Privacy policy

Protection of your privacy

This privacy policy refers to all of the activities of the EnergyAustralia group of companies operating in Australia.

This privacy policy summarises how we deal with your personal information. We are committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the National Privacy Principles.

‘Personal information’ is information about individuals, including name, address, telephone number, date of birth, financial circumstances, credit worthiness, credit history and the conduct of your account.

How do we collect your information?

We collect personal information in a variety of ways, including from you directly (including when you interact with us in writing, electronically or via telephone), when you visit our website (including when you submit a quote or contact form), when you participate in our events or promotions, when we supply products or services to you and from public sources of information.

We may also obtain information from your distributor or the energy market operator relating to energy usage or previous energy usage at your premises. At all times the collection of this information is obtained by lawful means in a manner that respects your privacy and confidentiality.

How do we use your information?

Your privacy is respected, and we do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

We use your personal information for a variety of purposes to effectively conduct our business, including to:

  • supply products and services to you and to administer and manage the supply of products and services (including billing and collecting debts)
  • provide you with information about us and our products and services, including how your use of our products or services can be improved
  • gain an understanding of your energy needs in order to provide you with better products and services and maintain our high levels of customer service
  • conduct research and development
  • conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness and for fraud
  • comply with our legal obligations

To help us carry out these activities, from time to time we disclose your personal information to other parties including:

  • our contractors, suppliers and agents who assist us to provide products and services to you
  • companies who manage the distribution of energy
  • companies in the EnergyAustralia group of companies
  • credit providers and agencies
  • government and regulatory authorities (as required or authorised by law)
  • our professional advisors (such as auditors and lawyers)
  • organisations that assist us to conduct research or analyse data

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that these third parties are bound by privacy and confidentiality obligations in relation to your personal information.

How do we store or process your information?

Your personal information may be stored or processed by us, or by our service providers, on computer servers that are located in Australia or overseas.

You consent to your personal information being collected, used and stored by us in accordance with this privacy policy and, in particular, to the collection, use, storage, and processing of your personal information in an overseas country.

Do we provide you with information about products and services?

We also use your personal information to provide you with information on products, services and offers (from us or our related companies) that we believe may be relevant to you or that you would be interested in, even after you cease acquiring products or services from us and you consent to us doing so, unless you opt out of receiving this information.

You also consent to us sending you the information by direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS and MMS messages, unless you tell us not to contact you in these ways.

How can you opt out of receiving information about products and services?

You can opt out of receiving marketing information, in the form of personal visits to your premises or by ordinary mail, by putting your name on our 'No Contact List'.

We maintain a No Contact List so that, if you ask us to put your name on the list, we will not contact you for marketing purposes by mail or by visiting you at your premises while your name remains on the list.

You can ask us to put your name on the No Contact List by contacting us in any of these ways:

The Privacy Officer
EnergyAustralia
Locked Bag 14060
Melbourne City Mail Centre 8001

* Please note this email address should only be used for sending marketing opt out requests. All other enquiries should be sent using the relevant online form or by contacting us via telephone.

In some circumstances we may need to contact you to obtain additional information to verify your identity or to clarify your request before we list your name on the No Contact List. There is no charge for being listed on the No Contact List.

Your entry on the No Contact List continues for a period of two (2) years, but the period is refreshed each time you ask for your name to be included or to remain on the No Contact List. If the two year period expires, we may contact you again with marketing information in person at your premises or by mail.

The No Contact List does not apply to information that we may send to you by telemarketing, email, SMS and MMS messages. If you would like to opt out of receiving information from us by any of those methods you can contact us directly (rather than via our marketers) in any of the ways listed above.

In some circumstances we may need to contact you to obtain additional information to verify your identity or to clarify your request.

How do we make sure the information we hold about you is current?

We take reasonable steps to hold only accurate, complete and current personal information.

Do you hold sensitive information about me?

We will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent (unless we are otherwise allowed or required by law to collect that information). Sensitive information includes information about your health, your race or ethnic origin and religious beliefs.

You may wish to provide to us with sensitive information about you from time to time, for example where you have particular energy requirements due to special medical needs or where you wish to apply for a government concession available in relation to special medical needs. This type of information is treated in confidence.

If you or someone living at your premises requires life support equipment, you should tell us (and provide confirmation from a medical practitioner) so that we may register your premises as having life support equipment, in which case certain restrictions on disconnecting your premises will apply. We may be required by law to disclose this information to certain entities, for example to your distributor.

Do you record my phone calls to you?

Yes, there are two instances where your phone calls may be monitored. The first is for training, service quality control and compliance purposes, where we may record and monitor telephone calls between you and us.

The second concerns calls to traders in our energy trading business. These calls may be recorded and archived.

Can I change information about myself?

Please let us know if the personal information we have about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date and we will take reasonable steps to correct it.

How can I get access to my information?

You may obtain details of the personal information we hold about you on request. If providing this access may disclose information about another party, or may disclose commercially sensitive information, or is otherwise limited by law, we may reasonably limit your access.

Charges may apply to cover the cost of us accessing and providing you with this information. If we cannot provide you access, we will provide a statement of our reasons.

How do we manage privacy issues about credit?

In some circumstances we may obtain credit reports about you from a business that provides commercial credit worthiness information.

If, after reasonable follow up, monies owed by you to us remain outstanding, we may supply to a credit reporting agency relevant personal information and details of the monies owed to us. The information we may supply includes (but is not limited to):

  • identity details that are sufficient to identify you
  • the fact that you have applied for credit and that we are a credit provider to you
  • advice about payments more than 60 days overdue which are in collection that we are permitted to report
  • that cheques drawn by you, or direct debit requests to your account, have been dishonoured
  • that, in our opinion, you have committed a serious credit infringement
  • that credit provided to you has been paid or otherwise discharged

Notification to a credit reference agency that any of your outstanding payments are no longer overdue will only be made following receipt of monies owed, including any accrued interest.

What if you disagree with our decision?

Where we make a decision about you or affecting you, you may ask us to explain the basis on which that decision was made, and you may ask to see the personal information (if any) on which our decision is based.

EnergyAustralia website

Cookies

Like many companies, we use ‘cookie’ technology on our website. ’Cookies’ are small text files a website can use to recognise repeat users, store registration data, facilitate the user's ongoing access to and use of the website, allow a website to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements.

Cookies are not programs that come onto your system and damage files. In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you and, if that is the case, we will extend the same privacy protections to that information as we do to other personal information we collect about you.

You can disable cookies or be warned when cookies are being used by adjusting your internet browser settings. However, disabling cookies may mean that you are not able to access parts of our website or to take advantage of the improved user experience that cookies can help provide.

Visiting our website

When you visit our website, in addition to any personal information you submit (e.g. for a quote or in a contact form), a record of your visit will be recorded. This record may include the following types of information:

  • your server address
  • your top level domain name (e.g. .gov, .au)
  • the date and time of the visit
  • pages accessed and documents downloaded
  • the address of any website that linked you directly to our site
  • when you email us we will record your email address

Third party websites
Our website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of third party websites and do not endorse or authorise their content.

You should familiarise yourself with each website's privacy policy and make your own decision about providing personal information when visiting those sites.

Can the ways in which you use my information and the conditions of use be changed?

Periodically we will update this privacy policy to reflect changes to privacy legislation, technological changes, company policy and customer feedback. You should refer to our website from time to time to view the current version of this privacy policy.

How to contact us

You can contact us at the address below to:

  • arrange access to personal information about you
  • request a hardcopy of this privacy policy
  • enquire generally about privacy matters
  • discuss any issues relating to our privacy policy

The Privacy Officer
EnergyAustralia
Locked Bag 14060
Melbourne City Mail Centre 8001

Updated: 22 August 2012

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