CityLife Church Privacy Policy

(Last updated: 10 January 2007)

Introduction

CityLife Church (“CityLife”) is committed to protecting its Partners’, Attendees’ and Clients’ privacy. We have created a Privacy Policy to ensure that we uphold the trust people place in us when they provide us with their personal information. This means that when we collect personal information as part of our caring for Partners, Attendees and Clients, we will comply with the ten National Privacy Principles and other privacy laws.

This Policy will be made available to any person requesting a copy.

Personal Information Collection

When we collect personal information we will ensure that we do so lawfully and in a fair manner. We will only collect information that is necessary for conducting our activities.

We use personal information to provide personal ministry to an individual, to administer an individual’s relationship with CityLife and to provide individuals with information on Church events and ministries. Without personal information details, CityLife may not be able to interact with an individual or provide ministry opportunities in a meaningful way.

We will advise all individuals of the purposes for which their personal information is collected, and of those third parties to whom the information is usually disclosed.

Whenever we collect personal information from third parties concerning an individual, we will take reasonable steps to advise that individual that we have the personal information, the reasons why we have it, and how the individual may gain access to it.

Use of Personal Information

Personal Information will only be used:

• For the purpose it was collected and for related purposes that the person would reasonably expect it to be used;
• Where consent is provided for the particular use;
• If we are required by law to disclose it; or
• For any other reasonable purpose as allowed or required by the Act.

Personal information is not generally available to persons who are not Staff or Volunteers of CityLife and require the information for the purposes of ministry of CityLife. We will regularly provide Church Partners and Attendees with the opportunity to update their details via Directory Update forms.

Sensitive information

Some personal information is sensitive information. Health information is sensitive information. We will only collect sensitive information with the consent of the individual, for the purposes required by the activities of CityLife in the provision of health services (including counselling) or for other purposes allowed or required by the Act.

Any sensitive information that CityLife collects in the course of its activities is covered by an exemption set out in NPP10. This exemption permits CityLife to collect information regarding such things as the religious affiliations of Partners, Attendees and Clients (as this is naturally an important part of membership of the Church) without first receiving your consent to the collection. However, CityLife does not disclose this information without an individual’s consent. We collect this type of personal information relying upon NPP10.1(d) only in relation to members of CityLife.

Online Privacy

CityLife is also committed to privacy on its Internet sites. We have a public website at www.citylifechurch.com which is available to anyone. CityLife collects personal information on its Internet site you when you fill out a form (eg. when purchasing products from our online shop). The information that we request is limited to what is needed to provide you with the service. When browsing our Internet site, cookies are only used for our on-line shop in order to facilitate transactions.

When you browse this web site, our Internet Site Host makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

• your server address
• your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
• the date and time of your visit to the site
• the pages you accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site that visited and/or the Search engine keyword used to find our site
• the type of browser and operating system you are using
• the amount of data in bytes that you download from our site

No attempt is made to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may inspect logs.

We have sections on the website which are available only to Partners and Life Group Leaders of CityLife. These sections include information similar to that which is distributed in hard copy form to our Partners and Life Group Leaders and have password protection.

We also have an internal Intranet site and this is available only to staff and key volunteers of CityLife. Access to this information is restricted by type of information on a need-to-know basis.

Management of Information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information collected from individuals is complete and up-to-date. We will regularly provide CityLife Partners and Attendees with the opportunity to update their details via Directory Update forms.

We will take all reasonable steps to protect the information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access or disclosure. CityLife has procedures to destroy all personal information which is no longer needed.

Counselling Service

CityLife conducts a counselling service. Personal information we collect from individuals before and during counselling sessions is kept confidential and secure at all times. Some of this information is sensitive information (see above).

When files are not being used by a counsellor, they will be appropriately labelled and stored in locked filing cabinets. On occasion, the personal information collected by counsellors must be shared with third parties. For example, this personal information will be shared where :

• there is danger of harm being caused to the client or others;
• when CityLife is required by law to disclose the information; or
• when there are matters of a serious moral nature which require the attention of senior leadership within the Church.

Anonymity

Where practicable and lawful, CityLife will endeavour to provide individuals with the option of interacting anonymously. However, given the activities in which CityLife is engaged in, this will generally not be a practicable option.

Access to Information

We will provide people with reasonable access to their personal information collected by CityLife in the course of its dealings with the person. However, in certain circumstances we may deny access to this information to the extent that:

• Providing access would pose a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of any individual;
• Providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals;
• Any other reason as consistent with the Act.

In such a situation we will explain to the person the reason for denying such access.

CityLife will do everything it can do to respect the privacy of individuals and will only make an individual’s personal information available to those who have an absolute need permitted by privacy laws to provide a service to the individual.

Register of Partners

The Public Officer shall keep and maintain a Register of Partners, in which shall be entered the full name and address and date of acceptance of the name of each partner. The Incorporated Associations Act requires that the register shall be available for inspection free of charge by partners upon request at the address of the Church. A partner may make a copy of the entries in the register.

Policy Updates

From time to time, CityLife will review this policy and may be revise it. When we do, we will also revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement. For material changes to this statement, CityLife will notify you by placing a prominent notice on our Web site.

Questions and contact

If you would like further information about the way CityLife manages the personal information it holds OR would like access to your personal information held by CityLife please contact our Privacy Officer by email ( privacy@citylifechurch.com ) or by postal mail: