Privacy policy

The Australian Climate Case is a project of Grata Fund

At Grata Fund, we believe in the importance of privacy. We strive to be rigorous in our application of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended from time to time) (the “Privacy Act”), the Australian Privacy Principles (the “APPs”) and the privacy provisions of other applicable legislation. This policy describes the way we collect, hold, use and store your personal information.

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information is recorded in a material form or not.

The kinds of information we collect depends upon your involvement with us, including as a member of our mailing list, as a donor, or as an applicant for funding or support.

What information do we collect from members of our mailing list and why?
  • We collect and hold the following kinds of information: name, email, telephone number, and postcode.
  • We use personal information to send you opportunities to be involved in Grata Fund activities, to provide you with information about our organisation and cases, and to respond to your questions, comments or complaints. We may also use your personal information for the internal purposes of administration, research, planning, marketing, fundraising and project development.

What personal information do we collect from our donors and why?

  • We collect and hold the following kinds of information: name, address, email, telephone number, ABNS or ACNs for organisations and financial information but only where it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities.
  • We use personal information to send you opportunities to be involved in Grata Fund activities, to provide you with information about our organisation and cases, and to respond to your questions, comments or complaints. We may also use your personal information for the internal purposes of administration, research, planning, marketing, fundraising and project development.
What personal information do we collect from individuals seeking funding and why?
  • We collect and hold the following kinds of information: name, address, email, telephone number, financial information, plaintiffs and respondents in your matter, the status of your matter, the names and contact details of your legal team and advocacy partners (if any), and the amount of funding you are seeking.
  • We use personal information to discuss your case with you to see whether it is a strategic fit with our mission to develop strategic litigation, fund adverse cost protection and/or disbursements for and build alliances around significant public interest litigation on human rights, democratic freedoms and climate change. If we are able to support your case, we will use your personal information to assist you in forming your case application, for our case assessment and to assist entering into a funding agreement.
What information do we collect from participants in the Share Your Climate Story campaign and why?

We collect and hold the following kinds of information: name, city/town, State, postcode, email, occupation, and any images or stories you choose to share.

We use personal information to enable you to share your story about climate change and to participate in the Share Your Climate Story campaign. We also use personal information to send you opportunities to be involved in Grata Fund activities, to provide you with information about our organisation and cases, and to respond to your questions, comments or complaints. We may also use your personal information for the internal purposes of administration, research, planning, marketing, fundraising and project development.

Dealing with personal information

We never use or disclose your personal information for any secondary purpose unless:

  1. That secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose for which we collect that information and you would reasonably expect the disclosure in the circumstances; or
  2. You have given us your consent.

This may occur for case applicants for the purpose of seeking independent prospects review by a barrister for their case, but only where the applicant provides express consent, and for the purpose of their case assessment. In terms of donors, we do disclose personal information for the purpose of direct mail or credit card information in order to process a donation.

Direct Marketing
  • Your personal information is not sold for the purpose of direct marketing.
  • We use your personal information for the purpose of sending you information about our campaigns and about the activities of other organisations that we consider align with the Grata Fund’s goals.
  • If you would like to opt-out from direct marketing for the above purpose, you can do so at any time by notifying us in writing (see below for details).
Request for anonymity

If you wish, you can remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when you contact us and if you make a donation. We will respect your anonymity. If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, we may not, for example, be able to provide you with an official deductible gift recipient compliant receipt (and you may not be able to claim any donation in your tax return) or a letter of thanks, or assist you fully with your query or complaint.

How we collect and hold information
  • We collect personal information you provide us through our website, over the phone, or by email. For example, when you send an email to us or give us information over the phone, we may retain this in order to respond to your enquiry. We hold personal information in our electronic records or in those of our third party cloud computing or other services.
  • We collect your personal information through forms on our website. We do not use cookies.
How your personal information is disclosed

We are built on NationBuilder, a third party software that we use to receive case inquiries and donations. NationBuilder is located in Los Angeles, California. Some of your personal information (e.g. name, address, email, phone number, organisation name, position, donation history, and any emails you have sent us through our website) will be disclosed to NationBuilder so that we can provide our services to you.

As part of our direct email campaigns we may also provide your name and address to Australia Post and/or Mailhouse; your name, address and credit card information to Stripe (a credit card processor located in California, United States) for payment processing; your name, address, email address and credit card information to Zoho (based in Chennai, India) for regular giving; and email addresses to Facebook (located in California, United States).

We take all reasonable steps to ensure NationBuilder, Stripe, Zoho and Facebook do not breach the APPs.

How we make sure your personal information is protected
  • We take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access to or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction, interference or loss of your personal information.
  • These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorised access to systems where we store personal information.
  • Personal information is held only for as long as the personal information remains relevant to the purpose for which it was collected.
Unsolicited personal information
  • We do not usually collect unsolicited personal information.
  • Where we receive unsolicited personal information, we will determine whether or not it would have been permissible to collect that personal information if it had been solicited. If we determine that collection would not have been permissible, to the extent permitted by law, we’ll destroy or de-identify that personal information as soon as practicable.
  • If we determine that collection would have been permissible, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy.
Access and correction
  • We’ll take all reasonable steps to ensure any personal information we collect, use or disclose is up to date and accurate.
  • If you believe personal information we hold about you is not up to date or accurate, you may ask us to correct it. You will not be charged for such a request.
  • You may also ask us to provide you with details of the personal information we hold about you, and copies of that information. We will respond to your request and attempt to provide you with the data within 30 days of receipt of your request.
  • Even if you don’t submit a request, if we are satisfied that, having regard to the reasons for which we hold your personal information, that personal information is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct that information.
  • If we provide you with copies of the information you have requested, we may charge you a reasonable fee to cover the administrative costs of providing you with that information. Please direct all requests for access and correction to our Privacy Officer (contact details below). If we refuse to provide you access or correct your personal information, we will provide you with written reasons for our refusal.
Changes to this policy
  • Our policy will be updated when there are changes to legislation or our policy scope and purpose. If we make changes we will publish an updated statement on our website and social media channels.
  • You can request a copy of our privacy policy at any time.

Complaints

Enquiries or concerns about privacy matters, including complaints about how we handle your personal information and concerns that we have breached the APPs should be made in writing to our Privacy Officer (contact details below) by:

Writing to
Attn: Privacy Officer
Address: Grata Fund, UNSW Law Building F8
Union Road, UNSW Sydney
NSW 2052

Emailing
info@gratafund.org.au

We will respond to all queries as quickly as possible. If you do not consider our response satisfactory, you may contact the Australian Privacy Commissioner online or by telephone on 1300 363 992.

Our Contact Details

Please contact us if:

  • You have any queries in relation to our privacy policy;
  • You would like to know what personal information we hold about you and how you can gain access to it, or you would like to correct or update it; or
  • You believe that your privacy has been breached, or if you believe that we have breached the APPs or the Privacy Act, and you wish to make a complaint.

You can email us at info@gratafund.org.au

Or, if you want to send us a letter, you can post it to:
Grata Fund, UNSW Law Building F8 Union Road, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052