Privacy policy

Quirky Kid Pty Ltd (we, us and our) offers different types of services through our websites and clinic.

In providing our services to you, we may collect or be provided with personal information about you, online or offline, through the provision of educational resources, when you use our questions and answers platform, when you interact with or post on our blog, when you access our clinical psychology services, when you complete any questionnaire we provide you, when you visit our practice or participate in a telehealth consultation, when you access our website and when you contact us online, via telephone or via email (Services).  

Types of Information We Collect

We may collect information about you that includes personal information, sensitive information and health information.

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

Sensitive information: is a sub-set of personal information that is given a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles. Sensitive information means information relating to your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion, trade union or other professional associations or memberships, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal records, health information or biometric information.

Health information: is a type of sensitive information and includes any personal information that is collected while providing you a health service. For example, any details you share with us in a consultation about your medical history or mental health will be health information.

The types of personal information we may collect about you include:

When you contact our support team via phone, chat, our website or email:

• your name;
• your contact details, including email address and/or telephone number; and
• any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you register or book with us as a client:

• your contact details, including email address, mailing address, street address and/or telephone number;
• your date of birth;
• your Medicare number (if you are referred to us under a health scheme, for example);
• details of your referring doctor;
• an emergency contact name and telephone number;
• our correspondence with you or with other health professionals about you; and
• any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you have a consultation with us whether in person or online:

• personal details which are necessary and relevant to the assessment and/or treatment of your presenting mental health concern and which you choose to share with us. For example, this may include details of your schooling/training/employment status; your marital status; your beliefs and values, and views;
• sensitive information (including health information) which is necessary and relevant to the assessment and/or treatment of your presenting mental health concern and which you choose to share with us and any mental health assessment or diagnostic opinion we believe is necessary or relevant to record. The types of sensitive information you choose to share with us may include:
• detailed information about your current medications, your physical health and detailed information about your psychological health;
• your racial or ethnic origin;
• your religious beliefs;
• your philosophical beliefs;
• your political beliefs or affiliations;
• your sexual orientation or practices; and
• any other sensitive details you choose to share with us;
• any other required personal information requested by us and/or provided by you or a third party.

When you visit our websites, our health platform, access our educational resources or post to our website, forum, or blog:

We may also collect personal information about you, directly from you or from a third party, for the purpose of delivering our website to you. The types of personal information which we may collect when delivering our website to you include:

• your browser session and geo-location data, device and network information, statistics on page views and sessions, acquisition sources, search queries and/or browsing behaviour;
• information about your access and use of our Services, including through the use of Internet cookies, your communications with our online Services, the type of browser you are using, the type of operating system you are using and the domain name of your Internet service provider; and
• additional personal information that you provide to us, directly or indirectly, through your use of our website, forum, blog or associated applications from which you permit us to collect information.

Cookies: We may use cookies on our online Services from time to time. Cookies are text files placed in your computer's browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information. If and when you choose to provide our online Services with personal information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our online Services.

Consequence of not providing personal information

If you do not wish for their personal information to be collected in a way anticipated by this Privacy Policy, we may not be in a position to provide the psychological service to you.

You may request to be anonymous or to use a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for our psychologist to deal with you or if our psychologist is required or authorised by law to deal with identified individuals. In most cases it will not be possible for you to be anonymous or to use a pseudonym, however, if our psychologist agrees to you being anonymous or using a pseudonym, you must pay consultation fees at the time of the appointment.

Purpose of holding personal information

Your personal information is gathered and used for the purpose of providing psychological services, which include assessing, diagnosing and treating your presenting issue. The personal information is retained in order to document what happens during sessions and enables the psychologist to provide a relevant and informed psychological service.

We may also use the personal information we have collected from you for the purposes related above, and to:

1. verify your identity;
2. register you as a client;
3. administer and provide our Services (including to invoice or bill you for our Service and to book an appointment for you);
4. enable your referring doctor to refer you to us and/or book an appointment for you;
5. internal record keeping;
6. notify you of new or changed services offered in relation to our Services;
7. carry out marketing or training relating to our Services;
8. comply with laws and regulations in applicable jurisdictions;
9. communicate with you;
10. to enable you to access and use our website and trusted associated applications and platforms; and
11. to comply with our legal obligations and resolve any disputes that we may have.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes described in this Policy or with your express permission.

Disclosure of personal information

Your personal information will not be disclosed except when:

1. It is subpoenaed by a court, or
2. Failure to disclose the information would, in our reasonable belief, place you or another person at serious risk to life, health or safety, or
3. When communicating with our employees, contractor, a GP/Paediatrician and/or other medical practitioners when referred under a Medicare Scheme, NDIS and other referrals schemes or
4. When third party services providers require the information to enable them to assist us in providing our Services to you, including:
5. our practice management cloud-based software; or
6. software to send and receive emails and for internal business purposes, including for accounting purposes and for business document storage; or
7. IT services for IT support, advice and management; or
8. telehealth solutions; or
9. payment service providers; or
10. telecommunication service providers.
11. Your prior approval has been obtained to:
12. provide a written report to another professional or agency, e.g., a GP or a lawyer, or
13. discuss the material with another person, e.g., a parent, employer or health provider, or
14. disclose the information in another way; or
15. Disclosure is otherwise required by law; or
16. When we make a clinical decision that we must disclose your personal information to any other relevant third parties, based on an assessment of your best interests, taking into account your age, health, safety and any possible immediate or substantial risk to you.

Overseas disclosure: We take reasonable steps to use Australian based third-party service providers where practicable. However, occasionally these providers are located outside of Australia or need to transfer or access your information outside of Australia to assist us in providing our Services to you and some information is held on our servers, or service provider servers, that can be located in the USA.

By providing us with personal information, you understand we may disclose a limited amount of your information outside of Australia and acknowledge that where we disclose personal information to a third party outside of Australia, we will only use reputable third parties and we will only disclose the personal information necessary for the recipient to assist us in supplying our Services to you.

Your personal information will not be used, sold, rented or disclosed for any other purpose.

Disclosure of Sensitive Information

Your sensitive information may only be used and disclosed for:

• purposes for which you may consent, such as:
• to provide a written report to another agency or professional, such as a general practitioner or a lawyer;
• to discuss the material with another person, such as a parent, employer, health provider, or third party funder;
• to disclose the information in another way; or
• to disclose to another professional or agency such as your general practitioner;
• secondary purposes directly related to the primary purpose for which your sensitive information was collected, including disclosure to the above listed third party services providers as reasonably necessary to provide our Services to you;
• to refer you to medical or health service providers, or to speak with your family, partner or support person where we reasonably believe there is a serious risk to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is impractical or we are unable to obtain your consent; and
• if otherwise required or authorised by law, such as where the information is subpoenaed.

Storage and Security

We are committed to ensuring that the personal information we collect is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure your personal information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. These procedures include:

• securing any personal information we hold in an electronic format behind password log ins (typically with multi factor authentication);
• securing any personal information we hold in physical files in a locked cabinet;
• encrypting data, using virus protection software, implementing firewalls; and
• limiting internal access to the personal information we hold about you based on a need to know basis.

Although we take measures to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures of information, due to the inherent risks associated with the Internet, we cannot assure you that the personal information we collect and send over the Internet, will not be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

Your rights and controlling your personal information

Choice and consent: Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By providing personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect our ability to provide our Services to you and your use of our Services.

Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.

Anonymity: Where practicable we will give you the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym in your dealings with us. For example, if you make a general enquiry, you may choose to use a pseudonym but where we provide our psychology services to you we will require that you provide some identifying information.

Restrict and Unsubscribe: If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by contacting us using the details below. To unsubscribe from our e-mail database or opt-out of communications (including any marketing communications), please contact us using the details below or opt-out using the opt-out facilities provided in the communication.

Access and Correction: At any stage, you may request to see and correct the personal information about them kept on file. The psychologist may discuss the contents with them and/or give them a copy, subject to the exceptions in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If satisfied that personal information is inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete, reasonable steps will be taken in the circumstances to ensure that this information is corrected.

All requests by you for access to or correction of personal information held about them should be lodged with the Manager at support@quirkykid.com.au. A request must state your name and address, particularise the health information to which access is sought and specify the form in which you would like the information to be provided. These requests will be responded to in writing within 30 days, and, if necessary, an appointment will be made for clarification purposes. An administrative fee may be payable for the provision of such information and professional fees for appointments. Please note, in some situations, we may be legally permitted to withhold access to your personal information or the personal information you have requested access to.

In accordance with the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71, if you are a parent or legal guardian and you would like to request access to your child’s information, in addition to the information that needs to be included in a regular request for information, we also require that you provide evidence of your parental authority or guardianship to have access to the information in their request.

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child between the ages of 14-16 years old, and the child has been deemed by us to have the capacity to make independent decisions about their health care, we may be legally permitted to withhold the child’s information from you. For more information about obtaining access to your child’s information, please read this article.

Concerns: If you have a concern about the management of their personal information, they may inform the Manager (support@quirkykid.com.au). Upon request, you can obtain a copy of the Australian Privacy Principles, which describe their rights and how their personal information should be handled. Ultimately, if you wish to lodge a formal complaint about the use of, disclosure of, or access to their personal information, they may do so with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by phone on 1300 363 992, online at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints or by post to:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney, NSW 2001.

Personal Information Retention

Your personal information is only kept while it is required for the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law. It will then be securely destroyed or de-identified.

Health records are kept for a minimum of 7 years since the last time we provided you with a health service. If you were a child when we provided you with a psychological service then we keep your health record at a minimum until you reach the age of 25. When we destroy your health record, we keep a written note of your name, the date we destroyed it, and the time period the record covered. This is to comply with the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71.

Links to Other Websites

We do not have any control over any website which is not our website and we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any personal information which you provide whilst visiting other websites. Those websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy and we recommend that you review the privacy policies on those other websites before using them.

Amendments

We may, at any time and at our discretion, vary this Privacy Policy by publishing the amended Privacy Policy on our website and making it available to you in hard copy within our practice. We recommend you regularly check our website and the policy available in our practice to ensure you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.