Privacy Policy

Grasso Searles Romano Lawyers (“GSR”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is dedicated to protecting your personal data, in accordance with applicable Australian privacy legislation. During the course of our business, there may be times where we collect and / or store personal data. Please read this privacy notice carefully which we have developed to ensure that when we collect personal date it is handled appropriately.  We have developed this policy so you can better understand how we gather, use and disclose your personal information. For the avoidance of doubt, this policy does not apply to professional legal privilege we owe to our clients.  

‍1.    Applicable legislation

‍In Australia, collection of personal information is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) which incorporates the Australian Privacy Principles.  

‍2.    What is personal information?

‍Information or opinions relating to a particular reasonably identifiable individual, whether true or not.  

‍3.    What information do we collect?

‍The information we collect will depend on the nature of our relationship with you, if you are a client, what legal services you have engaged us for. Generally, the types of information that we may collect and hold include:
(a)        contact information (such as full name, address and postal address (including passed addresses)                   and phone number, email address);
(b)           business circumstances, such as business structure;
(c)           family circumstances, including information relating to your family members;
(d)           information about assets and investments;
(e)            gender;
(f)             date and place of birth;
(g)           superannuation details;
(h)           credit information;
(i)             credit card details;
(j)             tax file numbers;
(k)            driver’s licence and other photographic information;
(l)             video or photographic footage given by clients to us for legal advice;
(m)          information otherwise required by law; and / or
(n)          any other personal information required to perform the legal or other service to the individual. We will                  undertake our best endeavours to only collect the personal information we require in the course of our                   professional services to you.  

‍4.    Sensitive Information

‍Sensitive information is a subset of personal information that is normally afforded a higher level of privacy protection. It includes health information, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or unions, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record, genetic information, any sensitive information required to be disclosed by law. We will only collect sensitive information where it is reasonably necessary to perform our professional services and where you have provided your consent or it is permitted under the Privacy Act or other applicable legislation.  

‍5.    Our obligations
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‍We will comply with the Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles when collecting the above information.
 
‍6.    How we collect information
‍
‍We may collect personal information through any number of the following ways:
(a)           In person from you;
(b)           Over the phone from you;
(c)           Through any form of written communication;
(d)         Through surveillance cameras (either from third parties, public registers, regulatory authorities, or from                  our own premises security cameras); and / or
(e)           Through referrals from third parties.
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7.    How do we hold information

‍We may hold personal information via any number of the following ways:
(a)           Physically, whether on our premises or at a third party storage facility;
(b)           Electronically;
(c)           Via internal servers;
(d)           Via private cloud storage;
(e)           Via third party data storage; and / or
(f)            By Microsoft within our mailboxes.  

‍8.    Why do we collect personal information

‍We may collect personal information from you in order to provide professional legal services and / or in the course of your matter.   

‍9.    Who we may share information with

‍We may share your personal information with any number of the following in the course of providing legal services to you:
(a)           financial institutions for payment processing;
(b)           barristers, experts or other relevant third parties in relation to your matter;
(c)           overseas law firms where required to seek advice on foreign laws;
(d)           external lawyers who we contract to assist us in providing legal services to you;
(e)           online programs, such as Court filing systems;
(f)            credit reporting bodies and credit providers;
(g)      government regulators (for example to update ASIC records or where required under anti-money                   laundering and counter-terrorism laws); and / or
(h)           our contracted service providers, including business and litigation support service providers.

‍10.  Access and Correction

‍We will generally provide you with access to your personal information, subject to some exceptions permitted by law. We will also generally provide access in the manner that you have requested (e.g. by providing photocopies or allowing a file to be viewed), provided it is reasonable and practicable for us to do so. We may however charge a fee to cover our reasonable costs of locating the information and providing it to you. If you ask us to correct personal information that we hold about you, or if we are satisfied that the personal information we hold is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct that information to ensure that, having regard to the purpose for which it is held, the information is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. 

‍11.  Complaints

‍If you have any complaints about how we have collected your personal information, how we have stored your personal information or what information we have collected, please contact our Mr Alfio Romano on 07 3236 3999 or email as at reception@gsrlawyers.com.au. You may also contact the office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling the OAIC’s enquiry line at 1300 363 992, for further information.