Privacy Policy

This website is operated by Hercules Constan Lawyers (ABN 98 079 791 998) (“Hercules Constan”) of Suite 3.02, Level 3, 390 St Kilda Road, Melbourne  VIC  3004.

Our privacy policy below tells you how we collect and manage the personal information of Hercules Constan’s clients (‘client’ or ‘you’).

We respect your rights to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) as well as the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and equivalent State and Territory privacy laws which may apply in other applicable jurisdictions, we comply with all of the requirements of the Act and other privacy legislation in respect of the collection, management and disclosure of your personal information.

Hercules Constan is a law firm providing legal advice, legal services and related services to companies and individuals.

For the purposes of this policy, the services described in this privacy policy will be referred to as “services”.

What is your personal information?

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

What personal client information do we collect and hold?

We may collect the following types of personal information:

  • name;
  • mailing or street address;
  • email address;
  • telephone number;
  • facsimile number;
  • IP address and/or website details;
  • business information;
  • profession, occupation or title;
  • details of the services you have acquired from us or which you have enquired about, together with any additional information necessary to deliver those services and to respond to your enquiries;
  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or social networks or indirectly through use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise; and
  • information you provide to us through our website, over the phone, by email or during attendances with our lawyers, employees or agents from time to time.

Collection of your information may be required by the Legal Profession Uniform Law (Victoria), Property Law Act 1958 (Vic), Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic), Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 (Vic), Electronic Conveyancing National Law, and regulations made under those acts or the equivalent legislation in other states and/or territories of the Commonwealth of Australia.

If we collect personal information about an individual from a land registrar, we undertake to handle that information in accordance with State or Territory privacy legislation applicable to the registrar. We also commit to complying with privacy obligations imposed upon us by the Legal Profession Uniform Law (Victoria) and/or under the Model Operating Requirements formulated by the Australian Registrar’s National Electronic Conveyancing Council (“ARNECC”) under the Intergovernmental Agreement for National Electronic Conveyancing where appropriate.

If we collect personal information about an individual from any other third party, such as a bank, we endeavour to handle that information in a manner which is consistent with the third party’s own privacy policy and which is consistent with the third party’s own obligations under the Privacy Act. We will work with the third party organisation in order to address any security or related privacy issues which may arise in relation to personal information which they have provided to us. Ultimately, however, it remains the third party’s responsibility to ensure that it is complying with the Privacy Act and its own privacy policies when dealing with us.

We may also collect some information that is not personal information because it does not identify you or anyone else. For example, we may collect anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how users use our website.

How do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. When collecting personal information from you, we may collect in ways including:

  • through your access and use of our website;
  • during conversations between you and our lawyers, employees, agents and/or representatives;
  • when you contact or interact with us;
  • when you provide us with unsolicited information such as press releases;
  • via ‘cookies’, pixel tabs (also known as web beacons, flash cookies and clear GIFs) and similar data collection technology on our website. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user’s browser. If you then register with us we will retain the information we received from your cookie or similar data collection technology.

We may also collect personal information from third parties including:

  • contact details of potential clients and business contacts through Hercules Constan’s own investigations of or via an existing client or contact;
  • from media outlets, such as publishers, who may from time to time provide information about their staff, such as names, job titles, contact details, areas of interest etc;
  • from publicly available sources, for example press releases, news reports and online media.
  • from other third parties such as users of our media contacts database.

Cookies

In some cases we may also collect your personal information through the use of cookies, pixel tabs (also known as web beacons, flash cookies and clear GIFs) and similar data collection technology. When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer. This enables us to recognise your computer and greet you each time you visit our website without bothering you with a request to register. It also enables us to keep track of services you view so that, if you consent, we can send you news about those services.

We also use cookies and data collection technology to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns in the aggregate. We use this to research our users’ habits so that we can improve our online services. Our cookies do not collect personal information. If you do not wish to receive cookies or data collection technology, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

We may log IP addresses (that is, the electronic addresses of computers connected to the internet) to analyse trends, administer the website, track users movements, and gather broad demographic information.

What happens if we can’t collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:

  • we may not be able to complete or provide legal advice or services to you;
  • we may not be able to provide the requested services to you, either to the same standard or at all;
  • we may not be able to provide you with information about services that you may want; or
  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful.

For what purpose do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

We collect personal information about you so that we can perform our business activities and functions and to provide best possible quality of client service.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to respond to your requests and applications;
  • to provide tailored legal advice and services to you;
  • for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
  • for use in connection with the preparation, digital signing, financial settlement and lodgement of registry instruments, duty assessments and other documents relevant to a transaction;
  • participating in transactions on an electronic lodgement network in our capacity as an electronic lodgement network participant and/or agent under the Electronic Conveyancing National Law;
  • to PEXA and/or other electronic lodgement network operators, Land Use Victoria, State Revenue Office for the purposes of lodging and/or registering dealings in land and assessment of stamp duty in connection with dealings in land;
  • to send communications requested by you;
  • for managing and administering our relationship with you and your organisation, including keeping records about our relationship;
  • to answer enquiries and provide information or advice about existing and new services;
  • to contact you and provide information (including marketing material) to you that you have requested or consented to, including communications relevant to your use of our website;
  • to provide you with access to protected areas of our website;
  • to assess the performance of the website and to improve the operation of the website;
  • to conduct business processing functions including providing personal information to our related bodies corporate, agents, contractors, service providers or other third parties;
  • for the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of Hercules Constan, its related bodies corporate, agents, contractors or service providers;
  • statistical purposes to improve the range of our products and services. However, aggregated (ie de-identified) information will generally be used;
  • to provide your updated personal information to our related bodies corporate, agents, contractors or service providers;
  • to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
  • to process and respond to any complaint made by you;
  • to monitor security threats and improve the performance and content of the website and other online services, analysing website use and creating internal reports; and
  • to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority.

To whom may we disclose your information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • our employees, agents, related bodies corporate, contractors or service providers for the purposes of operation of our website or our business, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide products and services to you including, without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisors such as barristers, accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
  • third parties in the context of a business transfer or transaction;
  • third parties including regulators, corporate registries, public authorities, courts/tribunals, lawyers, private investigators, arbitrators, mediators, financial organisations, advisors, accountants and other professionals in the course of provision of legal and other services to clients;
  • PEXA, Land Use Victoria, State Revenue Office for the purposes of registering dealings in land and assessment of stamp duty in connection with dealings in land;
  • suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, insurance and related purposes;
  • where required by and due to mandatory requirements of law enforcement agencies, government agencies or courts;
  • any organisation for any authorised purpose with your express consent.

We are required to also facilitate the identification of potentially fraudulent property transactions or other unlawful activity, and this may require disclosure to relevant authorities.

We may combine or share any information that we collect from you with information collected by any of our related bodies corporate (within Australia).

Direct marketing materials

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you. These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so. In addition, at any time you may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us (see the details below) or by using opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications and we will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

Storage of Land Information

We ensure that any computer infrastructure in which land information is entered, stored or processed is located within the Commonwealth of Australia.

Storage of other Personal Information

It is possible that we, or our agents, subcontractors or suppliers, may utilise cloud technology in connection with the storage of other personal information, and it is possible that this may result in off-shore storage of other personal information.

It is not practicable for us to specify in advance which country will have jurisdiction over such off-shore activities.

All of our agents or subcontractors, however, are required to comply with the Act and other relevant privacy legislation in relation to the transfer or storage of personal information overseas.

Our client information is held in secure, confidential files maintained in paper and/or electronic form. On some occasions files containing personal information are transferred to a secure third-party storage facility for storage purposes and we take all reasonable steps to ensure that such information is protected from misuse or unauthorised access.

Any credit card details we obtain are stored for the processing of payment and will be deleted once payment has been processed, if these details are required to be stored for future payments they will be held in secure confidential files maintained in paper and/or electronic form.

Do we disclose your personal information to anyone outside Australia?

We may make your personal information (including land information) available for access by PEXA or other electronic lodgement service network participants in other countries (e.g. to banks with overseas processing arrangements).

We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate in Australia and other locations and third party suppliers and service providers located in Australia or overseas for some of the purposes listed above.

On some occasions, personal information collected by us may be disclosed to other entities both in Australia and/or overseas. In these circumstances, we will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the foreign entity to which your personal information is transferred has appropriate measures in place to protect your personal information.

It is not practicable for us to specify in advance all of the countries from which your personal information may be accessed, but these countries may include India and the Philippines.

Website

When you access our website or the online services we provide, we may collect information such as the time and date of your access, your server address and your browser type. When you use the ‘Contact Us’ page on our website we may store any information you send us so we can respond to you if necessary.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of any account login or credentials for our website. We will treat any access to the website through your account or credentials as authorised by you. Unauthorised access to password protected or secure areas is prohibited and may lead to criminal prosecution. We may suspend your use of all or part of the website without notice if we suspect or detect any breach of security. If you believe that information provided to us is no longer secure, please notify us immediately using the contact information provided.

We may place and access any cookies or data collection technology measures on your browser. We, our service providers or third parties may use cookies or data collection technology measures to understand your use of our website or our online service, to deliver relevant survey opportunities or for advertising. The services we may use from time to time may include Google Analytics Advertising Features (Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, Integrated services that require Google Analytics to collect data via advertising cookies and anonymous identifiers).

Our online services may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites and recommend that you review their privacy policies.

Security and management of your information

We understand that the security of your personal information is important.  We take reasonable efforts to use procedures and security features to try to ensure that your personal information is properly protected from misuse or loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We may destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for our business purposes, although we are required to retain files, documents and information for up to seven (7) years.

When using our website you should be aware that no system or electronic data transmission over the Internet or otherwise can be guaranteed as totally secure. Although we strive to protect such information, we do not warrant the security of any information that you transmit to us over the Internet or otherwise and you do so at your own risk. We expect that you will use appropriate security measures to protect your personal information.

System security We store information in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords, and also use computer and network security measures such as firewalls, data encryption and virus detection methods.

Property security We maintain physical security over our paper and electronic data stores, such as locks and security systems.

Staff training We train our staff to handle your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.

Third parties We impose strict requirements on all third parties as to how they store, handle and deal with personal information.  In all instances, as far as reasonably practicable, we make sure that our relationships with third parties include appropriate protection of your personal information.

Your role You can help us to keep your information secure; please remember that any user name or password in relation to our websites is personal to you and should not be made available to any other person. You should stop using your username and password and notify us immediately if you suspect that someone else may be using them.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you, including personal information in our Database, at any time by contacting us (see the details below). Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will try to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). We may charge you a reasonable fee to cover our administrative and other reasonable costs in providing the information to you. We will not charge for simply making the request and will not charge you for asking for any corrections to your personal information.

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to the personal information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others or if it would result in a breach of confidentiality. If that happens, we will give you written reasons for any refusal.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete, out of date, irrelevant, misleading or inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment then we will make a record noting that you disagree with it.

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

If you believe that your privacy has been breached, please contact us using the contact information below and provide details of the incident so that we can investigate it. Hercules Constan’s policy is to consider any requests for correction in a timely way.

If you make a complaint, we will treat your requests or complaints confidentially and we will respond as soon as reasonably practicable to let you know who is responsible for managing your complaint. We will try to resolve your complaint within 10 working days. When this is not possible, we will contact you within that time to let you know how long we will take to resolve your complaint. We will investigate your complaint and where necessary, consult with our suppliers and/or sub-contractors about your complaint. We will make a decision about your complaint and write to you to explain our decision. If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, you may apply to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to have the complaint heard and determined. When we write to you about our decision, we will explain how you may make a complaint to the OAIC.

 

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, any concerns or a complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or a possible breach of your privacy, please use the contact link on our website or contact our Privacy Officer using the details set out below.

Please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Email:    kconstan@herconlaw.com.au

Mail:      Hercules Constan Lawyers
Suite 3.02, Level 3,
390 St Kilda Road,
Melbourne  VIC  3004

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.  You may obtain a copy of our current policy from our website or by contacting us on the details below. It is your responsibility to check the website from time to time in order to determine whether there have been any changes. By continuing to access or use the website after any changes are made to the terms of use or privacy policy, you are deemed to accept and agree to any changes or revisions and abide by them.

This privacy policy was last updated on 14 June 2019.