Privacy Policy

Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is an event owned by The Ethics Centre (TEC) and this privacy policy is on behalf of TEC. At TEC we are committed to ensuring the privacy of our audience members, clients and extended community is well protected. This Privacy Policy sets out the way in which we do this with any personal information we collect or hold. It also outlines how we manage and provide you access to this information.

Collection of information
We only collect personal information that we reasonably require for our events or activities, and do so in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
The types of personal information we collect and hold are:
+ Contact details (including email addresses);
+ Names;
+ Gender;
+ Location
+ Age or age-range;
+ Profession
+ Credit card and bank account details;
+ Details of your visits to our site (including traffic and location information, which pages you visit, weblogs and other communication information, the previous page visited and the type of browser you are using).

We do not keep all of the above information for all people who contact us, or with whom we deal. In many cases, we may have only one or two pieces of data relating to any particular person. What information we collect depends on what type of interaction you have with us, which may include any of the following:

+ Participating in a promotion, competition, promotional activity, survey or market research;
+ Subscribing to our mailing list or interacting with us through our social media pages;
+ Making a donation;
+ Attending our festival or one of our workshops;
+ Client engagement and;
+ Completion of evaluation surveys;

What is personal information?
By “personal information”, we mean information or an opinion about an identified individual or about an individual who is reasonably identifiable from the information.
We will not collect sensitive information from you unless you voluntarily provide it. By voluntarily providing your sensitive information, you consent to our collection and use of this information in accordance with this policy.

Why we collect and hold personal information?
We collect and hold personal information for a variety of purposes – and different kinds of personal information are used for different purposes.
In each case, however, the personal information we collect and hold is reasonably necessary for our event and activities, including to provide you with services you would expect from us. These purposes are:
+ To provide you with news and information, events or activities that you request from us or which we believe may interest you (including donation information);
+ For purposes necessary or incidental to providing you with events and activities that you have ordered or requested from us;
+ To personalise and customise your experience when using our site (including so that our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer);
+ To communicate with you (including by email, mail or telephone, and including in relation to changes to our events and activities);
+ To manage and enhance our events and activities;
+ Conducting, and allowing you to participate in, a competition, promotional activity, survey or market research;
+ To facilitate any payment you have agreed to make for our events or activities;
+ For system administration;
+ For network analysis and security;
+ To allow you to participate in interactive features of our site that may be available;
+ To investigate any complaints about or made by you, or if we have reason to suspect that you are in breach of any of our terms and conditions or that you are, have been or may be engaged in any unlawful activity; and
+ As required or permitted by any law (including privacy legislation).
Sometimes, when collecting information from you, we may also ask you to “opt-in” to consent to us using or disclosing your personal information other than in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any applicable law. As part of our commitment to protecting your privacy, however, you will also be given the opportunity to “opt out” from receiving communications from us or from third parties that send communications to you in accordance with this Policy or in accordance with any additional consent you give, and we will comply with your decision. (You will be able to “opt out”, for example, by clicking on an “unsubscribe” link at the end of an email, or by contacting our Privacy Officer).

How does Festival of Dangerous Ideas get the personal information it collects and holds?
FODI only collects personal information by fair and lawful means, including when people:
+ Purchase or download tickets from us or from our site;
+ Respond to surveys;
+ Fill in contact, registration and order forms on our site or at events;
+ Browse our site (we use cookies to ensure you have the best experience when browsing);
+ Post material to our site or to social media that we may from time to time use (such as Facebook and X);
+ Contact us for assistance or with questions, or report problems with our site or with an issue, product or service; and
+ Contact us directly other than through our site or social media (for example, by post or email).
We prefer to obtain any personal information we collect directly from you. In some cases, however, it may be unreasonable or impracticable to obtain personal information directly, and we may obtain that information from someone else.
If you are concerned about what personal information we may hold about you, please see below for information on how you can access and (if necessary) correct that information.

Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data that websites store on your computer. These are used by many sites and for a range of purposes. Depending on how you have configured your browser, you probably already have a great many already stored on your hard drive.
Cookies are required to be able to fully to use this website. These are then used to enhance your experience of the site.

Can I interact with Festival of Dangerous Ideas anonymously or under a pseudonym?
In many cases, you will need to provide your real name when interacting with us. This will particularly be the case when you are contacting us as a representative of a member organisation.
You may however – wherever lawful and practicable – use a pseudonym (or simply not identify yourself) when dealing with us. For example, if you have a complaint or concern about our site, or a general question about us, you are welcome to contact us without identifying yourself. In some cases, however, if you do not provide us with information, we may not be able to provide you with services or respond adequately to you.
For clarification on when you must identify yourself, please contact our Privacy Officer. (You may use a pseudonym – or simply not identify yourself – when making such an enquiry.)
When purchasing tickets, you are allowed to make the purchase without giving your details. This transaction will need to be done in person at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas office at Legion House, Level 1, 161 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000. Please note that if you wish to make a purchase using your credit or debit card you will need to provide a name and address to ensure prevention against fraud.

Who has access to my personal information?
Generally, only our staff will access your personal information, and then only on a “need to know” basis.

We may, however, also disclose your personal information:
+ To people who work for or with us or for suppliers, who may be engaged in, among other things, processing payments, marketing, research and providing support services;
+ To enforce or apply our terms of use or where you have otherwise been engaged in (or threatened) any unlawful activity, and we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to the police, any relevant authority or enforcement body, your internet service provider, your employer or supervisor or network administrator;
+ To protect the rights, property, health or safety of FODI or its staff, customers or others (including exchanging information with other companies and organisations to protect against fraud and to reduce credit risk);
+ To our agents, business affiliates, joint venture entities and other partners;
+ To our partners at UNSW should you opt in to receive information about future UNSW events.
+ To anyone else that you specifically authorise us to receive information held by us; and/or
+ As otherwise required or permitted by law (including under privacy legislation).

We will not, however, disclose sensitive personal information such as your opinions or any religious, political or trade union affiliation you may have in a way that permits you to be personally identified unless we first have your further clear and specific consent.
While we try to link only to websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the privacy policy of any other web site to which you provide personal information including our ticketing provider.

How can I access (and, if necessary, correct) personal information that Festival of Dangerous Ideas collects and holds about me?
If you want to review (and, if necessary, correct) personal information that FODI may have collected and holds on you, please contact our Privacy Officer.
We will respond to your requests to access and to correct your personal information as soon as possible (but in any case within a reasonable period).

Complaining about any breach of this policy?
Contact our Privacy Officer if you have any complaints about breaches by FODI of any applicable privacy principles or of any registered code that binds it.
We will treat any complaint about a breach of privacy legislation or any relevant registered code seriously, and will investigate any breach of which we become aware – including how it occurred and how best to prevent such a breach occurring again.

Steps we take to secure personal information
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy and is not subject to misuse, interference or loss, or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. For example, apart from using secure servers (with application level security and restricted logins), we implement firewalls. Where relevant, we also: impose limits on who can access personal information; we mandate a “clean desk” policy, with files and laptops locked overnight; shred hand-written data; and do not store financial information in hard-copy form.
Please note, however, that the transmission of information (including over the Internet) is never completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information – particularly while it is being transmitted to us – so any transmission is at your own risk and we cannot accept responsibility for misuse or loss of, or unauthorised access to, your personal information where the security of information is not within our control.
If you suspect any misuse or loss of, or unauthorised access to, your personal information, please let us know immediately.
If we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access our services or parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Disclosing personal information to people or organisations outside Australia
FODI currently holds personal information securely on servers located only in Australia.
We will not transfer your personal information overseas to a country that is not subject to a comparable privacy scheme or to an organisation that does not implement privacy obligations at least comparable to the obligations that apply in Australia.

Changes to this Policy
We review our Privacy Policy from time to time, to ensure it is in line with best practice and up-to-date with any legislative changes. Any changes to our privacy policy will be incorporated into a new version and made available online. Our use of your personal information will be governed by our most recent policy.

Please contact our Privacy Officer if you have any questions, comments or requests in relation to this Privacy Policy.

Who do I contact at Festival of Dangerous Ideas about privacy issues?
Please contact our Privacy Officer by mail to Level 2, Legion House, 161 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 or by email to [email protected] if you have any concerns about privacy issues, including in relation to how FODI is dealing with your personal information or how it is being held.
Please also contact our Privacy Officer if you want to review and/or correct any personal information we hold about you, or if you receive communications purporting to be connected with FODI or our services that you believe have been sent other than in accordance with this Policy or in breach of any law.
Festival of Dangerous Ideas, we, us and our means The Ethics Centre Limited, ACN 094 609 015 of Level 2, Legion House , 161 Castlereagh St, Sydney, NSW 2000, together with its successors and assigns.