PRIVACY STATEMENT

This Privacy Statement sets out the Mint's general policy in relation to our privacy obligations to you and our management of personal information collected, used or disclosed as a result of your contact with the Mint.

Personal information means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database) we hold about you from which we can determine your identity. We collect and use this personal information so that we can deliver our services to you as efficiently as possible.

The Mint knows that receiving personal information imposes a serious responsibility upon us.

The Mint is committed to protecting your personal information and will only disclose that information to service providers or mailing houses that we may use to communicate with you for purposes listed in this statement. We will also disclose information if we are required by law to do so, or if the laws allow us to do so, or if you provide your consent for us to do so. We will not sell your personal details to direct marketing businesses.

How the Mint collects your personal information

The Mint collects personal information directly from you when you fill in an application form, deal with us over the telephone, ask us to contact you after visiting our web site or have contact with us in person.

The type of personal information we may collect from you generally comprises name, address, gender, contact details (including phone, fax and e-mail).

How the Mint uses and disclose your personal information

We may use or disclose your personal information for purposes related or ancillary to the main purpose for which we collect it and where such use or disclosure would be reasonably expected by you, for example to:

• efficiently process your order for our products;
• help us to build a relationship with you;
• provide you with information on particular Mint products or services that you might be interesting in
• knowing about;
• assist in internal accounting and administration;
• conform with regulatory reporting and compliance requirements; and
• protect you and the Mint from fraud

Also, we sometimes outsource some of our internal functions and activities to other companies. In the course of doing this, we may disclose your personal information, such as name and address details, to enable the service provider to undertake that particular function (such as a mailing house mailing our brochures to your address).

The Mint's duty of confidentiality and your consent

The Mint has always believed that your privacy should be protected and your consent is important to us. Your consent may be implied or conveyed and may be verbal or written.

You imply consent where we may reasonably conclude that you have given consent by the actions you take or do not take. For example, where you enquire about a product or service, purchase a product or provide us with your contact details you consent to the Mint storing, using and disclosing your personal information to the extent necessary for us to provide that Mint product or service to you.

Direct marketing and your privacy

If you do not wish to receive direct marketing information from the Mint, please tell us. Our contact details, phone, postal address and e-mail address appear at the end of this Statement.

Quality, accuracy and correction of your personal information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you believe than any information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, please contact us and we will take steps to ensure it is corrected.

Security of your personal information

The Mint takes reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised disclosure or destruction. We have in place generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to keep your personal information safe.

Web site security and privacy

When you use our web site, our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

• your server address;
• your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc);
• the date and time of your visit to the site;
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded;
• the previous site visited; and
• the type of browser used.

This is used purely for statistical purposes to show broken links in our website, bottlenecks, and other site problems. We use this information to redesign for efficiency of use. No attempt will be made to identify users or your browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's logs.
We will only record your e-mail address and other personal information when you register with us requesting to be on our mailing list or when you purchase any products from our online internet shop. Your information will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and we will not use or disclose your e-mail address for any other purpose unless required by law to do so.

Our website uses "cookies" for maintaining contact with you through a website session. A cookie is a small file supplied by us and stored by the web browser software on your computer when you access our online internet shop. The cookie allows the Mint website to recognise you as an individual as you add and remove items from your shopping cart.

These cookies are currently set to persist for up to a maximum of 48 hours only. This information is only used to help you use our website systems more efficiently, not to track your movements through the internet, or to record private information about you.

All confidential information collected from you is done securely through using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. This ensures that all information is sent privately and securely to our server only.

We do not store your credit card information on the web server. Once your internet order has been processed, all details are deleted from the web server.

The Mint website also contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content from these web sites.

Access to your personal information

The Mint will, upon your request, and subject to applicable privacy laws, provide you with access to your personal information held by us. However, we ask that you identify, as clearly as possible, the type/s of information requested.

We will deal with your request to provide access to your personal information in a reasonable time - usually within 30 days of receipt of your request.

We will not charge you for lodging such a request but we may recover from you our reasonable costs incurred in supplying you with access to this information.

In certain circumstances, the law permits us to refuse your request to provide you with access to your personal information. Factors affecting your right to access include where:

• access would pose a serious threat to the life or health of any individual;
• access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others;
• the request is frivolous or vexatious;
• the information relates to a commercially sensitive decision making process;
• access would be unlawful; or
• access might prejudice enforcement activities, a security function or commercial negotiations.
  

General Information

We reserve the right to make changes to our Privacy Policy and Statement from time to time or as required by law.

You can obtain further general information about privacy protection from the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner by:

• calling their Privacy Hotline on 1300-363-992; or
• visiting their web site at www.privacy.gov.au, or
• by writing to:

  The Federal Privacy Commissioner
  GPO Box 5218
  Sydney NSW 1042
  

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT
Denison Street
Deakin
ACT 2600

Phone: 02 6202 6999
Fax: 02 6202 6953
Email: info@ramint.gov.au
Website: www.ramint.gov.au

May 2002