We comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and the Personal Information Protection Act 2004 (Tas) (PIP Act). Our Privacy Policy explains how we manage your personal information, the types of personal information we collect and the reasons we collect it, how we generally use and disclose your personal information and how we store and protect it. 

This Privacy Policy also explains how you can access and correct personal information that we hold about you and how you can make a complaint if you have a concern about how Hydro Tasmania has dealt with your personal information. When you acquire a service from us you will receive further information about our privacy practices where appropriate. We may change this Privacy Policy at any time by publishing an updated version on our website. We encourage you to review and check our website regularly for any updates to this Privacy Policy. Please contact us with any questions, comments or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our procedures, or if you would like a copy of this Privacy Policy.

You can contact us at:

Hydro Tasmania  
GPO Box 355  
Hobart Tasmania 7001 

Phone: 1300 360 441

Email: corporation.secretary@hydro.com.au   

We collect a range of personal information as part of our functions or activities from various sources. This may be from customers, stakeholders, suppliers, service providers, partners or sponsors, third parties and through the ordinary course of business.

The types of personal information we collect about you may include:  

• names, contact information such as address(es), phone number(s), fax number(s) and/or email address(es);
• information relating to our employees, contractors and prospective employees (such as contact details, date of birth, bank details, employment history, psychological testing, referees, criminal records, health checks, performance, salary, superannuation and tax file numbers and other personal information);  
• financial or credit Information of customers, or information contained in credit reports about customers or potential customers, obtained from credit reporting bodies;
• customers’ gas or electricity consumption and usage data;
• information relating to people who access our websites for competitions, scholarships and promotions; and
• any other personal information that is reasonably necessary to provide our services and/or conduct our functions or activities.

We may also collect personal information about you because the collection of the information is required or authorised by law or a court / tribunal order.

In certain circumstances we may be required to collect government-related identifiers (e.g. tax file number for employment). We will not use this information unless the use or disclosure is permitted under law.  

Sensitive information

Unless permitted by law, we will only collect sensitive information with your consent.  “Sensitive information” means personal information defined as sensitive in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), such as health information, criminal records, membership of a trade association or union.  

We may collect sensitive information about our employees or prospective employees for assessing their suitability for employment.  

How we collect and hold personal information

We generally collect personal information about you directly from you, unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so.

We may collect your personal information by telephone, in person, in writing, online (including through the use of cookies on our websites), electronically by email and by the use of surveillance camera systems located at Hydro Tasmania sites.  

You have the option to remain anonymous, or to use a pseudonym, when dealing with us, unless it is impracticable or identification is required or authorised by law or a court/tribunal order. For example, if your inquiry is general, it may not be necessary to identify yourself. If you want to obtain a service, however, identification may be necessary.

We may also collect your personal information from publicly available sources or from third parties as permitted by law. For example, address validation software, marketing companies, authorised representatives appointed by you, our subsidiaries and related entities, brokers, partners or energy distributors who may have introduced you to Hydro Tasmania, credit reporting bodies or any other organisation or person you ask us to collect your personal information from. We also collect information internally about the conduct of our customers’ accounts.  

If we collect information that can be used to identify you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of this and the surrounding circumstances, if you are not otherwise aware.

Cookies

We may also collect information about how you use our websites. This information is used to enhance the content and services offered on our websites. Hydro Tasmania strives to collect only as much information as is required to make your Hydro Tasmania website experience as efficient and informative as possible.  

The information we capture is information derived from cookies, for example the time of visit, pages visited and statistics about how a page is accessed. Cookies are small text files that are transferred to a user's computer hard drive by a website for the purpose of tracking and storing this type of information. Customers accessing our website directly or indirectly via links in emails sent to them or through advertisements on other website, including to maintain the continuity of a user's browsing session and remember the user's details and preferences when they return. You can use your browser settings to manage cookies. Some parts of our websites may not have full functionality if cookies are disabled.

Linked internet sites

Hydro Tasmania has no direct control over and takes no responsibility for, the content of any other internet site that is linked to Hydro Tasmania’s internet site. These links are provided for convenience only and may not remain current or be maintained. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices associated with linked internet sites. It is the responsibility of the users to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external internet sites.  

Hydro Tasmania’s links with other internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement, approval or recommendation by us of the operators of those linked internet sites or of any information, graphics, materials, products or services referred to or contained on those linked internet sites unless and to the extent stipulated to the contrary.

Non customers and social media

You may not be a customer of ours but you may interact with us. You could be a spouse or family member of a customer. You may also interact with us by entering a competition, applying for a scholarship or through social media (such as Facebook or LinkedIn). We will collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and any privacy statement you may receive when you interact with us.

Unsolicited personal information

If we obtain personal information about you that we did not ask for, we will check whether we could have collected that information ourselves. If we could have collected the information, we will handle it in the same way we handle other information we collect from you as set out in this Privacy Policy.  

If we could not have otherwise collected the personal information, and the information is not contained in a Commonwealth record, we will destroy the information or de-identify it provided it is lawful and reasonable to do so.

We may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following general purposes to enable us to conduct our business:

• to understand your requirements and supply you with goods, services or information;  
• to setup, administer and manage our operations and provision of services;
• to develop, manage and improve of our relationship with you, your business partners or your related entities;
• to improve our processes, systems, products and services;  
• to identify you and conduct appropriate background checks;  
• to undertake credit assessment activities and collect payments owed;  
• to assess and administer your application for employment, and manage train and develop existing employees and representatives;
• to promote and market our products and services to you with your consent and where permitted by law;
• to meet our legal and regulatory obligations (including mandated community service obligations) and comply with law enforcement activities; and  
• to interact with you through a sponsorship or partnership arrangement, or other agreement.

Sometimes we are required to collect your personal information to satisfy specific legal or regulatory obligations. The privacy statement you will receive when you acquire a service from us, or interact with us in a different way, will give you further details of which laws may require us to collect your personal information and may also contain additional or different purposes of collection depending on the service you acquire from us or your interaction with us.

If we are unable to collect personal information about you, we may not be able to deal with you, or provide you with our products or services.

Use and disclosure of your personal information

We use and disclose your personal information for the purposes we collected it, unless you have consented to use or disclosure of the information for another purpose or it is otherwise required or permitted by law. For example, if you would reasonably expect us to do so, we may also use and disclose your personal information for a secondary purpose that is related to a purpose for which we collected it. In the case of sensitive information, any use or disclosure for a secondary purpose (that you would reasonably expect) will be directly related to the purpose for which we collected it.

To the extent we are permitted by law, we may disclose your personal information to third parties to enable us to conduct our business. These third parties may include:

• regulatory or government authorities;
• our subsidiaries;
• authorised representatives appointed by you; 
• representatives, agents or contractors we or our subsidiaries appoint or engage to provide services in connection with the operation of our business and the provision by us of energy services, for example information technology services, hosting services, telephony services, mailing house services, printing services, call centre services, debt collection services, marketing and communications services, research, planning and development services, external dispute resolution services, energy distributors and energy retailers;
• financial institutions;
• our business partners;
• our professional advisers;
• any other organisation or person you ask us to provide your personal information to (or collect your personal information from);
• credit reporting bodies; and
• in respect of information relating to our employees (including names and email addresses of employees), Uber for Business for the purpose of Uber for Business providing transport services to our employees.

We may also use or disclose personal information about a customer where the disclosure of the information is permitted under the Privacy Act (for example, in compliance with an Australian law or court / tribunal order, if a permitted general situation exists, if a permitted health situation exists or if we reasonably believe that the use or disclosure of personal information is reasonably necessary for enforcement related activities conducted by an enforcement body).

Marketing

We may use the personal information we hold about you to identify services and products that may be of interest to you.

We may contact you by email, text message, phone or by post to let you know about specials, our promotions or any new or existing products or services. We also use internet-based marketing including targeted online advertising and online behavioural marketing.  

We may disclose personal information to our business partners to allow them (or us) to tell potential customers about a product or service. Our marketing agencies may contact potential customers using personal information that they already hold, or that we may provide to them, in order to serve our potential customers with more relevant advertising about our services and products.

You can contact us at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing materials from us.  

How we store your personal information

We may hold your personal information in computer systems, electronic databases, digital records, telephone recordings, and in hard copy or paper files.

Overseas disclosure

Some of your personal information may be disclosed, processed or stored overseas by us or by our third party service providers. For example, this may include the Philippines, India, Ireland, Japan, Norway and the United States of America.

Where personal information is disclosed, processed or stored overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients comply with the Privacy Act, the PIP Act and any other applicable laws. 

The assessment will determine if there is a likely risk of serious harm to any individual associated with the data breach. Where we believe there is a likely risk of serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and any affected individuals in accordance with our obligations under the law.  

You can do so by contacting Hydro Tasmania using the contact details provided above. We will respond to a request for access within a reasonable time (usually 30 days).  We may need to verify your identity before we give you access to your personal information.

We may deny your request to access to some or all of your personal information in specified circumstances, or in the manner you requested, as permitted by law. If we deny access, we will provide our reasons to you in writing (unless it would be unreasonable to do so) and the mechanisms available to complain about the refusal.   

We rely on the accuracy of the personal information we hold about you to provide our services to you.  

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, irrelevant or misleading, then you have the right to request us to correct it. You can do so by contacting Hydro Tasmania using the contact details provided above.

We may require proof of identity to confirm the authenticity of your request. If your request is accepted, we will take reasonable steps to correct that information. For example, any requests made by you to update your existing personal information because it is no longer current (for example, change of address) will be actioned promptly. You are also entitled to request us to notify a third party of the correction, if we had previously disclosed the inaccurate information to that third party. If requested, we will take reasonable steps to notify that third party of the correction, unless it is impractical or unlawful to do so.  

If we do not agree that your personal information requires correction, we will provide our reasons to you in writing within a reasonable period of time. In the case of information we have obtained from a credit reporting body (or any information we have derived from it) we will explain why we believe the information is correct. If we refuse to correct your personal information you have the right to associate with the information a statement that the information is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We will take reasonable steps to associate that statement with all records containing the relevant information.

Where necessary, we will consult with third parties about your complaint. We will notify you in writing of our decision following our investigation. We will attempt to resolve your complaint within 30 business days. Where this is not possible, we will contact you within this time to let you know when the complaint is expected to be resolved.

We expect our procedures will deal fairly and promptly with your complaint. However, if you are dissatisfied, you may raise your concern with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Complaints can be made to OAIC in the following ways:  

Ombudsman Tasmania

Address: Level 6, 86 Collins Street, Hobart TAS 7000

Phone:  1800 001 170

Email: ombudsman@ombudsman.tas.gov.au

Website: www.ombudsman.tas.gov.au

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Address: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001

Phone:  1300 363 992

Email: enquiries@oaic.com.au

Website: www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint 

Address: Hydro Tasmania, GPO Box 355, Hobart TAS 7001

Phone: 1300 360 441

Email: corporation.secretary@hydro.com.au