Your Privacy
The Financial Services Council Limited (the FSC) is committed to protecting the privacy and ensuring the security of personal information maintained by the FSC about its member organisations and their employees, contractors, agents or third parties acting on the member's behalf and any other individual from whom the FSC collects personal information.
What this Policy does
This Privacy Policy describes how the FSC collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) found in the Act.
This Privacy Policy also explains how we process ‘personal data’ about people in the European Union (EU), as required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This Privacy Policy is also notification to individuals of the matters required to be notified by the APP and the GDPR.
We will review this policy regularly, and we may update it from time to time to ensure we are complying with any legislative changes.
The personal information we collect
The type of information we collect depends on which of the FSC’s products or services you use and the use you make of our website ( https://www.fsc.org.au/ ). Thus, we may collect and hold the names, a position held, employer name, business addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses and areas of policy interest about the employees and agents of FSC member organisations, conference attendees, conference and FSC function participants, speakers, our suppliers and non-member individuals.
On occasion, we may also collect and record home contact details and e-mail addresses where these have been provided as the preferred means of contact.
We also collect personal information about individuals that apply for employment at the FSC, including executive and non-executive positions. The additional information that we may collect about these individuals includes their date of birth, employment history, references, bankruptcy information and criminal records.
We collect personal information from various sources including paper and online registration forms, business cards, external marketing lists, government official lists and through our website.
We will only collect and hold personal information that is required by us to deliver our services and products to you and we will do this in a fair and lawful manner.
Privacy collection statement
To read the FSC's Privacy Collection statement please click pdf here .
Use of information
We will not use your personal information for any purpose that you would not reasonably expect us to use it for. If we do need to use your personal information for a purpose other than one that we believe you would reasonably expect we will seek your specific consent.
We do collect, hold (unless indicated otherwise) and use the personal information however to:
- process your application(s) and payment(s) (but do not hold credit card details);
- communicate with you in regard to the FSC's services, advocacy and other activities;
- disseminate information that may be of assistance or interest to you in your business;
- alert you to other activities or services that the FSC may assist you with in relation to our advocacy, services and other related matters, including engagement with and within the financial services industry;
- market our products and services and third party products or services that we consider may be relevant or of interest to you;
- process and assess any employment applications made to the FSC;
- provide your organisation with the opportunity to participate in general industry promotions such as sponsorship, advertising, industry profiles and exhibitions; and
- assist in the development of products, surveys or services.
We will not generally disclose personal information to third parties, other than for a purpose directly related to our activities as an advocacy body and provision or improvement of our services.
You will appreciate that in order to deliver our services to you, we occasionally need to disclose personal information to our agents, contractors or third party service providers, such as providers of event management, administrative, telecommunications, information technology/computer or other services. These service providers also are subject to the APP and/or the GDPR and otherwise generally are contractually obliged under contract to FINSIA to keep personal information confidential and secure.
Personal information is occasionally disclosed to contracted partners, on a strictly confidential basis, for the purpose of conducting professional development events. However, the FSC does not provide or sell any personal information to external organisations for commercial purposes.
Your personal information may be disclosed to other parties where you have agreed or it is required or authorised under an Australian law or by court/ tribunal orders.
The FSC is committed to complying with all laws (including privacy and data laws) which are applicable to our activities.
Please note that at some of our events, we may take photographs of our participants at our events, including functions. We may publish these images to advertise future events or functions.. Please inform the photographer at the event if you do not allow us to publish your image.
You can ask to be removed from the FSC’s mailing list or database at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Employees and agents of member organisations are also able to update their own personal details and change their FSC member login details including usernames and passwords. Those unsure of what their current member login details are should contact the FSC.
Disclosure of information
As noted above, we will not disclose your personal information to any other person or organisation other than for the purposes of undertaking the FSC’s business. In undertaking the FSC’s business, we may share your personal information with other organisations or member organisations of the FSC, including their employees or contractors, and with our external service providers such as mailing houses who distribute information to you on our behalf or market researchers who have been commissioned by the FSC to carry out surveys and research. From time to time, we work with corporate partners and other third-party providers to promote and/or market services that we consider will be of benefit to you. We may also disclose personal information to these partners.
If you become a member of an FSC committee, working group or expert group, we may share your personal information with other individual members of that group for the purposes of facilitating efficient communication within that committee or group. Personal information about the individual members of committees and working groups may be shown in the members’ section of FSC’s website. Only employees and agents of full and supporting member companies have access to the members’ section of FSC’s website.
It is possible that your personal information will be disclosed to employees and agents of full and supporting member companies that may be located overseas from time to time. While it is impracticable to specify the countries in which those employees and agents are located, you can contact us if you wish to find out more about the disclosure of your personal information in such circumstances. We do not otherwise disclose your personal information to overseas recipients.
We may disclose the personal information we collect about individuals that apply for employment at the FSC to ASIC or other government bodies.
We may also from time to time, disseminate statistical information about our members to third parties, but this cannot be traced back to individuals. Except where we are legally required to do so, or for the reasons set out above, we will not disclose personal information concerning you to parties outside the FSC, other than for a purpose that has been made known to you and to which you have given your consent. Your name and other details that are held by the FSC may be passed on to protective services or law enforcement agencies for security purposes at FSC events.
Credit Cards
When you purchase goods or services from the FSC, any credit card information you give us to purchase the goods or services is used to process the payment only and is not retained. The original request/application/enrolment form is stored securely in the FSC’s office for audit/taxation requirements and to assist members and individuals who request duplicate information for their own records. Our database only records that you attended an activity or purchased a service and how much you paid for it. We do not store your credit card details on our database.
Storage and Security of Personal Information
The FSC maintains strict standards and security procedures to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information whether it is in an electronic or paper format and to ensure the correct use of this information. Your personal information is stored in a central database that is password protected with access available only to authorised persons (such as employees of FSC or our external database administrator) or otherwise your personal information is securely held within FSC’s office and only available to authorised persons.
Access
Once we have collected your personal information, you are entitled to request the details of the information we are holding about you. In order to request such information, you need to contact us by letter, email or telephone and outline the nature of your enquiry. Unless prohibited by law, a response will be made to you in writing either by mail or email as soon as possible. For privacy and security reasons, it will not be possible to provide you with your personal information over the telephone. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing you with access to that personal information.
Corrections
We will endeavour to keep and maintain the data held by us as accurate, complete, relevant and up to date as possible. You can assist the FSC in our efforts to strive for accuracy by letting us know as soon as possible if your contact details change.
You have a right to request correction of your personal information. If you establish that personal information held by us is not accurate, complete, relevant, and up-to-date or is misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete, relevant, up-to-date and not misleading.
COMPLAINT RESOLUTION MECHANISM
APP
If you have a question, concern or complaint regarding the way in which we handle your personal information you should contact our Privacy Officer at the Financial Services Council Limited, Level 5, 16 Spring Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 or on 02 9299 3022.
The FSC takes a best practice approach to address privacy complaints. We will issue you with a timely response to any complaint that, if appropriate, will outline the measures that the FSC will take to resolve the complaint. However, in the first instance, we will endeavour to resolve complaints quickly and informally and acknowledge receipt of any complaint within 10 working days.
If you feel that we have not satisfactorily addressed your complaint, you may also make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by visiting www.oaic.gov.au or by writing to GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 or GPO Box 2999 Canberra ACT 2601.
GDPR
Please note that for the purposes of the GDPR, our Privacy Officer is also our Data Protection Officer (DPO).
If you are located in the EU, you have the right to complain to the local data protection authority (DPA) within the EU. You can find the details of your local DPA by accessing the following link.
FINANCIAL SERVICES COUNCIL WEBSITE
What we collect
When you browse the FSC’s Website, our Internet service provider and Google Analytics log the following information for statistical purposes:
- your server (IP) address;
- top level domain name (eg .com, .gov, .au, etc.);
- the date and time of your website visit;
- country your server (IP) is located in;
- the pages you looked at;
- the type of browser you used;
- the previous site you visited; and
- the site you visited next.
We will not use information obtained from your browsing activities to send you any unsolicited information. This information is collected in order to determine the relevancy of material posted on the FSC’s website and to enhance this service to visitors.
We will only record your e-mail address if you send us a message (including an email). We will not add it to a mailing list if you ask us not to. Simply send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and ask for your details to be removed from the mailing list.
Cookies
We use "cookies" to enhance functionality and to keep track of visits to our website. A cookie is a small data file that contains information about your visit to a website. Your computer provides this information during your first visit to a web server. The server records this information in a text file and stores this file on your hard drive. When you visit the same website again, the server looks for the cookie and structures itself based on the information provided. A cookie only identifies your computer to a web server when you visit the site.
If you visit our website to browse or download information, our web server will record the date and time of your visit to our site, the pages viewed and the information downloaded. We generally use this information for statistical purposes.
Most web browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to warn you before accepting cookies. If you have set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser.
If your browser is configured to reject all cookies, you will be unable to use services on the website that require cookies in order to participate. You may still be able to use some information-only pages if you do not accept cookies.
Linked Sites
The FSC Website contains links to other sites. The FSC is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other sites. We encourage the reading of the privacy statements in these linked sites, as their privacy policies may differ from ours.
Changes to this policy
From time to time it may be necessary for us to review and amend this policy. We reserve the right to amend this policy at any time. You should check out our website (www.fsc.org.au) from time to time for our latest privacy policy. A copy of this Privacy Policy may be obtained free of charge from our Privacy Officer.
Contacting Us
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this statement or if you have any concerns about what information we have about you or how we store it please contact:
Privacy Officer
Financial Services Council Limited
Level 5, 16 Spring Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This page was updated on 3 April 2023