Privacy policy

1. Introduction

AIR Detox (we or us) is committed to best practice in relation to the management of information we collect. We have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information. A copy of the Australian Privacy Principles may be obtained from the website of The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/. 

Our policy is to inform you of:

• the kinds of information that we collect and hold;
• how we collect and hold personal information;
• the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
• how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;
• how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;
• whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients;

Our Privacy Policy intends to cover how we handle personal information. It is not intended to disclose how we handle other types of information.

If you would like to access this Privacy Policy in an alternative format, please contact us using the AIR Detox company details supplied at the end of this document. 

2. What kinds of personal information do we collect?

The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

• Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• Medicare number, DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health information about you, including:
  • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you
  • your specialist reports and test results
  • your appointment and billing details
  • your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases
  • your dental records
  • your genetic information
  • your healthcare identifier 
  • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

3. How do we collect and hold personal information?

We will generally collect personal information from:

• you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a 
  • face-to-face discussion
  • video or telephone conversations
  • email or facsimile communications
  • paper-based and electronic forms (including online forms)
  • our website
  • social media accounts 
• a person responsible for you
• third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it. This may include, but is not limited to: other members of your treating team, diagnostic centres, specialists, hospitals, the My Health Record system, electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

4. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide health services to you
• to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided to you
• to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation. 
• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our ITC systems
• for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your healthcare; 
• to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories
•  for identification and insurance claiming 
•  If you have a My Health Record, to upload your personal information to, and download your personal information from, the My Health Record system.
•  Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service. 
• To liaise with your health fund, government and regulatory bodies such as Medicare, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (if you make a privacy complaint to the OAIC), as necessary.

We will only use or disclose your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected. We will only disclose your personal information for another purpose where we are able to do so in accordance with the Privacy Act. 

5. How can you access and correct your personal information?

You have a right to seek access to, and correction of the personal information which we hold about you. It is important that your information that we hold, use or disclose is accurate, up-to-date and complete. 

For details on how to access and correct your health record, please contact us as noted below under ‘Contact Details’. We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.

Access and changes to you personal information may not be granted if we consider there to be a sound reason under the Privacy Act or any other relevant law that requires us to withhold the information, or not make changes. An example of this may be if your personal information includes personal details of another individual, or where refusal is required or authorised by the Freedom and Information Act or any other Law. 

If we do not provide you with access to your information, or refuse to correct your personal information, where reasonable we will: 

• provide you with a written notice as to the reasons for refusal 
• at your request, take reasonable steps to associate a statement with the personal information that you believe to be inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading 
• provide you with information on how to make a complaint. 

6. How do we hold and destroy your personal information?

Our staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.  Access to personal records are restricted to to employees or contractors on a ‘need to know’ basis. We protect your information using password protection for electronic files and securing any paper copies in locked cabinets. 

We take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information if we no longer need it for the purpose for which it was collected, unless required or authroised by or under law or court/tribunal order to retain information. 

7. Privacy related questions and complaints 

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, you may lodge your complaint in writing to (see below for details).  We will normally respond to your request within 30 days. 

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:

Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint

8. Anonymity and pseudonyms

The Privacy Act provides that individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with our practice, except in certain circumstances, such as where it is impracticable for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself.

9. Overseas disclosure.

We may disclose your personal information to the following overseas recipients:

• any practice or individual who assists us in providing services (such as where you have come from overseas and had your health record transferred from overseas or have treatment continuing from an overseas provider) 
• overseas transcription services
• overseas based cloud storage
• anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it, or if required to by law. 

10. Updates to this Policy

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website. 

11. Cookies Policy

Our website uses cookies, tracking pixels and similar technologies. By using this site, you consent to the use of these cookies, tracking pixels and technologies. 

Cookies are created when a user’s browser loads a particular website. The website sends information to the browser which then creates a text file. Every time the user goes back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website’s server. Computer cookies are created not just by the website the user is browsing but also by other websites that run ads, widgets, or other elements on the page being loaded. These cookies regulate how the ads appear or how the widgets and other elements function on the page. [This information has been taken from https://allaboutcookies.org/ which explain what Cookies are and how they are used].

When using this website, we may store a number of cookies on your web browser for the following purposes: 

• to enable certain functions on the website
• to understand how people use the site through the use of Google Analytics
• to store preferences
• to enable advertising on other services, such as the Google Display Network and social channels, such as Facebook and Instagram.

How to control the use of Cookies

• You can delete and reject the use of cookies using your web browser. This article provides information about how to manage and delete cookies using different web browsers https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-manage-cookies
• You can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google Ad Setting page – https://myadcenter.google.com/
• You can also use a Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Ad-On to prevent data from being used by Google Analytics – https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

We use Google cookies and Meta cookies for analytics and advertising purposes. Here is more information about how Google uses cookies and how to manage these cookies: https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies.Here is more information about how Meta (Facebook, Instagram) uses cookies and how to manage these cookies: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policies/cookies

12. Contact details for privacy related issues

If you believe that we have breached the APPS or mishandled your personal information contact us using the contact details in the table below. 

Any privacy concerns should be reported directly to us in the first instance. Write to us using the contact details in the table below outlining your privacy concerns. 

AIR Detox Contact Details: 

Email: start@airdetox.com.au
Postal Address: AIR Detox, PO Box 2928, Burleigh Waters, QLD 4220
Phone: 0415 617 313

Please provide your contact details so we can respond to you directly. If your complaint is anonymous we may not be able to fully investigate and respond to you. 

We will acknowledge your concern or complaint upon receipt. This may involve email or telephone communications with you. We will endeavour to investigate and resolve your concern or complaint in a reasonable and timely manner. 

We will use the information you provide in your complaint to provide feedback to our team and improve business practices. If you are not satisfied with our response you can complain directly to the OAIC using the details in the table below. Please note that OACI usually requires you to raise any complaint with us first, before asking them to investigate. 

OAIC Contact Details 

Email: enquires@oaic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 363 992
Postal Address: Australian Information Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Sydney NSW 2001