ESA News

ESA Newsletter: April 2002

New Privacy Legislation

As we are all no doubt aware, on December 21, 2001 the new national privacy legislation, The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2001, was enacted. The ESA will be obliged, and intends, to comply with this Act from 21 December 2001. In short, this Act means that, without their express permission, the ESA cannot provide a third party with private information about any individual.

The ESA regularly receives requests from a number of parties for private information about its members. These requests are most often for mailing lists to enable information about scientific and medical meetings to be distributed (eg Annual Scientific Meeting), but also include mailing lists requested by commercial organisations (eg drug companies) to send out information regarding their products. In general terms, the ESA reviews these requests, and once they are approved, charges the organisations according to the nature and complexity of their requests. In addition, the ESA regularly produces a membership database, which includes private information about members, and distributes this for members’ interest and information (we plan to distribute an updated version of the database later this year).

An individual member has the opportunity to agree to allow ESA to provide their private information to third parties. If they choose not to do so, they will only receive communication about scientific meetings and the like directly from ESA, and their details will not be included in the membership database that is distributed to members. Please note that when emails are sent to ESA members this occurs directly from the ESA office, and does not involve disclosure of private information to any third party. Further information about the privacy policy, and individual members’ choices will be provided with the forthcoming subscription notices.

ESA Privacy Policy

The ESA complies with new, national privacy legislation The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2001, effective 21 December 2001.

Personal information, as defined by the Act, about Members, Applicants for Membership or individuals submitting an abstract, whether submitted prior to 21 December 2001 or after that date, will only be handled and used in accordance with the National Privacy Principles (NPPs). Such information will be used only for the purposes collected and will not be passed on to a third party without the express permission of the individual concerned. Any third party with whom information may be shared must have a complying privacy policy and must undertake to use that personal information for the stated purpose only and not for any secondary purpose.

Personal and sensitive information already submitted by this date or collected after this date will be regarded as confidential and will be disclosed ONLY under the following conditions:

For Members, applicants for Membership and abstract submitters:

• for the purposes of processing Membership application;
• for purposes of identifying status as Member or Applicant for Membership of the ESA;
• for the purposes of processing an abstract submission;
• for purposes of promoting scientific meeting(s), in particular the ESA’s Annual Scientific Meeting;
• for purposes of forwarding educational information;
• inclusion in the Directory of Members;
• to other ESA Members for a purpose approved by the ESA;
• for any purpose deemed of interest to Members by the ESA;

Note:

1. It is not possible to become a Member of the ESA without providing the personal information requested.
2. Not all information relating to an individual is defined as “personal” under the Act. Personal information is that which identifies or reasonably identifies an individual;

Those who have provided personal information will have access to the ESA’s record of their personal information.

Personal information, as defined by the legislation, about Members, Applicants or individuals submitting abstracts may only be provided if the person has authorised the ESA to provide it for a purpose covered by the authority given.

The ESA requires parties who request personal information to apply in writing, stating the purpose for its use, to declare that it will not be used for any secondary purpose, and that it has a complying privacy policy. If the ESA assesses the request as being of value to its Members, it will only meet such requests in respect of those Members who authorise the ESA to do so.

You will be asked on the 2002 Annual Subscription Notice whether you authorise the ESA to provide your contact details to those groups seeking to provide information directly to you as detailed above. Such authorisation may be given or withheld annually, in conjunction with the payment of annual subscriptions. Authorisation remains in place for the period covering the subscription year and covers requests during the period that the Member remains an Active Member of the ESA.

You may cancel this authorisation at any time but can only give authorisation by signing and returning the Membership Information Sheet forwarded with the annual subscription notice.

Members are entitled to check the accuracy of their personal details at any time to ensure that they are complete, accurate and up-to-date.

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