Australian Rheumatology Association is committed to protecting your privacy and seeking to give you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Australian Rheumatology Association site and governs data collection and usage. By using the Australian Rheumatology Association site, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

ARA will, from time to time, receive and store personal information you provide to us directly, or which is given to us in other forms.

Personal information includes a broad range of information, or an opinion, that could identify an individual. What is personal information will vary, depending on whether a person can be identified or is reasonably identifiable in the circumstances.

ARA collects and receives personal information about our members, employees, sponsors and members of the public in order to conduct our business.
The information we collect is used to:
• process memberships and sponsorship;
• issue receipts;
• respond to comments and questions;
• assist us in providing advice and other services;
• provide follow-up information about ARA events, advocacy issues and developments in research of musculoskeletal and inflammatory conditions;
• seek your ongoing support for research and the services and programs provided by, or on behalf of, ARA;
• research member attitudes;
• assess applications for research grants;
• generate internal reports;
• identify you and communicate with you where necessary;
• keep internal records;
• monitor usage of our systems and services, to enable us to better understand how our services and resources are being used and to plan our future resource needs including website development
• analyse member needs, develop member strategies and improve member experiences;
• protect you and us from fraud; and
• comply with our legal obligations.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Australian Rheumatology Association. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Australian Rheumatology Association for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Australian Rheumatology Association site.

Australian Rheumatology Association encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from Australian Rheumatology Association so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. Australian Rheumatology Association is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the Australian Rheumatology Association and Australian Rheumatology Association family of Web sites.

Australian Rheumatology Association does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Australian Rheumatology Association may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, Australian Rheumatology Association may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Australian Rheumatology Association, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Australian Rheumatology Association does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Australian Rheumatology Association keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within Australian Rheumatology Association, in order to determine what Australian Rheumatology Association services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customised content and advertising within Australian Rheumatology Association to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Australian Rheumatology Association Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

(a) conform to the requirements of the law or comply with legal process served on Australian Rheumatology Association or the site;
(b) protect and defend the rights or property of Australian Rheumatology Association; and,
(c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Australian Rheumatology Association, or the public.

Use of Cookies

Since 13 Dec 2022, and because of the Privacy Legislation Amendment Act 2022, the use of cookies and online identifiers to collect Australians’ personal information must comply with the Privacy Act, 1988.
We use cookies on our website to analyse website traffic and help provide a better visitor experience. You may choose to reject cookies through your browser settings, but doing so may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

Security of your Personal Information

Australian Rheumatology Association secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. Australian Rheumatology Association secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement

Australian Rheumatology Association will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect organisational and customer feedback. Australian Rheumatology Association encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Australian Rheumatology Association is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Australian Rheumatology Association welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Australian Rheumatology Association has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Australian Rheumatology Association at ara@rheumatology.org.au. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.