Our Policy

To be an effective campaigning movement that creates positive social and political change for and with people in poor communities around the world, Micah Australia needs to make use of certain kinds of information about our advocates and supporters.  Micah is committed to managing personal information responsibly and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as guided by the Australian Privacy Principles.

This Privacy Policy explains why and how we collect and use your personal and sensitive information, how we protect and share that information, and what to do if you have a question or concern about this use.

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time and any revisions will take effect from the time at which the revised policy is posted on the Micah Australia website.

Micah Australia Ltd (ABN 98604737733) is a company that serves as the facilitation and leadership hub for a coalition of church and Christian development organisations working together to campaign for a just peaceful and sustainable world, free from poverty. This policy applies directly to activities of Micah Australia Ltd but may, where noted, interact with activities of Micah coalition members. A full list of Micah members is available here (link). 

Whose Personal Information?

Micah may collect personal and sensitive information of supporters, advocates, members, volunteers and others who share or contribute to Micah’s stated mission and vision. 

What Personal Information?

We only your personal and sensitive information when that information directly relates to the fulfilment of our stated vision and mission.  

The information commonly collected includes:

• Personal details like your name, date of birth, gender and marital status
• Employment details like your job role and employer
• Contact details, like your address (to more effectively link you to events and actions in your electorate or location), phone numbers and email address
• Bank account or credit card details for donations
• Details of your involvement and communication with Micah, including campaign actions, correspondence, event support and interaction
• Communication preferences
• Political party affiliation – if relevant, and volunteered
• Religious or denomination preference and place of worship – if relevant, and volunteered

• Other personal details, if applying to work or volunteer with Micah 

Use of Your Personal Information

Micah may use your personal and/or sensitive information in the following ways:

• To educate and inform you about Micah and its work
• To resource and support you as an advocate/campaigner
• To seek your support for Micah programs and campaigns 
• To research and understand member perception, support and activity around advocacy, global justice and Micah campaigns
• To promote products, programs, campaigns and services, events and causes that are designed to support Micah’s vision
• To understand your interaction with and support of Micah initiatives and programs
• To respond to your comments or questions
• To process your donations and receipts
• Or for any purposes that Micah may specifically communicate at the time of collecting your personal information. 

Collected How

Micah collects personal and sensitive information from you directly.  Most commonly, you provide that data to Micah by signing up on the Micah website, providing details over the phone or email, or by participating in a Micah campaign, event or research where you voluntarily provide or input personal information.

Some of your personal information may also be collected automatically.  Micah uses a sophisticated web content and community communication system which may automatically:

• Import information like your electorate or MP’s name when you input your post code  
• Draw publicly available personal information from other social media sites.  For example when you provide an email address that you also use on other social media accounts, the system may import information displayed on your social media profile. Only information that you have chosen to publicly display/share on your social media site is imported.
• Micah may also update your personal information using third party sources like Australia Post or public directories to ensure accuracy of mailing addresses or contact data.

Micah does not purchase or use personal information supplied by third parties. We do not access or make use of any personal information you may have shared with Micah coalition member organisations unless you have given specific consent for this. 

Shared With Whom

Micah does not sell your personal information to third parties. 

Micah may share your personal information with third parties in very limited circumstances: 

• With  members of the Micah coalition.  This would only occur where a coalition member has promoted a Micah campaign and you have supported that campaign directly through a coalition member’s communication or action channels.  The purposes of this data-sharing is for both Micah and relevant coalition member to better understand the effectiveness of campaign promotions and develop more effective campaigns in the future. Such information is not shared with any other member of the Micah coalition, nor is it shared with any party beyond the Micah coalition. 
  
  
• With third parties who are providing service in support of a Micah campaign or business.  For example, to a mail house for the purposes of mailing information to you or to auditors for the purpose of verifying donations.  

In these limited cases, Micah will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the data is secure and used only for the intended, single purpose.  Appropriate confidentiality and use agreements are employed to ensure security and privacy of data. 

Online Activity Tracking

Micah uses cookies and periodically analyses web logs in order to better understand website use.  This tracking information is aggregated, giving us general usage and flow patterns, and does not link to your personal information. You can adjust your personal browser settings to accept or decline cookies but should be aware that you may experience limited website functionality when declining cookies. 

Micah also uses third-party services like Google Analytics which helps us to understand traffic patterns and detect problems with the Micah site. 

Micah may also use embedded images in emails to track open rates for its mailings and thereby ascertain the effectiveness of campaigns and communication strategies. 

Third party links

Micah’s website and emails may contain links to other third party websites.  These third party websites are governed by their own privacy and use policies.  Micah takes no responsible for their privacy policies, nor does it endorse the content, products or services accessible on such sites.    

Direct Communications

In order to receive direct communications from Micah (email, mail or phone) you must elect to opt-in.  In addition, each specific direct campaign/communication from Micah will provide you with a clear opportunity to manage your subscription options or unsubscribe from future communications.

Social Media

Micah uses social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.  You can control how you receive and communicate through these channels by managing your own social media account settings. 

Safeguarding and Storing

Micah takes all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 

All your personal information is kept secure in Micah’s password protected electronic database.  Firewalls and other industry standard security technology, as well as industry standard security practices are in place to protect your personal and confidential information and to prevent that information from being accessed by unauthorised persons. 

Credit card numbers supplied for online payments or donations are encrypted. 

Physical personal data is kept to a minimum and is kept confidential and secure and destroyed if no longer needed.  

Database access is limited to a small number of employees and volunteers – all of whom are subject to police checks and are bound by confidentiality agreements. 

Micah Australia’s web and database host provides secure, private backups of our data. Authorised Micah staff may export or duplicate part or all of our database for planning, communication or additional backups. Any exported or duplicated data is held securely and only accessible by authorised Micah staff.

Your personal information will stay on the database indefinitely until you advise you would like it removed, or we remove it earlier in accordance with privacy law requirements. 

Although Micah takes all reasonable steps to protect the privacy and security of your information we are not liable for any unauthorised access or use of that information. 

You are responsible for the use and safeguarding of any login ID that you are issued regarding the use of the site and any associated passwords. It is important that these be protected in order to protect against unauthorised access to data regarding your account, and to your computer. 

Accessing and Updating Personal Data 

Micah takes all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we use is accurate and current.  We ask you to notify us of changes to personal information. 

If you request it, we will provide you with all the personal information we hold about you as required by law.  You can request, and are encouraged to notify Micah of changes to your personal information. If you wish to have personal information deleted, Micah will take reasonable steps to do so unless such information needs to be retained for legal, auditing or internal risk management purposes. 

Privacy Concerns

If you have a query about this Policy or wishes to make a complaint relating to the Policy or the manner in which your personal or sensitive information has been managed, please contact Micah Australia on [email protected]  or 02 8317 5080. All concerns will be taken seriously and responded to within 14 days.  It may be that Micah needs to seek further information from you in order to instigate a thorough and appropriate investigation. If you are unsatisfied with Micah’s response or the results of any investigation initiated by Micah, you can lodge an objection with Micah or contact the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au).

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

• Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.

• All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here