PRIVACY POLICY

1. About us

Animal Welfare League of Qld Inc. (AWLQ, we, us or our) is a registered not-for-profit charity that has been operating since 1959. We are dedicated to animal welfare and we operate a range of activities and community initiatives across Queensland directed towards improving the outcomes for stray, abandoned and stranded animals. This includes animal rehoming and shelter services, veterinary care and animal support services, education programs, and fundraising including through donations and op shops.

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information in carrying out our operations.

This Privacy Policy outlines the commitment of AWLQ to protect the privacy of individuals, and personal information we receive in the conduct of our activities, including through volunteer engagement, community activities, fundraising, access and use of our website and interaction with our services (Services).

Our Services are intended for use and interaction from within Australia only. We aim to comply with all relevant privacy laws, including the requirements applicable to us under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) including the Australian Privacy Principles, and relevant State privacy laws that apply to us.

2. Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we look after personal information, setting out:

the kinds of personal information we collect and why we collect it;
how we hold, use, and disclose personal information;
how to contact us in relation to privacy matters.

This Privacy Policy applies to everyone who interacts with any of our Services.

By accessing, using, or engaging with any of our Services, or by providing personal information to us, you agree to the terms of our Privacy Policy at that time. When you agree to the terms of our Privacy Policy, you consent to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of that information as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may need to know and disclose certain information about users of some of our Services for specific reasons. However, wherever reasonably possible, we maintain the anonymity of people who engage with our Services.

3. Third party sites

This Privacy Policy does not apply to websites, platforms, services or apps that we do not operate, such as third-party websites that are linked from our website (Third-Party Sites). Those Third-Party Site owners are responsible for the privacy of the information they collect and should be contacted directly for details of their privacy policies.

If we link to or refer you to a Third-Party Site, we are not making any representations to you regarding the privacy or security of your personal information when collected or held by the other site. The privacy practices applicable to other Third-Party Sites may differ substantially from ours. You should read the privacy policy of any other Third-Party Sites you visit before using them. We do not accept responsibility for the content or practices of Third-Party Sites that are linked from our Services.

4. What personal information do we collect?

The primary purpose for us to collect personal information is to provide improved outcomes for animal welfare, which covers many things such as planning, funding, monitoring and evaluating our Services.

We may collect information about you when you access, use or engage with any of our Services, such as:

viewing our website or social media pages;
sending us enquiries;
engaging in animal adoption and foster care programs (including submitting applications);
volunteering for us;
making donations (including through legacies and bequests) or participating in fundraising events;
being a member of any of our Services;
attending any of our events or premises we operate from, including our offices, vet clinics and services, op shops and community events;
applying for a job or volunteer position with AWLQ.

If you choose to interact with any of our Services, you agree to the terms of our Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of information as described in this policy. You have a right to withdraw your consent at any time and may do so by contacting the Privacy Officer, although this may impact the Services you are able to receive.

We also collect personal information where we are required to do so by law.

The types of personal information we collect depends on the relevant Services you are interacting with and the circumstances in which the information is collected.

We may collect the following information about you:

your name;
your postal address;’
other contact details for you, such as your email address and telephone number;
your gender;
geographic location information;
information regarding your use of our Services, including interactions you undertake relating to our Services and information that you provide to us via our Services;
information about your use of content on our Services;
records of communications and dealings with you, such as emails, SMS and telephone including information that you provide to us in those communications;
information we may collect as part of a survey, customer feedback request or a competition;
images from CCTV;
resumes and background checks, for AWLQ job applicants.

We also collect information about people who are our suppliers, beneficiaries, donors and business partners, or who are employed by our suppliers, beneficiaries, donors or business partners. The information we collect is that which we need to maintain our operations with that party. For example, if you are an employee or contractor of a supplier or business partner, we may collect information about who you work for, the location where you work, your position or job title, and employer contact details.

If you provide personal or other information about someone other than yourself to us, you warrant that you have that person’s consent to provide such information.

5. Sensitive Information

We do not seek to collect sensitive information. Sensitive information includes information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs and criminal record.

If we do have to collect sensitive information, we will do so in accordance with all relevant laws — for example, we will only collect sensitive information about you with your consent and where it is reasonably necessary for us to do so, or if we are otherwise allowed or required by law to collect that information.

If you provide us with sensitive information including via the Services, we will consider that you have consented to us collecting it.

6. Collection when using our Services

When using our online Services, we and our technology partners may collect information about how you use those Services. We may collect information such as:

your use of the website or app, such as pages visited, links clicked, text entered, and mouse or cursor movements, and when you visit each page;
device information, such as the model and ID of the device you use, operating system, MAC address, device time zone, telephone number and mobile phone network;
server log information, such as details of how you used the service, IP address, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your use and referral URL;
information that may uniquely identify your browser or your account, and other online identifiers;
your username and password, if you create an account with us or use a Service that requires login information.

Generally, we do not associate this information with an identifiable person, although in some instances we may connect it to you, for instance in personalising a webpage or prefilling a form. We also collect some statistical information about visitors to our Services, but this is not personal information because we may not know who the visitor is or because we may aggregate this information so that no person can be identified.

We use various technologies to collect and store information, including cookies, pixel tags, tracking tags, and local storage such as browser web storage or application data caches, databases, and server logs. These technologies help us track your usage and remember your preferences.

Analytics cookies and tracking tags may also be used to collect information about your use of our Services (visitation data) that allow our third-party website analytics services (e.g. Google Analytics) to help us analyse trends and understand our users’ behaviour patterns in the aggregate, which helps us assess the effectiveness of these Services and tailor advertising both on our Services and through other sites.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, if you do, you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites.

7. How we collect Personal Information

We collect personal information in several ways, including:

directly from you, for example, when you give it to us, and when you apply to work, volunteer, foster or adopt with us;
where you enter your personal details on our websites or online forms;
if you create an account with us where relevant to any of our Services;
when you purchase or make donations connected to our Services;
when you complete an entry form for a competition or participate in a survey;
when you email, text or telephone us, or when you share information with us from other social applications, services and websites;
when you interact with our websites, online content and advertising;
when you visit our offices, premises that we operate from or attend our events, for example you may be asked to sign in and be captured on CCTV;
from publicly available sources of information, including third parties from whom we may acquire information;
using technology to deduce information about you, such as demographic information;
if you are or work for a supplier, beneficiary, donor or business partner of ours, or a potential supplier, beneficiary, donor or business partner, as part of our operations and dealings with you;
from your employer, if your employer is a supplier, beneficiary, donor or business partner of ours;
from background check providers, former employers, referees and educational institutions if you apply to work for us.

If you choose not to provide us with information, we may be unable to supply Services to you or we may not be able to provide you with Services or information that is relevant to you.

8. Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We may use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

to provide our Services to you;
to identify you and to assist you to obtain and use our Services;
to administer and manage our Services;
to provide you with information and advertising that we think may be of interest to you, including how donations are used or other animal welfare programs and events;
to deliver relevant content to you;
to measure or understand the effectiveness of the content and marketing we serve you;
to respond to inquiries and feedback from you;
to facilitate transactions requested by you including processing donations and providing receipts;
to review your dealings with us, including the Services you use, your potential needs or interests, and new Services that might be of interest to you;
to improve our websites and Services;
to promote animal welfare to the community;
to administer surveys, contests and promotional activities or events sponsored or managed by us or our business partners;
to create reports for our management, government and other funding partners;
to carry out consumer, market, community and Services research, compile demographics, to analyse data and to deduce information;
to respond to reports lodged through our Services and other complaints;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
to monitor and detect possible fraud or breaches of our terms and conditions relating to our Services;
for security purposes, including to perform functions that we believe are necessary to protect the security and proper functioning of our websites and online Services;
to maintain and update our records;
to determine whether to hire you to work for us;
as otherwise required or authorised by law.

We may also use personal information for purposes as would be reasonably expected by you in connection with those activities described above.

9. Direct Marketing and Opt Out

If you have provided us with your contact details such as an address, email address or telephone number, or subscribed to any of our content including on social media (including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube), AWLQ or our contractors may contact you with information from time to time that we think is relevant to you or relevant to animal welfare. Communications may be sent in various forms, including telephone, email, SMS, push notifications and post in accordance with applicable marketing laws. If you indicate a preference for any method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.

Should you not wish to receive communications of this nature from us, you may unsubscribe or opt-out:

by following the link or instructions in the marketing communication to opt out, or verbally requesting to opt out in the case of telephone contact;
by changing settings on your device or social media account/platform, such privacy settings or push notification settings;
by sending a request to the Privacy Officer on the contact details below.

If you unsubscribe from marketing communications, this will not stop you receiving Service-related communications from us in relation to administrative matters if we are otherwise legally entitled to send them to you.

10. Disclosure of Personal Information

We only disclose personal information for a purpose for which it was collected, or for a secondary purpose in circumstances permitted by law. This includes where you consent to us disclosing your personal information. You can give us your consent expressly or your consent may be implied.

We may disclose your personal information:

to government agencies, regulators and law enforcement bodies;
to other State and Territory associations within the Animal Welfare League;
to your employer where your employer is our supplier, beneficiary, donor or business partner;
to insurance companies;
to a court or tribunal or other dispute resolution body;
to a person who serves us with a subpoena or other legal document requiring us by law to disclose information or documents about you to them;
to our consultants, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, service providers and professional advisors, who assist us in operating our business including IT service providers, training service providers, payment service providers, researchers, companies that provide identification verification services, analytics providers, marketing service providers, accounting service providers, website operators, mail house operators, CRM providers, debt collection, banks, and organisations that we engage to deal with you on our behalf, and we only allow such third parties to process your personal information for specific purposes and in accordance with our instructions;
to our sponsors, suppliers, beneficiaries, donors and business partners that provide related products and services and who may use your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing (which you may opt out from in accordance with this policy);
to other organisations where necessary or reasonable to do so in relation to the operation of our business.

Data collected and stored by AWLQ is hosted in Australia.

We may disclose your personal information to organisations outside of Australia, including to contractors, and cloud service providers. The service providers we engage may use international data centres and disaster recovery sites.

The Australian Privacy Principles require that we take reasonable steps, dependent on the circumstances, to ensure that the overseas service provider to whom personal information is disclosed does not breach Australian privacy laws (the “Requirement”). When you provide us with your personal information you consent to the disclosure of your information to an overseas provider. Your consent to this disclosure means that the Requirement does not apply and we will not be held accountable under the Australian Privacy Act for any breaches of the Australian Privacy Act by the overseas provider.

11. Security and Storage of Personal Information

Security

We may hold personal information in a variety of formats, including electronic or hard copy form.

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information that we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We provide a robust level of security when you use our Services and when you visit any premises that we operate from or events we host. We have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect personal information which is held by us.

We allow access to your personal information only to those employees, contractors and partners who have a business need to know such information. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they must keep it confidential under contractual obligations.

We cannot guarantee the security of any data transmission over the Internet. Although due care is taken, we cannot provide assurances regarding the security of information provided to us via electronic means or stored electronically. No security measures are perfect, and we cannot promise to be able to withstand security threats in all circumstances. Any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is at your own risk.

Retention

Personal information is only retained for as long as is necessary or as required by law. We use secure methods to destroy or de-identify any personal information, provided the information is no longer needed by us for any purpose and doing so is not prohibited by law.

You may make a request to us in writing to remove or delete your personal information and, where permitted, we will do so in accordance with all relevant laws.

Data breach

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected notifiable data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to do so.

12. Amendment of this policy

We regularly review our privacy practices and may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do, we will update the Privacy Policy on our website at www.awlqld.com.au/privacy-policy. The changes will come into effect immediately upon publication on our website. You should check our website from time to time to understand how the current version of our Privacy Policy applies to you. If the changes are significant, we will aim to provide regular users of our Services with notice of the changes, such as users who have an account with us or have provided an email address.

Continued use of our Services will be deemed acceptance of any changes to our Privacy Policy.

13. Access to and correction of your information

You can request access to personal information we hold about you at any time by using the contact details below for our Privacy Officer.

We will process your request within a reasonable time. There is no fee for requesting access to your personal information; however, we may charge you the reasonable cost of processing your request. If a fee applies, we will advise you before we provide access. Sometimes we are not required to provide you with access – for example, if the law says we can deny access.

You may ask us at any time to correct personal information held by us about you, which you believe is incorrect or out of date. We will deal with your request within a reasonable time. If you have an account with us, you can ensure your personal information linked to your account is accurate and up to date from within your account.

If you would like to make an update or correction to any personal information we hold about you, please let us know by sending an email to the Privacy Officer below.

You may choose to interact with us anonymously or through the use of pseudonyms where lawful and reasonable, for example if you have questions general in nature. However, you are required to provide true and accurate details when requesting our Services and you agree to provide accurate information if so required.

14. Contact Details and Complaints

If you have a query or complaint about privacy related issues in connection with our Services, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Animal Welfare League of Queensland Inc.
PO Box 3253
Helensvale Town Centre
QLD 4212

By email: [email protected]
By phone: 07 5509 9059

We will promptly acknowledge receipt of your enquiry or complaint, investigate and respond to you within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied with our response to any complaint, you may also contact the relevant regulator. As at the date of this Privacy Policy, the contact details are as follows:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

GPO Box 5218

Sydney NSW 2001

Phone: 1300 363 992

Email: [email protected]

Online: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint

If you would like more information about the Privacy Act or Australian privacy requirements in general, please visit the Office of the Information Commissioner’s website at www.oaic.gov.au.

While your privacy is important to us, nothing in this Privacy Policy constitutes a voluntary opt in by us to any privacy laws, anywhere in the world, which we are not legally bound to comply with.

This policy was last updated on 20 May 2026