At Synectic, we recognise the importance of protecting and maintaining your personal information. We are committed to providing you with the highest quality professional service whilst also protecting your privacy. Synectic abides by the Australian Privacy Principles established under the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 and the Privacy Act 1988.

How we collect your personal information
We collect and hold personal information about you as part of the normal course of providing professional services to you. Wherever practicable, we will only collect information from you personally, for example when we deal with you in person or over the phone, when you send us details via correspondence, or when you subscribe electronically to our publications. Sometimes it may be necessary to collect your personal information from a third party. An example of this could be when we collect personal information about you from your authorised or personal representative, during the course of services provided to your employer, or from a publically available record. We may also collect information about you from your use of our websites or through any registration process on our website. If you provide us with someone else’s personal information, you should only do so when you have their permission. You should also take reasonable steps to inform that person of the matters set out in this Privacy Policy.

The kinds of personal information we collect and hold
The kinds of information we typically collect include your name, contact details, date of birth, gender, job titles and any other information that may be relevant to the provision of accounting services, such as tax file numbers, bank account details, credit card details, shareholdings and details of investments.

How we hold and secure your personal information
The security of your personal information is important to us. We store your personal information in different ways, including in paper and electronic format. We take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, interference, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These measures include electronic and physical security measures, such as:

• securing our premises, by requiring keys and/or monitoring access of people entering our offices;
• placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information;
• the use of firewalls, encryption, passwords and digital certificates;
• providing locked cabinets and rooms for the storage of physical records; and
• requiring our staff to undertake privacy and data protection training.

Purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information
The personal information we collect and hold about you, depends on your interaction with us. Generally, we collect, use and hold your personal information for a number of purposes, including:

• to provide professional services to you or someone else related to you;
• to  provide accounting services and solutions through technology;
• to provide you with information and marketing material about other services that we offer that may be of interest to you;
• to respond to requests or to maintain contact with you;
• to provide you with information relevant to your type of business or other area of expertise or interest;
• for other purposes related to the performance of our business functions and activities as Accountants, Auditors and Business Advisors.

In order to fulfil the purposes set out above we may disclose to your personal information to third parties, for example to your financial institution, regulatory bodies such as the ATO or ASIC,
or other advisors engaged by you. We will only provide this information with your consent at the time of request.
It is unlikely that we would disclose your personal information to overseas recipients. However, there may be occasions where we are required to do so in order to provide you with our services, such as the use of cloud technology. If we transfer your personal information outside Australia, we will comply with the requirements of the Privacy Act which relate to trans-border data flows.

How you can access and correct your personal information
You can request, at any time, for us to give you access to the personal information we hold about you, using the contact details on our website. If you believe that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, or incomplete, please ask us to correct it. The making of requests for access is at no cost to you, however, we may charge a reasonable fee to cover costs associated with providing you access. The APPs set out instances where we are not required to give you access. Where we decide that we cannot give you access, we are obliged to inform you and tell you why.
If you have a complaint about a breach of your privacy, please contact one of our Directors and we will take reasonable steps to resolve it. If you have made a privacy complaint and believe that we have not adequately addressed it, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Notification
Due to the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017, Synectic is legally required to notify affected individuals of any eligible data breaches. To comply with this legal requirement, Synectic has implemented a Data Breach Response Plan in order to deal with actual or potential data breaches as well as the notification process to be followed when notifying affected individuals.

More information
For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Australian Information Commissioner’s website at: www.oaic.gov.au