PRIVACY POLICY

 

APN News & Media Limited and its related bodies corporate (APN) is a dynamic media group that is a leading media company with operations in each of regional newspapers, radio broadcasting and outdoor and online advertising in Australasia.

This policy applies to APN and to its related bodies corporate in relation to information which it collects from people in Australia or through its Australian websites.  

This privacy policy also applies in relation to our collection, use, storage and disclosure of information in connection with the PropertyFinda.com.au internet site.  APN respects your right to privacy. We are sensitive to the concerns that our clients, customers and online users may have with regards to the security, use and disclosure of their personal information, and would like to reassure you of our position on this matter. The purpose of this Privacy Statement is to tell you what type of information we collect, how we may use that information, whether we disclose it to anyone, and the opportunities you have to access and correct the information we hold.  In this policy, "personal information" means information or an opinion which identifies an individual or from which his or her identity can reasonably be ascertained.

We encourage you to check the APN Privacy Statement regularly as this Privacy Statement may change from time to time. If you have any suggestions or concerns that are not addressed in this Privacy Statement, please Contact Us.

Your privacy on the Internet is important to us. Because the Internet offers the ability to collect certain types of information about users, we want you to understand the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of any information we gather. To that end, this privacy statement discloses what information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change it.

This Privacy Policy works in conjunction with the APN Online Privacy Statement that can be found on http://www.apn.com.au/.

Please take some time to read through this statement and understand our position on Online privacy, by clicking the links:

 

Collection
Disclosure of Information
Cookies and Tracking
Content Providers, Advertisers and Partners
Omniture
Soush
Third Party Ad Servers
Opting in and Opting Out
Changes to Policy
Contact us

 

Collection

APN ("we" or "us") may gather two types of information about users including you ("you"):

1.         personal information, provided by you at the time of voluntary registration for the services we offer or surveys you are asked to participate in; and
2.         aggregated information generated by our systems or third party systems we use, which track traffic to our sites but does not relate to you personally.

We collect personal information so that we can use and disclose it for the purposes described in this policy below.

Failure to provide necessary personal information when requested may result in certain services not being available to you.

 

Disclosure of Information

We may disclose:

1.         all information that we gather, including your personal information, to APN's related companies;
2.         aggregated tracking information and other information that does not personally identify you, to third parties such as our advertisers and partners;
3.         your personal information to third parties when we believe in good faith that we are required to do so by law;
4.         your personal information to third parties provided we have your prior consent;
5.         information including your personal information to people who provide services to us including without limitation lawyers, accountants and information technology consultants on condition that they keep it strictly confidential and that they only use it for the purpose of providing services to us.

In addition, you agree that if you indicate that you wish to contact a person who or which advertises on any of our internet sites, then we may disclose your contact details to that person. You agree that the person can then contact you, including by sending you commercial electronic messages such as emails, SMS and MMS messages, unless and until you request the person to cease doing so.

 

Advertisers agree that their contact details may be disclosed to visitors to our internet sites and agree that any visitor may contact them, including by way of a commercial electronic message (including but not limited to email, MMS and SMS). 
 

Use

 

We use the personal information we collect:

1.         for verification of your identity and assisting you in case you forget your password or login details for our registration services;
2.         for authorising and processing any credit card transactions which you enter into online;
3.         to assist in providing the services requested by you;
4.         to provide further information to you about other websites and services or which we consider may be of interest to you;
5.         for future marketing, promotional and publicity purposes, including to carry out direct marketing, market research and surveys;
6.         for ensuring that you are shown the advertising and information that is most relevant to you and your interests; and
7.         for any other uses that you consent to.

 

Cookies and Tracking

We may use a cookie file containing information that can identify the computer you are working from. The cookie file is anonymous as it only gives us details of your IP address, PC platform (Windows, NT or Mac), Browser (eg. Microsoft, Netscape or other, plus the version of Browser) and domain (whether you are accessing the site from Australia or elsewhere). We may use the information generated by "cookies" to:

1.         track traffic patterns to and from our site including information like the pages you visit, the time you spend on each page, the date and time of your visit, and referring pages (pages you came from or go to);
2.         ensure advertising is tailored in accordance with previous use of the computer and limit the frequency of display for certain ad formats; and
3.         enable you to enter our sites and use certain services as a member without having to log on each time and to visit member-restricted areas of the site.

 

You can choose to refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser and/or deleting them from your hard drive. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our websites, but you may need them for customisable areas of the site that we may develop in the future. If your cookies are turned off we will not have any control over the frequency of display of certain ad formats. This could affect your reading experience. 
 

Content Providers, Advertisers and Partners

We do not control the practices of content providers, partners and advertisers connected with our sites and to whom you provide personal information whilst using one of our sites or services. Our sites contain links to other sites, which may not follow the same privacy policies as us.

 

We recommend that you check any relevant privacy policies before providing your personal information to any third party, including any third party you make contact with as a result of use of one or more of our sites.  You should also always take appropriate steps to protect yourself, such as exercising appropriate caution when disclosing information about yourself to people who you do not know and by keeping your computer and your personal information secure. 
 

Omniture

We use Omniture web analytics software and systems to assist in tracking traffic patterns to and from our site, aggregating anonymous information about visits to our site, and randomly and anonymously surveying users of our site. Omniture is a leader in the Internet industry in interactive measurement technologies and market research and its systems are used with some of the largest companies in 70 countries. 

The system is used to collect information on our network such as –

1.                   number of page views
2.                   the number of unique visitors
3.                   how long these visitors spend on the website when they do visit
4.                   common entry and exit points into and from the website.

Random anonymous surveys are also used to collect further information about our users.

This non-personal information is aggregated by Omniture and provided to us to assist in our analysis of our websites. All our pages are coded with a small piece of Omniture code that is transparent to you when you read that page. The software stores a cookie in your browser (if you have enabled cookies) which contains a unique identifier to allow us to track the number of unique visitors to the website. This information is collected and aggregated by Omniture and in no way can you be identified personally and no personal information is stored about you. Omniture systems fully comply with our Privacy Policy. For further information about Omniture, click here, and for details of Omniture’s privacy policy, click here.

 

If you would like to opt-out from the collection of this non-personal information, please visit http://www.omniture.com/privacy/2o7#optout.

 

 

Soush

We have contracted with Soush (“Soush”) to collect data relating to our website for the purpose of reporting website traffic, statistics, advertising ‘click-throughs’, and/or other activities on our website.  Where permitted by us, Soush may use cookies or other monitoring technologies to collect this data about our website visitors.  All data is anonymous except where agreed to in advance by the individual website user.  Data collected by Soush may be made available to a Third Party Service Provider where applicable.  For further information about how the information is collected and used by Soush, please refer to the Soush privacy policy at http://www.soush.com/privacy.html.

 

Third Party Ad Servers

Some of our advertisers use third party companies to serve advertisements when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites, including information gathered by cookies, in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of interest to you when you visit our site. We do not control the practices of these companies and they may not follow the same privacy policies as us. We recommend that you check any relevant privacy policies before providing your personal information to any third party. 
 

Opting in and Opting Out

If any intended collection, use or disclosure of your personal information is outside the collections, uses and disclosures set out in this Privacy Policy and we are legally obliged to obtain your consent to do it (eg. under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) or the Spam Act 2005(Cth), we will give you the option to:

1.         opt out and not receive any services or participate in any interactive areas in relation to which we have requested the information; or
2.         opt in by consenting to the collection, use or disclosure, for example agreeing to be contacted by us in relation to certain matters such as notification of new features to the website, beta testing or promotional activities.

 

 

Changes to Policy

We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time.  You should check it regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes. 
 

Contact Us

You are entitled access to personal information we hold about you under the Privacy Act 1988 unless an exception applies.

If you wish to make an access request, have any questions, comments or complaints or would like a hard copy of the Privacy Statement then please:

Email us at info@apn.com.au
Telephone us on 02 9333 4999
Or Write to us at
The Privacy Officer
APN News & Media Limited
Level 4, 100 William Street
Sydney 2011