Compare Mobile Plans Privacy Charter

1.1     

Welcome to the Compare Mobile Plans (Compare Mobile Plans) website: www.comparemobileplans.com.au (Site), published and owned by Value Comparisons Australia Pty Ltd. At Compare Mobile Plans we respect the privacy of everyone who uses the Site and we are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of the personal information of all users of the Site. Our Privacy Charter (Charter) on the collection and use of personal information and other information is outlined below. Please read this Charter before you use the Site.

1.2     

The information and services offered by Compare Mobile Plans on the Site are not directed at anyone under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly solicit or collect personally identifiable information about anyone under 18.
 
(2) Your Acceptance

2.1     

This Charter applies to and should be read in conjunction with the Terms and Conditions which are available on the Site (www.comparemobileplans.com.au).

2.2     

By viewing and using the Site you will be deemed to have agreed to the matters described in this Charter. If you do not agree with the terms of this Charter, then you should stop accessing and using the Site immediately.

2.3     

Further, you should review this Charter regularly, as it may be updated from time to time, at Compare Mobile Plan's discretion.
 
(3) Personal Information

3.1     

We may collect personal information from users on a voluntary basis. The personal information we collect may include name, title, company, address, phone numbers, email address, and other relevant data. Questions, comments or reviews submitted by users may also include personal information. We do not wish to collect information about visitors which is sensitive information as defined under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). We are committed to the protection of your Personal Information and we have developed this Charter in line with the National Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act.

3.2     

We may collect personal information when you make an enquiry or register to receive information on featured plans or special deals available through the Site.

3.3     

We may collect and use personal information for the purposes of running our business. We use this information so that:
    •     we can provide information to allow you to link to products and services, or other matters which we believe are of interest to you;
    •     we can seek your feedback or to contact you in relation to those services offered on  or via the Site;
    •     we can administer or otherwise carry out our obligations in relation to any agreement you have with us;
    •     we can anticipate and resolve problems with any links, third party sites or other content or information supplied by you;
    •     we can enhance the Site to better meet your needs as a user, internet service provider (“ISP”), advertiser, merchant or seller;
    •     we can process and respond to requests, improve our operations, and communicate with users about our products, services and businesses;
    •     we can communicate our offers to you; and
    •     we can meet our legal obligations.

3.4   

If you elect to become a user of the site or ISP featured on the Site, we will also collect and use personal information, as required to fulfill our obligations described in the corresponding terms and conditions we enter into with you.

3.5     

Unless you have agreed otherwise and except as otherwise specified below, we will not use or share with a third party (including affiliates), any personal information collected from you for direct marketing purposes, except in accordance with clause 3.7 below. We may share information within our company and with our agents, affiliates, ISP’s, contractors or other third party, for purposes other than direct marketing, such as for storage, or for carrying out the processing detailed above, or because of where the computer servers are located. This may mean transmitting the information to another country where, for example, our agent, affiliate, ISP, contractor or other third party is located. We will use reasonable efforts to ensure that our affiliates, agents, ISP’s, contractors and other third parties protect your personal information in a manner consistent with this Charter.

3.6     

With your consent, we may share your personal information that you provided to Compare Mobile Plans when you register (including registration for specials, updates or promotions via email) with our affiliates and ISP’s for direct marketing purposes. Subject to your continuing consent, your personal information will be processed for direct marketing purposes for a maximum of five (5) years from the date of your consent.

3.7     

To the extent required or permitted by law, we may also collect, use and disclose personal information in connection with security related or law enforcement investigations or in the course of cooperating with authorities or complying with legal requirements.

3.8   

We may also remove all the information that identifies you and use the remainder of the information for historical, statistical or scientific purposes.

3.9     

If you e-mail us, you are voluntarily releasing information to us. Your e-mail address will be used by Compare Mobile Plans to respond to you. Unless you have agreed otherwise, we will not use the information that can identify you, such as your e-mail address, for direct marketing purposes, unless stated otherwise in clause 3.7.

3.10     

In addition, we may have collected similar information from you in the past. By entering the Site you are consenting to the terms of our Charter and to our continued use of previously collected information.
 
(4) Ratings and Feedback

4.1     

Users of the Site may review and rate products featured on the Site. You hereby consent to your ratings being publicly available on the Site. By submitting your personal information to us (including your details as an ISP or user), you will be treated as having given your permission for the processing of your personal data and your reviews and ratings as set out in this Charter. Compare Mobile Plans and its licensees can republish your content as outlined in the Terms and Conditions of Use.

4.2     

We may ask your feedback through surveys, and we may use the results for marketing or development of the Site. We may also share the results with our affiliates, ISP’s, consultants, vendors and service providers. As part of registration as an ISP or user interested in featured deals on the Site, you have agreed to receiving requests for feedback from Compare Mobile Plans via your email address.
 
(5) Tracking activity on our Site

5.1     

When you browse the Site and have not registered, you browse anonymously. Personally identifiable information is not collected as you browse. However, we track how the Site is used by both anonymous users and our registered users and ISP’s, by using a small string of text that is sent to your browser known as a ‘cookie’. Our use of cookies is described in more detail in the next section.

5.2     

All such information will be used only to assist us for the purposes of providing an effective service on the Site. We may from time to time supply the owners or operators of third party sites from which it is possible to link from the Site with information relating to the number of users linking from the Site to such third party websites. You will not personally be identifiable from this information.
 
(6) Cookies

6.1     

Cookies collect information that include the server your computer is logged onto, your browser type and how you gained entry to the Site. Therefore, when you use the Site anonymously, details are recorded about your use, such as how you have used the Site, the time and date of your access to the Site, pages of the Site that you accessed and the time you spent on the Site. This information is used in an anonymous form for statistical purposes and as such, cannot be used to identify you individually. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses or capture your email address or any other personally identifiable information. You should note that accepting cookies is required if you want to view the Site, because they are essential for the Site administration and security. Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but you should also be able to alter the settings of the browser to refuse cookies.  You should note that de-activating cookies may mean that you will no longer be able to enjoy the full operational capabilities of the Site. Cookies help us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:

·         To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.

·         To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise, market and target our Site according to your individual interests (including, without limitation, passing on your preferences to third parties and advertisers so they can customise their advertisements to you and enhance your browsing experience).

·         To speed up your searches.

·         To recognise you when you return to our Site.

Please note that our advertisers may also use cookies, over which we have no control.

(7) Security

7.1   

We have implemented technology and policies, with the objective of protecting your privacy from unauthorised access and improper use.
 
(8) Third Parties

8.1     

You can link to other third party websites from the Site. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites, even if you access them using links from the Site. We make no promises or guarantees regarding collection of personal information on the hyper-linked pages and on websites that are not owned by Value Comparisons Australia Pty Ltd. We recommend that you check the privacy policy and terms of use of each website you use, visit, or link to, and contact the owners or operators of such websites if you have any concerns or questions.
 
(9) Disclosure of your personal information to third parties

9.1     

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in the following circumstances -
    (a)     if required to do so or permitted by law;
    (b)     to various regulatory bodies and law enforcement officials and agencies to protect against fraud and for security purposes; and
    (c)     to our third party service providers as well as to our related entities for the purpose of providing links to products, responding to your enquiries or performing functions on our behalf, such as marketing and analysis organisations, financial and credit card institutions in order to process any payments, hosting companies, website developers, internet service providers and customer service providers. These service providers may be located both in and outside Australia.

9.2     

Where we engage third party contractors to perform services for us, those third party contractors may be given access to your personal information for the purposes of providing services to us. Under these circumstances however, those third party contractors must safeguard this information and must only use it for the purposes for which it was supplied. If we give a third party service provider your personal information, we will also make them aware of this Charter and ask that they handle your personal information in accordance with it. However, beyond this, we will not be liable if they do not comply with this Charter.
 
(10) Changes to this Privacy Charter

10.1     

We may amend this Charter from time-to-time and such amendment shall take effect at the time the amended Charter is posted on the Site. Your continued use of the Site and our services following any such amendment will be confirmation of your acceptance of the amendments. We reserve the right to amend this Charter at any time, so please regularly check this Charter.

10.2     

We will always use information in accordance with the Charter under which it was collected.
 
(11) Contacting us

11.1 You have the right to access personal information we hold about you at all times. If you are concerned about our use of your personal information, please contact us at [email protected] with the subject line, "privacy."