Privacy Policy

Updated September 2009

Sensis Pty Ltd ("Sensis") is committed to providing you with the highest levels of customer service. This includes protecting your privacy. Sensis is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”), which sets out a number of principles concerning the protection of your personal information.

Set out below is information that Sensis is required to communicate to our customers. We recommend that you keep this information for future reference. This information does not restrict Sensis' rights under the Privacy Act in any way.

Sensis

Sensis, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra Corporation Limited ("Telstra"), and is responsible for Yellow Pages® and White Pages® directories and voice, electronic, wireless and online products, as well as a range of advertising, media, content, location and other business services.

Your personal information

Personal information held by Sensis may include your name, date of birth, current and previous addresses, telephone/mobile phone number, e-mail address, bank account or credit card details, preferences for using our websites, web log, computer and connection information, occupation, driver's licence number and your Sensis password. We also hold details of your Sensis services, including their status, as well as certain details about your personal interests.

If you choose not to provide us with certain personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the services you require, or the level of service on which we pride ourselves.

Occasionally, you may need to provide personal information about other individuals to Sensis (eg about your authorised representatives). If so, we rely on you to inform those individuals that you are providing their personal information to Sensis and advise them that we can be contacted for further information (see 'How to contact us' below).

Personal information is collected by Sensis to, among other things, enable us to provide you with the products and services you have requested and to assist us improve our products and services. If you choose not to provide personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the products and services you require, or a high level of service.

How we collect personal information

Sensis collects personal information in a number of ways, including:

  • directly from you, for example when you provide information by phone, in marketing coupons, competitions or application forms or when you use or submit information to us through our websites (eg by email or cookies)
  • from third parties such as our related companies, carriage service providers, credit reporting agencies or your representatives
  • from publicly available sources of information
  • from the organisations identified below under "When we disclose your personal information"
  • from our own records of how you use our services or 
  • when legally required to do so

How we use your personal information

Your personal information may be used in order to:

  • assist you to subscribe to our products and services
  • provide our products and services, including directory services and advertising through a number of media
  • administer and manage those products and services, including charging, billing and collecting debts
  • make changes to your profile
  • respond to any queries or feedback you may have
  • inform you of ways the products and services provided to you could be improved; 
  • conduct appropriate checks for credit-worthiness and for fraud; 
  • prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving the Sensis websites; 
  • research and develop our products and services; 
  • gain an understanding of your information and communication needs or obtain your feedback or views about our services, in order for us to provide you with a better service; 
  • maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems.

Your personal information is also collected so Sensis and its related bodies corporate can promote and market products and services to you. This is to keep you informed of products, services, and special offers we believe you will find valuable and may continue after you cease acquiring services from us. If you do not want Sensis to contact you to promote and market our products, services and special offers to you, please call 1800 736 747.

In addition, in the SMS messages we send you when you call our voice services (such as Telstra Directory Assistance, Call Connect and 1234), which includes information about the listing you have requested, we may also use your personal information to promote and market the products and services of other third parties (such as other businesses, government agencies and community organisations) to you. If you do not wish to receive marketing information about other third parties in future SMS messages from voice services, you may call the relevant service (any applicable service fee will be rebated) or you can reply "No" to the SMS using the number(s) indicated.

When we disclose your personal information

In order to deliver the services you require or for the purposes set out above, Sensis may disclose your personal information to organisations outside Sensis. Your personal information is disclosed to these organisations only in relation to Sensis and related companies providing services to our customers. These organisations may carry out:

  • customer enquiries
  • mailing systems
  • billing and debt-recovery functions
  • information technology services
  • marketing, telemarketing and sales services
  • market research
  • and website usage analysis

Sensis takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information to:

  • your authorised representatives or legal advisers (when requested by you to do so)
  • credit-reporting and fraud-checking agencies
  • credit providers (for credit related purposes such as creditworthiness, credit rating, credit provision and financing)
  • Telstra and our related companies
  • our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers; government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required or authorised by law
  • organisations who manage our business and corporate strategies, including those involved in a transfer/sale of all or part of our assets or business (including accounts and trade receivables) and those involved in managing our corporate risk and funding functions (eg securitisation)
  • and other telecommunication and information service providers (eg if you obtain services from other providers, we may need to disclose your information for billing purposes)

Your personal information and our related companies

Sensis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra and also operates a group of subsidiary companies ("Related Companies").

Sensis may share your personal information with the Related Companies to assist them with their business development and to market their own products and services to you and may continue to do so after your cease acquiring services from us. The Related Companies will use and disclose your personal information in accordance with their privacy policies. If you want to know more about the Related Companies, their areas of business and their commitment to privacy, please contact us. (see 'How to contact us' below).

Sensis' websites

Sensis provides products and services via our various websites. When you visit our sites, our web servers record anonymous information such as the time, date and URL of the request. This information assists us to improve the structure of our websites and monitor their performance.

Sensis may use 'cookies' on various websites. Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them. A cookie is a small text file that our websites may place on your computer. Usually, cookies are used as a means for websites to remember your preferences. As such, cookies are designed to improve your experience of the websites you visit.

In some cases, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. Sensis extends the same privacy protection to your personal information, whether gathered via cookies or from other sources. Most internet browsers are pre-set to accept cookies, however you can adjust your Internet browser to disable cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used. However, if you disable cookies, you may not be able to access certain areas of our websites or take advantage of the improved website experience that cookies offer.

Sensis also collects Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. IP addresses are assigned to computers on the internet to uniquely identify them within the global network. Sensis collects and manages IP addresses as part of the service of providing internet session management and for security purposes. Sensis also collects and uses web log, computer and connection information for security purposes and to help prevent and detect any misuse of, or fraudulent activities involving the Sensis websites.

Sensis may use third parties to analyse usage statistics on our websites. Such analysis is performed using data collected from our websites. No personally identifiable information is collected by such third parties from our web sites.

Acts in the course of journalism

Sensis commits to the Australian Press Council Privacy Standards (available at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/) in relation to material prepared by Sensis, its employees and its agents in the course of journalism. Sensis publishes some material which is licensed to it by other organisations. Sensis will take reasonable steps to ensure that each organisation which supplies it with material for publication has publicly committed to standards for the purpose of section 7B(4)(b) of the Privacy Act 1988. If Sensis receives a privacy related complaint relating to any material supplied to it by another organisation, then it will formally request that organisation to deal with the privacy complaint in a fair and efficient manner.

Third party sites

You may click-through to third party sites from our sites in which case we recommend that you refer to the privacy statement of the sites you visit. Sensis' collection statement and privacy policy apply to Sensis' websites only and Sensis assumes no responsibility for information and content of third party sites.

Help us to ensure we hold accurate information

Sensis takes all reasonable precautions to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of that information depends to a large extent on the information you provide. That's why we recommend that you:

  • let us know if there are any errors in your personal information;
  • and keep us up to date with changes to personal information such as your name, address, contact details.
  • by contacting us (see 'How to contact us' below)

You can access your personal information

You have a right to access your personal information, subject to some exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons.

Sensis reserves the right to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to, your information.

How to contact us

If you have any questions in relation to privacy, please contact us between 9.00am and 5.00pm (EST), Monday to Friday.

Tel: 1800 736 747

Please note that this number is not for general service enquiries.

Post: Privacy Manager, Locked Bag 2910, Melbourne, VIC 3001

Email:privacy@sensis.com.au.

Further information

Further information on privacy is available at the website of the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner.