Privacy

Privacy Policy

The Synod of SA, Mission Networks, Congregations and Faith Communities all collect personal information form people for a variety of reasons.

Appropriate collection, storage and usage of this personal information is important to most people.

It is an act of trust by an individual to provide personal information. In response the Uniting Church needs to take the process of upholding an individual’s privacy very seriously.

The Privacy Act

In December 2000, the Federal Parliament passed the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000. This legislation amended the Privacy Act 1988, which had mainly applied to public sector agencies. However, that amendment meant that the Privacy Act also applied to private sector organisations including the Uniting Church.

The 2012 Privacy Amendment Act which came into effect 12th March 2014 includes a set of new harmonised privacy principles to regulate the handling of personal information by both Australian Government agencies and non Government organisations.  These principles are identified as the Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) and replace the National Privacy Principles (NPP’s) that previously applied to the Uniting Church.

The 2012 Privacy Amendment Act sets out how organisations should collect, use, store, secure and disclose personal information. It also gives individuals the right to know what personal information an organisation holds and the right to access and correct that information. The Act has 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) most of which have direct implications for the Uniting Church.

Privacy Manual

Uniting Church SA  has produced a Privacy manual as an aid to congregations in handling personal information in compliance with the 2012 Privacy Amendment Act. It has been prepared for the Synod and the three Presbytery's, mission networks, agencies, congregations and faith communities. It is available here for download.  2014 Privacy manual final version (1.2 mb PDF)

The purpose of this manual is to assist UCA congregations and employees to ensure that their procedures and policies for collecting, using, storing and disclosing personal information comply with the 2012 Privacy Amendment Act (referred to in this manual as “the Privacy Act”.)

Privacy Resources

Uniting Church SA has produced a range of resources which can be utilised by mission networks, congregations and faith communities. These can be downloaded here:

2014 Congregation Prayer and Privacy (952 kb PDF)

Congregation Privacy Information Brochure fillable (898 kb PDF)

2014 Privacy manual final version (1.2 mb PDF)

Congregation Personal Information Form (1.1 mb PDF)

Congregation-Privacy-Policy-template-2014 (1 mb PDF)

As part of the compliance procedures mission networks, congregations and faith communities are required to submit an Annual Compliance Certificate which can be downloaded here:

Annual Compliance certificate (105 kb PDF)

Synod Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy 2014 (306 kb PDF)

 **Please note: if you are using Adobe Reader 10 or earlier, you may not be able to save what you have typed into the forms.  In order to save, please either download Adobe XI, Foxit, or another pdf reader.**