Your privacy and confidentiality is very important to SC Solutions.
SC Solutions is fully committed to the Australian privacy legislation and the National Privacy Principles (NPP’s) of Australia in the way it collects, uses, secures, transfers and discloses personal information. The privacy and confidentiality of all personal information is importance to us at all times.
This Privacy & Security Policy as a summary of the guidelines under which we operate, as well as for our clients’ information in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to the principles of privacy protection, confidentiality and security.
The information we collect:
SC Solutions collects personal information in various circumstances and in various forms:
1. By the very nature of the accounting and taxation work we perform, we will be provided with personal information relating to clients and their family members, suppliers and customers, business partners, contractors, agents, etc. All of this information is supplied to us by our clients or, in some circumstances, by other providers authorised by our clients.
2. The Information we collect and hold will depend on the nature of the particular services we provide to a client. In addition to basic identity and contact details (such as name, address, age, phone numbers, email address, education, qualifications, etc) we will collect and store other personal information such as income, personal and business expenditure, as well as employment history.
3. The success and survival of our business is dependent upon having an adequate number of suitable clients, and we use various means to advertise our existence and the products and services we can provide. We do proactively research information available in the public domain to help us identify prospective clients, and we store Information relevant to our marketing objectives. We may at times pay commercial providers of Information for their services, and some of this can be regarded as personal information.
How we use Information:
We use personal information primarily to be able to properly provide the professional services we have been contracted to provide for our clients. Without access to this Information, we will not be able to provide our accounting and taxation services.
In performing our services, we may be supplying personal information to Australian Government departments and agencies, primarily the Australian Taxation Office. In addition, SC Solutions may at times use the services of contracted accounting and taxation specialists for client assignments. All such entities are covered by the National Privacy Principles.
One of the goals of SC Solutions is to improve the quality and nature of our services and we may use Information to deliver targeted and non-targeted marketing information about our goods and services. At any time, you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us.
We do not collect Information that is irrelevant or unnecessary to our business.
If at any time SC Solutions is required by law to release Information, SC Solutions must co-operate fully with the relevant authorities.
We will unconditionally not sell, rent, trade, swap or otherwise supply to any third parties any personal information obtained from you, other than as explained in this Privacy Policy.
“Cookies”:
A “cookie” is a packet of information that allows our SC Solutions server (the computer that hosts our web site) to identify and interact more effectively with your computer.
Cookies are widely used by many internet sites including banks and airlines and hotel reservation systems, and their correct use is fundamental to the manner in which these websites work. When you access our web site, we send you a temporary cookie that gives you a unique identification number for that session. A different identification number is sent each time you use our web site. Cookies do not identify individual users and consequently we do not regard cookies as being personal information.
Our cookies allow us to keep track of the pages you have accessed while visiting our web site. It also allows you to easily page back and forwards through our web site and return to pages you have already visited.
Shortly after you end your interaction with our web site, the cookie expires or “crumbles”. This means it cannot be used for any further identification.
You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or to notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions. You should note however that you may not be able to use our website correctly if you have disabled cookies.
Security and protection:
We store, transfer and transmit Information in electronic and printed form and have security measures in place designed to protect against the loss, misuse and/or alteration of the Information under our control.
Information in electronic form is stored and transmitted via our professionally managed computer system and communications network which makes use of modern systems protection technology and equipment.
Because we are making use of the internet in order to communicate with clients, we encrypt or “scramble” sensitive document and file transfers so that they cannot be intercepted and read or understood by any third party. To do this, we make use of 256-bit SSL encryption technology, the same as used by many large and reputable organizations that conduct business over the internet, including banks, airlines, and the retail giants in Australia and overseas.
You will know when the information being sent between us is being encrypted, by the presence of the “key” or “lock” symbol in your browser screen. We automatically trigger SSL encryption when clients, suppliers and staff log into and use the Members area of our website, including during the transmission of source document files and completed work files.
SSL encryption is simply intended to help ensure that your experience with SC Solutions is always safe and secure.
You should note that general email communications may be subject to the same security risks as when you contact anyone else by email. For this reason, you should not include confidential information in any email to any person (and not just us). If you wish to securely communicate confidential information to us by email, we are happy to accommodate this if you can contact us in advance.
We also store amounts of printed material which contains personal information, to assist us in performing work for our clients. All such information is stored under physical security and is not available under any circumstances to any person or party outside of SC Solutions.
We have a variety of additional physical security measures in place to protect personal information and client confidentiality:
– our staff are assigned to work on specific clients and only have access to files and information relevant to their allocated clients.
– under no circumstances are staff allowed to remove client documentation in any form from our offices.
– our office computers have had their USB ports removed or disabled, so that personal information cannot be copied to removable media.
– confidential waste paper is shredded in house, and under supervision.
Our Operations Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam occupies professionally managed office facilities in Western standards. The building and our offices are covered by 24/7 security personnel.
NPP 9 – Cross-border transfer of personal information:
Personal information may be sent outside of Australia under the National Privacy Principles, and Section 9 provides guidelines on these activities.
Part of this provision is that Information may be sent overseas if the receiving organization is bound under contract to the National Privacy Principles. SC Solutions fully complies with the Australian privacy Act without exception, and we make this written commitment in all our client contracts and appointment letters.
Access to your personal information:
All registered users of our HUB can review and amend limited personal details by logging into the Login area of our HUB.
It is the user’s responsibility to keep this personal information up to date, and their login name and password confidential at all times. Passwords should be regularly changed via the “Edit Password” in “Your Profile” section of our HUB login area and you should immediately contact us if you believe your access credentials have been compromised. SC Solutions cannot take responsibility for security breaches if you fail to follow these procedures.
Any client or other person, being a registered user of our website or not, may at any time request a review of all the personal information we are holding about them and ask us to revise or make corrections or updates as they think relevant. To request such a review, please contact us by any means to arrange a personal visit to our administration office. You will firstly need to prove your identity before we will grant access to our records.
SC Solutions will deal with all requests for access to personal information in a prompt and timely manner, and will not charge for these services unless we incur direct costs in providing the information.
SC Solutions will update this privacy policy as required over time. Our current Privacy Policy is always accessible on our HUB so that you are always aware of the sort of information collected, how the information may be used, and under what circumstances it may be disclosed by SC Solutions.
Further information:
If you would like any further information, or have any queries, problems or complaints in relation to this Privacy & Security Policy or our information handling practices in general, please contact us on
info@sc-solutions.com.au. Or;
You may obtain further general information about privacy issues from the Australian Government’s Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner by visiting their website at
www.privacy.com.au.