Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how Southern Cross Speech Academy collects, uses, and discloses your personal information when you use our online platform and services. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information in a transparent and secure manner, in compliance with applicable privacy laws, including the Australian Privacy Principles and, where relevant, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
1. Who We Are
Southern Cross Speech Academy is the entity responsible for the processing of your personal information under this policy. We provide online speech pathology courses, continuing professional development programs, specialised therapy training modules, clinical supervision training workshops, and professional development for allied health professionals.
2. Information We Collect
We may collect personal information from you when you interact with our site and services. This information may include:
Identity and Contact Data: Such as your name, email address, postal address, phone number, date of birth, and professional identification details (e.g., professional body membership number, qualifications) when you register for a course, create an account, or contact us.
Financial Data: Information necessary to process payments for courses and services, which may include payment card details or bank account information. Note that payment transactions are often handled by third-party payment processors, and we do not store sensitive payment card details on our systems.
Educational and Professional Data: Information related to your enrollment, course progress, assessment results, completion certificates, and any professional development activities undertaken through our platform. This may also include details about your professional background and interests relevant to the courses.
Usage and Technical Data: Information about how you use our site and services, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referral sources, pages viewed, duration of visit, and course activity logs. This is often collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies.
Communication Data: Any information you provide when you communicate with us, such as through email, contact forms, or support inquiries.
Marketing and Communication Preferences: Your preferences for receiving marketing communications from us and our third parties, if applicable.
We collect this information directly from you when you provide it to us, and automatically as you navigate through our online platform.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal information for various purposes, including:
To provide our services: Managing your account, processing your enrollment and payments, providing access to courses and materials, tracking your progress, and issuing certificates of completion.
To communicate with you: Sending you important information about your account, courses, service updates, and responding to your inquiries.
To improve our services: Analyzing usage data to understand how our platform is used, identify areas for improvement, develop new course materials, and enhance the user experience.
For internal business operations: Including data analysis, research, auditing, security monitoring, and preventing fraudulent activity.
To comply with legal and regulatory obligations: Maintaining necessary records, complying with tax requirements, or responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
To send you marketing communications: If you have opted-in to receive them, we may send you information about other courses or services that may be of interest to you. You can opt-out of these communications at any time.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing (for users covered by GDPR)
If you are located in the European Economic Area or the UK, we process your personal information based on the following legal grounds:
Performance of a contract: To provide you with the courses and services you have purchased or signed up for.
Legitimate Interests: For our legitimate business interests, such as improving our services, communicating with you about service updates, ensuring the security of our platform, and conducting analytics, provided these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.
Legal Obligation: To comply with applicable laws and regulations.
Consent: Where you have given us explicit consent for specific processing activities, such as sending you marketing communications (where required) or placing non-essential cookies. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
5. Disclosure of Your Information
We may share your personal information with third parties in the following circumstances:
Service Providers: We may share information with third-party vendors and service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as hosting providers, learning management system providers, payment processors, analytics providers, and customer support platforms. These providers are typically bound by contractual obligations to protect your information.
Partners: In some cases, courses may be delivered in partnership with other organisations. We may share relevant information with these partners as necessary for your participation in the course.
Professional Bodies/Employers: If a course is undertaken for professional accreditation or sponsored by your employer, we may, where necessary and lawful, share information about your enrollment and completion status with the relevant professional body or employer.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or a government agency).
Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be transferred to the acquiring entity.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent.
6. International Data Transfers
As our online platform and service providers may operate globally, your personal information may be stored or processed outside of Australia. If you are in the EEA or UK, this means your data may be transferred to countries that do not have the same level of data protection laws as your home country. Where such transfers occur, we take steps to ensure your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy and applicable laws. This may include using standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or relying on other legally recognised transfer mechanisms.
7. Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please be aware that no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
8. Data Retention
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The retention period for different types of personal information will vary depending on the nature of the information and the purpose of processing.
9. Your Privacy Rights
You have certain rights regarding your personal information:
Access: You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you.
Correction: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
Erasure (Right to be Forgotten) (GDPR): In certain circumstances, you have the right to request the deletion of your personal information.
Restriction of Processing (GDPR): In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
Data Portability (GDPR): In certain circumstances, you have the right to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit those data to another controller.
Objection (GDPR): In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information, particularly when processing is based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.
10. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our site uses cookies and similar technologies to distinguish you from other users, provide a better user experience, and analyse site usage. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our site may become inaccessible or not function properly.
11. Links to Third-Party Websites
Our online platform may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not operated by us. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy on this page or through other appropriate communication channels.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or if you wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at:
Southern Cross Speech Academy
525 Bourke Street
Suite 10, Level 3
Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Australia