Privacy Policy 

Astills Lawyers recognise that your personal information is important to you and we are committed to promoting confidence in the manner in which your personal information is handled by us. We abide by the National Privacy Principles for the protection of personal information, as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Information Collected
The information about you which we may collect through Websites includes:

• Information collected when you register or update an online profile, which may include personal information such as your name and contact details.
• the content of electronic forms you submit via the Websites, requesting us to provide services or information, or take actions
• any messages or comments you submit to us via the Websites, eg through an email or ‘Contact Astills Lawyers’ form
• information collected when you participate in an online survey, and
• information you provide to apply for a position with Astills.

We may not be able to provide the full rage of services through the Websites if we are not provided with the information outlined above.
In common with many commercial websites we may also collect information which tells us about visitors to the Websites. For example, we may collect information about the date, time and duration of visits and which pages of the Websites are most commonly accessed. This information is generally not linked to the identity of visitors, excepts where the Websites are accessed via links in an email we have sent which specifically refers to the possibility that click-throughs to links may be tracked

Cookies
We use cookies in a limited manner when you visit our web site. Cookies are not used by us to collect and store your personal information. A cookie is a small data file that is downloaded from our web site and stored on a text file on your hard drive. The information is made up of a string of letters and numbers which uniquely identifies your computer and any user name or password that you may have already registered on our web site.

The information collected is used to authenticate or identify whether you are registered on our web site, without requiring you to re-enter details each time you log on to our web site. If at any time you do not wish to accept cookies or wish to delete existing cookies, you may manually configure your browser to refuse cookies or may manually delete existing cookies from your hard drive. However by deleting or refusing to accept cookies you may frustrate or hinder your access to or use of areas of our web site.

Disclosure
We use your information to provide and market our services to you, and to enhance and develop our relationship with you. We may share your information with other entities within Astills Lawyers Group. Astills may also disclose your information to service providers, agents and contractors from time to time to help us to provide and market our services to you. We handle personal information relying on the employee and related bodies corporate exemptions in the Privacy Act where those exemptions are relevant. Astills is bound by professional obligations of confidentiality and legal professional privilege. We will continue to treat and protect information we receive (including any personal information) in accordance with these obligations.

Access to Information
You may request access to the personal information we have collected from you and obtain a more in depth explanation about how we handle your personal information by e-mailing us at lawyers@astills.com.au or otherwise writing to us. If you wish to change your personal information, where it is incorrect, or wish to have your personal information deleted, please notify us as above. Easily accessible personal information will be made available to you free of charge. Where you request details of your personal information and the information that you request is not easily accessible, we may charge a fee for the cost of accessing or retrieving that information. Note that we need not provide access to personal information to you in several types of situations, but if we deny access we will give you reasons for doing so.

Security
We use a number of mechanisms to protect the security and integrity of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as completely secure. So while we strive to protect such information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Some sections of the Websites protect your personal information by requiring you to use a password. For your own protection, we require you to keep this confidential and to change your password regularly.

Complaints
To lodge a complaint you may notify us by e-mailing us at lawyers@astills.com.au details of your complaint, or otherwise let us know of your complaint (preferably in writing). We will endeavour to investigate and advise you of the outcome of a complaint as soon as possible.
If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can refer the matter to the federal privacy Commissioner at: