Privacy Statement
The eCentreClinic is a not-for-profit research initiative of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
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The eCentreClinic conducts academic research with the broad aim of improving access to effective psychological care. A primary part of the eCentreClinic's research involves the development and evaluation of digital treatment courses, which are accessible by participating in research trials and studies offered by the eCentreClinic.
The eCentreClinic respects the privacy of individuals. The eCentreClinic is committed to complying with all applicable privacy laws including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and other laws which protect the privacy of personal information (including health information) in New South Wales.
This privacy statement sets out in more detail how eCentreClinic manages your personal information.
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By using the eCentreClinic, you agree to this Privacy Statement and the Terms of Use.
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The information we collect, and how we collect it.
During the course of your interactions with the eCentreClinic, we will collect personal information about you, including your name, date of birth, contact details, emergency contacts, details of any health practitioner that refers you to us, your medical history, family medical history, treatment and advice you have been given, and other information relevant to your participation in one of our research studies or related treatment courses.
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The information we collect about you is usually reviewed and approved by an Australian Human Ethics Research Committee, or is collected in order for us to provide support you with your health, or your engagement with us.
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Information we collect about you is generally considered sensitive information (specifically health information) within the meaning of privacy laws.
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The eCentreClinic will generally collect your personal information directly from you when you interact with us by telephone, email, secure messaging, or via our website. In some instances, it may be necessary to collect information about you from another person, such as a health practitioner that refers you to us.
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Your information may be stored in an electronic record and/or paper based records. Each time you interact with eCentreClinic new information may be added to your record.
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Giving us personal information is voluntary but if information is not provided, the eCentreClinic may be limited in the assistance we can give. By giving us current, accurate and complete information, we are best placed to assist you.
The use, and disclosure of, your information.
We generally collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of academic research, and to assist us to provide to you any services as a part of participating in one of our treatment courses and research studies.
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If you participate in one of our clinician-guided treatment courses, any clinician who is under supervision discusses their cases with their supervisor. By accessing the eCentreClinic you consent to any discussion about your case that needs to occur between the clinician and their supervisor.
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We may disclose your personal information if we believe disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety. We may pass on any information relating to suspected fraudulent or unlawful activity to appropriate authorities.
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We may also use or disclose your personal information for other purposes required for the administration, management and operation of the eCentreClinic, including:
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managing, monitoring, planning and evaluating our research and related services;
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accreditation, safety and quality assurance and improvement activities;
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testing and maintenance of information technology systems;
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risk management activities (including liaising with our insurers and legal representatives);
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responding to complaints or inquiries about our activities and services;
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obtaining advice from consultants and professional advisers;
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responding to subpoenas, other legal orders and reporting obligations (including reporting to Child Protection Authorities or Police in situations where someone is judged to be at risk of self-harm, or of harming others. eCentreClinic Clinicians are also obliged to report to Police information obtained about the commission or suspected commission of a criminal act).
In certain circumstances, your personal information may be used or disclosed for research, or for the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or safety. Use of information in this way is strictly limited under privacy laws and generally requires approval of an ethics committee.
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Where information is disclosed or published for research or scholarly purposes, all reasonable efforts will be made to de-identify the information. If used for research and publication purposes, your information will be analysed in a non-identifiable form and dissemination of the results will not contain material capable of identifying you.
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Protection of your information
Your personal information is held in the eCentreClinic’s password-protected computer systems and in access controlled premises. We maintain strict policies regarding who has the authority to access your personal information. All our staff are bound by a formal code of conduct. We educate and supervise staff about the requirements to handle information in accordance with this Privacy Statement and privacy laws, and with respect and care.
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The eCentreClinic uses and implements professional and industry standards for the security and protection of information collected. For example, information submitted to the eCentreClinic website is secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software and protected by encryption and firewall technology. We take all reasonable steps to hold information securely in electronic or physical form. We also store information in access controlled premises and in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords.
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You should sign out or close your browser once you have finished using the eCentreClinic website. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence.
Does the eCentreClinic use cookies
Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files which are placed on your hard drive to store information about your browsing and to communicate to the secure eCentreClinic servers to authenticate access to the eCentreClinic website. The cookies do not collect any personal information about you. Non-identifiable information on persons visiting the eCentreClinic website is collected via the use of cookies and pixels and may be used to authenticate access to the eCentreClinic website and for re-marketing purposes.
Security
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The eCentreClinic does its best to protect the eCentreClinic website from security breaches by employing high IT security standards.
However, the use of the eCentreClinic website is subject to security risks inherent in any online service. Whilst the eCentreClinic attempts to ensure that your information is protected and secure, it is impossible to protect against all potential breaches of security.
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We recommend that you make sure that the computer terminal from which you send email and messages from is secure and has up to date antivirus and malware protection. You must also ensure that you maintain the confidentiality of the password that will be provided to you and do not share this with others or leave it in a place that may be accessed by others. It is your responsibility to delete or keep safe messages, emails and any transcripts of online conversations that you download or print out. You need to be aware that even deleted files can still be accessed.
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