Privacy Policy

ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Whelpmate Pty Ltd recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of its customers and other third parties who provide their personal information to us.

We are committed to handling personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws, including the Australian Privacy Principles set out in Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”).

This policy explains how we collect your personal information, what we do with it, and how it is protected

KINDS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED AND HELD

The personal information we collect about you includes your:

  • name, age, date of birth and contact details (including residential or business address, delivery address, email address, telephone number);
  • pet ownership details, shopping habits and preferences and details of products and services you have purchased from us;
  • marketing preferences, including the type of marketing materials you wish to receive and the method of delivery (email, SMS, direct mail, or other); and
  • device identification information (see the section headed 'Online and Digital Services' below for further information).

If you are a candidate for employment, we may collect other information. This may include information relating to your employment history, working eligibility rights, suitability for the role you are applying for, and your referee details.

HOW PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED AND HELD

How we collect your personal information

Normally we collect personal information from you directly, when sign up or purchase from whelpmate.com.au, as well as via our Facebook and Indigogo campaigns.

We may collect your personal information:

  • directly from you during conversations with our team members (by phone, in person or electronically);
  • when you make a purchase or complete purchase orders, registrations, requests or applications for our products or services, loyalty or other membership clubs (by phone, in person or electronically);
  • when you communicate with us during competitions, special events and promotions; and
  • where you access and interact with the website or the customer service team including via social media sites (see the section headed 'Online and Digital Services' below for further information).

We may also collect personal information from third parties including through the acquisition of third party mailing lists and from organisations with whom we have an affiliation.

HOW WE HOLD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may hold your personal information in hard copy (paper) or electronic form.

If you provide information to us electronically, we retain this information in our computer systems and databases. Information held in electronic form is generally held on servers controlled by us and on servers controlled by third parties under contractual arrangement with us. We use physical security, password protection and other measures to ensure that personal information stored in electronic form is protected from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

Personal information collected in hard copy (paper) form may be converted to electronic form. Where this occurs, generally the hard copy is securely destroyed at the end of this process. Information held in paper-based form is generally securely stored at our head office or at our retail locations. We use physical security and other measures to ensure that personal information in hard copy form is protected from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

ANONYMITY AND PSEUDONYMITY

You have the option of not identifying yourself, or using a pseudonym, when dealing with us (where this is lawful and practicable for example, when making an enquiry or purchasing products from our retail stores). However, in certain circumstances, if we do not collect personal information about you, we may be unable to provide you with the products and services you have asked us to provide.

PURPOSES FOR COLLECTING, HOLDING, USING AND DISCLOSING PERSONAL INFORMATION

The main purposes for which we collect, hold and use your personal information are:

  • to provide you with products and services that you have requested from us;
  • to communicate with you, including about products and services, competition results, special offers, and events which might interest you; and
  • to answer your questions, provide you with information or advice or consider and respond to requests or complaints made by you.

The kinds of third parties to whom we may disclose personal information to include delivery services providers, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, marketing and communications agencies, data analysts, IT service providers and our advisors including our professional advisors (including legal and financial advisors).

We may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for other purposes explained at the time of collection.

DIRECT MARKETING

We may send you direct marketing communications to keep you informed about products and services we provide and other products and services that may be of interest to you via email, SMS, social media, or regular mail.

If you have indicated a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method wherever practical to do so.

We acknowledge and respect our customers' choice to "opt-out" of direct marketing communication activities from us. You may opt out of direct marketing communications at any time by contacting us at info@whelpmate.com

You can also unsubscribe from emails by clicking the unsubscribe link on the footer of the email communication you have received.

OVERSEAS DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your personal information will also be disclosed to overseas recipients (including services providers who assist us to improve our products and services by analysing sales information and trends and conducting customer satisfaction enquiries). Those overseas recipients are likely to be located in the USA and New Zealand.

Unless we have your consent, or an exception under the Australian Privacy Principles applies, we will only disclose your personal information to overseas recipients where we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to your personal information.

ONLINE AND DIGITAL SERVICES

Third party sites 

Cookies and Digital Identifiers

Generally, individuals can use our digital services without identifying themselves. We may collect device identification information when you use a computer, mobile phone, smart phone, tablet, or other device to access or interact with us through our online store and websites or other applications. This information may include session cookies, your device IMEI number, IP address or MAC address. In some cases, these identifiers may only relate to a device or may be of an aggregated or statistical nature, and will not identify you as the user. In other cases we may associate information about your use of the website and other digital services over time with your personal information (e.g. where on any occasion you have logged in, followed a link sent to you by email or we have otherwise been able to identify you).

Our website uses a technology called cookies. A cookie is a small element of data that our website may send to your computer. A cookie is typically stored on your computer's hard drive and permits our website to recognise you when you return. Our use of cookies helps us to provide you with a better experience during your use of our website by allowing us to understand what areas of the site are of interest to you. You may configure your web browser to not accept cookies, although you may experience a loss of functionality as a result.

We use and third-party vendors use first-party cookies and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on an individual’s past visits to our website and third party websites.

ACCESSING AND SEEKING CORRECTION TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

Accessing Personal Information

You are entitled to access your personal information we hold about youon request. To request access to your personal information, please contact The Privacy Officer using the contact details set out below under 'Contacting Us'. In limited circumstances, access to your personal information may be declined in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information.

Updating personal Information

We will endeavour to keep your personal information accurate, up-to-date and complete. You can assist us with this by letting us know if you notice errors or discrepancies in information we hold about you and letting us know if your details change.

If you consider any personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading you are entitled to request correction of the information. After receiving a request from you, we will take reasonable steps to correct your information.

Destruction of Personal Information

Petbarn take reasonable steps to delete or securely destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information where it is no longer required and to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, loss, misuse and alteration.

If you wish to have your personal information removed from our records, you may request that your personal information be deleted or securely destroyed. It will not always be possible to comply with your request to delete or destroy your personal information.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT HANDLING OF PERSONAL

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy or how we have handled your personal information, you may contact us at any time. The contact details for the Privacy Officer are set out below under 'Contacting Us' 

If you have a complaint about privacy, please contact the Privacy Officer. The Privacy Officer will first consider your complaint to determine whether there are simple or immediate steps which can be taken to resolve the complaint. If your complaint requires more detailed consideration or investigation, we may ask you to provide further information about your complaint and the outcome you are seeking. We will then typically gather relevant facts, locate and review relevant documents and speak with the individuals involved. We will respond to your complaint as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any case, within 30 days.

 If you are not satisfied with our response to a complaint, or you consider that we may have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or the Privacy Act, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be contacted by telephone on 1300 363 992. Full contact details for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner can be found online at www.oaic.gov.au.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes to the privacy policy will be published on www.whelpmate.com

This privacy policy was last amended in August 2017. We encourage you to periodically review the privacy policy for the latest information on our privacy practices.

CONTACTING US

If you would like to contact us in relation to this privacy policy or your personal information please contact info@whelpmate.com