Privacy policy

1. Purpose and scope

StandTo Legal Pty Ltd (StandTo, we, us and our) understands your privacy is important. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and we manage personal information in a way that is open, transparent and in accordance with those obligations. This policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information, how you can access and correct your information and how to make a complaint about our handling of your information. By accessing our website or dealing with us you accept this policy as it applies from time to time.

2. What information we collect about you?

We will only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our functions and provide our legal service. The types of information we collect may include:

  1. Identification and contact details: including name, date of birth, residential and postal address, email address, telephone number, occupation and organisation.
  2. Financial information: including bank account or credit card details where required to process payments.
  3. Information relevant to your legal matters: such as correspondence, documents you supply, court filings, employment and educational history, and notes from our meetings.
  4. Sensitive information: including health or medical information, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, criminal history or trade union membership. We only collect this information when it is necessary for the provision of legal services or recruitment and where you have consented or we are otherwise authorised to do so.
  5. Employment information: for people seeking employment with us we may collect CVs, employment history and referee details.
  6. Online and technical data: including your IP address, browser type, access times, pages visited and device identifiers when you use our websites or online services. We may also collect information through cookies, analytics services and pixel tags to understand how visitors use our website and to tailor our advertising and communications.

You may choose to use a pseudonym or remain anonymous when dealing with us where it is lawful and practical to do so. If you do not provide us with certain information, we may be unable to provide the requested services or respond to your enquiries.

3. How and why do we collect and use your personal information?

We collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

  1. Directly from you: when you engage us to provide legal services, meet with us, fill out forms on our website, contact us by phone or email, attend events, provide us with your business card or otherwise interact with us.
  2. Automatically through our digital services: When you visit our website, we use cookies and analytics services to collect technical information about your visit. Cookies are small data files placed on your device that help us recognise you and improve your experience. You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent, but some parts of the site may not function properly.
  3. From third parties: such as regulators, government agencies, courts, tribunals, credit reporting agencies, recruitment agencies, your employer, other organisations with whom you have dealings, and publicly available sources. We may also receive information about you from other parties involved in your legal matter, service providers, or referrers.
  4. Unsolicited information: if we receive personal information that we did not request we will determine whether we could have lawfully collected it. If not, we will destroy or de-identify it, as required under the APPs.

If you provide us with personal information about another person (for example, when instructing us about a matter), you represent that you have that person’s consent to do so.

4. Purpose of collection, use and disclosure

We collect, hold and use personal information for the primary purpose of providing legal services and for purposes directly related to that purpose, including to:

  1. Deliver legal services, advice and representation: We use your information to verify your identity, perform conflict checks, open files, conduct research, prepare documents and liaise with you, courts, tribunals and other stakeholders.
  2. Communication with you: This includes administering and managing our internal processes, quality assurance, staff training, recruitment, risk management, accounting and corporate governance.
  3. Comply with legal obligations: We use and disclose personal information to comply with our professional obligations, anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, taxation and accounting obligations, and to respond to lawful requests by courts, regulators and enforcement agencies.
  4. Marketing and events: We may use your contact information to send you legal updates, publications, service offerings and invitations to events that may be of interest. We will not use or disclose sensitive information for direct marketing without your consent, and you may opt out at any time. We may engage third-party advertising networks and analytics providers who use cookies or similar technologies to deliver targeted advertising based on your past visits to our website.
  5. Other related purposes: We may use your information for secondary purposes that are related to the primary purpose and that you would reasonably expect, or for other purposes with your consent.

We will only retain personal information for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required by law.

5. Disclosure of your information

We may disclose personal information to third parties for the purposes described above. These parties may include:

  • Professional advisors and service providers such as barristers, consultants, expert witnesses, recruitment agencies, document management providers, translators, couriers, bankers, insurers, auditors, accountants, IT and cloud-storage providers and marketing agencies ahernslawyers.com.au.
  • Other parties to your matter including opposing parties, their legal representatives, courts, tribunals, mediators, witnesses, regulatory authorities and government agencies.
  • Our business partners who co-host events or collaborate with us on seminars and webinars ahernslawyers.com.au.
  • Third-party suppliers who help us manage our website, data analytics and advertising. These providers may place cookies on your device and collect information about your browsing activities for remarketing purposes.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We may disclose personal information if required or authorised by law, including in response to subpoenas, court orders, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of our firm, our clients or others.

6. Do we disclose your personal information overseas?

We are an Australian-based practice, but like many modern firms we sometimes use personnel and service providers located outside Australia. For example, we may engage virtual assistants, software engineers, document processors, marketing professionals or other contractors who are based overseas, or we may use cloud-based platforms and software solutions that store or process data in countries other than Australia. When we do so we remain committed to protecting your privacy.

Our approach to overseas disclosure is as follows:

  1. Reasonable safeguards: we will take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas contractors and service providers handle personal information in a way that is substantially similar to the requirements of the APPs. These steps may include contractual obligations, security assessments or requiring that data is only accessed for purposes we authorise.
  2. Countries not specified: we may not always know in advance which country a particular service provider or contractor is located in, and the countries involved may change over time. For that reason, this policy does not list specific countries. When practicable, we will provide additional information upon request.
  3. Consent and acknowledgement: by providing personal information to us or by using our services you consent to your information being disclosed to, transferred to, or accessed from overseas recipients in connection with the purposes outlined in this policy. We will not disclose your information overseas if it is reasonably practicable for us to avoid doing so, but there may be circumstances where overseas disclosure is necessary to provide our services. In those circumstances the overseas recipient may not be subject to Australian privacy laws, and we cannot guarantee that they will be bound by the APPs.

7. Data storage and security

We store personal information in both paper and electronic form. We have implemented reasonable physical, administrative and technical measures to safeguard personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, misuse, interference or loss. These measures include:

  • secure offices and storage facilities with restricted access, security keys or access cards;
  • strong password policies and multi-factor authentication for systems containing personal information;
  • encryption and secure destruction of portable media and hard copy records when no longer required;
  • firewalls, antivirus and intrusion detection systems;
  • staff training and confidentiality obligations for employees, contractors and service providers; and
  • a data breach response plan and procedures to identify and respond to security incidents.

No data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure, and you acknowledge that any information you send to us electronically is at your own risk.

8. How can you access or seek correction of your personal information?

You may request access to, or correction of, the personal information we hold about you. To do so, please contact us using the details below. We will respond within a reasonable time and may require you to verify your identity. We will not charge you to make a request, but we may charge a reasonable fee for providing access where the request is complex.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we hold is accurate, up to date, complete, relevant and not misleading. If you believe any information, we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, please let us know. In some circumstances we may refuse to correct information; if this occurs, we will provide you with a written explanation and outline how you can complain about the refusal.

9. What should you do if you have a complaint about the handling of your personal information?

If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal information, or if you wish to make a complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate it and respond with our decision within a reasonable period. We may need to consult third parties and keep records of your complaint. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) or other relevant regulators.

10. General

We review this policy regularly and may update it to reflect changes in our practices, technology and legal requirements The most recent version will always be available on our website. Your continued use of our services or website following any update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions or would like to exercise your rights under this policy, please contact:

Role Contact details
Privacy Officer StandTo Legal Pty Ltd
Telephone 08 6288 7118
Email info@standtolegal.com.au
Post 17A/397 Warnbro Sound Avenue, Port Kennedy WA 6172