Privacy policy
ORIGINS SPSA INC t/a ORIGINS AUSTRALIA
Supporting People Separated by Adoption
ABN 48 507 164 002
PRIVACY POLICY
OBJECTIVES:
Origins SPSA is a charitable organisation founded in 1995 to support Mothers and Fathers and their families who lost children to past adoption practices from the 1950s to the 1980s. It was formed to research the legal, historical, social, medical and psychological implications and side effects of adoption, including mental disorders and medical conditions associated with child separation and forced adoption practices.
SCOPE
This Privacy Policy covers Origins SPSA Inc ABN 48 507 164 002 t/a Origins Australia (We, US or Origins), including its members, staff, committee members, corporate officers, interns, volunteers, fundraisers, visitors, contractors, partners; and applies to all facilities and locations where Origins undertakes regular business, including permanent and remote offices and temporary places of business.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and will handle your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Origins Data Principles set out below, and our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other relevant State legislation dealing with privacy and health records. We also comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 (Cth), as amended from time to time.
ORIGINS DATA PRINCIPLES
Your trust is our priority. Origins considers your personal information to be very important and is committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information.
Transparency is important. We are open and honest about the way we use your personal information, as set out in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed to you from time to time.
Security is integral. Safeguarding your personal information against potential cyber security threats is our priority and integrated as a key tenant to our data infrastructure, business systems and data storage. We continuously invest in comprehensive cyber capabilities to protect your information. We monitor our systems for unusual activity and regularly conduct robust security review and testing. We have implemented, and regularly review, governance processes and controls to manage cyber risks to ensure the protection and security of personal information you share with us.
WHAT SORT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Personal information means, any information about or relating to you which could be used by us or other individuals or organisations to identify you. Sensitive information is a special subset of personal information which includes your racial or ethnic origin, genetics and/or biometrics, and health information.
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, any references to “personal information” includes “sensitive information”.
Origins collects and holds personal information from our members, supporters, volunteers, research and survey participants, and their families, contractors and suppliers. We ensure that we collect this information lawfully, in an open and transparent manner, and only what we require for the purpose of conducting our business.
The personal information that we may collect about you includes:
Information collected from you and with your consent, by phone, email, our websites or mobile applications, online forms, such as your:
a. Name, residential, postal and email addresses, phone number and other relevant contact details.
b. Family and marital status, date of birth, sex, ethnicity, and employment status.
c. Bank account and credit card details and other relevant financial information.
d. Marketing preferences, including, with your consent, other marketing-related information received via
third parties such as organisations that Origins sponsors, partners with, supports or engages in other
promotional activities with.
e. Sensitive information, for example your:
i. health records, medical history including but not limited to any illnesses, medical conditions, genetic or
pathology testing results and health services provided to you.
ii. usage of and data supplied to mobile applications and materials and services delivered on-line.
2. Additional information collected from you by phone, email, our websites or mobile applications, such as your:
a. mental health status
b. family information
c. family health information
d. lifestyle information (for example, drug and alcohol use, travel)
e. medical history
f. family medical and health history, including previous medical conditions, and genetic information.
g. residency details
HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We may collect the personal information from you (or persons authorised by you):
1. in person, via mail, email, mobile applications, our websites, or other internet services and applications including web forms, streaming platforms (e.g. YouTube), and social media and other platforms (e.g. Facebook, X, Google, and Apple)
2. by phone
3. from online or paper-based forms, questionnaires, surveys and other correspondence
At the time that we collect personal information, or as soon as is practicable afterwards, we will take reasonable streps to ensure that we have notified the relevant individuals of the matters set forth in APP 5, as reasonable in the circumstances.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We use your personal information primarily to:
1. Provide services to you or your family
2. Communicate and campaign about our activities, events, services, and projects, which we believe may be of interest to you
3. Develop services, programs or other activities for the benefit of our members
4. Respond to questions, feedback or complaints
5. Process donations and provide receipts
6. Recruit and manage staff, contractors, and volunteers,
7. Any directly related purpose to the activities and organisation objectives, as specified in this document.
We will not use your personal information for a secondary purpose, unless we have your consent, or unless exceptions under the applicable privacy laws apply.
OTHER INDIVIDUALS
We may also collect and use or disclose personal information of other individuals other as specified in this Privacy Policy who we may not have a direct relationship with, such as guardians or other authorised individuals or carers, representatives of third party service providers, prospective employees and members of the public in order to provide our services, administer our business, manage job and volunteer applications (including conducting background checks), and compliance with applicable laws.
DO WE DISCLOSE YOUR INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES?
We may share or disclose (or require you to share or disclose) your personal information with the purposes described above under the heading ‘How do we use your personal information?’ to third parties or individuals, some of which may be located overseas in certain circumstances, including:
1. Origins partners/collaborates in other countries, including Canada and USA, as well as our affiliated networks in the UK, Scotland, NZ and Korea.
2. Research and Academic Institutions that are studying the effects of forced adoption practices.
3. Other service providers, for example, our advisors for the purposes of obtaining legal advice, specialist advisors for the purpose of reviewing ex-gratia requests or our technology and payment providers.
4. Fraud prevention agencies, government bodies and regulators, including law enforcement bodies such as the Police, professional associations and industry bodies.
5. Where disclosure is otherwise authorised or required by or under applicable laws or any other legal or regulatory process.
6. Communication channels such as social media and direct messaging platforms through which you communicate directly with Origins, and third-party providers that facilitate such communication.
7. Technology platforms that allow us to collect personal information through online forms, questionnaires, and surveys, such as JotForm.
Origins uses Stripe and PayPal as its payment provider for donations, member subscriptions, and other products and services. By providing your payment details, you authorise and consent to Stripe and PayPal using this information on behalf of Origins in accordance with their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Origins also utilise online platforms to collect donations or to create and manage fundraising campaigns, such as GoFundMe. By providing personal information and payment information, you authorise and consent to these platforms using this information on behalf of Origins in accordance with their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Any third parties to whom we disclose or permit access to your personal information, in the course of providing services on our behalf, will be subject to strict contractual restrictions to ensure that they protect personal information and keep it confidential, consistent with relevant privacy and data protection laws.
Except as otherwise outlined in the Policy, we do not normally give personal information about you to anyone else, unless you give us written authorisation to deal with us on your behalf.
OVERSEAS DISCLOSURES
Some organisations to which we disclose personal information are located in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK) and Korea. We will not disclose your personal information to an overseas recipient without taking such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the overseas recipient will not breach the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act.
LINKED WEBSITES
Our websites provide links to third party sites. Since we do not control these websites, we encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these third-party sites. Origins is not responsible for any practices on linked websites that might breach your privacy.
STORAGE AND SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and to destroy or de-identify personal information we no longer need, wherever possible.
This includes the use of secure back up devices, lockable cabinets with limited access, provision of training in information security and privacy to relevant staff, contractors, and volunteers, and security practices that restrict access to personal information on a ‘need to know’ basis only.
Unencrypted Information that you provide to Origins on-line may be access and used by people other than those for whom it is intended. For example, where you voluntarily send personal information by email. In such circumstances, Origins is not responsible for the protection of personal information sent in this manner.
In the case of medical information that you provide to us, your personal information will be held for at least seven years, in accordance with Health Records legislation.
We will keep member personal information for as long as we maintain our relationship with your or otherwise as required for our usual business operations or by applicable laws, including to enforce our rights, for fraud prevention, to identify, issue or resolve legal matters and claims and/or for proper record keeping purposes.
Subject to laws regarding document retention, we will securely destroy or de-identify information that is no longer used or disclosed, after it has served its purpose.
CONCERNS OR QUERIES IN RELATION TO PRIVACY
If you have any concerns or queries about privacy, you can:
Email lily.arthur@originsaustralia.org
Call 0414-959-239 or (07) 5627-0565
Mail P.O. Box 3371, Helensvale Town Centre, Helensvale, QLD 4212
We will do our best to resolve any queries or complaints you have within 5 business days. However, if you are not satisfied with the result of your query or complaint to us, you can refer your complaint to the:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Online privacy complaint form: oaic.gov.au
Call 1300 363 992
mail GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
NEED FURTHER INFORMATION?
For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website at oaic.gov.au
UPDATING OUR PRIVACY POLICY
We may review, amend or revise our Privacy Policy and the way we handle personal information from time to time. We will post the updated Privacy Policy on our website at originsaustralia.org and its terms will take effect from the date of posting.
Last updated: June 2025
