Privacy

Membership Details and Email Addresses

ABN provides these details to no other party. Membership details are collected purely for the purposes of ABN administering your membership. Email addresses are not provided to any party external to our organisation unless it is with your prior consent. Email newsletters which are sent to our membership base, namely Bookies Bulletin and Bookkeepers Knowledge Base, are sent in such a manner that no other recipient of that email can see who the other recipients are.

BAS Wizard Partner Program for Bookkeepers

Under this program, participant members are providing us with sensitive BAS data relating to clients for whom they act. Although any privacy obligations in respect this data lie with the member, and not ABN, we can nonetheless advise that any BAS data submitted to us for certification is not provided to any party external to ABN. If participant members have further concerns, we recommend that that they seek the approval of their client before submitting the BAS data to us for certification. In the alternative, participant members may like to de-identify the data. Provided that reference can be made to the document by some other means (e.g. an internal document number assigned to that BAS data), it is not necessary that the identity of the participant member's client be divulged to ABN. The client's identity has no bearing on our certification process.

Bookkeeper-Client Connect

The information contained on the Client File Manager facilities which we host for our members is subject to the greatest regard for privacy and confidentiality. An explanation of our privacy principles in this regard can be found in the Product Tour section of the Bookkeeper-Client Connect section to this site.

Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 & National Privacy Principles

The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 became effective from 21 December 2001, and allows for the recognition of self-regulatory privacy codes backed by default legislative principles and a complaint handling regime. The Act requires most private sector organisations to comply with 10 National Privacy Principles (NPPs). The NPPs establish minimum standards in relation to the collection, holding, use disclosure, management, access, correction and disposal of Personal Information about natural persons.

ABN is strongly committed to the protection of personal information and has adopted the recommendations of the NPPs, both for this web site, and the manner that we conduct our business generally. This Privacy Statement will explain how we protect your personal information in the light of the NPPs.

Collection

ABN collects information that is necessary for it to perform its services to its members. For non-members who visit the site, our server may log the following information: browser type and operating system, their domain and ISP.

Use and disclosure

The primary purposes for the collection of information is to enable administration of your membership or, in the case of members participating in Bookkeeper-Client Connect, to enable customisation of your web site. If a secondary purpose arises that is unrelated to the primary purposes, then we undertake to advise you of such a purpose at the time of collection.

Data Quality

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the information that we have collected is accurate and complete, including the ability for you to automatically make updates to the information that we hold.

Data Security

We have a strong emphasis on the security of your information and, in the case of members participating in Bookkeeper-Client Connect, use industry standard encryption technologies such as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, when transferring and receiving data through your Client File Manager. SSL is compatible with recent versions of all major browsers. We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Our staff are trained to respect Personal Information with the utmost confidentiality.

Openness

We are open with you about the kind of personal information that we collect and will update this Privacy Statement to reflect any changes as they happen.

Access and correction

By providing our members with the ability to request to view the information that we hold on them, we are ensuring that you have the ability to access and correct that information as required.

Identifiers

We have not adopted as our own, any identifiers assigned by government agencies.

Anonymity

Due to the nature of our business, we cannot give you the ability to transact with us anonymously. However, you are free to make enquiries of us without divulging your identity.

Onward transfers of personal information

Your information is not sold to anyone. In the case of members participating in Bookkeeper-Client Connect, the only third-party to which your information is transferred is that of our Information Technology Solutions provider, NTech Media. This is necessary for the hosting of your web site, the uploading of your web site, and the delivery of your Client File Manager facility. NTech Media are subject to a binding contract which effectively upholds principles for fair information handling that is substantially similar to these principles, confers ownership of the data to ABN, and expressly prohibits their transferring this information to any other third-party provider without our express written consent.

Sensitive information

We have no purpose in collecting information, which reveals the racial or ethnic origins of our members, nor their political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union memberships, health status, or sexual orientation.