What personal information we collect and hold
The personal information collected and held by us will include your answers to our research. The information Quantum collects may also include identifiable research information e.g. name, date of birth, occupation, salary. When providing personal information you have the option of remaining anonymous or using a pseudonym to be identified by. However, in certain circumstances, such as where we receive your contact details from a third party or where the research data itself may potentially allow for identification, this may not be practicable.
Depending on the nature of the research we conduct, we may also collect sensitive information from you, including your racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs/affiliations, philosophical beliefs, professional or trade memberships/associations, sexual preferences/practices, health information or criminal record. Sensitive information will only be collected with your prior consent and only if it is directly related to, or reasonably necessary for, the research we conduct.
How we collect your personal information
Quantum usually collects personal information about you directly in the course of you participating in our research and/or surveys. In addition to this, we may collect personal information about you from a third party, such as organisations that provide a list of potential candidates for research. If so, we will inform you as soon as practicable of this collection and the circumstances of this collection.
How we hold your personal information
Once data has been collected, it is held on Quantum’s secure servers located in Sydney.
Quantum deidentifies data once we no longer require your data to be identified for recontact or legal reasons. At this point it is not possible to link your responses to your identity. Only deidentified data is passed to our clients, unless you have given your express permission for identified data to be passed on. Quantum only passes identified information on to clients where there is a legitimate reason to do so – for example in customer satisfaction research where customers wish to have a representative of the client organisation follow up on their concerns.
Normally, Quantum does not hold any personal information overseas; the exception to this is where research data is collected overseas. Any such data is brought onshore as soon as possible. We also do not send any personal information we collect from you to any other organisation without your express consent.
Why we collect your personal information
Quantum will only use and disclose your personal information for the purpose of conducting our research and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We will not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for the purpose of advertising, promotions or direct marketing activities. If you declined to participate in our research, we may use your personal information to re-contact you for a research purpose if we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact. If you have participated in our research, will only re-contact you if you were informed of this or we have valid reasons to believe a genuine research concern warrants such re-contact.
How we may share your personal information
Quantum will not disclose any personally identifiable research information we collect from you unless we have your express prior consent and will only report the information you provide in an aggregate form that will not personally identify you. We will not disclose any personal information or personally identifiable research information to a third party for a purpose other than conducting our research unless we have your express prior consent or are required to do so by an Australian law or court/tribunal order. We do not pass identified information to overseas recipients – if we intend to do so we will make this clear in our survey and will ask your permission to do so.
We will also take reasonable steps to ensure any service providers (and their employees and contractors) comply with the Privacy Act and this Privacy Policy and/or are subject to similar privacy laws and you have the ability to enforce those rights.
How we hold your personal information
Quantum will take reasonable steps to protect your personally identifiable information as you transmit your information from your computer to our website and to protect such information from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
However, you should keep in mind that the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure or error-free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from this website may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.
Quantum will destroy or de-identify your personal information as soon as practicable once it is no longer needed for the purpose for our research purposes. However, we may in certain circumstances be required by law to retain your personal information after our research has been completed. In this case your personal information will continue to be protected in accordance with this Policy. If we destroy personal information we will do so by taking reasonable steps and using up-to-date techniques and processes.
Our website
When visiting Quantum’s web site, the site server makes a record of the visit and logs the following information for statistical and administrative purposes:
- the user’s server address – to consider the users who use the site regularly and tailor the site to their interests and requirements;
- the date and time of the visit to the site – this is important for identifying the website’s busy times and ensuring maintenance on the site is conducted outside these periods;
- pages accessed and documents downloaded – this indicates to Quantum which pages or documents are most important to users and also helps identify important information that may be difficult to find;
- duration of the visit – this indicates to us how interesting and informative the Quantum site is to candidates; the type of browser used – this is important for browser specific coding
- In order to optimize the Quantum website and better understand it’s usage, we collect the visiting domain name or IP address, Computer Operating System, Browser Type and Screen Resolution
A cookie is a piece of information that an Internet web site sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Cookies are either stored in memory (session cookies) or placed on your hard disk (persistent cookies). Our website does not use persistent cookies. Upon closing your browser the session cookie set by this web site is destroyed and no Personal Information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our web site at a later date.
How to access & correct your personal information
You have the right to request access to any personal information we hold about you. You can request this information by contacting the Privacy Officer at the details listed below. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will respond to your request in a reasonable time and endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how access is provided (eg, emailing or mailing it to you). A fee may be charged to cover the cost of retrieval. However this fee will not be excessive and will only apply to the facilitation of your request.
If at any time you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendment of it and we will either amend the information or make a record of your comment, as we think appropriate.
Contact us about our privacy policy
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or believe that we have at any time failed to keep one of our commitments to you to handle your personal information in the manner required by the Privacy Act, the APPs or the Code, then we ask that you contact us immediately using the following contact details:
Privacy Officer
Dr Sharon Morris
Phone: +61 3 9917 3432
Post: Level 3, 650 Chapel Street, South Yarra VIC 3141
Email: [email protected]
We will respond and advise whether we agree with your complaint or not. If we do not agree, we will provide reasons. If we do agree, we will advise what (if any) action we consider it appropriate to take in response. If you are still not satisfied after having contacted us and given us a reasonable time to respond, then we suggest that you contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by:
Phone: 1300 363 992 (local call cost, but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If calling from overseas (including Norfolk Island): +61 2 9942 4099
Post: GPO Box 5288 Sydney NSW 2001
Email: [email protected]
Miscellaneous
In this policy “personal information” has the same meaning as under the Privacy Act.
This policy is effective from 15 December 2023. We may change this policy from time to time. Although we intend to observe this Privacy Policy at all times, it is not legally binding on Quantum in any way. From time to time we may regard it as necessary or desirable to act outside the policy. Quantum may do so, subject only to any other applicable contractual rights you have and any statutory rights you have under the Privacy Act or other applicable legislation.