Australian Festival Association Privacy Policy

1.Introduction

1. Australian Festival Association (AFA) is not an "APP Entity" for the purposes of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). However, it aims to deal with personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.

2. This policy sets out AFA's approach to dealing with personal information.

3. By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us handling your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy

4. Under the Privacy Act, personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

5. Personal information includes sensitive information, which is defined under the Privacy Act as information or an opinion about a person's race, ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of political associations and trade associations, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record, health information, genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information, biometric information that is used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification and biometric templates.

2.The purposes for which AFA collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information

General

1. Generally speaking, AFA may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information so that we may provide our products and services, and effectively communicate and interact with you.

2. The purposes for which we handle personal information depend on your dealings with us, but generally they may include enabling us:

1. to conduct our operations, which include providing our products and services to you and performing our functions;
2. to carry out our marketing activities (including direct marketing activities);
3. to verify your identity when it is necessary to provide products or services to you or perform our functions;
4. to consider your applications for membership;
5. to register your membership;
6. to communicate with you regarding our products or services and respond to your requests and inquiries;
7. to advocate on your behalf in the performance of our functions;
8. to send invitations to our events;
9. to seek grant funding and project-specific funding to deliver initiatives on your behalf;
10. to conduct research and planning of the products or services we may provide you;
11. to seek feedback from you and perform market research, so that we can gauge your satisfaction with our products or services;
12. to generally carry on our business (including maintaining our business records and ensuring compliance with our legal and insurance obligations); and
13. to engage in other activities where required or permitted by law or where you have given your consent.

Direct marketing

3. If you have provided your consent for us to do so, we may also use your personal information that we have collected to periodically send you direct marketing emails, including about new developments or other information which we think you may find interesting. You can opt out of these communications at any time by using the 'unsubscribe' function on our emails.

Job applications

4. If you have submitted an application for employment with AFA, we collect, hold and use your personal information to consider your application by:

1. assessing your suitability for the role;
2. verifying your identity, qualifications, certifications, entitlement to work and/or working with children clearance (if required); and
3. conducting other background or criminal history checks.

3.The kinds of personal information that AFA collects and holds

1. AFA aims to only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for the AFA's functions or activities. The personal information we collect and hold about you will depend on the nature of the product or service we are providing to you or the relevant performance of our functions.

2. AFA collects various types of personal information, which may include (but is not limited to) your:

1. name, address, telephone number, postcode, email address, and other contact details;
2. information about your occupation, employer or business;
3. credit card and payment details if you purchase a membership or other products or services from us;
4. information relating to your use of our products or services or performance of our functions that allow us to improve or personalise that use or participation, such as details about your interactions with our services and device identifiers (eg IP address);
5. if you are applying for a career opportunity with us: government identifiers (eg tax file number), health information, family background, disability information (if any), background check information (eg previous criminal convictions), personnel files, and employment histories; and
6. other personal information that we require or that you volunteer to us.

4.Anonymity or pseudo-anonymity

1. You may choose to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym when dealing with us. However, in some circumstances we may require your personal information in order to provide you with our products or services or properly respond to any questions, concerns or inquiries you may have. These circumstances include if:

1. you are required by law to use your real name; or
2. it is impractical for us to deal with you without using your real name.

2. If you do not provide the personal information requested by us, then we may not be able to provide our products or services to you or perform our functions.

5.How AFA collects personal information

General

1. If it is reasonable and practical to do so, AFA aims to collect personal information directly from you. For example, you may indicate your consent by completing a membership application, joining our mailing list, or by submitting queries, feedback or otherwise communicating with us over the telephone, email, our website or social media pages, or in person.

2. AFA may collect your personal information from other people or organisations in circumstances where it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes this may happen without your direct involvement. Some examples of the people or organisations from which AFA may collect personal information are:

1. our members, potential members and their business contacts;
2. your employer; or
3. publicly available resources.

3. If AFA has collected your personal information by indirect means, we aim to take reasonable steps to inform you that we have done this.

Sensitive information

4. We may collect sensitive information directly from you, for example if it is required to provide specific services such as allocating specifically targeted funding or if you have applied for employment with us, assessing eligibility for employment (potential or existing employees).

5. We aim only to collect sensitive information both with your consent and where it is reasonably necessary to provide our services or perform our functions, or if the collection is required or authorised by law.

6.How AFA keeps information and data secure

1. We strive to take reasonable steps and maintain technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

2. Paper documents are protected from unauthorised access or use through the various security systems that we have over our physical premises. We also aim to maintain up-to-date computer and network security systems with appropriate firewalls, access controls and passwords to protect electronic copies of personal information.

3. If we no longer require an individual’s personal information, we will generally take reasonable steps to destroy it in a secure manner or remove identifying features from it. We may retain your personal information where we are required or permitted to do so by law.

7.In what circumstances would AFA provide personal information to others, including overseas providers

1. Sometimes AFA may provide personal information to external organisations. Generally, these are organisations that help AFA provide its products or services or perform its functions, and may include (as applicable in the circumstances):

1. our supporting organisations, namely the Australian Government, Music Australia, New South Wales Government and/or Sound NSW;
2. our funding partners
3. other organisations that advocate on behalf of AFA members (for example, the Australian Music Industry Network);
4. cloud based services that host AFA data (including data comprising your personal information) on its servers;
5. authorised representatives of AFA, such as our lawyers and accountants;
6. payment systems operators (for example, our online facility to receive credit card payments); and
7. any person to whom you authorise us to disclose the information.

2. We may need to disclose some of your personal information to our supporting organisations and service providers that are located outside of Australia in the course of providing our products or services or performing our functions. However, we will generally only do so with your consent, where we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the information, or if we are required to or authorised to do so by law.

8.Access to personal information held by AFA and to correction of that information

1. We aim to take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, up-to-date and complete, and the personal information we use and disclose is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant.

2. You may contact us to request access to, or the correction of, the personal information we hold about you. Our contact details are below at section 10.

3. We aim to respond to your request for access within a reasonable period after the request is made and we will give access to the information in the manner requested if it is reasonable and practicable to do so. We may require you to comply with certain procedures before we allow access to or amendment of your personal information (eg providing satisfactory identification), in order to ensure the integrity and security of information that we hold.

4. We may require you to pay certain costs in order to access your personal information held by us. We will advise the amount payable (if any) once we have assessed your application for access. However, we will not charge a fee for you to lodge a request for access to or correction of your personal information.

5. We may refuse to allow access or to amend your personal information if we are legally required or permitted to do so.

9.Complaints

1. If you have a complaint about our handling of your personal information, or you believe that a breach of your privacy has occurred, please contact us using the contact details in section 10 below. AFA aims to respond to all complaints within a reasonable time period.

2. If you are dissatisfied with any decision made by AFA in relation to your complaint, you have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as set out here: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/lodge-a-privacy-complaint-with-us.

10.Contact for this Policy

Attention: CEO

Email: admin@afa.net.au

11.Amending this Privacy Policy

1. AFA may amend this Privacy Policy at any time; and if it does so, the updated version will be posted on our website.

AFA is referred to in this Privacy Policy as "we", "us", and "our".

EFFECTIVE FROM: 16 JUNE 2026