CHIA NSW PRIVACY POLICY
Version 2, Effective Date: 3 March 2026
1. Introduction and purpose of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc, trading as Community Housing Industry Association NSW ABN 86 488 945 663 (CHIA NSW), collects, uses, discloses and stores your personal information including through your use of our services, websites including www.communityhousing.org.au, membership services, online services, platforms and technology and your participation in our surveys. This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with our CHIA NSW Data Collection Activities Terms and Conditions, which can be found on our website at: https://communityhousing.org.au/chia-nsw-data-collection-terms-and-conditions/
2. Changes to our Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Any updated versions of this Privacy Policy will be published on our website and will be effective from the date of publishing.
3. Third party links
Our website may include links to other websites, plug-ins and applications provided by others, including those acting on our behalf. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. These third parties have their own privacy policies. We may also facilitate your use of third party software or services. Your use of third party software or services may be governed by that third party’s privacy policies. We do not control third parties and are not responsible for their privacy policies or practices. When you leave our website or use third party software or services, we encourage you to read the privacy policy and terms of use of every website you visit or third party software or service you use.
4. The personal information we collect about you
Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
Sensitive information means information or an opinion 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 that is also personal information or health information about an individual, genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information, biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification, or biometric templates.
We will collect, use, disclose and store personal information about you, including:
- identity information, including name, title, company name, job title, gender and date of birth;
- contact information, including billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone number(s);
- purchase and transaction information, including details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us;
- user account information, including your username and password, your interests, preferences and feedback;
- member service information, including your enquiries and comments;
- records of your correspondence with us via in person or web forms, email, telephone, text message, social media or otherwise;
- publicly available information about you;
- information relevant to your application for employment with us or to provide services to us and managing our relationship with you; and
- any other information which you provide to us or give your consent for us to collect for example if you give consent to us to collect information for a specific purpose.
Information about you collected from third parties. We also collect personal information about our, and our partners’, members’ or customers’, personnel, tenants, customers and service providers when partners, members or customers disclose such information to us or request that we or a third party collect information from their personnel, tenants, customers and service providers directly, including when we conduct surveys or in connection with our member services and online services, platforms and technology we offer. Our collection notices which provide information about specific collections of personal information appear as schedules to the CHIA NSW Data Collection Activities Terms and Conditions.
Information about you collected from your online activity. We use computer “cookies” to make your experience more efficient, convenient and personalised. When you use our websites or online services or open e-mails from us, we use cookies and other technologies which automatically receive and record technical and usage information about you such as:
- details of your visits to our websites;
- your website use;
- traffic data;
- your IP address;
- location data;
- browser type;
- domain name; and
- specific web pages and communications you click on.
Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.
5. If you do not provide personal information
You may choose not to provide us with the personal information we request. Where practicable, we may provide you with the option to use a pseudonym when dealing with us in certain ways.
However, in some cases if you choose not to provide the personal information we request, we may not be able to verify your identity, supply you with our membership services or online services, platforms and technology or other resources, or permit you to attend our events. If a survey we are conducting requires personal information to be submitted, if you do not provide that personal information you will not be able to participate in the survey.
6. How is your personal information collected?
We use different methods to collect information from and about you including:
- through the forms you complete in person or on our website, through online services, platforms or technology, or at an in person event, or when you correspond with us by post, telephone, email or otherwise. This includes information you provide us when you:
- visit or create an account on our website or use online services, platforms and technology ;
- become a member or participate in our member activities;
- respond to a survey;
- request or receive our services or our partners’ services, whether as a member or otherwise;
- subscribe to our newsletters;
- register or attend our events;
- request or agree for marketing to be sent to you or when you respond to it;
- give us feedback;
- submit payments to us;
- require us to make payments to individuals or entities;
- apply for a job or position with us; and
- provide goods or services to us;
- from other sources including:
- publicly available sources such as your website, media and publications;
- any other person authorised to provide us with information on your behalf;
- community housing providers;
- our related entities, partners and service providers;
- our employees, contractors and volunteers;
- your employer;
- your employment references; and
- from your interactions and use of our website, online communications and online services, platforms or technology. Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.
7. Purpose for which we will collect, use and disclose your personal information
We will collect, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
- to register you as a new member or an event attendee;
- to process, manage and deliver our member and other services, or otherwise fulfil our obligations and exercise our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
- to manage our relationship with you;
- to notify you about changes to our policies, terms and services;
- to enable you to participate in competitions or promotions sponsored by us or our members, or complete a survey, and to offer those to you;
- to administer and protect our organisation, online services, and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data);
- make and receive payments;
- to conduct and analyse market research;
- to use data analytics to improve our website and services or develop new products and services, marketing, member relationships and experiences;
- to provide and promote our websites and services;
- to provide you with information about our products and services;
- to provide you with information, reports and resources we publish;
- to manage your attendance at events as well as office visits;
- to manage your membership, subscriptions and accounts with us or for services we offer;
- to communicate with you;
- to verify your identity and maintain our records;
- to deidentify, anonymise or aggregate your personal information;
- to record your marketing preferences;
- to maintain the security of services we offer;
- to improve the performance of services we offer;
- to review compliance with applicable usage terms (including capacity requirements);
- to identify future opportunities for development of services;
- to complete transactions with you when you purchase our products or services;
- to administer surveys and conduct research;
- to display personalised advertisements to you and to send to you marketing communications about us, our products and services;
- to comply with our legal obligations under applicable laws and to cooperate with public and government authorities as required;
- to prevent, detect, investigate and take action in relation to any actual or suspected fraud, unlawful activity or other misconduct;
- to make suggestions and recommendations to you about publications, events, programs, services or offers that may be of interest to you where you have agreed to or opted in to receive such marketing information;
- to create reports or to create aggregated data to share publicly as insights, trends, and as industry submissions, such as to government, and other lobbying activities;
- ensuring the safety and security of our employees and other persons; and
- other purposes as specified in our collection notices which appear as schedules to the CHIA NSW Data Collection Activities Terms and Conditions.
8. Disclosure of your personal information
We will share your personal information with the people or organisations set out below:
- any of our board members, partners, members or sponsors;
- any of our employees, contractors, service providers or partners who provide services to us or you;
- third parties such as suppliers, agents, contractors and partners who assist us with our functions and processes and provide products and services including in relation to:
- IT services;
- providing, managing, supporting and improving our organisation as well as our website and services; and
- advertising and marketing (including targeted and direct marketing) and market research services;
- professional advisers, including lawyers, bankers, auditors, audit assessors and insurers who provide auditing, consultancy, banking, legal, insurance or accounting services;
- regulators, courts, tribunals, law enforcement and debt collection service entitiesto enforce our rights or the rights of others or if we receive a lawful request for your personal information or are obliged to provide your information;
- our other contracted service providers that process personal information on our behalf such as for IT and system administration, hosting, credit card processing, research and analytics, marketing, customer support and data enrichment;
- any person you otherwise authorise us to disclose personal information to; and
- other people and/or organisations as specified in our collection notices which appear as schedules to the CHIA NSW Data Collection Activities Terms and Conditions.
- We may disclose your personal information to our third party service providers who assist us with carrying out the Survey. We may also disclose your information to third party service providers and partners in Australian states and territories other than your state or territory of residence including New South Wales and Victoria. Your personal information will not be disclosed or accessed outside of Australia.
9. Storage of your personal information
We retain your information for as long as is necessary pursuant to the purpose for which it was collected or for which the information may be retained by us in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, or as is otherwise required to be retained under law or by a court or tribunal. Most of your personal information will be kept by us for at least 7 years. We may also aggregate and/or de-identify information collected in accordance with this Privacy Policy so that this information can no longer be linked to you and we may retain such data indefinitely.
10. Cookies
Our Cookie Policy, which includes information about the cookies our website and online services use, can be found here.
11. Your rights
Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), you have rights in relation to your personal information including:
- to request us to access or correct your personal information; or
- to withdraw your consent to receive direct marketing messages from us.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us as set out below in section 12.
We welcome any feedback you might have about privacy-related issues. If you have any questions or complaints about how your personal information is being handled, please contact us as set out below in section 12.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at http://www.oaic.gov.au/.
11.1 No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to request to access or correct your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights) under applicable law. However, from time to time we may charge a reasonable fee to provide access to information depending on the nature of your request.
11.2 What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights).
11.3 How we respond to you
We will try to respond to all legitimate written requests by you regarding your personal information within 30 days after receiving them. Occasionally it may take us longer if your request is particularly complex or if you have made a number of requests. If we are not able to help with your request, we will let you know and provide you with a written explanation as to why.
11.4 Opting out
If you receive promotional emails, text messages or other marketing communications from us and you wish to stop receiving these communications you may opt out by clicking ‘Unsubscribe’ at the bottom of an email or text you receive from us. You may also contact us to opt-out.
12. Contact
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about how we handle personal information, or wish to exercise your rights as set out in this Privacy Policy or under applicable law, please contact us as follows:
- By post:
NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc
CHIA NSW,
Suite 5, 619 Elizabeth Street,
Redfern, NSW 2016
Australia
- By telephone: (02) 9690 2447
- By email: privacy@communityhousing.org.au