Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy sets out how COST-BRY Pty Ltd ACN 630 632 610 (trading as BiomeBank) (‘BiomeBank’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) will collect and handle your personal information, including sensitive and health information. It describes the types of information we collect and hold and why we do so, how we keep the information secure, how to access and correct the information, and how to make a complaint.
We will abide by the Australian Privacy Principles for the protection of personal information, as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other relevant law.
In this Privacy Policy, references to ‘you’ or ‘your’ are references to our (or potential) donors, research participants, customers, contractors, suppliers or employees, users of our website and any other individual we deal with in the course of managing our organisation and providing our services.
1. Personal Information
Personal Information is any information or an opinion, in any form and whether true or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. In this Privacy Policy, a reference to personal information includes a reference to sensitive and health information.
Sensitive Information is a subset of Personal Information which is afforded a higher level of protection under the Australian Privacy Principles. This includes information which relates to an individual’s race or ethnic origin, political opinions or memberships of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record, health information, genetic information that is not otherwise health information about an individual and biometric information.
Health Information is Personal Information that is information or an opinion about the physical, mental or psychological health of an individual, including an illness, disability or injury of an individual, an individual’s expressed wishes for the future provision of their healthcare, or a health service provided to an individual. Health Information also includes Personal Information that is collected to provide a health service or in connection with the donation of an individual’s body parts, organs or body substances, or Personal Information that is genetic information about an individual that is predictive of the individual’s health.
2. Types of Personal Information we collect
The Personal Information BiomeBank collects will depend on who you are and the purpose for which it is collected. We only collect Personal Information that is reasonably necessary to perform our functions or activities, or to comply with law. For example:
• Personal Information from individuals placing an order (on behalf of themselves or a third party) for our products on our website;
• Personal Information from individuals via the Stool Donor Screening Form on our website to assess their suitability as a donor;
• Personal Information from donors or research participants;
• Personal Information from individuals who are interested in working for us and sign up for our careers mailing list;
• Personal Information from individuals filling out the Investment Contact form (on behalf of themselves or a third party) on our website or shareholders;
• Personal Information from individuals who enter into service agreements or other transactions with us; and
• Personal Information from individuals using the Contact form on our website.
Example of the kinds of Personal Information we may collect and hold include:
• your name, date of birth and gender; and
• your contact information including address, postcode, email, telephone number and mobile number.
We may also collect the following types of Personal Information from you if you are a:
Donor/research participant:
• your health information and medical history, biospecimen samples, biometric information, lifestyle information; and
• your opinions via surveys and questionnaires.
Job applicant, employee, contractor:
• your employment history, qualifications, resume and job references;
• your fitness for work, including police checks and security information from government agencies or departments,
health assessments and other Personal Information as part of your job application;
• your banking details to process payments such as wages; and
• government related identifiers, such as your Tax File Number.
3. Collection of Personal Information
3.1 From you
Where reasonably practicable, we will collect your Personal Information directly from you. This may be in person, on telephone, by mail or online via our website. By using our services or contacting us via our website you are deemed to have consented to our use, disclosure and other matters in relation to your Personal Information, as set out in this Privacy Policy. We will ensure that we have obtained your consent prior to collecting any Sensitive Information.
3.2 From third parties
Circumstances in which we may collect Personal Information about you from someone else include:
- receiving third party personal information from our employees and contractors, such as emergency contacts (e.g. next of kin); or
- collecting Personal Information from third party service providers;
If we collect Personal Information about you from someone else, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are aware that we have collected the information.
4. Purposes for which Personal Information is collected
BiomeBank will only use or disclose Personal Information which has been collected and is held by it for:
- the purpose for which it was collected;
- any related purpose for which it would reasonably be expected to be used or disclosed;
- a purpose required or permitted by law; or
- a purpose for which the individual has provided consent.
The purposes for which we collect and use your Personal Information include the following purposes:
- manufacturing: to manufacture our products;
- research and development: to conduct research and development into microbial therapies and related drugs;
- orders: to process orders of our products;
- employment or engagement: to manage queries from or about a prospective, current or past employee or contractor;
- investment: to provide information about a potential investment in BiomeBank;
- shareholders: for records keeping and reporting; and
- other purposes: for example to communicate with individuals in relation to our operations, activities, objectives or their enquiries, to verify their identity, to improve and evaluate our services, to manage third party service agreement or other transactions, reporting and to comply with applicable laws.
Whenever practicable, we will provide you with a collection statement setting out the purpose for the collection and how you can contact us regarding your Personal Information.
5. Disclosure of Personal Information to third parties
In order to carry out our services and for the purposes explained above, we may disclose Personal Information to:
- manufacturers who manufacture our products on our behalf using Personal Information;
- investors will receive certain company information which may include Personal Information;
- our agents and professional advisers;
- government agencies and regulatory authorities;
- contractors and service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as mailing houses, printers, information and web-based technology services providers, archiving services, database contractors and marketing agencies
- otherwise where you have consented to the disclosure.
We require our service providers to keep Personal Information confidential and not use it for any purpose other than performing those services.
6. Transfer or disclosure of Personal Information outside of Australia
From time to time, we may disclose Personal Information to individuals and organisations who are located outside of Australia. The locations of such individuals and organisations change from time to time, however BiomeBank will take steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the relevant Australian Privacy Principles in relation to the Personal Information.
The kinds of individuals and organisations to whom we may transfer/disclose information outside of Australia include the third parties noted in section 5 above
7. Website Cookies and Third-Party Websites
BiomeBank’s website may use cookies for site administration purposes. For example, cookies may be used to collect information about your visit to the website, such as your internet protocol (IP) address, how you arrived at the website (for example, through a search engine or a link from another website) and how you navigate within the website. No Personal Information is obtained.
This information is collected in order to compile statistics about the patterns of usage of visitors to the website which can be used by us to provide improved service and content based on user site traffic patterns.
If for any reason you do not wish to take advantage of cookies, you may block or disable the cookies (if you do so, you may not be able to use certain features and functions of our website).
Websites that may be accessible via hyperlinks from our website are owned and operated by third parties and are not subject to this Privacy Policy. We have no control over the content of those websites. You should review the privacy policy of each individual website you access before you use these websites.
8. Storage and security of Personal Information
BiomeBank stores Personal Information in both hardcopy and electronic form. We implement physical and electronic measures to protect this information. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information that we hold is protected from misuse, interference, and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, use and disclosure (a data breach). Despite these steps and measures, a data breach may occur. We have procedures in place which have to be followed if we become aware of an actual or suspected data breach.
Because of the nature of our services and the purposes for which we collect Personal Information, we are generally required to retain and hold much of this information for certain periods prescribed by relevant laws.
9. Access to your Personal Information
We will, upon your request, and subject to any exemptions in applicable privacy laws, provide you with access to the Personal Information that we hold about you. We will need to first identify you and know the types of information you require access to. We will endeavour to deal with access requests within 30 days. We may charge for our reasonable costs incurred in giving access to the information.
There may be situations where we are not required to provide you with access to your Personal Information. We will provide you with an explanation if we deny you access to the Personal Information we hold about you and how you can make a complaint.
10. Updating and correcting your Personal Information
You can ask us to correct or update Personal Information we hold about you at any time. We will need to verify your identity before making any corrections or changes to your information. We will take reasonable steps to correct Personal Information we hold once we have been notified that it is inaccurate, out-of-date, incomplete or irrelevant or misleading.
If you require access to, or wish to update your Personal Information, please contact us at the details provided in section 11 below. If we refuse your request, we will notify you of our reasons.
11. Contact or complaints
12. Updates to and availability of this Privacy Policy
This policy was updated in March 2024