Privacy policy
Accelagen is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.
We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.
A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.aoic.gov.au.
What personal information do we collect and hold?
Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. Examples of the personal information we collect from you includes: your name, date of birth, profession, address, email addresses and phone numbers.
From time to time, we may also collect sensitive information about you, such as your membership of a professional or trade association (if you are a healthcare professional) or your health information (if you are a clinical trial participant). For example, we may need to be aware of your overall health status, biometric information and medical history (such as your genetic status or fingerprint), and your pregnancy status. We will only collect your sensitive information with your consent and if we need to do so to provide you with our services. Where possible, we will seek to collect information that does not identify you, particularly in relation to clinical trial information.
How do we collect your personal information?
We may collect personal information from you in a variety of ways including by telephone, email, via our website www.accelagen.com.au and from third parties. We may also collect your personal information through your participation in a clinical trial, whether as a participant, administrator, coordinator, or principal investigator or through your application if you apply for a job with us.
When we collect personal information we will, where appropriate and where possible, explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it. For example, if you are participating in a clinical trial, we will provide you with a personal information collection statement and seek your consent to disclose your personal information to relevant third parties.
Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your personal information directly from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.
What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?
If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:
- We may not be able to provide you with the services you are looking for;
- You may not be eligible to participate in clinical trials as a patient and/or volunteer;
- You may not be selected for contract or permanent employment; or
- You may not be selected as an eligible service provider or approved vendor.
For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?
We collect your personal information for the following purposes:
- to administer clinical trials on behalf of our clients and comply with regulatory requirements;
- to provide products and services to you and to send communications requested by you;
- to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about our products or services;
- to assess the performance of our websites and to improve the operation of the websites;
- to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
- for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of Accelagen, its affiliates, contractors or service providers;
- processing applications for employment or contracts with Accelagen;
- to process and respond to any complaint made by you; and
- to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of any country.
We may also use your personal information for secondary purposes related to the purposes above, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure, including to combine your personal information with other information collected by Accelagen for our business purposes.
We may use your personal information to share newsletters or further information about our services if you agree to receive this material. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing.
To whom may we disclose your information?
We may disclose your personal information to our employees, related bodies corporate, contractors or service providers for the purposes of operation of our websites or our business activities, fulfilling our obligations and to provide products and services to you, including to:
- suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, legal, financial and related purposes;
- trial administrators, regulators and organisations, including human research ethics committees and regulators such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration;
- healthcare professionals (eg. in emergency situations);
- scientific advisors; and
- any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.
- How can you access and correct your personal information?
You may access the personal information we hold about you and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your personal information, please contact us at [email protected]. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). Accelagen will not charge any fee for your access request, but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your personal information.
There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal. In order to protect your personal information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.
Maintaining the Quality of your Personal Information
It is an important to us that your personal information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you believe that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.
Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?
We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate and third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above. Third party trial sponsors, who may be located overseas, may also receive your personal information. These third parties may be in the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information.
Security
Accelagen will take reasonable steps to secure your personal information in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including by using secure cloud storage locations.
As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.
We will take reasonable steps to either de-identify or destroy your Personal Information when we no longer need it for the purpose for which it was obtained. However, we may be required to retain the personal information we collect as part of our client files for a minimum of 2 years, or longer in the case of clinical trials (in accordance with the International Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice). For example, we will store personal information collected as part of clinical trials securely for the duration as required in Australia and as per International Guidelines (which is at least 2 years, but potentially up to 15 years).
Links
We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party websites and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of any third party website. Third party websites are responsible for informing you about their own privacy practices.
Policy updates
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time and the updated policy will be made available on our website.
Complaints and enquiries
If you believe that your privacy has been breached, or you have any queries or complaints about our Privacy Policy or the handling by us of your personal information please contact us at:
- Address: Suite 2.02, 785 Toorak Road, Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia 3102
- Email: [email protected].
We request that complaints about breaches of privacy be made in writing, so we can be sure about the details of the complaint. We will treat your requests or complaints confidentially. Our senior representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved.