Privacy Statement

Australian Christian College (“the College”) is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most convenient and safe online experience. Australian Christian College is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988. This Privacy Statement applies to the Australian Christian College website and governs data collection and usage. By using the Australian Christian College website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

Australian Christian College collects personally identifiable information, such as your email address, name, home or work address or telephone number. Australian Christian College also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your postcode, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites.

We may also collect information you provide to us through online enquiry or registration forms via this website. With your knowledge and consent, this information may be used to help us share relevant information about the College, including through advertising services provided by third-party platforms.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Australian Christian College. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring web site addresses. This information is used by Australian Christian College for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Australian Christian College website.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through Australian Christian College public message boards, forums or groups, this information may be collected and used by other parties not affiliated with nor endorsed by Australian Christian College. Please note: Australian Christian College does not read any of your private online communications.

Australian Christian College encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from Australian Christian College so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. Australian Christian College is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on websites outside of the www.acc.edu.au domain and any other part of the Australian Christian College family of websites.

Use of your Personal Information

Australian Christian College collects and uses your personal information to operate the College website, deliver the services you have requested, and inform you of educational opportunities, events, products or services available from the College and its affiliates. The College may also contact you via surveys to gather feedback about current or potential services, and may use your information to reach similar audiences through secure, privacy-protected advertising platforms (see “Digital Advertising and Data Sharing” below). You may opt out of the College’s digital advertising practices at any time by contacting us, and we will action your request promptly.

Australian Christian College does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Australian Christian College may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (email, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, Australian Christian College may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Australian Christian College, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Australian Christian College does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Australian Christian College keeps track of the websites and webpages our customers visit within Australian Christian College, in order to determine what Australian Christian College services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customised content and advertising within Australian Christian College to customers whose behaviour indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Australian Christian College websites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Australian Christian College or the website; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Australian Christian College; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Australian Christian College, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The Australian Christian College website uses “cookies” to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a webpage server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific webpage. For example, if you personalise Australian Christian College webpages, or register with Australian Christian College site or services, a cookie helps Australian Christian College to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same Australian Christian College website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Australian Christian College features that you customised.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Australian Christian College services or web sites you visit.

Retargeting

Australian Christian College collects data about your activities that does not personally or directly identify you when you visit our website, or the websites and online services where we display advertisements. This information may include the content you view, the date and time that you view this content, the forms you submit, or services you use, or your location information associated with your IP address. We use the information we collect to serve you more relevant advertisements (referred to as “retargeting”). We collect information about where you saw the ads we serve you and what ads you clicked on. You may stop Australian Christian College from retargeting you by declining cookies on your web browser when on the Australian Christian College website.

Digital Advertising and Data Sharing

For personal information collected by Australian Christian College (“the College”) on or after 28/11/2025, the College may, from time to time, use limited contact information—such as a name, email address or phone number—to create advertising audiences on digital platforms including Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google. Information relating to students or minors is never included. This helps the College reach new audiences with similar characteristics to those who have already expressed interest in our schools.

Before any data is shared, personal identifiers are encrypted using a one-way hashing process (SHA-256). This means the data cannot be read in plain form and is only used by the receiving platform to find matching user accounts. The College does not receive any personal information back from these platforms. Although hashing adds a layer of protection, the College recognises that no method of transmission or storage is entirely risk-free. Once data is transferred, it is subject to the security practices and privacy policies of the relevant platform. In the unlikely event that such a platform were compromised, matched or uploaded data could be exposed to unauthorised parties.

The College does not sell, trade, or disclose personal information to advertising platforms for unrelated purposes. Data is only shared for the limited purpose of conducting digital outreach consistent with this Privacy Statement.

You may choose to opt out of having your personal information used for digital advertising audience creation on platforms such as Meta or Google. If you wish to opt out, please contact us at [email protected] and we will ensure your details are excluded from any future advertising audience uploads. This opt-out will not affect your access to College services or communications directly related to your enrolment or enquiry.

Security of your Personal Information

Australian Christian College secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. Australian Christian College secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Some third-party service providers we use for digital advertising and analytics may be located overseas. As a result, limited, one-way, SHA-256 hashed contact information may be disclosed to these providers in countries such as the United States, Ireland, or Singapore.

The College takes reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas providers handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Survey Participation

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving the quality of education and associated services offered by Australian Christian College, we may occasionally invite you to participate in surveys. Your participation in these surveys is entirely voluntary. The data collected through these surveys is used to better understand the needs, preferences and experiences of our users and to enhance our offerings. While all responses are typically anonymised and aggregated for analysis, there may be instances where we provide the option for users to voluntarily disclose their name and contact information in surveys. This allows us the opportunity to follow up on specific issues or feedback directly. We value your feedback and appreciate your contribution to our continuous improvement efforts. Your privacy is of utmost importance to us, and all survey data will be handled with the same care and security as described in this Privacy Statement.

Changes to this Statement

Australian Christian College will occasionally update this Privacy Statement to reflect company and customer feedback. Australian Christian College encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Australian Christian College is protecting your information.

Significant updates to this Privacy Statement, including any changes to the way we use personal data for digital advertising, will be clearly dated and published on our website in this Privacy Statement. Any new uses of personal information will apply prospectively from the date of publication.

Contact Information

Australian Christian College welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Statement. If you believe that Australian Christian College has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Australian Christian College at [email protected]. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.