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Privacy Policy | Flowerdale Community House

Introduction

Flowerdale Community House Inc. is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy outlines our practices for collecting, using, and safeguarding your personal information. This policy was last updated on 18/06/2025.

Who we are

Our website address is: https://flowerdalecommunityhouse.com.au/.

This website is operated by Flowerdale Community House Inc., a not-for-profit community organisation located in Flowerdale, Victoria.

  • Address: 36-42 Silver Creek Road, Flowerdale 3717
  • Phone: 0490941247
  • Email: [email protected]
  • ABN: 30 127 305 127

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

We collect information to provide our services, manage our operations, and communicate with you effectively. Personal data is not just created by your interactions with our site (like filling in a form), but can also be generated from technical processes such as cookies and analytics. The legal basis for our data collection is typically your consent when you provide the information, and our legitimate interest in operating our community services.

Comments

(Note: If you do not have comments enabled on your website, you can omit this section.) When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

 

Media

(Note: If users cannot upload media, you can omit this section.) If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact Forms

When you use the contact form on our website, we collect the personal data you provide (such as your name, email address, and message) in order to respond to your enquiry. We retain contact form submissions for a limited period for customer service purposes, but we do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

 

Membership, Volunteer & Donation Forms

  • Membership: To become a member, we collect your contact details to manage your $10 yearly fee, maintain our membership register, and send you information like the monthly Flowerdale Flyer.
  • Volunteering: When you express interest in volunteering, we collect information regarding your skills and availability to find a suitable role for you, such as helping in the op shop, driving the community bus, or assisting with playgroup.
  • Donations: To process donations, we collect your contact details to issue a receipt. Financial information (like credit card details) is handled securely by our third-party payment processors and is not stored on our site.

Advocacy & Referral (Sensitive Information)

For services such as Advocacy and Referral, we may need to collect sensitive information. This is only ever done with your express consent during a CONFIDENTIAL CHAT with our professional staff, for the specific purpose of connecting you with other agencies or advocating on your behalf.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. A cookie is a small file placed on your computer’s hard drive. It helps us analyse web traffic and improve our site. We use cookies for:

  • Functionality: To remember your preferences.
  • Analytics: To understand how visitors use our site. (Note: List any specific cookies set by your plugins, social media, or analytics here. Your web developer or a cookie scanning tool can help identify these.)

Analytics

We use [Insert Analytics Package Name, e.g., Google Analytics] to understand website traffic and usage patterns, which helps us improve our services. This service collects anonymous data such as your IP address, browser type, and pages visited. You can typically opt out of analytics tracking by adjusting your browser settings or via an opt-out browser add-on provided by the analytics provider. You can view [Analytics Provider Name]’s privacy policy here: [Link to Analytics Provider’s Privacy Policy].

Who we share your data with

By default, we do not share your personal data with anyone for marketing purposes. We may share data with trusted third-party service providers who help us operate our website and services, such as:

  • Payment Processors (e.g., Stripe, PayPal) to securely handle donations and membership fees.

  • Email & Newsletter Services (e.g., MailPoet, Mailchimp) to manage our email communications. These providers are bound by their own privacy policies and are only permitted to use your data for the purpose of the service they provide to us.

How long we retain your data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected.

  • Contact form entries: Retained for approximately [e.g., 12 months].
  • Membership records: Retained for the duration of your membership and for a period afterwards as required by law for incorporated associations.
  • Analytics records: Retained for [e.g., 26 months] to allow for year-on-year analysis.
  • Volunteer records: Retained for the duration of your volunteering period and for a reasonable time after.

What rights you have over your data

You have rights over your personal information. You can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we correct any inaccurate information or erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

 

Where your data is sent

Your data may be processed by third-party services whose servers are located outside of Australia. This can include our website hosting, cloud data storage (e.g., Google Drive), and email marketing services (e.g., Mailchimp, whose servers are in the US). We take steps to ensure that these third-party providers comply with the Australian Privacy Principles or equivalent data protection standards.

Our contact information

For any privacy-specific concerns, questions, or requests, please contact us at:

Additional information

How we protect your data

We take reasonable technical and procedural measures to protect your data. This includes using secure (SSL) connections on our website, password protection for our systems, and ensuring our staff and volunteers are trained in our privacy and confidentiality procedures.

What data breach procedures we have in place

In the event of a potential or actual data breach, we have procedures in place which include internal reporting to assess the risk, containment of the breach, and notification to affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) if required by law.

What third parties we receive data from

Flowerdale Community House does not typically receive personal data about users from third parties, such as advertisers. Any data we receive is provided directly by you.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

Flowerdale Community House does not use user data for automated decision making or profiling.