Privacy Policy

The purpose of this policy is to communicate how Southside Justice handles and protects personal information.

This policy concerns all personal information collected, held and used by Southside Justice. This includes information about:

• Clients and service users of Southside Justice, and 
• People working for Southside Justice, including staff, secondees, contractors, students and volunteers.  

Personal information
Information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form (whether true or not), about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

Sensitive information
A category of personal information that refers to an individual’s:

• Racial/ethnic origin
• Political opinions/association
• Religious or philosophical beliefs
• Membership of a professional or trade association or union
• Sexual preferences or practices, or
• Criminal record

Southside Justice is committed to protecting privacy. Personal and sensitive information handled by Southside Justice is managed in accordance with the privacy principles contained in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic). Other requirements, like client confidentiality and legal privilege, are managed separately in accordance with Southside Justice’s legal professional obligations.

Southside Justice only collects information necessary 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. The following is a non-exhaustive list of personal information we may collect including both service users and staff:

• Name and contact details
• Financial information, such as income or Centrelink benefits, where it is relevant to assess eligibility for a service
• Health and/or disability information
• Domestic and lifestyle circumstances
• Cultural identity status, and any cultural or language barriers 
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander identity to assist us in providing appropriate services and support to staff in the workplace
• Gender identity
• Criminal record and/or prison record, where there is a lawful authority for us to collect that information
• Unique identifiers, such as Centrelink client reference number
• Identifying numbers linked to other personal information, (unique identifiers) such as a driver’s licence or court case number 
• Security footage from our offices
• Education and employment history from those who work for us or seek to work for us
• COVID-19 vaccination status, to identify risks and implement appropriate controls to support the health and wellbeing of service users and staff.

The main ways Southside Justice uses your information are to:

• Assist with legal and non-legal problems
• Make referrals to other relevant legal and non-legal services
• Assess eligibility for our services 
• Respond to enquiries and resolve complaints
• Recruit, train and manage staff
• Meet our workplace safety obligations
• Respond to information access requests and Freedom of Information requests
• Engage with public sector organisations including courts and tribunals, community organisations, correctional facilities, healthcare institutions and professionals and government agencies 
• Meet our reporting obligation and program evaluation
• Help us design appropriate services.

Your personal information may be disclosed in certain circumstances, for example:

• Where you consent to the use or disclosure; and
• Where required or authorised by law.

Southside Justice is committed to protecting your information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification, wilful destruction and disclosure.

All personal information collected is held on our cloud storage, on servers located in Australia. We retain effective control over any personal information held on our cloud, and the information is handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Most of the personal information is or will be stored in client files which will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years.

We analyse how our site is used to help us make it better.

We do this by obtaining reports on usage from Google Analytics. These tell us which pages are visited, for how long, on what operating systems and browsers and from what areas. This works by using a ‘cookie’. Cookies are small files placed on your computer to help remember your preferences.

We do not use this information to identify you.

While all service users have the right to remain anonymous, this may limit the level of service Southside Justice can provide. For example, our lawyers may need to identify a person they are speaking to provide accurate legal advice.

Southside Justice is unlikely to be able to provide a service if we are unable to verify the identity of a person.

You can contact Southside Justice to request access to your personal information or to ask Southside Justice to correct an error.

If you have received a service from us, you can request copies of documents from your file. The first step is to contact the Southside Justice staff member who has assisted you.

All enquiries or complaints about privacy can be directed to Southside Justice’s Legal Director at:

Phone
(03) 7037 3200

Email
info@southsidejustice.org.au 

Post
118A Carlisle Street, St Kilda Vic 3182

Southside Justice aim to resolve complaints quickly and fairly, in accordance with our Complaints Policy.