Privacy Policy

The Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia (PIEFA) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. 

This policy ensures PIEFA commits to protecting personal information in accordance with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) and The Australian Privacy Principles (APP) contained within Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act. 

In order to provide users with the best possible website platform and downloadable resources, we may collect and process your personal data. The purpose of this privacy policy is to help you better understand how we collect, store, and process this personal data. This privacy policy covers, PIEFA’s website and online platforms: 

• www.piefa.edu.au 
• www.Primezone.edu.au 
• www.PrimezoneAcademy.edu.au 
• www.CareerHarvest.com.au 
• www.FarmerTime.com.au (Virtual Classroom) 

PIEFA also uses www.mailchimp.com as its email provider and www.Thinkific.com to host our Primezone Academy platform.  

PIEFA’s websites may include links to third party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements or practices. Our privacy policy does not apply to any information collected by any third party, including through any application or content that may be accessible via our website. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit. 

Definitions

TERM	DEFINITION
Australian Privacy Principles (APP)	Means the rules covering the handling, use and management of personal information including the right to access and correct personal information, in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act.
Personal information	Has the same meaning as defined in the Privacy Act: Information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable: (a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and (b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.
Privacy	Means privacy with respect to personal information Section 4A of the Information Act
Notifiable Data Breach Scheme	Means established requirements for data breach notifications under the Privacy Act. As modified in the National Law section 263 (2) (a) entities must notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and individuals of eligible data breaches.
Sensitive information	Is a subset of personal information and means personal information as set out in Section 6 of the Privacy Act relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional/trade association or trade union, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record or health information, genetic information about an individual, biometric information and templates.

What is personal information? 

Personal information can only be information about a ‘natural’ person. It does not extend to other ‘legal’ persons, such as companies or businesses. Examples of personal information that PIEFA may collect include: a person’s name and address, a photograph, details of a person’s workplace, or an email address.

Collecting of personal information 

PIEFA only collects personal information for purposes which directly relate to its functions or activities, and only when it is necessary for, or directly related to, those purposes. These purposes may include: 

• administering the Primezone Academy platform 
• retaining a contact database of newsletter subscribers
• seeking contact information of persons wishing to access PIEFA or partner produced education resources  
• educating and informing educators and the community about food and fibre education 
• seeking feedback on PIEFA’s programs, existing educational resources or pilot resources 
• selecting, recruiting and engaging staff, consultants and contractors. 

PIEFA may collect personal information both directly from individuals, and indirectly through documents and information provided to PIEFA by an individual or organisation. Where personal information is obtained indirectly, and if there is a need for that information to be disclosed, PIEFA will take reasonable steps to obtain the consent of the individuals concerned, unless there is a permitted general situation to not seek consent in line with section 16A of the Privacy Act. 4.3. 

Use and disclosure 

PIEFA will only use personal information for the purposes for which it was collected, or for a purpose directly related to one of PIEFA’s functions or activities under the National Law. 

PIEFA will not use or disclose personal information to government agencies, organisations or anyone else unless one of the following applies: 

• the individual has consented 
• the individual would reasonably expect, or has been told, that information of that kind is usually disclosed to that agency, organisation or person 
• it is otherwise required or authorised by law 
• it will prevent or lessen a serious and/or imminent threat to a person’s life or health 
• it is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law, a law imposing a monetary penalty or for the protection of public revenue. 

Minors

If you are below the age of 16, you may use our websites only with the permission and active involvement of a parent or legal guardian. If you are a minor, please do not provide us or other website visitors with any personal information. 

Data quality and security  

PIEFA takes reasonable steps to ensure that personal information collected is accurate, up to date and complete. These steps include updating records of personal information when advised by an individual that there has been a change to their personal information. 

PIEFA also takes reasonable administrative, technical and physical measures to protect information it holds against loss, theft and unauthorised access, use, disclosure or modification.  Personal information that is no longer required is deleted or destroyed in a secure manner.

How PIEFA manages a data breach 

A data breach occurs when personal information is lost or subjected to unauthorised access, modification, use or disclosure. In the event of a suspected data breach, PIEFA will meet its obligations under the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017. 

The matter will be investigated to determine: 

• the nature of the breach 
• the number of people affected 
• the extent to which an individual or group may be, or have been, harmed by the breach 
• remedial action to minimise or prevent consequences. 

If it is determined that a data breach is likely to result in serious harm, PIEFA will notify the individuals whose personal information has been breached and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

PIEFA will also investigate the cause of any breach and implement actions that will prevent any future occurrences. 

Primezone Academy | Students/Subscribers

In order to provide our online courses, we collect and process personal data about our students/subscribers. Here is a summary of the personal data that we collect from our students/subscribers:

• We collect data about our students/subscribers to allow them to access our services for processes such as enrollment, authentication, or otherwise administering our customers’ courses. This information is given on a voluntary basis when a customer uses or accesses our services, for example when a customer visits our Primezone Academy/Thinkific site, enrols in a course, or signs up for an account on Primezone Academy.
• We collect data about how students interact with a course(s) and website(s), including but not limited to, their progress through the course, quiz scores, survey results, discussion or forum contributions and other student activities.

Cookies and similar tracking technology

We use cookies or similar tracking technologies on our webpages. This information can be used to track your session on our website. Cookies may also be used to customise our website content for you as an individual.

Data Retention

We retain personal data for as long as we reasonably require it for legal or business purposes. When determining data retention periods, we take into consideration applicable laws, contractual obligations and the expectations and requirements of our users. When we no longer need personal data, we securely delete or destroy it.

How we use social media

We may use social media and social networking services for promoting our business, communicating with you and supporting the teaching and primary industries community. In order to do this, we require the use of third party service providers, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. 

Our social media pages, groups, feeds and channels are administered by these third parties:

• Our Facebook page is administered by Meta, in accordance with Meta’s Data Policy, and is accessible by Facebook users who have already consented to Facebook/Meta’s Data Policy.
• Our Twitter/X account is administered by X, in accordance with Twitter/X’s Privacy Policy. 
• Our Instagram account is administered by Meta in accordance with Instagram/Meta’s Privacy Policy. 
• Our YouTube channel is administered by YouTube, in accordance with their privacy policy. 
• Our LinkedIn page is administered by LinkedIn, in accordance with their privacy policy. 

We may message you directly through social media when you contact us through these platforms. Our lawful basis is that of consent.

User names and passwords

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a username and password for access to certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping the username and password confidential. Do not give your password to anyone. If you enter a section of our website that requires a password, you should log out when you leave. As a safety precaution, you should also close out of your web browser completely and re-open it before viewing other parts of the Internet.

Disclaimer

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal data transmitted to our website. Any transmission of personal data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the website, including the illegal acts of third parties (such as criminal hacking).

Policy changes

We keep this privacy policy under regular review, so the terms of this policy may change from time to time. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal data, we will notify you by posting the revised policy on www.piefa.edu.au or by other means when appropriate. Your continued use of this website constitutes your consent to such revised privacy policy.

Any questions or concerns about this policy should be brought to our attention by sending an e-mail to office@piefa.edu.au or one of the methods provided under Contact Information, and providing us with information relating to your concern.

Access and correction 

If an individual requests to either access or amend their personal information, PIEFA will facilitate this in an efficient and timely manner. PIEFA will ensure that: 

• acknowledgement of the receipt of the request is provided to the individual within five working days 
• key timeframes for processing the request are established and communicated clearly to the individual 
• adequate communication about the status of more complex requests is maintained with the individual. 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Should an individual wish to access or change their personal information, report any concerns about how PIEFA has handled their personal information or believe there has been a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, they may contact PIEFA as follows: 

By email: office@piefa.edu.au 

By mail: Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia, Level 1, 18 National Cct, Barton ACT 2600

By telephone: 02 6198 3230