PwC Privacy Policy

PricewaterhouseCoopers collects personal information from clients, customers, employees, contractors and other individuals. We collect this information when it is necessary for business purposes.

The main types of personal information PricewaterhouseCoopers collects relate to the contact details and organisational roles of our clients, suppliers and other business contacts. Typically, this information includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and job titles. In the course of providing professional services to our clients, we may collect more detailed personal information (for instance financial details if we are engaged to perform financial services).

We collect most information directly from individuals when we deal with them. The personal information we collect may be provided in forms filled out by individuals, face to face meetings, email messages, telephone conversations or by third parties. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that contact.

The main purposes in collecting personal information about individuals are:

• to provide our services;
• to respond to an individual's request;
• to maintain contact with clients;
• to keep clients and other contacts informed of the services we offer and industry developments that may be of interest to them, and to notify them of service offerings, seminars and other events we are holding;
• for general management and reporting purposes, such as invoicing and account management;
• for recruitment purposes;
• for purposes related to the employment of our personnel and providing internal services to our staff; and
• all other purposes related to our business.

We may use personal information about individuals to market our services, including by email. However, individuals always have the opportunity to elect not to receive further marketing information from us by writing to The National Privacy Office, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000, or by emailing us at privacy.officer@au.pwc.com. Please allow 28 days for your request to be processed.

Alternatively, if we have contacted you by email, you may use the unsubscribe function in that email to notify us that you do not want to receive further marketing information from us by email.

If we collect or use personal information in ways other than as stated in this policy, we will ensure we do so pursuant to the requirements of the Privacy Act.

Employee records are not generally subject to the Privacy Act and therefore this policy may not apply to the handling of information about employees by PricewaterhouseCoopers. For information about our practices relating to employee information, please contact us directly.

PricewaterhouseCoopers does not routinely disclose personal information to other organisations unless:

• required by law;
• use or disclosure is permitted by this policy;
• we believe it necessary to provide you with a product or service which you have requested (or, in the case of a partner or employee of PricewaterhouseCoopers, it is necessary to maintaining or related to your role at PricewaterhouseCoopers);
• to protect the rights, property or personal safety of any member of the public or a customer of PricewaterhouseCoopers or the interests of PricewaterhouseCoopers;
• some or all of the assets or operations of PricewaterhouseCoopers are or may be transferred to another party as part of the sale of some or all of PricewaterhouseCoopers' business; or
• you give your consent.

We may also share non-personal, de-identified and aggregated information for research or promotional purposes. Except as set out in this policy, we do not sell or trade personal information to third parties, or allow such third parties to use that personal information.

PricewaterhouseCoopers uses a range of service providers to help us maximise the quality and efficiency of our services and our business operations (including internal business requirements, such as recruitment and human capital requirements). This means that individuals and organisations outside of PricewaterhouseCoopers will sometimes have access to personal information held by PricewaterhouseCoopers and may collect or use it from or on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers. This may include, but is not limited to, independent contractors and consultants, travel service providers, mail houses, off-site security storage providers, website hosts, electronic database managers, or event managers, credit managers and debt collecting agencies. We require our service providers to adhere to our privacy guidelines and not to keep this information or use it for any unauthorised purposes.

If PricewaterhouseCoopers' staff obtain products or services offered by a third party pursuant to an agreement or arrangement between that third party and PricewaterhouseCoopers, such as a credit card provider, we may provide your personal information to that third party, including information that relates to your use of such services.

As part of a global network of PricewaterhouseCoopers firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers exchanges information, including personal information, between our firms. As a result, we may transfer personal information outside Australia to countries whose privacy laws do not provide the same level of protection as Australia's. PricewaterhouseCoopers and other PricewaterhouseCoopers firms with which we exchange information may also use overseas facilities or contractors to process or back-up our information or to provide certain services to us. As a result, we or another PricewaterhouseCoopers firm may transfer your personal information to our overseas facilities or contractors for these purposes.

However, any such transfer of information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your privacy and the information remains subject to existing confidentiality obligations.

This policy also applies to any personal information we collect via our websites, including pwc.com.au. In addition to personal information you provide to us directly (such as where you make a request or complete a registration form), PricewaterhouseCoopers may also collect personal information from you via its websites.

Cookies may be used on some areas of our websites. A cookie is a small software application which allows a website to recognise a previous user and to observe how a user navigates within a website. Cookies are now used as a standard by many websites. PricewaterhouseCoopers uses cookies to improve the navigational experience of visitors to our websites and to make them easier to use.

If you are concerned about cookies, most browsers now recognise when a cookie is offered and permit you to opt out of receiving it. If you are not sure whether your browser has this capability, you should check with the software manufacturer or your internet service provider. In most cases, you can refuse a cookie and still fully navigate the PricewaterhouseCoopers websites.

In order to properly manage our websites, we may log certain statistics about the users of the sites, for example the users' domains and browser types. None of this information specifically identifies an individual and it is used solely to ensure that our websites present the best possible navigational experience for visitors.

Whenever a registered member (such as a PricewaterhouseCoopers alumnus) logs in to our websites, they will be identified by their user name and password. The information we collect about members' use of our websites is used purely for measuring site performance and in assisting to resolve any technical difficulties.

Because PricewaterhouseCoopers wants your website experience to be as informative and resourceful as possible, we provide a number of links to websites operated by third parties. PricewaterhouseCoopers is not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites. We encourage you to review each website's privacy policy, especially if you intend to disclose any personal information via that site. A link to another non-PricewaterhouseCoopers website is not an express or implied endorsement, promotion or warranty of the products or services offered by or accessible through that site or advertised on that site.

Depending on the purpose for which we have collected personal information (for example, registration for a PricewaterhouseCoopers event or a request for particular information or material), we may store some of the information electronically in PricewaterhouseCoopers' customer relationship management system. Some or all of this personal information may be available to partners and authorised staff of PricewaterhouseCoopers for use in accordance with this policy.

PricewaterhouseCoopers will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, whether electronically or in hard-copy, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. We also require our employees and data processors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers aims to achieve industry best practice in the security of personal information which it holds. It is our policy to destroy personal information once there is no longer a legal or business need for us to retain it.

We will provide access to personal information upon request by an individual, except in the limited circumstances in which it is permitted for us to withhold this information (for instance, where granting access would infringe another person's privacy).

When you make a request to access personal information, we will require you to provide some form of identification (such as a driver's licence or passport) so we can verify that you are the person to whom the information relates. In some cases we may also request an administrative fee to cover the cost of access.

If at any time you want to know what personal information we hold about you, you may contact us by writing to: The National Privacy Office, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney, or emailing us at privacy.officer@au.pwc.com.

If you believe that information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, or if you have concerns about how we are handling your personal information, please contact us and we will try to resolve those concerns.

If you wish to have your personal information deleted, please let us know and we will take reasonable steps to delete it (unless we need to keep it for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons).

If PricewaterhouseCoopers becomes aware of any ongoing concerns or problems concerning our privacy practices, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have any further queries relating to our privacy policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy.officer@au.pwc.com.

PricewaterhouseCoopers operates in a dynamic business environment. Over time, aspects of our business may change as we respond to changing market conditions. This may require our policies to reviewed and revised. PricewaterhouseCoopers reserves the right to change its privacy policy at any time and notify you by posting an updated version of the policy on this website.

The amended policy will apply between us whether or not we have given you specific notice of any change.