Privacy Policy

Pearson Australia’s Privacy Policy

Pearson Australia recognises that it is important for you to know that any information provided by you to the company is handled properly. We take very seriously our responsibility to protect and maintain the privacy, accuracy and security of your personal information. We do all that we can to maintain the highest standards in dealing with personal information held for you. Pearson Australia staff that handle personal information understand the standards and take all reasonable steps to achieve them.

The Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and general law place strict requirements on us to treat any information you give us as confidential.

Collection

We collect only that information which is necessary for the conduct of our business relationship with you. Conduct of that business relationship includes not only the supply of books, other related products and services, but also the management of business transactions entered into with us, administration of any accounts you have with us, informing you of current and future books, other related products and services which may be relevant to you, and your participation in competitions or other similar activities organised by us. Some of the information we collect, for example on your use of our websites, may be used to improve our services to you and monitor performance. The information we collect is dependent on the purpose for which it is collected. Generally, for supply of books and other related products or services it will include, name, delivery address, billing address, contact details, details relevant to effect payment eg bank account details, credit card details. If you have a credit account with us we may also collect personal details, bank account details, credit referees, and financial details.

We collect the information we require in the following ways;

• from you directly when you provide information either over the phone, in a form or submit details through our web sites;
• from publicly available sources
• from third parties such as your representative/s, credit reporting agencies, third parties related to Pearson Australia Group, (either divisions of Pearson Australia Group or related companies)
• from your use of our websites. The information collected from your use of our websites may or may not identify you. It may include the type of internet browser used by you, operating system used by you, address of referring site, your IP address and clickstream information. Cookies are pieces of information that our website sends to your computer while you are browsing our sites. These pieces of information allow your browser to utilise some of the features of our sites. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies. If you reject cookies you will be unable to take advantage of some of the features of our websites.

Use and Disclosure

We use your information to carry out our business with you, to facilitate our financial dealings with you, for promotion and direct marketing of our books and other related products and services to you, internal product/service analysis, and to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

In relation to any promotional or direct marketing messages sent to you by us via email, in accordance with the Spam Act 2003, these messages must;

• be sent with your consent. (You may give express consent, or consent may be inferred from your conduct and existing business or other relationships),
• contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message, and
• contain a functional ‘unsubscribe’ facility to allow you to opt out from receiving messages from us in the future.

We disclose information to the following organisations or individuals when and to the extent necessary to conduct our business and comply with applicable laws and regulations;

• Government and Regulatory authorities, as required or authorised by law,
• The company’s professional advisors (including legal and accounting firms, auditors, consultants and other advisors)
• Third party service providers we may engage to provide administration, technology, auditing, mailing, printing or transport services. We take reasonable steps to ensure that such third party service providers exercise the same standard of care as us in handling your personal information.
• Other companies in the Pearson Group. Where that company is overseas, we take all reasonable steps to ensure that the foreign group company is subject to a law or binding scheme that places substantially similar obligations on the recipient company as would be the case of they were bound the Australian Privacy Principles.
• Occasionally Pearson Australia will make the contact details of existing and potential customers available to third parties so that they can market their product and services to you. This information will only be shared if you do not chose to opt-out of such mailings.

Security and Maintenance

We have well documented and understood processes for the security of all data whether in physical or electronic form. Security of information is a high priority to us.

Access to, and manipulation of, information, both physical and electronic, is controlled using systems (electronic and manual) which are current and in line with industry standards. Our systems are regularly reviewed to ensure that the highest standards possible are maintained.

Only those employees performing services or tasks relevant to your business with us have access to your information. This includes those employees involved in direct marketing.

Information collected via the website is stored securely by authorised third parties and will only be accessed by authorised personnel.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is de identified or destroyed when it is no longer required by us. As a general rule we are legally required to keep information for seven years however this may vary depending on specific legal requirements or our business needs.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is current and accurate. To assist us in this regard we request that you notify us of any changes to the information we hold on you.

Access and Correction

You can access your personal details held by us by contacting the Privacy Officer:

On receiving your request we give you a time at which you can expect a response and this time will be not later than 14 days after receiving your request.

There are some exceptions to your right of access, for example, in the case of existing or anticipated legal action.

If you find that there is an error or omission in the information held about you, please contact the Privacy Coordinator and we will correct the error or omission in our current records as soon as possible.

For legal and administrative reasons Pearson Australia may also store records containing your personal information in its archives. You may seek access to the records held by Pearson Australia that are not current records, but if you do so, we may charge you for the cost of providing access.

Enquiries and Disputes

If you believe that the company has breached your privacy rights in any way, or you would like to discuss any issues about our privacy policy, please contact the Privacy Officer. Contact details are as per the Access and Correction section of this Policy.

Policy Changes

This policy may change from time to time. The last update was August 2005.