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National Tax and Accountants’ Association Group

Privacy Policy (Collecting Personal Information)

1. Introduction

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, the National Tax and Accountants’ Association group of related bodies corporate (as that term is defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) is comprised of the following companies:

  • National Tax and Accountants’ Association Ltd (ABN 76 057 551 854);
  • NTAA PLUS Ltd (ABN 11 111 718 686);
  • C.A. Network Pty Ltd (ABN 68 070 981 181);
  • Advice Assist Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 50 616 870 092);
  • NTAA Insurance Solutions Pty Ltd (ABN 35 158 819 080);
  • NTAA Corporate Pty Ltd (ABN 33 142 462 271);
  • NTAAi Pty Ltd (ACN 692 057 104), and

(together and separately (as applicable), NTAA, we, us, our).

NTAA understands that you value your privacy and wish to have your personal information kept secure. For these reasons, we place a high priority on the security of the personal information we hold. We have developed this policy to inform you of how we manage your personal information and maintain its integrity and security.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and must comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). You can find more information about the Privacy Act and the APPs at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) website at: www.oaic.gov.au.

While we believe in keeping your personal information secure, we also believe that you have the right to be informed about how we deal with that personal information so, if on reading this policy you are unclear on any of the matters or simply want more personal information, please contact us by using the contact details provided below.

By providing personal information to us or by using one of our services, you are taken to have read, and consent to the collection, use disclosure and handling of your personal (including sensitive) information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. Collecting Personal Information

In this Privacy Policy, personal information has the meaning given to that term in the Privacy Act being information or an opinion (whether true or not) about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.

We aim to collect personal information only if it is reasonably necessary to providing the service, product or information you have requested from us. We collect personal information not only about principals, practitioners or other employees of NTAA members but from non-members who:

  • make enquiries with us by phone, email or on our website; or
  • attend seminars or purchase products from us; or 
  • engage with or obtain advice from our Authorised Representatives (as defined in section 761A of the Corporations Act 2001) (Authorised Representatives).

In general you can assume that we may collect and hold the following personal information about you:

  • name;
  • business/employer name;
  • address;
  • email address;
  • telephone and fax number;
  • credit card details;
  • financial information;
  • your NTAA membership number;
  • attendances at seminars and/or products purchased;
  • the number of times you have used the NTAA Hotline during any given year; and
  • with respect to Advice Assist Australia (AAA), audits and Rental Property Depreciation Reports (‘RPDR’), details about clients’ superannuation fund or rental properties.

When you make a call to the NTAA Hotline we will record your member number, the name of the member and the name of the person making the call, the date and time of the call and the question and answer.

2.1 Type of personal information

In general we may collect and hold the following personal information about you being your:

  • name;
  • business/employer name;
  • address;
  • email address;
  • telephone and fax number;
  • credit card details (processed via secure payment providers);
  • financial information;
  • your TFN;
  • your NTAA membership number;
  • your AFSL number;
  • attendances at seminars and/or products you purchased;
  • the number of times you have used the NTAA Hotline during any given year; and
  • any documents you provide the NTAA for any reason.

Also, when you make a call to the NTAA Hotline we will record your member number, the name of the member, the name of the person making the call, the date and time of the call, the question and answer, and any other information required to answer your question. 

Calls to the NTAA Hotline and selected service lines may be recorded using OpenIQ (or successor systems) for quality assurance, training, compliance and dispute resolution. Wherever reasonably practicable, we will notify you at the start of a call that recording is occurring. Recorded calls and transcripts are stored securely and may be linked to your membership file.

We may also collect sensitive information, with your consent including but not limited to police checks or credit reports if it is relevant to the products and services we are providing to you. We collect this sensitive information to manage our business and provide you accurate products and services, such as answers via the NTAA Hotline. 

If you are a prospective employee, we may collect details about your employment history and other details about you to assist with the recruitment process. We may collect this information from you directly, or from a recruiter. 

3. How we collect Personal Information

In the course of providing you with products and services, we collect personal information in a variety of ways. Unless it is unreasonable and impracticable to do so, we collect your personal information from you directly, including by using cookies on our website. In some cases we collect personal information about you from third parties such as:

  • If your employer/firm is a member of NTAA, the majority of your personal information that is collected by us is collected through your employer/firm; 
  • list marketing & data marketing brokers providing us with mailing lists;
  • from your accountant; or 
  • from other third parties.

At the time of collection, or as soon as practicable after we have collected it, we will take reasonable steps to notify or make you aware  that we have collected your personal information, unless it is obvious from the circumstances that you would know or would expect us to have the information. 

Naturally we collect and hold a broad range of personal information gathered during the course of providing our products or services. However as stated above, we strive to ensure that we collect and hold only that personal information which is relevant and necessary to your specific matters.

In addition to information collected directly from you or third parties, we may generate new personal information about you through the use of AI tools. This may include AI-generated summaries of interactions, notes from meetings or calIs, or research outputs that reference your circumstances. Where such AI-generated information is identifiable to you, it is personal information and will be managed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4. How We Use Cookies

We may use cookies on some areas of our website. A cookie is a small file saved on your computer’s hard drive. When you return to our website, the data saved in the cookie is sent back to the website. We use cookies to make your visit to our website easier by assisting you in navigating the website when you return and maintaining a ‘member logged in’ state.

The cookies we use in no way give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the information you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you decline or modify the cookies this may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

5. Purposes of Collection

We collect and hold your personal information primarily to record and manage:

  • your firm’s or employer’s NTAA membership and the products and services that are available to you as part of that membership;
  • your attendance at seminars; and
  • your purchase of products or services from us, or if it is reasonable to expect that we would use or disclose your personal information for purposes which are related to the primary purpose.

If it is reasonable to expect that we would use or disclose your personal information for purposes which are related to the above primary purposes, we may also use your personal information: 

  • to send newsletters to you (such as Voice);
  • to notify you of important taxation or other developments, or request feedback about taxation or other developments;
  • to invite you to seminars or events hosted by NTAA;
  • to inform you of products that can be purchased from NTAA; and
  • to inform you of developments at NTAA and other services that we can provide.

NTAA may also collect and use your personal information to assess your (or your employer or firm’s) eligibility as a NTAA member. In some cases, we are required to collect your personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements.

Where possible, we will provide you with a choice to opt-out of any of the above and any of our marketing communications. We will respect your request to decline to receive these marketing communications. Generally, we will not direct market to anyone unless they are given an opportunity to opt out of receiving future direct marketing communications. However, if we contact you for the purpose of direct marketing without having obtained your consent first because it is impracticable for us to do so, we will at that time provide you with the opportunity to decline receiving any further marketing communications from us. 

6. Use of AI

NTAA may use AI as part of its business practice, and in limited situations as part of its decision making, when providing you services and products, for example AI may assist NTAA Hotline employees in researching technical tax questions or drafting advice or communications. In the limited situations NTAA may use AI to inform decision making, we will use human oversight and the use of your personal information may affect your rights and use of NTAA’s products and services.

The types of decision making NTAA uses AI for include:

  • formulating responses to member technical queries;
  • drafting advice and member communications;
  • preparing research summaries; and
  • transcribing and summarising meetings and calls.

If our use of AI in decision-making changes materially, we will update this policy accordingly.

When using AI, NTAA will take reasonable steps to:

  • notify you when NTAA is using AI tools (such as AI-powered research and drafting assistants, meeting transcription and note-taking tools, voice-to-text tools and call recording and transcription systems);
  • minimise the amount of personal information provided to AI;
  • where practical, de-identify personal information;
  • ensure there is human oversight and NTAA employees take responsibility for final decisions and outputs;
  • ensure AI does not make decisions autonomously;
  • ensure your personal information is not used to train AI models;
  • conduct due diligence on AI tool providers before adoption, including assessment of their data handling practices, security controls, and contractual protections; and
  • maintain an internal register of approved AI tools and periodically review their compliance with NTAA.

If you have any questions about NTAA’s use of AI, please contact us at the details below. 

7. Sharing Personal Information

As well as your firm or employer, who may be a principal member of NTAA, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes of assisting us with providing the best possible service to you and your employer. The third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information include:

  • Sequoia Financial Group Ltd ACN 091 744 884 and its related bodies corporate (Sequoia). Sequoia’s handling of your personal information is dealt with in accordance with its own Privacy Policy which can be found on its website (https://www.sequoia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sequoia-Privacy-Statement.pdf); 
  • government departments and regulatory authorities such as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB);
  • IT technicians who may need access when providing on-site support (although it is our practice for them to work under the supervision of one of our own IT technicians);
  • file storage service providers;
  • AI service providers who provide us services for NTAA services and internal operations (for further details see "Use of AI " above);
  • external providers of services that we may use to operate our business and manage our business systems (database, CRM and mail and email service providers, marketing and e-commerce service providers, couriers, providers of accounting and payment processing services);
  • third parties that may provide or assist us with events or services at NTAA; and
  • our professional advisors and agents.

The privacy and collection practices of third party entities to whom we disclose personal information are governed by their own privacy policies and collection notices. Each body corporate in the NTAA group may also disclose your personal information to one another (listed  in the “Introduction” above).

We may disclose your personal information to recipients located outside of Australia, being the United States and/or Philippines because that is where our AI service providers process our AI services from. We take reasonable steps to ensure that such handling is consistent with the APPs. We are otherwise not likely to disclose your personal information overseas. We will not otherwise disclose information about you unless the disclosure: 

  • is required by law;
  • is authorised by law; or
  • you have consented to our disclosing the information about you.

8. Personal Information Quality and Accessing and Updating Information

We aim to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date.  To assist us in this, you need to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as requested and properly update the information to us to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.

If you believe that the information we hold about you (including personal information generated by AI) is inaccurate or incomplete, please contact us and we will use all reasonable efforts to correct the information.

In the event that we do not believe the information to be incorrect, we will take reasonable steps to add a statement to the information claiming that you believe the information is not accurate, complete or up-to-date.

You have rights to access your personal information held by us subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act. If you would like more information about this, please contact us at the details below.

9. Securing Your Personal Information

We are committed to keeping your information secure and will take reasonable steps (including implementing technical and organisational measures) to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We will retain your information as required by law, and then we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed.

10. Change in control of NTAA

If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of NTAA or our assets to another organisation (including in the course of a transaction like a sale, merger or acquisition or as part of a dissolution, liquidation, administration, receivership or other form of insolvency), you agree that your personal information that is collected or generated by NTAA may be disclosed to a third party, prospective buyer, transferee or insolvency practitioner and that this is reasonable to enable that party to continue or manage the business.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is not a static document.  We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time for any reason.  We will publish any updated Privacy Policy on our website.

12. Complaints

If you have a complaint about our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information, or you wish to make a complaint about a breach of the APPs, please contact our Privacy Officer at the details set out below.

Please set out details of your complaint and your contact details. Our Privacy Officer will contact you to acknowledge your request and ask for any other applicable information. Our Privacy Officer will then investigate the issue and advise you in writing of the outcome.

You can also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Further information is available at www.oaic.gov.au.

13. Contacting Us

If you would like further information regarding this Privacy Policy, if you would like to make a complaint or request access to or correction of your personal information, have concerns about the personal information that we currently hold about you, or any aspect of this Privacy Policy, please contact the Privacy Officer at:

Telephone      (+61) 03 9209 9999

Email               ntaainfo@ntaa.com.au

Post                 NTAA
                         249-251 Park St
                         SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205