Privacy policy

Who we are

Our website addresses are: https://mdfoundation.com.au and https://www.checkmymacula.com.au

Introduction: The Australian Privacy Principles

Macular Disease Foundation Australia (“MDFA”, “we” or “us”) is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended from time to time) (the “Privacy Act”), the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) and the privacy provisions or other applicable legislation.

You can find out more about the Privacy Act and the APPs by calling the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or through their website.

MDFA respects and upholds your rights to privacy protection under the APPs in regulating how we collect, use, disclose and hold your personal information.

This policy describes the way MDFA collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information about individuals. Any personal information collected by the MDFA is covered by this policy. 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 or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

The purposes for which we collect your personal information

Your personal and sensitive information, including health information, is only collected as is necessary for a function or activity to enable MDFA to carry out its work and deliver services to the community.

MDFA is very grateful to the many thousands of people around Australia who provide financial support to allow us to continue our important sight saving work. When you give us personal information such as your name and address, we record it on our database and use it to contact you.

We may use your personal information to:

• send you information on macular disease or to let you know about our events and fundraising programs;
• provide you with products or services requested by you;
• respond to questions, comments and complaints about the MDFA or our services; and
• invite you to support our programs or initiatives.

You can let us know that you do not wish to receive any further contact from us by phoning our National Helpline on 1800 111 709 or emailing [email protected].  

MDFA will not collect sensitive information about health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade association or union membership, sexual preferences or criminal record, or any genetic or biometric information, unless you have consented to give this information to us and it is relevant to the work of MDFA. We will always collect such information in a non-intrusive, lawful and fair manner.

The personal information we collect

The kinds of personal information MDFA will collect from you will depend on the nature of your dealings with us and may (but does not always) include:

• name
• gender
• date of birth
• address
• personal and/or work contact details (e.g. phone numbers and email addresses);
• health information (e.g. about your eyesight);
• any information about you which you provide through promotions, competitions, surveys, fundraising events; and/or
• payment details (e.g. credit card number).

Opting out or modifying your information

If you want to change any information that you have previously given us, or if you want to opt out of future communications you can contact us using one of the below methods:

• email: [email protected]
• phone: 1800 111 709
• post: MDFA, Mezzanine, 383 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000

How we collect your personal information

We collect your personal information when you provide it to MDFA in a number of ways including:

• in person
• by mail or email
• through a call to our National Helpline
• by participating in one of MDFA’s education, information or fundraising events
• registration of details on MDFA’s website and/or
• when you respond to other awareness or fundraising campaigns.

If you do not or are not able to provide us with the requested personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the products, services or information which you have requested from us.

How we hold your personal information secure

If you provide us with your personal information, we will use our best endeavours to ensure it is securely stored in our database, which is accessed only by the authorised personnel of MDFA. Each user can only access the system via a unique username and password combination. In addition, our external access to e-mail and the Internet is protected by a Firewall/Router.

Using and disclosing your personal information

MDFA will only use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This may include where use or disclosure is required by law, where we have your consent to the use or disclosure or for the purpose for which it was collected, or related purposes that you would reasonably expect MDFA to use or disclose that information.

MDFA will not provide your personal information to any other individuals or organisations except on a confidential basis to contractors who provide database management, printing and mailing services to MDFA. In these cases, we ensure that our contractors are also bound by the APPs to keep your personal information confidential.

MDFA is very thankful to people who are willing to share their personal stories of their macular disease with others through media stories and in our newsletter. We will only use your personal information for publicity purposes or as stories in our newsletter with your express written or verbal permission. 

If you provide us with your email address it will not be passed on to any other organisation.

Visiting our website

When you come to our websites (www.mdfoundation.com.au or www.checkmymacula.com.au) may collect certain information such as browser type, operating system, website visited immediately before coming to our site, etc. This information is used in an aggregated manner to analyse how people use our site, so we can improve our service.

By using the MDFA website, you agree that the internet is inherently insecure and accordingly MDFA cannot provide any definitive assurance regarding security of personal information. MDFA will not be liable in any way in relation to any breach of security or any unintended loss or disclosure of that information.

Cookies and other similar technologies

We may from time to time use cookies on our website. Cookies are very small files which a website uses that do not personally identify you, instead they identify your browser.

Cookies are not malicious programs that access or damage your computer. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can choose to reject cookies by changing your browser settings. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

Our website may from time to time use cookies to analyse website traffic and help us provide a better website visitor experience.  This includes Google Analytics, which allows us to measure interactions with our website so we can continuously monitor and improve its performance and optimise your experience.

Our third-party credit card transaction processor uses ‘cookies’ for transaction integrity and anti-fraud purposes. Our provider is compliant with the APPs and will not utilise your details for any activity other than supporting the primary purpose of making a donation to MDFA or purchasing a MDFA product.

Remarketing to website visitors

MDFA may use remarketing services to advertise its products or services.  Remarketing services will display relevant ads to website visitors through third party services such as Facebook. This means MDFA ads may appear on this website or other websites you visit. 

You can opt out of Facebook ads by adjusting the profile settings on your account. For more information regarding behavioural advertising, including ways to manage your online privacy and ads, visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Third party sites

MDFA’s website contains links to other sites of interest. MDFA does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of those websites. Please check the Privacy Statements on other websites before you provide your personal information to them.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Our website security and security of personal information

All forms used within this website are encrypted. We make every effort possible to make your donations and transactions within our site as secure and safe as possible for you. All information that leaves any form (including your credit card number) is encrypted automatically by your browser until it reaches our servers.

MDFA will treat all personal information with due care and take all reasonable steps to protect any personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information we collect, hold, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading.

The Spam Act 2003

The Spam Act prohibits the sending of unsolicited emails and SMS messages for commercial purposes from or within Australia, or to people in Australia, and bans the supply and use of software designed to harvest email addresses. While charities do have some exemptions from this Act, MDFA will abide by the best practice guidelines, which have been developed on responsible electronic messaging practices by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Changes to our Privacy Statement

MDFA may, without prior notice to you, amend or modify its Privacy Statement by posting the amended Privacy Statement to the MDFA website.

How to access your personal information

If you have any questions about the personal information Macular Disease Foundation Australia holds about you, the accuracy of that personal information or the management of that personal information, please contact: Macular Disease Foundation Australia Mezzanine, 383 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Phone: 1800 111 709. Email: [email protected]

If you would like to access the personal information that we hold about you, you can contact the General Manager – Programs and Operations, using the contact details provided above. We will endeavour to give you access to that personal information within two weeks. To maintain the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to provide specific identification before we give you access.

If you would prefer to deal with us anonymously, you are not required to provide personal or sensitive information unless we are required by law to deal with individuals who have identified themselves or it is impractical for us to deal with individuals who have not identified themselves. If the personal information that we hold about you is incorrect or not up to date, we will update it as soon as possible after you have shown us how and why it is incorrect.

In the unlikely event that we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information, we will provide you with written reasons for denying access. Even if you don’t make 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 may take reasonable steps to correct that information.

Complaints

If you have any concerns or complaints in relation to how we manage privacy matters, please submit in writing to:

• General Manager, Programs and Operations
• Macular Disease Foundation Australia
• Mezzanine
• 383 Kent Street
• Sydney NSW 2000

MDFA will endeavour to respond to concerns about privacy matters, including complaints about how we handle personal information and concerns that we have breached the APP, within 10 business days.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your matter, you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.