Home Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement for Maclarens Lawyers (“Maclarens”) as at July 2023

Maclarens is committed to protecting your privacy and the personal information we collect in the course of your access to our website and the provision of our services. 

This Privacy Policy sets out how Maclarens collects, uses, discloses and protects your Personal Information. 

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Personal Information is 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 the information or opinion is recorded in material form or not. 

Any references below to “we”, “our” or “us” are references to Maclarens.

By submitting personal information to us in the access and use of our website and services, you confirm your acceptance to the terms of our Privacy Policy. You also consent to us handling your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Our business is subject to change and improvements. There may be times in which we consider changes to our Privacy Policy are necessary. If changes occur, you can find the latest version by visiting (www.maclarens.com.au/privacy). Any new iterations to our Privacy Policy of will accordingly apply to any and all information we hold at that time. We encourage you to check regularly for updates.

Should you not agree with the terms of our Privacy Policy, please contact us at mail@maclarens.com.au to request clarification and discuss your concerns before you provide us with your personal information. 

Information we may collect and hold

Maclarens may collect and hold the following information:

  1. Your Name and Title; 
  2. Your Business Name(s);
  3. Your ABN or ACNs;
  4. Contact information such as addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, facsimile numbers;
  5.  Credit card information for the processing of payments;
  6. Information you provide us as part of any credit application;
  7. Information about which of our services may be of interest to you;
  8. Where necessary, any information required by us to provide you our products and services and to enable us to identify you as our existing customer when you phone us;
  9. Services you have requested and your general service history; and 
  10. Other types of information from time to time to enable us to operate our business.

How we collect your Personal Information

Maclarens may collect your personal information in a variety of ways including:

  1. Directly from you, including when you enquire about our services, engage us to provide services to you and when you provide us with a credit application. That information may be obtained:

        (a)    from forms, applications and documents completed by you;

        (b)    telephone conversations & conferences with our representatives;

        (c)    submissions made via our website; and 

        (d)    emails sent by you to us. 

       2. From third parties such as those we hold industry relationships with, business partners, clients and other service providers;

       3. Information we already hold in our database(s); and

       4. Publicly available sources of information. 
You are not obligated to provide Personal Information and you may visit our website or social media channels to communicate with us anonymously. 

Please be aware however if you choose not to provide us with certain information, we may not be able to provide you with the benefit of our services, respond to your query or assist you.

How we store and secure your Personal Information 

Maclarens stores information in a variety of ways including electronic storage on computer systems, cloud systems and paper files and other types of records. We take reasonable steps to ensure personal information is secured against any misuse, interference, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Our staff are required to handle your information in a compliant manner and we have in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard personal information we store. 

We are however realistic about the security challenges posed by the internet and social media. Because of this we cannot be held liable for the security of any personal or sensitive information you transmit to us over the internet or email, or for any potential unauthorised access and use of that information during that transmission before it reaches our care. For example, it is not advisable to transmit financial information such as credit card details via your email or through social media channels and messaging applications.

Purposes of collecting and how we may use your Personal Information 

We collect and use your Personal Information in relation to our provision of services to you as well as in the ordinary course of our business. We use your Personal Information for the purposes for which it was collected unless you have otherwise consented. 

The ways in which we may use your Personal Information is as follows: 

  1. Providing you with our services, which may include for the purposes of preparation, installation and carrying out of any video monitoring services;
  2. Contacting you to respond to your queries or feedback;
  3. Processing payment for services you have requested;
  4. The marketing of our services to you in the manner of email promotions, special offers, events or other information of interest. However, should you not wish to receive these materials, you can opt out by contacting us or clicking the “unsubscribe” link in any marketing emails sent to you;
  5. Internal purposes such as record keeping, accounting or auditing;
  6. To consider your application for credit in respect of your engagement of our services;
  7. To perform administrative and operational tasks (including risk management, systems development and testing, staff training and collecting debts);
  8. For any purposes required of us to comply with our reporting, legal and regulatory obligations; and 
  9. For any other purpose for which you may reasonably expect. 

Who we may disclose your Personal Information to 

We disclose your Personal Information as you instruct. We may require the Personal Information we collect (and its intended nature) to be disclosed internally and to third parties. 

Third party disclosure however will only take place where there is a valid and necessary reason, so that we can best provide our services to you in the ordinary course of our business. 

Third Parties may include:

  1. Any contactors we may engage as part of our provision of services to you;
  2. Our insurers if required;
  3. Credit reporting bodies in accordance with s 21D of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth); 
  4. Auditors, solicitors and other professional consultants where required;
  5. Debt collection agencies where required; and
  6. IT and software providers, such as website hosting services and database/information storage services, including but not limited to Worldox, Netdocuments, Open Practice, and Actionstep.

In addition to the above, we will also disclose your Personal Information where required by law, including if we receive a subpoena or other Court or Tribunal order. 

We use every endeavour to deal with your Personal Information within Australia, however where our third-party providers utilise first or second stage disaster back up cloud storage systems outside of Australia, Maclarens uses reasonable endeavours to ensure that the information which it has transferred will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information except consistently with the National Privacy Principles. 

Access and correction of Personal Information

You may request access to, and corrections to, personal information we may hold about you. 

Access to your Personal Information

If you would like to access your Personal Information held by us, please contact us at mail@maclarens.com.au. We will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible and in any event within 30  days. 

Correction of your Personal Information

Should you believe that information we hold about you is incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete, please contact us at mail@maclarens.com.au as soon as possible. We will respond and make necessary corrections within 30 days. 

We will also take reasonable steps to make notification of corrections to any third parties we may have provided the information to where it is still relevant and where they are an APP entity. 

Should we refuse a request to correct information within the scope provided under APP 13, we will accordingly provide an explanation in writing within the standard required timeframe of 30 days.

Complaints relating to your Personal Information

Should you have any concerns or wish to make a complaint about our handling of your personal information or you believe there has been a breach of your privacy, please contact us immediately so we can investigate and address your complaint within a reasonable timeframe. You are welcome to call us, email us or mail us using the following details:

Privacy Officer
Mail@maclarens.com.au
232 Merrylands Road, Merrylands NSW 2160

Please allow us 30 days to respond to your complaint. 

If after receiving our response you are not satisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Complaints may be directed to the OAIC in the following ways:

By post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney, NSW 2001
By fax: +61 2 6123 5145
Online: Using the form available at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/lodge-a-privacy-complaint-with-us 

Further information regarding how to make a complaint with the OAIC can be obtained by:

Visiting: www.oaic.gov.au
Calling: 1300 363 992
Emailing: enquiries@oaic.gov.au