Our Commitment to Privacy

THE DENTAL SPA supports a robust privacy culture. We collect and manage personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and other requirements of the Privacy Act 1988. **

This Privacy Policy forms part of our broader Terms & Conditions. It explains how we collect, use, disclose, secure and otherwise deal with the personal information of our members and other individuals who access THE DENTAL SPA – whether in person, at THE DENTAL SPA events, via this website or other channels we promote (such as social media pages and feeds).

Why we collect personal information, how we do it and what it includes:

For the benefit of my Dental Treatment
Publications and subscriptions
Handling complaints about practitioners and employees

We collect your personal information in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of a particular service and/ or how you’ve chosen to engage with us, including:

Face to face contact
Telephone calls
Voice or image recordings
Social media messages, posts or feeds
Via THE DENTAL SPA website
Electronic surveys
Email correspondence
Fax correspondence
Postal correspondence
Hard-copy forms
Via data transfer from our State/Territory branches

The personal information we collect relates directly to the nature of your engagement with us and may include:

Contact details (who you are and how we can reach you)
Relevant demographic details (such as your age and gender)
Professional details
Activities or areas of involvement with THE DENTAL SPA
Financial or payment related information

Some of the personal information we collect is considered sensitive information under Australian privacy law, including:

Idiosyncratic information relevant to our activities (where, for example, it identifies your racial or ethnic origin or philosophical beliefs)

In most cases, we collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes we may ask a contracted third party to collect it from you on our behalf (such as when you complete a survey).

There may also be specific lawful, operational or technical requirements to collect your personal information from someone other than you (such as when we verify your educational qualifications during a scholarship application process).

How we use your personal information, and to whom we give it

General
At the time of collecting your personal information, we endeavour to always explain what we need it for, how it will be used and to whom we may give it (via a Collection Statement on our hard-copy or web based forms, recorded message, verbally or by other means). Once your personal information has been collected, we do not otherwise use or disclose it except where we are required or authorised by law to do so.

Our ability to provide a service may involve sending personal information to a contracted third party. For instance, if you sign up to receive THE DENTAL SPA publications, we will need to supply your mailing and other relevant contact details to the organisation that packages and delivers the publications to you.

From time to time, there may be a new purpose for which we would like to use or disclose the personal information we already have about you (for example, a research project, funding application, public awareness campaign or article featuring you). If this happens, we will ask your permission first.

Social Media
THE DENTAL SPA supports using your preferred form of communication. If you choose to engage with THE DENTAL SPA using our social media pages or feeds, please be aware that any personal information you supply in that arena may be:
• Available for the user group to see (which may be a public or private group, depending on the social media platform being used)
• Able to be “screen shot” and potentially downloaded by anyone in the user group and is, thus, uncontrolled
• Subject to the privacy settings and privacy policy available on the relevant platform

Third Parties
THE DENTAL SPA has contractual relationships with third parties who have visible privacy practices that align with our obligations under Australian privacy law. These include:

Secure payment services
Our secure payment provider, PayPal, is accessed via a gateway from THE DENTAL SPA website. We use PayPal’s Payflow service. Our service agreement articulates that privacy considerations are dealt with in accordance with PayPal’s privacy policy.
Personal information collected and managed by PayPal on our behalf is stored securely in Australia.

Surveys
Our survey services are provided by reputable suppliers including, but not limited to, ACA Research, Survey Matters, Taverner’s Research and Survey Monkey. Surveys are most often conducted online, however may also be conducted over the telephone or by post.

All members are asked to consider participating in THE DENTAL SPA surveys so that we can continue to offer meaningful and relevant services, as well as improve our practices to meet member expectations. Participation in any of THE DENTAL SPA’s surveys is entirely optional and members are encouraged to familiarise with the privacy policy of the relevant survey supplier before providing any information – personal or otherwise.

Links to other websites
THE DENTAL SPA website may provide links to information, resources and services available on other websites. When you link to other websites, you are leaving THE DENTAL SPA’s website and your personal information will be handled in accordance with the privacy policies of those websites.

We do not share your personal information with other websites and we do not track your external website browsing history.

Cookies
THE DENTAL SPA website deploys cookies in a limited manner, in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

Information Security

General
Our Privacy Officer works to ensure that THE DENTAL SPA staff observe best practice in their handling of personal information. The physical and technical security of personal information held by THE DENTAL SPA is managed by our dedicated Information Security (IS) team.

Data Breach Notification
A data breach is the unauthorised access to, disclosure or loss of personal information. Breach events are not confined to online or electronic systems. Our Data Breach Notification policy and procedures are managed internally by our Privacy Officer and IS team.

If you believe that THE DENTAL SPA has experienced a data breach, please contact us by telephone (02 9389 8578), by email (reception@thedentalspa.com.au) or in writing THE DENTAL SPA Privacy Officer, c/o 108 Bronte Rd Bondi Junction, NSW 2022.

Anonymity

If you engage with THE DENTAL SPA in order to receive services associated with your professional membership, we cannot deal with you anonymously.

There are, however, times when it appropriate for us to ensure your personal information is deidentified before we use it, such as when we receive survey data about our members from our contracted survey provider(s). Survey data is de-identified before we are able to receive, view, use and/ or publish the results.

There are also times when it may be appropriate for patients and other individuals to contact us anonymously. This may include:

Raising an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) or Dental Board of Australia (DBA) issue – which would generally require that you deal with those bodies directly
Raising a concern or complaint about a dentist
Complaints or comments about THE DENTAL SPA where you do not expect an “in person” response

Access to/amendment of your personal information

It is your right under Australian privacy law to request access to the personal information we hold about you. It is also your right to request that we amend the information in cases where it is outof-date, incomplete, incorrect or misleading.

If your request relates to personal information not available to you through the members area, please contact us by telephone (02 9389 8578), by email (reception@thedentalspa.com.au) or in writing THE DENTAL SPA Privacy Officer, c/o 108 Bronte Rd Bondi Junction, NSW 2022.

When you ask THE DENTAL SPA for access to personal information, we may:

Ask you to verify your identity (to ensure you are the person to whom the information relates)
Ask you to pay a reasonable fee to cover the cost of access (if, for example, we are required to access our archives to find the information). In most cases, however, access is provided free of charge.
Lawfully refuse to provide you with access where the privacy rights of another person would be impinged.

We will aim to respond to requests for access and/ or amendment of personal information within 28 days of receiving the request.

Privacy Complaints

If you believe that THE DENTAL SPA has not collected or handled your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, you can complain to us by doing the following:

Contact us by telephone (02 8815 3333), by email (reception@thedentalspa.com.au) or in writing THE DENTAL SPA Privacy Officer, c/o 108 Bronte Rd Bondi Junction, NSW 2022 in the first instance. We will respond to you within 28 days.
You may then be asked to complete our Privacy Complaint Form and/ or provide additional information in relation to the complaint.

In dealing with your complaint, we will communicate timeframes to you based on the nature and complexity of your concern and will do our utmost to adhere to these.

If you are dissatisfied with our response to your privacy complaint, please contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for further advice by telephone (1300 363 992) or by visiting their website (www.oaic.gov.au).

Updates to our Privacy Policy

THE DENTAL SPA will review and update this Privacy Policy as required to ensure that it accurately reflects our privacy practices. Last updated: March 2023