Privacy

General

Bond University (‘BU’) is committed to protecting your personal information.

BU is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Privacy Act’), including the National Privacy Principles (‘NPP’s’). Although, acts done or practices engaged in by BU, which are directly related to:

a current or former employment relationship between BU and you; and
an employee record held by BU and relating to you,
are exempt from the Privacy Act, including the NPP’s.

This policy sets out how BU manages your personal information.

BU encourages you to check BU’s website regularly for any updates to BU’s privacy policy.

Collection

BU may collect and hold personal information about you, including your name, date of birth, gender, address, phone number, facsimile number, email address, next of kin details, bank account details, academic history, employment record, FEE-HELP status, nationality, visa details, passport details, travel details, preferred course of study, photograph, accommodation preferences, dietary requirements, physical attributes, medical history, health cover details, religious beliefs and/or other information relevant to providing you with the services you are, or someone else you know is, seeking.

The personal information that BU collects and holds about you, depends on your interaction with BU. Generally, BU will collect and hold your personal information for the purpose of:

assessing your, or someone else’s, application;
providing services to you or someone else you know;
providing you with information about other services that BU offers that may be of interest to you;
facilitating BU’s internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements;
analysing BU’s services and customer needs with a view to developing new and/or improved services;
contacting you, in the case of an emergency involving someone else you know;
contacting you in relation to employment opportunities for BU undergraduates;
contacting you to provide a testimonial for BU;
contacting you in relation to Alumni activities; and
Personal information will generally be collected by BU directly from you through the use of any of BU’s standard forms, such as BU’s Application for Postgraduate Admission form. There may, however, be some instances where personal information about you will be collected indirectly because it is unreasonable or impractical to collect personal information directly from you. We will usually notify you about these instances in advance, or where that is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable after the information has been collected.

If you access BU’s website, BU may collect additional personal information about you in the form of your IP address (that is, the single numerical address for your computer on the Internet, which consists of four consecutive numbers ranging between 0 and 255) and/or domain name (that is, the textual address for your location on the Internet which corresponds to your IP address, which the Internet computers can read).

In the case of Visa details, BU is required to collect this information pursuant to Australian Immigration Laws.

If the personal information you provide to BU is incomplete and/or inaccurate, BU may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the services you, or they, are seeking.

Use and disclosure

Generally, BU only uses and/or discloses personal information about you for the purposes for which it was collected (as set out above). Although, BU may disclose personal information about you to:

service providers, who assist BU in operating its business, however, these service providers are required to comply with BU’s privacy policy in how they handle your personal information;
a purchaser of the assets and operations of BU’s business, providing those assets and operations are purchased as a going concern;
its related entities;
in the case of untrue or misleading information, the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (‘AVCC’) or any AVCC member institution;
in the case of an emergency involving you, your nominated next of kin;
your agent and/or your next of kin for the purpose of processing an application you may have made; and
Federal, State or Local Government Departments or Agencies who require the information for official purposes.

From time to time, Agencies are lawfully entitled to share personal information provided by the University to them among themselves. Where the University becomes aware that personal information has been shared with another Agency it will advise anyone affected once it becomes aware.

University staff may require access to Personal Information held by the University in order to perform University related tasks, including in relation to student matters and for Alumni purposes. Personal Information will only be disclosed as required.

BU stores your personal information in different ways, including in paper and in electronic form. The security of your personal information is important to BU. BU takes all reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including electronic and physical security measures.

Use of cookies and other information collection technologies

BU uses cookies and website analytics software to monitor this website, make improvements to the user experience, offer personalised content and deliver relevant advertising. Details of what we collect and how it is used are contained in this statement.

When you visit BU's website, we may make a record of your visit and log information for statistical and marketing purposes, including but not limited to:

the IP address of the computer you are using or an IP that is dynamically allocated by your internet service provider
the date and time of your visit
the pages accessed and documents downloaded
the file size of the pages downloaded
the type of browser used and screen resolution
the referring page (ie last page visited before entering the BU website).

Internet cookies are small files that are placed on your computer or device through your web browser when you visit a website. Cookies allow a website to store information on a user's machine and retrieve it later. Cookies and other information collection technologies can only store information that is explicitly provided by the user or visitor in the first place, or information the website already knows about the user, such as their IP address.

Most browsers can be set to accept or reject cookies. You can choose to adjust your browser to reject cookies or to notify you when they are being used. Sometimes, rejecting cookies results in a loss of some website functionality.

BU uses the following types of cookies and tracking pixels:

Strictly Necessary: These cookies are essential for the site to work as intended. If you set your browser to block these cookies, some functionality on the website may be impacted.
Analytical: These cookies measure how often you visit our site and how you use it. We use this anonymous information to improve our site so that you have a better experience.
Functional: These cookies are used to recognise you and remember your preferences or settings when you return to our site so that we can provide you with a more personalised experience.
Advertising: These cookies are used to collect information about your visit to our site, including the content you have viewed, the links you have followed and information about your browser, device and your IP address. We have set out more details on this below.

Advertising cookies and tracking pixels

Advertising cookies and tracking pixels are used by our advertising partners (such as Facebook and Google). When you visit the BU site they collect browsing information that allows BU to deliver customised advertising across other websites and social platforms, as well as measure advertising campaign performance.

If you wish to block advertising pixels or cookies while browsing the BU website, please consult the help or privacy settings of your device, platform and/or browser.

If you have provided consent to receive communications from BU the personal information you provide (e.g. email address) may be matched with previously unidentified website browsing data for the purpose of personalising our marketing to you.

Access

You may access personal information BU holds about you, upon making a written request. BU will endeavour to acknowledge your request within 14 days of its receipt and to provide you with access to the information requested within 30 days. BU may charge you a reasonable fee for processing your request.

BU may decline a request for access to personal information where, among other things:

providing access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of an individual;
providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals;
the request for access is frivolous or vexatious;
the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between BU and you, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings;
providing access would reveal information about a commercially sensitive decision making process;
providing access would be unlawful;
denying access is required or authorised by or under law;
providing access would be likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity; or
providing access would be likely to prejudice the activities of enforcement bodies.

If, upon receiving access to your personal information or at any other time, you believe the personal information BU holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please notify BU immediately. BU will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date. If BU disagrees with you about whether your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, and you ask BU to associate with your personal information a statement claiming that your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, BU will take reasonable steps to do so.

Links to other websites

BU’s website may contain links to other websites. BU is not responsible for the privacy practices of linked websites and so linked websites are not subject to BU’s privacy policies and procedures.

Updates

This privacy policy may be updated by BU from time to time.

Feedback

If you have any queries or concerns about BU’s privacy policy or the way in which BU handles your personal information, please contact BU’s privacy officer at:

Address: University Drive, Robina, QLD, 4226
Postal address: Bond University, Gold Coast, QLD, 4229
Email: privacy@bond.edu.au
Tel: +61 7 5595 3549
Fax: +61 7 5595 1025

More information

For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.