Entura’s Privacy Policy

The Hydro-Electric Corporation (ABN 48 072 377 158) trading as Hydro Tasmania and/or Entura (Hydro Tasmania) is committed to protecting your privacy and complying with its 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).  

This 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 

  1300 360 441
  corporation.secretary@hydro.com.au   

Collection of personal information

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 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.   

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
• 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).

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, 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. 

Protecting your personal information

We treat all personal information as confidential and are committed to keeping your personal information secure. 

The storage mechanisms we use to hold your personal information may be managed in a number of ways. They may be managed or administered internally by us or they may be managed by a third party storage provider with whom we have a contractual relationship and be either managed locally and/or overseas. 

We will take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Ways we do this may include:

• limiting physical access to our premises
• restricting electronic and physical access to personal information we hold
• having in place stand-by systems and information backups to deal with major business interruptions
• maintaining technology security products
• requiring any third party providers to have acceptable security measures to keep your personal information secure
• destroying or de-identifying personal information pursuant to the law and our record retention policies.

You have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you. 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.   

Updating and correcting your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant to our functions or activities. 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. 

Resolving your concerns

If you have a complaint about how we collect, hold, use or disclose your personal information, please contact us via the contact details set out in this Privacy Policy so that we can help.  

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 business days. 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 10 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 
  Level 6, 86 Collins Street, Hobart TAS 7000 
  1800 001 170
  ombudsman@ombudsman.tas.gov.au
 www.ombudsman.tas.gov.au

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
  GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 
  1300 363 992
  enquiries@oaic.com.au
 www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint 

More information

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.

  Hydro Tasmania, GPO Box 355, Hobart TAS 7001 

  1300 360 441
  corporation.secretary@hydro.com.au