Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

MSF Sugar Pty Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) is an integrated grower, processor, marketer and exporter of raw sugar. Our current assets include four sugar mills, supporting infrastructure (including cane railway networks), agricultural property and water rights to support our cane growing activities. The mills are located at Gordonvale, South Johnstone, Atherton Tablelands and Maryborough.

We respect your privacy and believe that the responsible use of personal information collected by us is critical to our business objectives and our reputation.

We are committed to complying with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) when collecting, using, disclosing, securing and providing access to personal information. The APPs are contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) and govern how organisations such as ours handle personal information.

As part of our commitment to privacy, we have adopted this Privacy Policy. The contents of this Privacy Policy are subject to change and are not intended to create a contract between us and any individual or entity that provides us with personal information.

We are particularly sensitive to privacy issues arising from the use of the Internet and therefore we provide this Privacy Policy online. In doing this we want to ensure you are aware of our online information practices, its limitations and understand how we treat personal information we receive from you, including via the Internet.

This Privacy Policy is divided into the following sections:

  1. What is personal information?
  2. How does MSF Sugar collect personal information?
  3. What personal information does MSF Sugar collect?
  4. Why does MSF Sugar collect personal information?
  5. How is personal information used?
  6. Will personal information be given to anyone else?
  7. Access and correction
  8. Is personal information stored safely?
  9. Other online privacy issues
  10. Complaints
  11. Contacting MSF Sugar
  12. Changes to this privacy policy

What is personal information?

For the purpose of the APPs:

  • Personal information is any information, including any opinion, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
    1. Whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
    2. Whether the information or opinion is recorded in material form or not.
  • Sensitive information is personal information, which is given a greater level of protection under the APPs, such as information about your health, criminal records, your religious beliefs or affiliations or political opinions. We only collect such information where we are permitted to do so under the APPs and if such information is necessary to provide our services to you or where we are required to collect this information by law.

How does MSF Sugar collect personal information?

We collect personal information in a number of different ways including directly from you through online dealings, through correspondence including application forms, grower agreements and specific information request forms and from third parties such as your agents or representatives. Personal information may initially be collected verbally over the phone or in person, by use of paper forms or online. In general, you can browse our websites without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself.

“Cookies” (small text files placed on your computer when you first visit our website) are used on some parts of our website. Most browsers now recognise when a cookie is offered and permit you to refuse or accept it. If you are not sure whether your browser has this capability, you should check with the software manufacturer, your company’s technology help desk or your internet service provider.

Cookies are primarily used to enhance your online experience and are not used to track the navigational habits of identified visitors, unless we obtain your permission to do so. If you visit our website to read or download information much of the information we do collect is statistical only (for example the domain from which you access the internet, the date and time you access our site, and the internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site) and is not personally identifiable. We use this information about the number of visitors and their use of the sites in aggregate form to make our websites more useful and attractive to visitors and to help diagnose problems with our server to administer our website.

What personal information does MSF Sugar collect?

When you contact us, we may ask you to provide your contact details including your name, address, phone number and email address to enable us to provide the services or product you require, if any. We may also ask you to provide government identifiers such as your ABN or tax file number or other information reasonably required to enable us to effectively provide our services or products to you.

If you choose to share any information with us, the level and type of personal information we seek will vary dependent on the business activity involved.

We do not collect information we do not need. For example, we do not collect sensitive information because we do not need it in order to provide you with our services.

Where it is lawful and reasonable to do so, you can remain anonymous or use a pseudonym if you wish, however it may reduce the type and quality of services we will be able to provide.

Why does MSF Sugar collect personal information?

The reason we collect personal information is so that we can provide you with our services, manage our relationship with you, communicate with you effectively and identify which of our services may meet your requirements, if any.

We may also collect personal information for marketing purposes, statistical analysis, dealing with enquiries or complaints, maintaining records and accounts payments.

We may also collect personal information for purposes of developing a mailing list. If we do so, when we use that personal information, we will offer people on the list an opportunity to be removed from our mailing list, or to ‘opt out’ from receiving further contact be it by mail or electronically.

How is personal information used?

The personal information collected from you by MSF Sugar is generally used to:

  • provide you with our services (including use of personal information for establishing and maintaining your grower record (if relevant), or to contact you regarding an information session);
  • make contact or payment for supplies or services you may provide;
  • help us develop, improve, manage and administer all of the services we provide to you;
  • ensure that our business systems are functional and reliable;
  • conduct marketing activities including market research;
  • notify you of services, special offers, opportunities, products or benefits which we offer or any of our strategic partners offer;
  • investigate, respond to or defend claims made against, or involving, us;
  • meet our legal obligations.

If at any time you do not wish to be notified about our products or services please let us know. MSF Sugar’s contact details are below.

Will personal information be given to anyone else?

We do not share personal information with third parties except as necessary to provide our products or services or as required by law or other legal processes or with your consent, and we never sell your personal information.

In the circumstances described below, personal information may be disclosed outside of MSF Sugar.

(a) Outsourcing

Personal information collected by MSF Sugar may be disclosed to MSF Sugar affiliates, contractors or other business partners to support our customer relationship with you.

If we disclose personal information to third party contractors under outsourcing or contracting arrangements, we take steps to ensure that those contractors:

  • comply with the APPs when they handle your personal information; and
  • are authorised only to use personal information in order to provide the services or to perform the functions required by MSF Sugar.

(b) Disclosures required by law

Personal information collected by MSF Sugar may be disclosed if it is required to do so by law, or if the disclosure is permitted under the Privacy Act.

MSF Sugar does not give, sell, rent or trade personal information to or with third parties for use in marketing or solicitation.

(c) Overseas transfer

We use internet service providers that have servers located in Australia. However we may in the future use internet service providers that may have servers located overseas, including cloud service providers. This means that your personal information supplied to us online, for example through our website or our social media sites, may sometimes be transferred overseas. If you elect to provide personal information to us through any of our online services you are deemed to consent to the possible overseas transfer of such information.

Apart from the above we will only transfer your personal information overseas if:

  • we are required to do so by law;
  • we reasonably believe that the recipient will be required to uphold privacy principles which are similar to the APPs;
  • you have consented to the transfer;
  • it is not practical to obtain your consent or the transfer is for your benefit and your consent is likely to be given;
  • the transfer of the information is necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us; or
  • we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information will not be held, used or disclosed by the overseas recipient which does not comply with the Privacy Act and/or the APPs.

Access and correction

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

Under the Privacy Act, you have a right to seek access to information which we hold about you (although there are some exceptions to this). You also have the right to ask us to correct information about you which is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

If you wish to exercise your right to seek access to the personal information that MSF Sugar holds about you, we ask that you contact MSF Sugar’s Privacy Officer (details below), who will explain how MSF Sugar will handle your access request.

We will assume (unless you tell us otherwise) that your request relates to our current records about you. These current records will include personal information about you which is included in our databases and in paper files, and which may be used by MSF Sugar on a day to day basis. To provide you with access to ‘current’ personal information, MSF Sugar would ordinarily provide you with a print-out of the relevant personal information from our databases, or with photocopies of records which are held only on paper files. If personal information about you (for example, your name & address details) is duplicated across different databases, we will generally provide you with one printout of this information, rather than multiple printouts. Ordinarily, MSF Sugar will not charge you for the cost of providing this type of access to these records.

For legal and administrative reasons, we may also store records containing personal information in our archives. In some circumstances, it may not be possible to access or delete all such records due to back up processes we adopt. However you may still seek access to the records held by MSF Sugar which are not current records, but if you do so, we may charge you for the cost of providing this access.

If you are of the view that personal information about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, please update your record accordingly. If you are unable to gain direct access to make an amendment please provide MSF Sugar’s Privacy Officer with your request for correction (contact details below).

MSF Sugar’s policy is to consider any requests for correction in a timely way.

Is personal information stored safely?

MSF Sugar takes reasonable physical, electronic and administrative steps to ensure the security of personal information held by it from such risks as loss or unauthorised access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure.

Our personnel who have access to personal information have been trained to maintain the security of such information.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that:

  • (a) there are security and privacy limitations of the Internet which are beyond our control;
  • (b) the security, integrity and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through our website cannot be guaranteed; and
  • (c) such information and data may be viewed or tampered with in transit by a third party.

Other online privacy issues

We will apply this policy to all personal information we handle whether collected online or otherwise. To the extent that this Privacy Policy applies to online privacy issues it is to be read as forming part of the terms of use for our website. Sometimes our website contains links to third party websites for your convenience and information. When you access a third party website, please understand that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of that site. We suggest that you review the privacy policies of each site you visit.

Complaints

We recognise our responsibility for protecting the privacy of your personal information. If you have complaints about our administration of your personal information, please contact us at the contact details below.  You may also use these contact details to communicate any concerns you may have regarding compliance with our Privacy Policy.

If you are not satisfied with how we handled your complaint, you can lodge a complaint with us or with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at:

Telephone       1300 363 992 (or +61 2 9284 9749 if calling from outside Australia).

TTY                 133 677 (then ask for 1300 363 992)

Post                 GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001

Facsimile          +61 2 9284 9666

Email                enquiries@oaic.gov.au

Website           www.oaic.gov.au

Contacting MSF Sugar

If you have any other questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to complain about how we have handled personal information about you, please contact MSF Sugar’s Privacy Officer, the Company Secretary:

by telephone:   61 7 4043 3333 or

by facsimile:     61 7 4043 3300; or

by e-mail:         msf@msfsugar.com.au; or

by letter:          MSF Sugar PO Box 130 Gordonvale Qld 4865

Please include your name, address and/or email address when you contact us so that we can respond to you.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time as required by us in our absolute discretion. If we do change this Privacy Policy, the changed version will be published on our websites and will be available by contacting us (details above).