Collection Notice and Privacy Policy

Notification of the Collection of Personal Information

In making a donation or query, you will be providing Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (ABN 94 315 750 845) with your personal information, such as your name and contact details. You may also be providing us with sensitive information, for example, if you nominate your local congregation or circuit as the recipient of your donation.

We collect personal information from you to:

process your donation;
communicate with you about your donation, although we will not contact you to request additional donations;
conduct our accounting and administrative functions in connection with your donation;
respond to any query or complaint made by you.

We keep records of financial transactions, including records of online donations, for a minimum of seven years in order to comply with accounting standards and respond to any questions from you that arise during that period.

If you do not provide some or all of the personal information we request, it may not be possible to process your donation or to respond to any query or complaint you make.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties who assist in processing our donations. We are unlikely to disclose your personal information to overseas recipients, however some of your personal information may be stored on servers which are situated outside Australia, most likely in the United States of America.

Our privacy policy contains information about how you may seek to access or correct personal information we hold about you. It also contains information about how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, and how we will deal with your complaint.

Our contact details are:

Data Protection Contact
Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses
PO Box 280, Ingleburn NSW 1890
Australia

Privacy Policy

Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (ABN 94 315 750 845) (CCJW) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We take the security and confidentiality of your personal information very seriously.

This privacy policy contains information about how we collect, handle and safeguard personal information. It also outlines what to do if you have questions or if you wish to make a complaint.

In this policy, the terms “personal information” and “sensitive information” have the meanings given to them in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Personal information includes information or an opinion, whether true or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. Sensitive information includes information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or affiliations. The term “website(s)” includes jw.org and associated sites (such as apps.jw.org, tv.jw.org, stream.jw.org, and wol.jw.org) which are owned by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. (WT-New York). If you have questions about the policies of WT-New York, please see the policies listed on jw.org.

By using the websites or otherwise providing us with your personal and/or sensitive information, you consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information as described in this policy.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information only to the extent it is necessary to fulfil our religious and charitable purposes and activities.

The main way we collect personal information (including sensitive information) about you is when you give it to us, and when you submit it via a website. For example, when you use apps.jw.org to make an online donation to a congregation or circuit located in Australia.

Personal information submitted to us is used for the purposes stated to you at the time of submission. These purposes include the following:

Donations. If you make a monetary donation on a website (such as apps.jw.org) to a congregation or circuit in Australia, we collect your name, contact details and credit card or other payment details. To accept donations via credit card, we use accredited online payment processing services with world-class security and data privacy policies. We may receive financial information, such as a credit card or debit card number necessary to process your donation, and send the needed information to those processing services. We transfer the full amount of your donation to the congregation or circuit nominated by you. However, we do not disclose personal information to your nominated congregation or circuit, or we de-identify personal information before we disclose it.

We keep records of the financial transactions for a minimum of seven years. This will enable us to comply with accounting standards and respond to any questions from you that arise during that period. We will not contact you to request additional donations.

Other Purposes. You may submit personal information (such as your name, postal address, and telephone number) for purposes other than making a donation. In each case, the purpose for which you are invited to give us information is made clear.

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it is collected, or for a secondary purpose related to the primary purpose, where you would reasonably expect your information to be disclosed for that secondary purpose. In the case of sensitive information, we will only disclose the information for a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose.

We may also use or disclose your personal information where, for example: (1) it is necessary to do so in order to process your donation or otherwise provide the service requested by you and we have disclosed this to you; (2) we believe it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations; (3) we believe it is necessary for law enforcement related activities; or (4) it is needed to detect and prevent fraud for security or technical issues.

The information provided when you make a donation or when you submit your personal information for other purposes is accessible to technical support specialists performing tasks related to the operation and maintenance of our information technology (IT). Any personal information you submit will not under any circumstances be sold, traded, or rented.

Other than as stated above, your personal information may only be disclosed to a third party if you consent to the disclosure or where permitted under the Australian Privacy Principles.

We keep the information only as long as it is necessary for those purposes or for other legitimate purposes that may apply.

At all times it is your choice on how much information you would like to provide to us. Please be aware though that if you choose to withhold any personal information requested by us, it may not be possible for us to process your donation or respond to your request or other queries.

CROSS-BORDER DISCLOSURES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

In relation to online donations or queries, we do not normally disclose your personal information to overseas recipients. However, some of the servers that host the websites are located in the United States of America.

We may, at times, disclose your personal information outside Australia (for example, to process a request made by you), potentially including countries whose laws provide different levels of data/privacy protection that are not always equivalent to the level of data/privacy protection in Australia. Please note that, if an overseas recipient breaches Australian privacy laws, we will not be accountable under the Privacy Act and you will not be able to seek redress under the Privacy Act. By visiting the website(s) and communicating with us (electronically or otherwise), you consent to these cross-border disclosures of your personal information.

INFORMATION STORAGE AND SECURITY

We take the security and confidentiality of your personal information very seriously. We use up-to-date data storage and security techniques to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification, unlawful destruction, or accidental loss. We keep your personal information for only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with any applicable legal reporting or document retention requirements.

We use computer systems with limited access protocols, housed in facilities using physical, electronic, and procedural security measures to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us. We keep strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access.

ACCESS OR CORRECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is kept accurate and up-to-date for the purposes for which it was collected. You have the right to request access to, or correction of, the personal information we hold about you by contacting us. We will ask you to verify your identity before we respond to your request. We will respond to your request as soon as practicable.

QUERY OR COMPLAINT

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, or if you believe we have not complied with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in relation to your personal information and you wish to make a complaint, please contact:

Data Protection Contact
Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses
PO Box 280, Ingleburn NSW 1890
Australia

If you have made a complaint, we will investigate your complaint and respond to you as soon as practicable. If you are not satisfied with the way your privacy-related complaint is handled by us, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy may be updated from time to time. If it becomes necessary to change this policy, our updated policy will be posted on jw.org so that you are always aware of what information we collect and how we handle it. Please check back periodically for updates to our policy.

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