Gold Coast Hinterland
Gold Coast Hinterland

Privacy Policy

  1. Policy Overview

Gold Coast Tourism Corporation Ltd trading as Destination Gold Coast ( ‘DGC’ ) respects your right to privacy and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of anyone who interacts with us including job applicants, members, and customers. We take our privacy obligations seriously. DGC adheres to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles and has implemented this Privacy Policy (‘Policy’) setting out how we collect, store, use and distribute your personal information.

 

Personal information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. By providing your personal information to us, you consent to the storage, usage and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Policy.

 

This Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to employee records of our current and former employees, which are exempt from the Privacy Act.

 

DGC’s website provides information and contact details for third party venues and attractions and may occasionally provide website links for these providers.  Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. This Policy does not apply to those providers, and unless expressly stated otherwise, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of, or any content on, those linked websites, and have no control over or rights in those linked websites. You should refer to the separate provider’s privacy policies prior to providing them with your personal details.

 

  1. Personal Information

The personal information we may collect will depend on your relationship with us.  Personal information may be collected when you request information from DGC, enter our competitions, join our mailing lists, attend our events or apply for employment. We also collect personal information of individuals associated with businesses within our membership base across the tourism sector, or where you engage our services (such as to facilitate an event).  

 

The personal information we may collect include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Name;
  • Address;
  • Email address;
  • Phone number;
  • Date of birth;
  • Age;
  • Emergency Contact information;
  • Credit Card Details;
  • If you are applying for a job with us, your employment details such as education, qualifications, employment history, proof of residency, references, salary information, banking details, superannuation details, and tax details;
  • If you represent one of our member organisations, your role or position with that organisation and other information relevant to its dealings with us;
  • Any other information provided by you to us by any means, including via our website, our social media pages, at our events or information centres, or directly to us in other forms.

 

2.1          Sensitive Information

Sensitive information (as defined under the Privacy Act) we collect will be used and disclosed only for the purpose for which it was provided or a directly related secondary purpose, unless you agree otherwise, or the collection, use or disclosure of sensitive information is required or allowed by law.

 

Job candidates: DGC may request sensitive information from potential candidates through the recruitment process or new employees through the onboarding process. 

 

Sensitive information may include medical/health information or criminal history if it is relevant to the role that you are applying for, and whether you identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander for our Diversity and Inclusion reporting.

 

Other individuals: when you interact with us (for example you request information from DGC, enter our competitions, or join our mailing lists) we may ask for details of whether you are from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background. This information is optional only and if provided, is used by us to better understand the diversity and demographic of people who interact with us.

 

  1. How we collect your Personal Information

Usually, we collect personal information directly from you, but in some cases, we may collect it from third parties such as when conducting reference or background checks.  Some of the ways we may collect information include when you:

  • Interact with our website or social media channels;
  • Receive services from us;
  • Register your interest or sign up to our mailing lists or databases (i.e. employment database, Tourism Matters newsletter);
  • Participate in a DGC run surveys or market research activities;
  • Enquire about or apply for membership with DGC;
  • Enquire about or submit an application for employment with DGC (including through third party recruitment agencies or recruitment platforms such as LinkedIn and Seek); and
  • Make payments for DGC’s or its affiliates’ goods or services.

 

3.1          Website and Digital Marketing Tracking

We may collect personal information when you use or access our website or social media pages through various browser and tracking technologies.  Some of these technologies include, but are not limited to, Cookies, Google Analytics, and Sitecore.

 

This information is used in an aggravated manner and is largely deidentified, however, it may track things such as IP address & location, browser type, and the clicks you made. 

 

Cookies are pieces of information that websites send to the browser and are stored in the computer hard drive. Cookies store information regarding your preferences on this website. Cookies personalise the site when you return.

 

Cookies will not identify you personally but rather allow us to track and analyse your website usage.

 

If you do not wish information to be stored as a cookie, you can alter your security settings on your web browser to disable cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used. Disabling the cookie function in your web browser may impede your ability to use parts of the site.

 

Google Analytics and reports provided to us by Sitecore, allow us to better understand our customer and tailor the customer experience and our marketing strategies.

 

When you visit our Social Media pages or receive an email from us, we may track any clicks on links and whether you opened the message or not.

 

  1. Use of your Personal Information

The personal information we collect is used for the purpose of conducting our business activities.  The purposes for which we may use your information include:

  • Providing you with our services or information requested;
  • Assessing your employment application or contact you regarding future potential employment opportunities;
  • To administer rewards, surveys, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by us or our business partners;
  • For record keeping and administrative purposes;
  • To comply with our legal obligations including enforcing contractual requirements and agreements with third parties;
  • To improve our products and services and better understand your needs;
  • For marketing purposes;
  • Research requirements of DGC.

 

4.1          Competitions and marketing

DGC may run competitions or offer added benefits to you (such as special offers or events we think you may be interested in) and may ask you to provide us with your personal details for these purposes. Offering this information is optional, however, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to contact you or give you access to those benefits. Whenever it is optional for you to provide information, we will make this clear to you.

 

Each competition run by DGC will have its own Terms and Conditions which you can read before choosing to enter.  Please refer to these Terms and the specific information about how they may use and disclose your personal information.

 

  1. Disclosure of your Personal Information

We may disclose personal information for the purposes described in this Policy to:

  • Our employees and related bodies corporate;
  • Third party suppliers and service providers (including providers for the operation of our website and/or our business or in connection with providing our services);
  • Professional advisers and agents;
  • Payment systems operators (eg merchants receiving card payments);
  • Our existing or potential agents, business partners or partners;
  • Our sponsors or promoters of any competition that we conduct via our services;
  • Anyone to whom our assets or businesses (or any part of them) are transferred;
  • Specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us; and/or
  • Other persons, including government agencies, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies, or as required, authorised or permitted by law.

If you provide credit card details, these will only be used by DGC for the purpose of taking payment for DGC’s or its affiliates’ goods and services and will not be disclosed to any third party other than as set out above.

 

  1. Security of your Personal Information

DGC is committed to ensuring the safety and security of your personal information and will take all reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss or unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Personal information is destroyed in a secure manner when it is no longer needed by DGC for the purposes above.

 

We may hold your personal information in either electronic or hard copy form. We use a number of physical, administrative, personnel and technical measures to protect your personal information. However, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

 

Please keep in mind that information transmitted over the Internet is not guaranteed to be completely secure and is carried out at your own risk.  Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised access and disclosure, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from our online products or services. Once we receive your transmission, we will use our reasonable efforts to ensure its security. 

 

  1. Use of your personal information for direct marketing

We and/or our carefully selected business partners may send you direct marketing communications and information about our services. This may take the form of emails, SMS, mail or other forms of communication, in accordance with the Spam Act and the Privacy Act. You may opt-out of receiving marketing materials from us by using the opt-out facilities provided (i.e. an unsubscribe link). DGC also provides other avenues to opt-out. To unsubscribe from DGC’s marketing email database, please send an e-mail to marketing@destinationgoldcoast.com with “UNSUBSCRIBE” typed into the subject header of your email.

To unsubscribe from the DGC’s employment email database, please send an e-mail to recruitment@destinationgoldcoast.com with “UNSUBSCRIBE” typed into the subject header of your email.

 

  1. Updating or Correcting your Personal  Information:

You can request details about the personal information we hold about you in accordance with the Privacy Act.  We may need to verify your identify before providing you with your personal information.  Please email us at reception@destinationgoldcoast.com.  In some cases, we may not be able to provide you with access to all your personal information or may refuse to provide you with the information we hold about you in accordance with the Act.

 

You have the right to opt out of communications at any time and can do so by using the opt-out functions within the email (i.e. unsubscribe link) or requesting this in writing to DGC as stated in section 7 above.

 

If you think the personal information that we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us reception@destinationgoldcoast.com.

 

Changes to personal information may impact upon our ability to provide you with our services.

 

  1. Complaints

If you think we have breached the Privacy Act, or you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information,  Please email reception@destinationgoldcoast.com and include your name, email address and/or telephone number and clearly describe your complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you regarding your complaint within a reasonable period of time. If you think that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, we will provide you with information about the further steps you can take.

 

  1. Further Information

DGC reserves the right to change this Policy from time to time.  Any updates to our policy will be posted on our website. We encourage you to check our website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

 

For further privacy information, please refer to the Australian Privacy Commissioner’s Website.