http://www.indiegogo.com/project/share/450561
DISCOVER SPECIAL VALUE
PRIVACY POLICY
Service providers and other businesses
Use and disclosure of information
Application of Policy
The Discover Special Value website is managed by the Discover Value business.
The website and business are both referred to as the ‘Discover Special Value website’ or ‘website’ in this Policy. The website provides ‘website services’ to its own customers.
Nature of Policy
This Policy sets out how customers’ personal information is managed by the Discover Special Value website. The Policy forms part of the Terms and Conditions.
Scope of Policy
The Policy only applies to website services provided to customers. Customers include anyone who has provided the website with personal information for any reason, for example, any person, organisation, business or entity (‘customers’).
Purpose of Policy
A primary purpose of collecting personal information is to use this information so website services are properly managed, developed and maintained. Protection of personal information and confidentiality is very important and is taken very seriously.
It is recommended that customers familiarise themselves with the Policy on regular occasions.
Personal information
Information which is personal information and relates to the identity of a customer is personal information. This information is a customer’s name, phone number, email address, location address details, bank details and account details (eg; card, billing and payment information), personal preference or interest information or other information specific to individuals which can identify them.
Customers are either general customers or business customers.
General customers can select types of accounts in the following categories;
• general customer account (free account with specific services); or
• general member account (member account with a specific mix of free and paid services).
Business customers can select types of accounts in the following categories;
• business customer account (free account with a specific services); or
• business member accounts (member accounts with a specific mix of free and paid services).
Further information about types of website accounts is in the Terms and Conditions and on the website.
Customers’ personal information
Customers by their agreement to the website Terms and Conditions expressly consent that their personal information can be collected, stored, disclosed and used by the website in the manner set out in this Policy.
A general customer account includes a customer’s name, email address, and contact details and therefore includes personal information. A username is also generated for website use.
Customers can control the level to which they display their personal information publicly from their website account. It is strongly suggested customers take care with how they present their personal information publicly from the website.
Customers must promptly update their personal information if it changes by altering their customer account details.
Customer login from other services
Customers may login to the website via third party business accounts that have been set up for this purpose (for example, facebook). This requires customers who have those accounts to arrange for the Discover Special Value website to have access to their third party business account login details, and any other personal account information so that arrangements can be made for these services.
Younger persons
The Discover Special Value website welcomes interaction with younger persons when they use non commercial website services. However, with commercial services (eg; transactions) only persons aged over 18 years are permitted to use those services. Persons under 18 should not submit personal information to the website.
Customers’ public information
When customers post any information publicly on the website, then this information remains posted. Therefore, it is also recommended that customers take care in how they post publicly viewable information in any website messages or in other ways where it is able to be publicly viewed.
For important reasons the Discover Special Value website requires information entered into account profiles or posted elsewhere on the website to meet certain standards, for example, the form or manner of expression of information. There are dashboard editing tools available to assist members set out the content of their account profiles.
There is also further information available about these requirements in the Terms and Conditions, and in the Customer Support section of the website. Any questions customers have can be referred to Customer Support.
Communication with customers
The Discover Special Value website will use customers’ website email accounts to send customers information about Privacy Policy issues from time to time.
Messaging services
For customers that have access to the website messaging service as part of their account services they can use this service for communication purposes. For example, customers and business members that are service providers can use this messaging service for sending or receiving website messages about special services requests.
Customers will need to disclose some personal information when they use the special services request process. After they accept a quote from a preferred service provider they need to provide the service provider with their contact details so the completion phase of the process can commence.
Customer contacts
If customers import contact lists into their Discover Special Value website email account then information associated with that service will be collected and stored on the website for use by participating customers.
Service providers
All business members are required to have a business membership account and have specific business details in their website business profile before the profile is publicly viewable.
Business members that are providers of services (‘service providers’) can register their own business services on the website in their business member profile for customers to access and use. In this way their customers (‘service provider customers’) can purchase products and services from them using the website.
The management of personal information and privacy of service provider customers is the responsibility of service providers. Customers should consider being familiar with the privacy policies of service providers when they obtain products or services from them.
Service providers may request the Discover Special Value website to store personal information of their customers on the website as part of arrangements to provide services from the website.
In this case, the personal information of these customers does not belong to the Discover Special Value website. Therefore, their consent is required for the storage of their personal information on the website. Service providers therefore will need to;
• provide the Discover Special Value website with the consent or authorisation of their customers for their personal information to be stored; and
• agree they remain responsible for the personal information of their customers whilst it is stored.
Third party businesses
Other businesses provide business support services to the website, for example, marketing services, technical support services, back up and security arrangements, maintenance of databases, processing customer analytical data and information, processing payments, maintenance of hardware and software systems, and other technical support activities.
Third party businesses involved in these activities may at times have access to personal information as this information may need to be accessed as part of their website support activities. The businesses are contractually required to only use personal information for those support activities they are engaged to carry out, and are required not to use or disclose this information for any other purpose.
Discover Special collects personal information from its own customers as this is necessary to provide them with the website services they require. The reasons for this requirement are set out in this Policy and the Terms and Conditions.
The sources from where personal information is collected include;
• customer or member accounts;
• membership information;
• financial information;
• use of the website by customers;
• transactions;
• customer communication and inquiries;
• customer collaboration activities;
• sales and purchases made by customers;
• third party businesses;
• service providers;
• public records;
• other website processes.
The website collects;
• technical information: this includes analytics information and data from the use of the website by customers and other website users such as IP addresses, domain names, URL links, types of browsers, page views details, operating system details, connection and device information used to access services, geo-location information and other non personal, statistical information; and
• information from cookies and web beacon files. These files are used for some website functional purposes such as monitoring website data use, for use in monitoring marketing campaigns, and for monitoring website user patterns. This information may be combined with personal information.
Customers can change their settings to manage or delete some of these files if they can be deleted (eg; cookies). Deletion of some file types may affect the ability of the website to provide the same level of functional services to those customers who make alterations to their services depending on the nature of the changes or deletions.
Payment processing
The processing of payments by customers of payments by credit card and by other processes is carried out by an independent secure financial payment gateway service provided by a third party business. Those transactions are carried out so that personal information such as credit card payment information, card numbers, expiration dates and other financial information for processing payments is not collected to be stored on the website.
Use of information
Personal information is used for website services such as;
• information or data retrieval, use, management and storage;
• database management;
• managing customer and member accounts;
• membership services;
• internal processes and transactions;
• customised or personalised services;
• customer support and inquiries;
• messaging and networking;
• social media processes (eg; login via alternative business accounts);
• communication with customers;
• meeting regulatory requirements;
• internal monitoring and reporting;
• other related website services.
Combined information
Some information is combined with different types of information in order to provide website services for different purposes. Some information may be combined with the same type of information, or one type of information may be combined with one or more types of other information. For example, personal information may be combined with non personal information.
Technical information is collected and may for certain purposes be combined and used with other information to better understand more about how general users of the website and customers are accessing and using the website services. This provides opportunities for improved services and specific or customised services to be provided.
Sharing of information
Combined or aggregated information may be shared that does not contain personal information. Combined or aggregated information (non personal information) may be used for business related services such as promotional, marketing, advertising, demographic analysis, survey analysis and other business purposes.
Website processes - special services requests
Customers that arrange to have special services requests carried out using the website services need to provide some personal information during the process in order for the process to be completed. Personal information may not be required to be provided initially in some cases when customers’ seek quotes from service providers prior to the quote being accepted.
Importantly, customers remain in control of what personal information will be disclosed by them during the process so they can monitor when, and if, they will provide this information to a service provider. This is because the website messaging services makes this option possible. This is unless customers decide to provide personal information at this earlier stage of the process to service providers.
However, customers may need to in some cases provide some personal information to a proposed service provider during the quoting part of the process in order for the quote to be finalised (eg; for an inspection to be arranged).
As the customers are in control of selecting service providers for their requests the Discover Special Value website is not directly involved in this selection process. This means customers make the decision whether they will disclose personal information to a potential service provider or not.
When a customer is satisfied with the quote received and the arrangements for the works to be carried out, then the quote can be accepted by them by sending the service provider a website message accepting the quote.
The disclosure of personal information will occur when customers select a quote from a service provider using the website services. The internal website messaging service will when it sends an acceptance message include some personal information with the message. This information is required to enable service providers to have direct contact with customers during the completion phase of the services.
However, prior to this stage, customers may decide not to disclose their personal information to a potential service provider in which case the request process will not proceed to an acceptance phase.
Other disclosure circumstances
There may be circumstances where there may be a requirement imposed on the Discover Special Value website to release or disclose personal information. In this situation a customer’s consent may not be required. This may occur as a result of a;
• legal or statutory process requirement for release or disclosure; or
• an external formal process affecting the business (eg; statutory or other formal business process) requiring release or disclosure of the information.
There can also be circumstances where it could be necessary to disclose or release personal information due to exceptional circumstances beyond the control of the Discover Special Value website at the time (eg; security or safety of personal information, or customers). If these circumstances occur, affected customers will be notified as soon as possible.
Links to third party business websites
The website may link to other websites. Customers can click links to these other websites (eg; through advertising links) to be directed to them. However, this Policy does not apply to the use of these linked websites by customers. This is because the Discover Special Value website has no control over the information management procedures (eg; personal privacy or personal information use) on other websites. It is recommended customers read the relevant privacy policies of other websites before visiting or using them.
Marketing services and communications
Personal information is not disclosed for marketing purposes without a customer’s consent. Where customers choose to receive marketing services personal information will be used to direct the required services to customers.
Customers can indicate when establishing a customer account or at other times whether they will accept marketing communications. For example, by clicking the relevant website authorisation tick box. If a customer does not want to receive this form of communication then the box can be left unticked/unchecked.
If a customer chooses to accept marketing communications, then options will be available for them to choose the marketing communication service they want to use. For example, how the information is to be sent (eg; email or text).
Where there are multiple marketing services available at a particular time, customers will have options to select different types of services (eg; special value feature offers, newsletters, referral options, advanced marketing notifications, or other offers or promotional information).
If a customer consents to receive marketing services from selected third party businesses (eg, partner businesses), then personal information will be forwarded securely to those businesses so they can provide their services to the relevant customers.
Altering or discontinuing marketing services
Customers can choose to opt out of marketing services at any time to discontinue those services by forwarding a request using a website form to Customer Support. Alternatively, customers can unsubscribe from a service using the unsubscribe option on electronic information they have received.
Referrals
The website includes special value features which are available for use by customers and service providers in referral programs. Referrals can be sent as part of a customer referral process, for example, to a person or business (‘friend’) who may or may not be a customer or member. In the situation where the friend is not a customer or member, the friend’s personal information details (eg; email address) whilst required for the purpose of sending a message are not permanently stored on the website. These details are not used for further marketing purposes without the friend’s consent.
Therefore, following the referral request, an electronic message will be sent only once to a customers’ friend using the contact details (eg; email address) provided by the customer for this purpose. The personal information is used only for that purpose unless the friend requests website services. Alternatively, the customer’s friend can request the removal of the personal information from the website.
Affiliate programs
If customers agree to participate in a website affiliate program then their personal information will be used for this purpose.
As protection of personal information and confidentiality is very important and is taken very seriously the website has industry standard security practices and procedures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, use or disclosure.
This includes password encryption software, secure sockets layer (SSL) systems, monitoring software, backup systems, firewalls and other security systems and services.
This approach to information security means the Discover Special Value website systems;
• do not store customers’ banking account details (eg; credit card information, account numbers, login, password, card identification numbers or other related payment or banking information) on the website;
• do not send email or texts to customers requesting card or bank account details, or send any requests for other personal information in this way; and
• incorporate other important security features.
System security
Notwithstanding these security features, the Discover Special Value website does not guarantee absolute security of its security systems or services at all times against unauthorised access. If customers have any security questions they can be forwarded to Customer Support.
Access, correction or removal of information
Customers are required to keep their personal information and related information up to date, accurate and correct at all times as part of their use of the website.
Customers with a website account can access their account details and update the personal information in their account. Customers can access their other personal information stored on the website by forwarding a request to Customer Support outlining the nature of their request.
Customers may also request removal of their personal information from the website. If there is no business reason why this should not occur, or no technical reason why this information cannot be fully removed, then the request can be processed. If for any reason the information could not be fully removed then it would be removed from public view.
Removal of this information may occur over several working days as it is necessary as part of this process for emails or other communications to also be forwarded to customers that make these requests outlining the process and to receive confirmation from them about the process to take regarding their information.
Where customers have added information to the website (ie; non personal information) then this website content will remain after a request for removal of personal information is completed and the customer’s account is closed.
Revision of Privacy Policy
This Policy may be updated from time to time as necessary to reflect changes in privacy obligations and responsibilities or changes to website information procedures. If any major changes are made to the Policy customers with accounts will be notified by use of the website email messaging service by an email sent to their customer account email address. This will include details of the Policy changes, or alternatively they will be provided with a link from the email message to information posted on the website. Details of when the Policy changes take place will be included with that information.
Further information about privacy responsibilities and principles is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: http://www.oaic.gov.au
If customers have any inquiries concerning this Policy, their personal information or anything else about the website services they can visit the Customer Support section of the website for further information or contact Customer Support.
DISCOVER SPECIAL VALUE
REFUND POLICY
Application of Policy
The Discover Special Value website is managed by the Discover Value business.
The website and business are both referred to as the ‘Discover Special Value website’ or ‘website’ in this Policy. The website provides ‘website services’ to its own customers.
Nature of Policy
This Policy sets out how Discover Special Value website manages refunds.
The Policy forms part of the Terms and Conditions.
Scope of Policy
The Policy only applies to refunds relating to website services provided by the Discover Special Value website to its customers (‘customers’). More information about customers is set out below.
The Policy also refers to services supplied by businesses that are registered to provide services from the website as service providers.
Purpose of the Policy
Australian businesses are required to apply consumer protection responsibilities by the Commonwealth government. These responsibilities require them to deliver their services at an acceptable service level for their customers (ie; level of service).
Consumer guarantees and refunds
The level of service businesses need to deliver to their customers forms part of a customer guarantee. This is based on what is arranged between customers and businesses. However, this guarantee does not require a business to provide a refund if a customer changes their mind after completing a purchase.
Customers
Customers are either general customers or business customers.
General customers can select types of accounts in the following categories;
- general customer account (free account with specific services); or
- general member account (member account with a specific mix of free and paid services).
Business customers can select types of accounts in the following categories;
- business customer account (free account with a specific services); or
- business member accounts (member accounts with a specific mix of free and paid services).
Further information about types of website accounts is in the Terms and Conditions and on the website.
REFUNDS - DISCOVER SPECIAL VALUE
The Discover Special Value website adds value to its website services by using special value features.
In this way and by using other value-adding services the Discover Special Value website aims to meet;
- the level of service customers were expecting and potentially exceed those expectations; and
- its consumer protection responsibilities.
The Discover Special Value website is not required by the consumer protection responsibilities to provide a refund if a customer changes their mind after completing a purchase of its website services. For example, the purchase of a membership subscription service.
Therefore, a refund will only be given in these circumstances at the discretion of the Discover Special Value website.
Customer concerns
If a customer has a major problem with how the Discover Special Value website business has carried out website services which cannot be fixed, or fixed within a reasonable time by the business, a customer may choose to seek other solutions including a refund from the business.
REFUNDS – SERVICE PROVIDERS
Business members as service providers
Business members may register their own business services on the website in a business member profile as service providers. As service providers they then have access to the special value feature process.
The use of these features can potentially increase their level of service for their customers when they purchase products and services from them using the website services.
Level of service
The Discover Special Value website aims to only register businesses that provide services from the website that consistently meet;
- level of service their customers were expecting for those services; and
- consumer protection responsibilities they have as businesses.
Service provider refund inquiries
If customers of service providers have inquiries or questions about refunds for any products or services they received from service providers these can be followed up directly by contacting the business concerned.
CUSTOMER REVIEW PROCESS
On the completion of services by service providers their customers can use the website review process to provide feedback about services. This is an important way for the website and the businesses to have valuable feedback from customers to assist in providing better overall long term services.
FURTHER INFORMATION
More information about consumer protection responsibilities is available from;
If any customers have questions or queries about refunds or website services they can visit the Customer Support section of the website for further information or contact Customer Support.