The ORU Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy – Membership Terms & Conditions.
This Privacy Policy forms the terms and conditions of membership.
Last updated April 2024.
Introduction
The ORU (owned and managed by The Online Research Unit Pty Ltd ABN 70 622 601 272) respects and upholds your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The ORU also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2014 (“Code”). For more information about the Privacy Act, the Australian Privacy Principles and the Code Click Here.
The ORU is an accredited ADIA member and works under the industry Trust Mark and Australia’s first and only registered APP privacy code. For details see here – https://dataandinsights.com.au/
This Privacy Policy for The ORU lets you know what personal information of yours we hold, what we do with it, who we will disclose it to and how you can access the personal information we hold about you. You can also find out here how to change inaccurate personal information and how to opt out of receiving communications from us.
What personal information about you does The ORU collect and hold?
The information The ORU collect will include [name, email, DOB, personal address and to become a panel member, we ask that you fill out a registration survey that gathers some other personal and general consumer information. The information we gather is used for matching you with the appropriate research projects. We ask you provide correct address details so we can send any prize or rewards owed.
When providing personal information you have the option of remaining anonymous or use a pseudonym to be identified by however, in certain circumstances, such as where we receive your contact details from a third party or where the research data itself may potentially allow for identification, this may will not be practicable. Once you have registered on our registration site you will be considered an online panel member. This means that we will contact you from time to time to participate in surveys.
Depending on the nature of the research we conduct, we may also collect sensitive information from you, including info on racial origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, membership or trade unions, sexual preferences and health information. Sensitive information will only be collected with your prior consent and only if it is directly related to, or reasonably necessary for, the research we conduct. In most cases any sensitive information collected in our surveys will be in aggregate form that will not personally identify you.
Please note we do not collect any government related indentifies such as Medicare, Tax File numbers or drivers license details.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information collected is accurate, up to date and complete for our research requirements. We conduct re-profiling questionnaires and the optional questions asked on reward end pages form part of our re-profiling and help ensure your information is up to date. Members have the option to access and update their own personal information or email us to assist.
How does The ORU collect and hold your personal information?
The ORU will generally collect your personal information directly from you in the course of you participating in our research and/or surveys. However, we may also from time to time collect personal information about you from third parties, such as subscription or members lists provided from our clients for research purposes. This information will usually include but is not limited to contact name & email address. In the event we are provided information by third parties, we will take steps to determine that it is reasonable apparent that individuals on that list may be contacted by third parties for research purposes and only information directly related to the research is provided. If so, we will inform you as soon as practicable of this collection and the circumstances of this collection.
What are the purposes for which The ORU uses, handles and discloses your personal information?
We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. If you declined to participate in our research, we may use your personal information to re-contact you for a research purpose if we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. If you have participated in our research, will only re-contact you if you were informed of this or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact
Who will The ORU disclose your personal information to?
The ORU will not disclose any personally identifiable research information we collect from you unless we have your express prior consent and will only report the information you provide in an aggregate form that will not personally identify you. We will not disclose any personal information or personally identifiable research information to a third party for a purpose other than conducting our research unless we have your express prior consent or are required to do so by an Australian law or court/tribunal order.
In the course of conducting our research we may rely on third party service providers to host or store the data we collect who are located overseas. The names and locations of those supplier include (Confirmit USA). In most cases, this survey data and research information will not be personally identifiable. We will also take reasonable steps to ensure any service providers (and their employees and contractors) comply with the Privacy Act and this Privacy Policy and/or are subject to similar privacy laws and you have the ability to enforce those rights.
Openness
You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details listed below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how access is provided (eg, emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However this fee will not be excessive and will only apply to the facilitation of your request.
If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate.
Questions and complaints
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following contact details:
Privacy Officer, The ORU, Level 6 – 30 Hickson Road, Millers Point NSW 2000 or email support@theoru.com.au.
We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint or not. If we do not agree, we will provide reasons. If we do agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider it appropriate to take in response. If you are still not satisfied after having contacted us and given us a reasonable time to respond, then we suggest that you contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:
Phone: 1300 363 992 (local call cost, but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If calling from overseas (including Norfolk Island): +61 2 9284 9749
TTY: 1800 620 241 (this number is dedicated to the hearing impaired only, no voice calls)
TIS: Translating and Interpreting Service: 131 450 (If you don’t speak English or English is your second language and you need assistance and ask for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner)
Post: GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
The ORU Website
When visiting The ORU’s web site, the site server makes a record of the visit and logs the following information for statistical and administrative purposes:
· the user’s server address – to consider the users who use the site regularly and tailor the site to their interests and requirements;
· the date and time of the visit to the site – this is important for identifying the website’s busy times and ensuring maintenance on the site is conducted outside these periods;
· pages accessed and documents downloaded – this indicates to The ORU which pages or documents are most important to users and also helps identify important information that may be difficult to find;
· duration of the visit – this indicates to us how interesting and informative the The ORU site is to candidates; the type of browser used – this is important for browser specific coding
· In order to optimize the The ORU web site and better understand it’s usage, we collect the visiting domain name or IP address, Computer Operating System, Browser Type and Screen Resolution
The ORU & Cookies
A cookie is a piece of information that an Internet web site sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Cookies are either stored in memory (session cookies) or placed on your hard disk (tracking cookies). The ORU may use both session and tracking cookies Upon closing your browser the session cookie set by this web site is destroyed and no Personal Information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our web site at a later date. We also use cookies and anonymous identifiers, when you interact online such as advertising services that may appear on other sites.
Please note, no personal identified information is used in the creation of segments or matched back to cookie information collected. (including PII related to the user’s mobile phone device). Our cookies have no sensitive segments or segments targeted at children under 13 years of age. Our cookies have no packet sniffing in the collection of behavioural data.
We will not associate cookies, web beacons, or other tracking mechanisms with personally- identifiable information (PII) for any purpose or with precise user location for behaviour targeting without your consent and have knowingly and expressly opted in. (For purposes of this document, PII and precise user location does not include IP addresses.)
The ORU does not use locally shared object (LSO) technologies (including but not limited to flash cookies, browser helper objects, or HTML5 localStorage) or device fingerprints for behavioural advertising, ad delivery, reporting, and/or multi-site advertising.
The ORU does not use collected data from cookies for re-targeting, interest category categorization, or syndication to other parties. We do not implement research studies in connection with an ad campaigns or information collected from cookies.
We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. Please note we do not combine personal information you have provided at registration with information collected in our cookies.
The domain location of cookies are https://trackingsurvey.theoru.com.au/
Opting out of cookies: We understand our members have different privacy concerns and you may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. You may manage how your browser handles cookies by adjusting its privacy settings. These steps for opting out of cookies will vary depending on internet browser you are using but are usually in the Settings, Tools or Preferences options within the browser.
You can also email us and we can assist in the process of opting out of cookies.
However, it’s important to remember our services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled and as a result it will limit the survey participation we can offer.
Accepting privacy policy is taken as accepting the use of these cookies.
Retention and destruction of Personal Information
The ORU will destroy or de-identify your personal information as soon as practicable once it is no longer needed for the purpose for our research purposes. However, we may in certain circumstances be required by law to retain your personal information after our research has been completed. In this case your personal information will continue to be protected in accordance with this Policy. If we destroy personal information we will do so by taking reasonable steps and using up-to-date techniques and processes.
Security of Information
The ORU will take reasonable steps to protect your personally identifiable information as you transmit your information from your computer to our website and to protect such information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
We are committed to ensuring your information is secure. We’ve put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to reasonably secure any information collected from you from misuse, interference or loss, and in order to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure to that information.
However, you should keep in mind that the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure or error-free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from this website may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.
Data breach notifications
The ORU is committed to the data security and safety under the Privacy Amendment Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) scheme and have data breach response plans in place. We recognise a data breach as either: unauthorised access; unauthorised disclosure; or loss of personal information.
The ORU will take reasonable steps under the Privacy Act, to secure personal information. Should a data breach involving personal information occur:
• The ORU will take positive steps to address the breach in a timely manner and take remedial action such that the data breach does not result in serious harm.
• The ORU will undertake reasonable and expeditious assessment to determine if it is an ‘eligible data breach’, that is a breach likely to result in serious harm to any individual affected.
In compliance with Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017, agree that if they become aware of reasonable grounds to believe an eligible data breach has occurred they will promptly notify ADIA, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (Commissioner) and the affected individuals at likely risk of serious harm.
A Note for New Zealand panel members
New Zealand’s Privacy Act (1993) and its 12 Information Privacy Principles (IPP) are similar to the Australian privacy principles and Privacy Act that guides our Privacy Policy. The NZ Act and 12 IPPs presume that trans-border data flows between Australia and New Zealand are permissible provided the IPPs are followed. The ORU’s handling of personal information under our Privacy Policy is consistent with the requirements under the NZ IPP.
Further information on New Zealand privacy legislation is available from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz .
Unsubscribe
Participation in our surveys is voluntary. If you do not wish to take part in any future surveys from The ORU, please send an email to support@theoru.com.au with the word ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject heading or reply to the latest survey invitation by clicking on the “Click here to unsubscribe” link located toward the bottom of the invitation.
A note for residents outside Australia and New Zealand.
Mint Surveys membership is only available to residents of Australia and New Zealand and we ask residents outside these areas do not attempt to join the Mint Surveys panel.
We acknowledge that EU residents may have the right to access, have transmitted, erased or object to any personal information we have on them under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) however anyone identified as an EU resident may have their data erased in accordance to our membership terms and conditions. You will be notified of this intention of erasure prior.
The ORU is also subject to the GDPR when handling data of any or our clients based in the EU. Our clients are considered data controllers for the data collected on their behalf. The ORU is considered a data processor for the survey data we host, as well as a data controller for the research participant panels we maintain. Both parties – controllers and processors – must be in compliance. Regarding their compliance, our clients should seek professional counsel from an appropriate body or organisation that has in-depth knowledge of GDPR. We cannot recommend or provide support in this area as each organisation’s needs are different.
A note for non-panel members.
From time to time The ORU is engaged to conduct research on behalf of a client that involves the transfer of transfer personal data to us, eg customer or client list with personal information including name & email. The ORU takes all reasonable steps to ensure our clients can confirm that all persons on lists provided have provided consent to be contacted by a third party for research purposes. We will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. Participation in our surveys is voluntary. If you do not wish to be conducted further by The ORU please an email to support@theoru.com.au with the word ‘unsubscribe’.
Miscellaneous
In this policy “personal information” has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act.
This policy is effective from 12 March 2014. We may change this policy from time to time. Although we intend to observe this Privacy Policy at all times, it is not legally binding on The ORU in any way. From time to time we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the policy. The ORU may do so, subject only to any other applicable contractual rights you have and any statutory rights you have under the Privacy Act or other applicable legislation.
Important Note to members:
The ORU membership is only available to residents of Australia and New Zealand.
The ORU members agree to abide by the following terms of membership:
The ORU members must read & agree to Privacy policy and Incentive policy.
The ORU members may use only one email address and may never sign-up for more than one membership.
The ORU membership is limited to one account per household unless agreed by The ORU.
The ORU membership is private and members should not provide their account username and password to other persons.
The ORU members must always provide details that are truthful and accurate and must never intentionally provide misleading or false information.
The ORU members agree to take a considered approach, not rush through surveys and not provide misleading or false information.
The ORU members must not act fraudulently in attempt to gain survey rewards.
The ORU members agree that research completed & information viewed is private and confidential and cannot be shared or distributed with third parties.
The ORU members may be removed from the panel if they breach membership terms and conditions.