Privacy Policy

TUV Rheinland Australia Pty Ltd

TUV Rheinland Australia Pty Ltd ("TRA", "we", "us", "our") is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles ('APPs') in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) ('Privacy Act').

We understand the importance of, and are committed to, protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we manage your personal information, including our obligations and your rights in respect of our dealings with your personal information.

Please take a moment to read our Privacy Policy as it describes what happens to your personal information (that is, information or an opinion about you, whether true or not, which identifies you or from which your identity is reasonably identifiable) that is collected via our website at http://www.tuv.com/en/australia/home.jsp ("Website"). By accessing TRA’s Website and the use of the services provided, you consent to the collection and use of certain personal information as further described in this Privacy Policy.

Collection of your personal information

TRA will collect and hold your personal information in a fair and lawful manner, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Where it is reasonably practical to do so, we will collect your personal information directly from you. However, in certain cases we may collect personal information from third parties, including from publically available sources. TRA collects personal information and non-personal information including aggregate information.

Direct collection

We may collect the personal information you directly give us through some of the following means:

a) when you contact us on our Website to make an enquiry;

b) while conducting customer satisfaction and market research surveys;

c) when administering any of our services; and

d) as otherwise required to manage TRA's business.

Automatic collection

We may collect personal information automatically through some of the following means:

• we may collect information about how you use our Website to assist us to provide you with more tailored services and to enable us to develop and improve our services;

• we may collect information from the networks that you use to access our Website to help us develop and secure our services; and

• we may use 'cookies' to store and sometimes track information about you, but only on an anonymous basis.

Types of personal information we collect

The type of personal information we may collect can include (but is not limited to) name, address, email address and contact details (including residential address, phone number and mobile phone number).

We usually obtain personal information directly from our customers through application or other forms, (including forms submitted via the Website) and from maintaining records of information provided in the course of ongoing customer service. We may also obtain information from other sources, including our customer’s advisors, financiers and from credit reporting bodies.

Where you do not wish to provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with requested goods or services.

We may collect personal information by other means from time to time, for example, through market research, surveys or special offers, to enable us to improve our service or consider the wider needs of our customers or potential customers.

Our purposes for handling your personal information

As a general rule, TRA only processes personal information for purposes that would be considered relevant and reasonable in the circumstances. TRA will only collect information that is necessary for the purposes as described in this Privacy Policy, or other purposes specifically communicated to you. TRA uses fair and lawful methods to collect personal information.

TRA collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information to:

a) provide the goods and services that you require;

b) administer and manage those services;

c) maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure;

d) maintain customer records;

e) understand our customer base, interest and trends;

f) contact you with special offers or promotional information (we will give you a choice as to whether you wish to receive these communications and you may contact us to let us know if you wish to cease receiving further communications);

g) comply with its legal and regulatory obligations; and

h) otherwise to manage TRA's business.

Use and disclosure of your personal information

In general, we do not use or disclose your personal information for a purpose other than:

• a purpose set out in this Privacy Policy;

• a purpose you would reasonably expect;

• a purpose required or permitted by law; or

• a purpose otherwise disclosed to you to which you have consented.

We may disclose your personal information to our professional advisors or contractors, to help us run our business. Each of our advisors and contractors is bound by obligations of confidentiality.

We may also use and disclose your personal information we collect for a secondary purpose. A secondary purpose is one which is related to the primary purpose of collection. Some of the secondary purposes for which may collect your personal information include:

(a) marketing our goods and services to you;

(a) goods and services development;

(b) customer and market research;

(c) TRA may share your personal information with its affiliates, related bodies corporate and with other third parties that provide services on behalf of TRA for the sole purpose of providing you with valuable information and/or services; and

(d) to keep you informed of any changes to our business, goods and services or other offerings that may be of interest to you.

We will not use or disclose your personal information for any other purpose unless you have consented to that use or disclosure.

De-identified information

We may use your personal information in de-identified form and to assist us in running our business. We may also provide de-identified information drawn our Website, usually in aggregated form, to third parties. This information may include (but is not limited to):

(e) locations of users of our Website;

(f) services used by customers on our Website; and

(g) functions accessed by users.

Non-personal and aggregate information will be used only to improve the design of this Website and may be shared with marketing and advertising agencies for this purpose. Any such information may be gathered through cookies, pixel tags, click-stream information and the like.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file stored in your computer’s memory or on your hard disk for a pre-defined period of time. TRA uses cookies to identify specific machines in order to collect aggregate information on how visitors are experiencing this website. This information will help to better adapt this website to suit personal requirements. While cookies allow a computer to be identified, they do not permit any reference to a specific individual. For information on cookie settings of your internet browser, please refer to your browser’s manual.

Pixel tag

A pixel tag is a tiny graphic contained on a webpage, any document, or in an e-mail. It allows the site owner or a third party to monitor website visits and appears being invisible to visitors since pixel tags typically are extremely small. TRA may include pixel tags on this website to better monitor the effectiveness of the website or for any other legitimate purposes.

Click-stream information

Click-stream information may include non-personal information like time and source of an individual visit, the browser type used for such visit, the preceding page view, and any other non-personal information. The evaluation of click-stream information will help better understanding how visitors experience this Website, to identify favored content, and the like. TRA will collect click-stream information of every visit on this Website to better monitor the effectiveness of the Website or for any other legitimate purposes.

Protection of Information

TRA maintains appropriate physical, procedural and technical security for its offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, or modification of personal information. This also applies to disposal of personal information.

TRA further protects personal information by restricting access to personal information to those who need access to do their job.

Overseas transfer of personal information

As the internet is a global environment, using the internet to collect and process personal information necessarily involves the transmission of that information worldwide.

We may disclose your personal information to companies that are associated with us overseas, including to Germany and Japan.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

You may contact our Privacy Officer to request access to the personal information that we hold about you and/or to make corrections to that information, at any time. On the rare occasions when we refuse access, we will provide you with a written notice stating our reasons for refusing access. We may seek to recover from you reasonable costs incurred for providing you with access to any of the personal information about you held by us.

TRA is not obliged to correct any of your personal information if it does not agree that it requires correction and may refuse to do so. If TRA refuses a correction request, we will provide you with a written notice stating our reasons for refusing.

Value-added messages

We may use your personal information, including your contact details, to provide you with information about products and services, including those of third parties, which we consider may be of interest to you. We may also provide your details to other oragnisations for specific marketing purposes.

You may opt out at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing information. In order to do so, simply send us an email to info@au.tuv.com requesting that we no longer send marketing materials to you or disclose your information to other organisations for marketing purposes. You can also make this request by "unsubscribing" from email marketing messages.

Resolving personal information concerns

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about this Privacy Policy, or how we handle your personal information, please email our Privacy Officer at info@au.tuv.com [PLEASE CONFIRM EMAIL ADDRESS] or write to

The Privacy Officer

TUV Rheinland Australia Pty Ltd

182 Dougharty Road

PO Box 5050

Heidelberg West VIC 3081

Australia

Email: info@au.tuv.com

Once a complaint has been lodged, the Privacy Officer will respond to you as soon as possible.

You may also lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by telephone: 1300 363 992 or email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

Website tracking

This website uses webtrekk (www.webtrekk.com) to collect visitor behavior data. This data is collected anonymously to be used for marketing and optimization purposes. All visitor data is saved using an anonymous user ID and can be aggregated to a usage profile. Cookies may be used for this purpose, but only to collect and save data in anonymous form. The collected data will not be used to identify a visitor personally and is not aggregated with any personal data. The collection and storage of data may be revoked at any time with respect to subsequent services.

Exclude from website tracking

Changes

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time, without notice to you. An up-to-date copy of our Privacy Policy is available at http://www.tuv.com/en/australia/imprint_au/privacy_statement.html.