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Privacy Policy

Thynne & Macartney is a Brisbane law firm providing professional legal services throughout Australia and internationally. It functions as a single partnership, but has related entities. In this policy, the principal partnership and its related entities are collectively referred to as “Thynne & Macartney”.


General

Thynne & Macartney is committed to protecting your personal information.

Thynne & Macartney is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”), including the National Privacy Principles (“NPP's”). Additionally, Thynne & Macartney is bound by professional obligations of confidentiality to its clients in respect of information received in connection with legal services matters.

However, acts done or practices engaged in by Thynne & Macartney, which are directly related to:
  • a current or former employment relationship between Thynne & Macartney and you; and
  • an employee record held by Thynne & Macartney and relating to you,
are exempt from the Privacy Act, including the NPP's.

This policy sets out how Thynne & Macartney manages your personal information.

Thynne & Macartney encourages you to check its web site regularly for any updates to this privacy policy.


Collection

Thynne & Macartney may collect and hold information about a range of persons it comes into contact with, including:
  • clients, prospective clients, business associates and their employees;
  • job applicants;
  • suppliers and their employees;
  • contractors; and
  • individuals who visit the Thynne & Macartney web site.

Thynne & Macartney only collects and holds personal information that is necessary for it to provide you with the services you are seeking, or otherwise to enable it to operate its business so as to carry out its function as a professional legal service provider.

The personal information Thynne & Macartney collects and holds about you depends on your interaction with Thynne & Macartney. It may include:
  • your contact details, including your name, organisation, occupation, job title, address, phone number, facsimile number and email address;
  • details of your qualifications, membership of professional associations, interests and expertise;
  • referral information;
  • information you give Thynne & Macartney in the course of your relationship with Thynne & Macartney as a client, prospective client, prospective employee or supplier;
  • information Thynne & Macartney obtains from you or other persons in the course of providing legal services for you or your employer;
  • where necessary, financial information; and
  • where necessary, health information.

Generally, Thynne & Macartney will collect and hold your personal information for the purpose of:
  • providing services to you or someone else you know;
  • providing you with information about other services that Thynne & Macartney offers that may be of interest to you;
  • providing you with information relevant to the operation of your business (such as updates on developments in the law);
  • facilitating Thynne & Macartney's internal business operations, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements;
  • analysing Thynne & Macartney's services and customer needs with a view to developing new and/or improved services;
  • contacting you, in the case of an emergency involving someone else you know; and
  • contacting you to provide a testimonial for Thynne & Macartney.

Personal information will generally be collected by Thynne & Macartney directly from you. There may, however, be some instances where personal information about you will be collected indirectly because it is unreasonable or impractical to collect personal information directly from you. We will usually notify you about these instances in advance, or where that is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable after the information has been collected.

If the personal information you provide to Thynne & Macartney is incomplete and/or inaccurate, Thynne & Macartney may be unable to provide you, or someone else you know, with the services you, or they, are seeking.


Web site

When you access Thynne & Macartney's web site, Thynne & Macartney may collect additional personal information about you in the form of:
  • the date and time of your visit;
  • the pages you visited and documents downloaded;
  • your internet service provider;
  • if you accessed the web site via a link from another site (such as a search engine), the address of the web site you came from; and
  • your IP address (that is, the single numerical address for your computer on the internet, which consists of four consecutive numbers ranging between 0 and 255) and/or domain name (that is, the textual address for your location on the internet which corresponds to your IP address, which the internet computers can read).

Also, Thynne & Macartney's web site may at times use cookies. A cookie is a message given by a web server (that is, a computer that delivers or serves up pages on the world wide web such as www.thymac.com.au) to a web browser (that is, software, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, used to locate and display pages on the world wide web). The web browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the web server each time the web browser requests a page from the web server.

Cookies do not identify you personally, but they may link back to a database record about you.
Thynne & Macartney may use cookies to monitor usage of Thynne & Macartney's web site and to create a record of visits to Thynne & Macartney's web site and what pages are viewed so that Thynne & Macartney may operate its business more effectively. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you may be able to adjust the settings of your web browser to refuse them.


Use and disclosure

Generally, Thynne & Macartney only uses and/or discloses personal information about you for the purposes for which it was collected (as set out above). However, Thynne & Macartney may disclose personal information about you to:
  • where you ask us for a referral, other providers of legal services;
  • service providers, who assist Thynne & Macartney in operating its business, but only to the extent necessary for the service provider to provide the services Thynne & Macartney has contracted out to them;
  • your authorised representatives;
  • a purchaser of the assets and operations of Thynne & Macartney's business, providing those assets and operations are purchased as a going concern; and
  • Thynne & Macartney’s related entities.


Security

Thynne & Macartney stores your personal information in different ways, including in paper and in electronic form. The security of your personal information is important to Thynne & Macartney. Thynne & Macartney takes all reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is stored safely to protect it from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including electronic and physical security measures.


Access

You may access personal information Thynne & Macartney holds about you, upon making a written request. Thynne & Macartney will endeavour to acknowledge your request within 14 days of its receipt and to provide you with access to the information requested within 30 days. Requests for large amounts of information, or information not currently in use, may require further time before a response can be given. Thynne & Macartney may charge you a reasonable fee for processing your request.

Thynne & Macartney may decline a request for access to personal information where, among other things:
  • providing access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of an individual;
  • providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals;
  • the request for access is frivolous or vexatious;
  • the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between Thynne & Macartney and you, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings;
  • providing access would reveal information about a commercially sensitive decision making process;
  • providing access would be unlawful;
  • denying access is required or authorised by or under law;
  • providing access would prejudice negotiations between Thynne & Macartney and you;
  • providing access would be likely to prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity; or
  • providing access would be likely to prejudice the activities of enforcement bodies.

If, upon receiving access to your personal information or at any other time, you believe the personal information Thynne & Macartney holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please notify Thynne & Macartney immediately. Thynne & Macartney will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date. If Thynne & Macartney disagrees with you about whether your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, and you ask Thynne & Macartney to associate with your personal information a statement claiming that your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, Thynne & Macartney will take reasonable steps to do so.

Thynne & Macartney will provide reasons for any decision to refuse access to, or correction of, personal information.


Links to other web sites

Thynne & Macartney's web site may contain links to other web sites. Thynne & Macartney is not responsible for the privacy practices of linked web sites and so linked web sites are not subject to Thynne & Macartney's privacy policies and procedures.


Updates

This privacy policy may be updated by Thynne & Macartney from time to time.


Feedback

If you have any queries or concerns about Thynne & Macartney's privacy policy or the way in which Thynne & Macartney handles your personal information, please contact Thynne & Macartney's privacy officer at:

Street address: Level 27, 12 Creek Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000 (please attention “Privacy Officer”)

Postal address: GPO Box 245, Brisbane, Queensland 4001 (please attention “Privacy Officer”)

Email address: mail@thymac.com.au (please attention “Privacy Officer”)

Telephone: (07) 3231 8888

Facsimile: (07) 3229 0855 (please attention “Privacy Officer”)


More information

For more information about privacy in general, you can visit the Federal Privacy Commissioner's web site at www.privacy.gov.au.