Privacy Policy


Collection of your personal information

At all times we try to only collect the information we need for the particular function or activity we are carrying out.

The main way we collect personal information about you is when you give it to us via HorseRecords.info or our facebook page.

For example, we collect personal information such as contact details and complaint, review, request, or report details when you:
  • contact us to ask for information (but only if we need it)
  • make a complaint about a privacy breach to us
  • notify the us about a data breach
  • report a matter for investigation
  • apply for a job vacancy at HorseRecords.
We may also collect contact details and some other personal information if you are participating in a meeting or consultation with us.

Collecting through our websites

HorseRecords.info is hosted in Australia.

There are a number of ways in which we collect information though our website.

Web analytics
We use PostHog to collect data about your interaction with our website. The sole purpose of collecting your data in this way is to improve your experience when using our site. The types of data we collect with these tools include:
  • your device’s IP address (collected and stored in an anonymised format)
  • device screen size
  • device type, operating system and browser information
  • geographic location (city)
  • referring domain and out link if applicable
  • search terms and pages visited on our website
  • date and time when pages were accessed on our website
If your web browser has Do Not Track enabled, PostHog will not track your visit.

Cookies
Cookies are small data files transferred onto computers or devices by websites for record-keeping purposes and to enhance functionality on the website.

Cookied are used to assert you are logged into the member's area.

Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website.

Embedded videos on our website
Embedded videos on our website use YouTube’s Privacy Enhanced Mode. When you play an embedded video from our website, the video and associated assets will load from the domain www.youtube-nocookie.com, and other domains associated with Google’s YouTube player. If the domain www.youtube-nocookie.com is blocked, a local version of the video will be played instead, if available. The only data we collect about this is whether you received the YouTube version or the local version. You can access the privacy policy for YouTube on its website.

Email lists, registrations and feedback
We will collect information that you provide to us when signing up to mailing lists and registering for our events, or when submitting feedback on your experience with our website.

We use MailChimp to manage our mailing lists. Analytics are performed when you click on links in the email, or when you download the images in the email. They include which emails you open, which links you click, your mail client (eg ‘Outlook 2016’ or ‘iPhone’), if your action occurred on ‘mobile’ or ‘desktop’, and the country geolocation of your IP address (the IP address itself is not stored).

We use the services of Hotjar to collect voluntary feedback on your experience with our website. We also use Hotjar to conduct anonymous stakeholder surveys to gather feedback to help us improve our performance. We do not collect personal information via Hotjar. Information about how Hotjar manages personal information is available in the privacy and data collection policies on its website.

Social networking services

We use social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to communicate with the public about our work. When you communicate with us using these services we may collect your personal information, but we only use it to help us to communicate with you and the public. The social networking service will also handle your personal information for its own purposes. These services have their own privacy policies. You can access the privacy policies for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (a Google company) on their websites.

Disclosure

Common situations in which we disclose information are detailed below.

Complaints and reviews
If you make a privacy or Freedom of Information (FOI) complaint, or apply for an FOI review, we will usually give a copy of the complaint or application to the respondent and, where relevant, affected third parties.

If a complainant or applicant requests that only limited information is disclosed to the respondent, we may not have enough information to be able to fairly proceed with the matter. The respondent must have sufficient information to respond to the matter in a meaningful way.

Data breach notifications If you notify us about a data breach we will not disclose personal information about you unless you agree, or would reasonably expect us to.

Disclosure to service providers HorseRecords uses a number of service providers to whom we disclose personal information. These include providers that host our website servers, manage our IT and manage our human resources information.

Disclosure to Horse Associations Horse Associations may have an interest in your horse as part of their ethical welfare obligations. Commonly these associations are Racing Associations who are responsible for Off The Track horses. The horses will be clearly marked in Horse Records as being of interest to these Associations.

To protect the personal information we disclose we:

  • enter into a contract or MOU which requires the service provider to only use or disclose the information for the purposes of the contract or MOU
  • include special privacy requirements in the contract or MOU, where necessary.

Disclosure of sensitive information

We only disclose your sensitive information for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for directly related purposes you would reasonably expect or if you agree, for example, to handle a complaint.

Disclosure of personal information overseas

Generally, we only disclose personal information overseas so that we can properly handle the complaint or application. For example, if:
  • the complainant or respondent to a complaint is based overseas
  • you have complained to an overseas entity and HorseRecords about the same or a related matter.
  • Web traffic information is disclosed to Google Analytics when you visit our websites. Google stores information across multiple countries.
When you communicate with us through a social network service such as Facebook or Twitter, the social network provider and its partners may collect and hold your personal information overseas.

Quality of personal information

To ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up-to-date and complete we:
  • record information in a consistent format
  • where necessary, confirm the accuracy of information we collect from a third party or a public source
  • promptly add updated or new personal information to existing records
  • regularly audit our contact lists to check their accuracy.
We also review the quality of personal information before we use or disclose it.

Storage and security of personal information

We take steps to protect the security of the personal information we hold from both internal and external threats by:
  • regularly assessing the risk of misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure of that information
  • taking measures to address those risks
  • conducting regular internal and external audits to assess whether we have adequately complied with or implemented these measures.
We destroy personal information in a secure manner when we no longer need it.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

Under the Privacy Act (Australian Privacy Principles 12 and 13) you have the right to ask for access to personal information that we hold about you, and ask that we correct that personal information. You can ask for access or correction by contacting us and we must respond within 30 days. If you ask, we must give you access to your personal information, and take reasonable steps to correct it if we consider it is incorrect, unless there is a law that allows or requires us not to.

We will ask you to verify your identity before we give you access to your information or correct it, and we will try to make the process as simple as possible. If we refuse to give you access to, or correct, your personal information, we must notify you in writing setting out the reasons.

If we make a correction and we have disclosed the incorrect information to others, you can ask us to tell them about the correction. We must do so unless there is a valid reason not to.

If we refuse to correct your personal information, you can ask us to associate with it (for example, attach or link) a statement that you believe the information is incorrect and why.

You also have the right under the FOI Act to request access to documents that we hold and ask for information that we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, incorrect, out-of- date or misleading.

How to make a complaint

If you wish to complain to us about how we have handled your personal information you should complain in writing. If you need help lodging a complaint, you can contact us.

If we receive a complaint from you about how we have handled your personal information we will determine what (if any) action we should take to resolve the complaint.

If we decide that a complaint should be investigated further, the complaint will usually be handled by a more senior officer than the officer whose actions you are complaining about.

We will tell you promptly that we have received your complaint and then respond to the complaint within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response you may ask for a review by a more senior officer within HorseRecords.

How to Contact Us

You can contact us via our Contact Page