving you the choice whether to accept it or not.

1.3.       Application of this Policy

This Privacy Policy only applies to some of the personal information we manage. It only applies to personal information we manage for the purposes of or in connection with our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the AML/CTF Act)

Other personal information we manage remains excluded by applicable exemptions in the Privacy Act.

1.4.       Related Entities

Not applicable

1.5.       Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The current version will be available on our website at https://www.stellarconveyancing.com.au.

2.         Personal information: what we collect

2.1.       Types of personal information

We collect your contact and identity details, financial information and case related information about you and any relevant entity or person. This may include sensitive information.

The types of personal information we may collect includes:

  • Identity information: name, date of birth, gender, signature, photographic identification, offices or directorships held;

  • Contact information: residential and postal addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers;

  • Professional and business information: occupation, employer, job title, professional qualifications, business holdings and structures;

  • Financial information: bank account details, billing information, payment card details, tax file numbers*;

  • Matter-related information: information relevant to your legal matter or the legal matter of our client;

  • Transaction information: details of services provided to you or your organisation;

  • Communication records: records of correspondence and communications with you;

  • Website and technical data: IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, cookies (see section 8);

  • Recruitment information: employment history, qualifications, references, right to work status, background check results; and

  • Sensitive information: including: sexual orientation, racial and ethnic origin, political beliefs, religious affiliation, criminal record, and health information.

2.2.       Identity Verification and the AML/CTF Act

We may be required to verify your identity and collect certain information under the AML/CTF Act when we provide designated services. Identity documents might also be required for other services such as court matters, real property transactions and asset dealings.

This includes collecting identification documents and information about the source of funds and beneficial ownership of entities.

3.          How we collect personal information

3.1.       Sources of information

We collect information directly from our clients, from other lawyers, government sources or public sources such as registers or the internet and from a number of sources including:

  • Directly from the individual to whom the information relates

  • From companies about their employees and contractors

  • From companies about their customers and suppliers

  • In property matters, from the person(s) for whom we are acting and from other individuals who may be involved in the matter

  • For marketing purposes, from business associates, potential clients and other third party sources.

We may also collect aggregated information from our website which tells us about visitors to our website.  For example, we may collect information about the date, time and duration of visits and which pages of the website are most commonly accessed.  The information does not identify visitors to the website.  It is used to help administer and improve the website.

Direct Collection

Where reasonable and practicable, we collect personal information directly from you.
This may occur when you:

  • engage us to provide legal services;

  • respond to communication with us or engage a solicitor or agent to do so;

  • contact us by telephone, email, post or in person;

  • complete forms or provide documents to us;

  • visit our website or use our online services; or

  •  apply for employment with us.

Indirect Collection

We may also collect personal information about you from third parties, including:

  • our client(s), where we collect information in the course of providing legal services;

  • other parties to legal proceedings or transactions and their lawyers;

  • witnesses of fact, expert witnesses, health care providers and hospitals;

  • courts, tribunals, law enforcement and government agencies;

  • publicly available sources, including public registers, websites and social media;

  • referrers who introduce you to us or lead agencies and advertising sites;

  • recruitment agencies and previous employers (for job applicants); and

  • identity verification, commercial data brokers and background check service providers.

3.2.       Anonymity and Pseudonymity

If you are a client, you have the option of requesting to deal with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. However, in most cases this is not lawful nor practical for legal services. If you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may not be able to provide you with legal services or respond to your enquiry.

4.        Why we collect personal information and how we use it

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose of providing legal services to our clients, complying with regulatory and insurance obligations and operating our legal practice.

Secondary purposes include financial management, system improvement, enforcement of our right to payment and managing the relationship between our firm and former clients once the retainer has concluded.

5.          Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose personal information to third parties to facilitate the purposes of collection noted in section 4. These purposes include disclosure to parties to proceedings or transactions and their representatives, to Courts, government and regulatory agencies as may be necessary or appropriate to establish legal rights and to progress transactions in which we are instructed. We also disclose information to third parties (such as data storage or archiving companies, our regulators or our insurers) who hold or process information for us.

6.          Overseas Disclosure

We will disclose information to overseas recipients where this is reasonably necessary to progress our instructions (dealing with a company with an overseas office, for example).

We may disclose personal information to recipients located outside Australia where reasonably necessary or convenient to facilitate the purposes of collection, holding, use and disclosure of information stated in sections 2 and 5 of this policy.

7.          Security of Personal Information

7.1.       Security Measures

We hold your personal information using a system designed to protect against data breaches, however like all data security systems, risks may only be mitigated but not eliminated. It is our practice to require our storage service providers to be reputable [and to seek assurances from them regarding security and confidentiality].

7.2.       Retention and Destruction

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with our legal and professional obligations and to ensure that pertinent evidence remains available if reasonably required.

8.          Third party websites

Our website may contain links to third party websites, such as payment processors. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

9.          Access and Correction

9.1.       Access to and correction of your Personal Information

You have the right to request access to or correction of the personal information we hold about you. To make an access request, please contact our Privacy Officer (see Section 10).

If we refuse to correct your personal information, we will provide written reasons for the refusal and information about how you may complain.

The Privacy Act permits us to refuse access in some circumstances. If we refuse your access request, we will provide you with written reasons for the refusal (unless unreasonable to do so or we are prohibited from doing so by law) and information about how you may complain.

10.          Complaints and questions

If you have a question about this policy or complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer. We ask that you provide details of your complaint in writing. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and investigate it promptly. We aim to resolve complaints within 30 days. If we need more time, we will keep you informed of our progress.

Privacy Officer

Michelle Watt

You may also contact the relevant legal services regulator in your State or Territory.