Privacy policy

This privacy policy sets out how the Australian Institute of Company Directors handles certain types of information.

Updated February 2023

1.  ABOUT THIS POLICY

This privacy policy (Policy) sets out the information handling practices of the Australian Institute of Company Directors ACN 008 484 197 (AICD).

We handle personal information in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including the Australian Privacy Principles (Privacy Act).

This Policy applies to how we manage your personal information but excludes how we handle personal information of our current and past employees.

2.  OVERVIEW

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified or reasonably identifiable individual. The main way we collect personal information about you is when you provide it to us directly. AICD will only collect the information we need for the functions and activity we are carrying out.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information to deliver our products and services to you including:

• verifying your identity and processing payments if applicable;
• providing membership services;
• conducting professional development, educational and training courses;
• holding events such as conferences and briefings on current issues;
• assisting you to find directorship positions (Director Opportunities);
• providing mentoring and scholarship schemes;
• providing confidential peer-to-peer forums;
• providing you with business centres and member lounges;
• providing tools to assess director capability (Director Self-Assessment Tool), and for boards to evaluate their governance (Governance Analysis Tool);
• conducting and making available the results of benchmarking research;
• policy activity and making submissions to government and others about improving governance laws and practices;
• delivering more relevant advertising based on your interests and experiences;
• providing member and customer support, including responding to queries.

If we do not collect your personal information, we may not be able to provide some or all of our products and services to you.

If possible, we will allow you to interact with us anonymously. However, for most of our functions and activities we usually need your name and contact information to handle your query, application, attendance, or complaint.

3.  COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect your personal information for the following purposes.

3.1.  Membership information

When you apply to become a member we ask for your personal information, including name and contact details, gender, and career history.

On some applications we ask for your date of birth to enable us to uniquely identify you and assess which products and services may be suited to you.

We may collect personal information from members about:

• your reasons for changing membership level, which may include sensitive information related to health or parenthood; and
• with the member's consent, events that may affect membership, such as criminal charges or evidence of bankruptcy. 

We also collect information about members from other sources where a member has consented to this collection or would reasonably expect the AICD to make such collection. Examples of personal information collected from other sources include workplace references and information from publicly available sources. AICD uses this information to verify membership information.

3.2.  Information about event attendance, education and training

When you register or attend our events, including conferences and briefings conducted by the AICD, we may collect:

• your name, title, contact information, gender, occupation and location;
• information about your travel arrangements;
• assessment answers, course results and feedback sheets; and
• sensitive information such as whether you are a member of a professional body or association, or health information such as dietary or accessibility requirements. 

The AICD may collect images and sound recordings of you in attendance at our events. Please refer to section 3.6 below for information about how we manage event images and recordings.

3.3.  Survey information

If you participate in an AICD survey we may collect your name and contact details, and any other personal information you choose provide in the survey response.

We only use the personal information collected through surveys for analytical purposes and to assist with improvement or development of our products and services.

If we provide survey results to third parties for their research, we will notify you of the details of the study at the time of collecting your information.

3.4.  Non-member information

To expand the AICD's membership, we collect personal information such as name, past and present occupation, location, specific areas of interest, and contact details about prospective members.

We collect this information from existing members who refer a prospective member to the AICD, from publicly available sources such as the Australian Stock Exchange Register, and from commercial list brokers.

We also collect the name, title, organisation, post nominal, and credentials of any speakers, organisers, hosts, facilitators or trainers (Presenters) whom we engage to conduct our events and courses.

3.5.  Market research findings

The AICD commissions market research about members and non-members for index surveys and feedback. 

If our survey provider also collects your personal information, that survey provider will make a copy of their privacy policy available to you, and their collection and use of your personal information will be subject to that privacy policy.

The AICD only collects and holds market research information in aggregate form and does not connect any of this aggregate information with its personal information records to try and ascertain an individual's responses.

3.6.  Images and recordings

The AICD collects images (video or photographs) and sound recordings of its events, which may either be taken by the AICD or by a service provider.

At the time of registering for an event, you will be given the option to indicate if you do not want the AICD to collect and/or use any images or recordings of you. You may also contact the AICD directly to express your preference.

3.7.  Applicants, contractors and consultants

If you apply for a position with us, we will collect your name, contact details, educational and work history, and other information that you provide to us as part of the application process. If you are a contactor or consultant, we will collect your name, contact details, and other information we need to communicate with you about your goods or services.

3.8.  Research findings

We use research findings which may include personal information to:

• identify your needs and ensure our products and services meet those needs;
• identify prospective members and provide marketing approaches designed to recruit new members; and
• provide up-to-date information to support lobbying activity and make submissions on issues and proposed laws.

4.  COLLECTING SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Sometimes we may need to collect sensitive information about you, for example, to handle a complaint. This might include information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, association memberships, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, criminal history, genetic or biometric information.

5.  INDIRECT COLLECTION

While handling an investigation or resolving a complaint, we may collect personal information about you indirectly from publicly available sources, or from third parties such as an authorised representative, or complainants, respondents, or witnesses to a complaint. We also collect personal information from publicly available sources to enable us to contact stakeholders who may be interested in supporting our work or participating in our events.

6.  COLLECTING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE

We collect personal information when you visit our website. This may include personal information you provide online, such as your name, address and email.

We may also collect information related to your mobile device, your device’s unique identifier, your mobile network information, the type of mobile browser you use and information about the way you use our products, services or apps.

We use web analytics to collect a range of information about your interactions with our website. Web analytics software collects the information using first and third-party cookies and JavaScript. Our web analytics software allows us to collect your IP address, domain name, date and time of visit, the pages visited, and time spent on each page, whether you have visited the site before and what site referred you to the web page.

We use Google Analytics and behavioural marketing tools to build and score a profile which influences what marketing you may receive. We use this information to evaluate the effectiveness of our websites and the level of interest in particular pages or the AICD’s campaigns.

We use web analytics to collect information from the browsers of those who use our websites or participate in the AICD LinkedIn group. If you participate in our social media sites, such as LinkedIn or Twitter, we may keep a note of the discussion and store it against any membership or other profile we have created about you.

Our websites including social media sites contain links to other third-party websites. Your use of these sites is subject to those third-party privacy policies.

Please refer to the AICD Cookie Policy for further information about cookies and how we handle cookie data.

7.  STORAGE AND SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We regularly assess the risks of misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure of personal information and ensure that we have adequate measures, including policies, procedures and technology, to address those risks.

8.  COMMUNICATIONS

We may send marketing communications to you, depending on your indicated preference. We will always give you the chance to opt-out of receiving marketing material in our communications with you. You can also opt out by changing your preferences in your user account, or by contacting us.

We may display customised marketing material to you when you access our websites based on data stored in your cookies.  Our service providers may also display our marketing material on other parties’ websites that you visit. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for information about how to opt out of direct internet marketing.

9.  DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Common situations in which we disclose information are detailed below.

9.1.  Events

We disclose personal details of event participants to event Presenters, sponsors, third parties who make member offers, and event attendees to encourage participation in our events. We also disclose details of Presenters to AICD members and the public when we promote events. 

9.2.  Courses

We disclose personal details of course participants to other participants in that same course. This is limited to the names of all the people who have registered to attend the course. We also disclose details of any Presenters to AICD members, course participants, and the public for the purpose of promoting the course.

9.3.  Publications

We disclose information about members to other members via AICD publications, for example the Company Director Magazine. This information may include details about new members, their current employment, the successful completion of certain courses and articles written and inspired by members.

Our regional committees and special interest committees may also publish members' names, post nominal and current employment in publicly available material, such as welcome notices in newspapers and periodicals.

9.4.  Affiliated partners of the AICD 

We disclose personal information to partners affiliated with the AICD, including but not limited to our regional committee members, special interest committees, global director membership organisations and our training partners.

These partners work on behalf of the AICD to carry out specific responsibilities which we delegate to them. Examples of this include conducting membership-related activities in regional areas, sending welcoming communications to new members, promoting the AICD, coordinating information with international director membership organisations, conducting educational activities, or conducting advisory work.

Our affiliated partners are only permitted to use your personal information for the purpose for which they received the personal information, which we specify when we delegate responsibility to them.

9.5.  Third party service providers

We disclose personal information to our service providers, who assist us to deliver our functions and services such as IT services and marketing.

9.6.  Other disclosures

Where we think it appropriate in the circumstances, AICD may disclose whether you are a current member of the AICD to third parties, including other members of the AICD, the media and the public.

AICD will only disclose your other personal information to third parties including employers and recruitment companies with your express consent.

9.7.  Where authorised or required by law

Where required by law, we disclose your personal information to enforcement bodies, such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigations or police.

We are required by Part 2C.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) to collect and record certain information in our member register and allow an individual to inspect the AICD’s member register and view current and past members’ names and addresses.

Inspection is free for members, but a fee may be payable by non-members.  We will provide a copy of the register if you make a valid application under the Corporations Act to us and pay the relevant fee. Individuals are prohibited from using the information gained to contact  other members.

We may disclose personal information to Australian and overseas regulatory authorities or other organisations to assist them with business licensing or due diligence purposes. This could include the status of your AICD membership, the AICD courses you have completed, and your grades.

9.8.  Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers are in other countries including the US, UK and Singapore. Where we disclose your personal information overseas, we take steps that are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the host does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles.

10.  RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We hold your member information, and information about your course and event attendance for the duration of your professional career so we continue to offer you content that we think may be of interest to you.

11.  ACCESS AND CORRECTION

You have a right to ask for correction of or access to the personal information we hold about you. We may require you to verify your identity before we grant you access. 

If you are a member, you can correct personal information we hold about you by logging onto your user account, or by contacting us using the contact details below. 

If you are a non-member, you can ask us to correct personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact details below.

Unless there is a lawful reason not to, we fulfill your access or correction request. We will respond to your request within 30 days and may charge a reasonable fee for access. 

12.  CHANGING THIS POLICY

We may amend this Policy from time to time.  Any amendments to this Policy will be effective immediately once it is posted to our website at www.aicd.com.au. 

Please let us know if you have any concerns about any changes to this privacy policy.

13.  CONTACT DETAILS AND CONCERNS

If you have a question or concerns regarding the way in which we handle your personal information, you should contact our Privacy Officer directly at privacy@aicd.com.au

We take your privacy concerns seriously. If you have concerns that we have interfered with your privacy, we will respond as soon as possible to let you know who will be handling your matter and when you can expect a further response.

If you are unsatisfied with our response, you can also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on their website www.oaic.gov.au.