Privacy Policy
NatureTrackers is a program of citizen science projects coordinated by the Bookend Trust. Through these projects, schools and the community can, together, track the status of our threatened species and better understand their needs.
The purpose of this privacy policy is to tell you what kind of information we collect from you, how we collect it, how we use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone else. It also explains how we store the information you provide to us, how you can access or correct it, and how you can contact us if you have questions or complaints.
We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and that any personal information we collect from you will be used in accordance with this privacy statement and Australian law.
What is your personal information?
In general terms, your personal information is any information or an opinion that can be used to personally identify you, whether the information is true or not, and whether it is recorded in material form or not. This could include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.
What personal information do we collect?
The types of personal information we collect include your name, telephone number, email address. We collect this information from you in a number of ways, including through your online interaction with us on our website, when you subscribe to NatureTrackers to receive our emails, social media sites, booking events, make donations to us, and during conversations between you and our representatives and when you apply to volunteer or work with us.
When you sign up to participate in NatureTrackers surveys, you use NatureTrackers and other apps, datasheets and online questionnaires to provide information that also includes location, date, time and photographs relating to your observations.
Where it is lawful and practicable to do so we will offer you the option of interacting with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym.
Sensitive information
We will not collect other sensitive information about you, including information about your political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record unless you have consented for us to do so.
How do we use your personal information?
We will collect your personal information when the information is reasonably necessary for any of the following purposes:
- Running our website and social media accounts;
- Communicating with you about NatureTrackers projects, partnerships, activities, and events;
- Keeping you up-to-date on a specific project that you have signed up to;
- Measuring and improving our effectiveness to engage visitors with our projects and educational resources;
- Processing your donations, and providing you with receipts
We will not sell, rent, loan or otherwise disclose your personal information to enable any third party to contact you on their own behalf unless required or permitted by Australian law.
This website is securely hosted in Australia by Webmistress. When you visit our website, naturetrackers.com.au, our website provider records a log which includes your IP address, date and time, type of web browser, and pages accessed. These logs are used to ensure secure and reliable operation of the website, are stored securely, and are deleted automatically within one month.
Our Where? Where? Wedgie! web app and app is securely hosted by Esk Spatial. They may record a log of your visit that includes your device type, browser, IP address and session information. Some of their services are hosted and managed outside Australia. If you provide information to the web app or app, you consent to this practice (unless another instrument denies this consent), understanding that your personal information may be accessible from or transmitted outside Australia.
When you subscribe to NatureTrackers, we collect your email address for the purpose of sending you news and updates about the projects. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time via links at the bottom of each email. We use MailChimp as our email newsletter system. Read about MailChimp’s information security practices.
You also provide personal information to the Where? Where? Wedgie! project through the Where? Where? Wedgie! app, web app and tailored data sheets. Information provided through these means is managed and stored long-term by Esk Spatial.
We will only store your personal information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. This storage period depends on the nature of the information collected and what it is being used for. We will undertake regular reviews of the personal information that we hold, and will delete personal information that is no longer required to be held.
Some of your Where? Where? Wedgie! survey data (including date, time and location) may be shared on public databases including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (“GBIF”). We will not share your contact details. We will provide you with the opportunity to permit us to include your name with your survey data, to acknowledge you by name in publications and reports, and to share your photographs. Without this permission, we will not publish your name and photographs.
We also invite you to provide observation data for NatureTrackers projects through the iNaturalist. This US-based app is used around the world, and has its own Privacy Policy. Data submitted to these iNaturalist projects may be used to help track changes in species’ population size and distribution, but no component of records that have been recorded as ‘Private’ will be made publicly accessible.
NatureTrackers also collaborates with social science researchers, to help improve the engagement and efficacy of our projects. If you have subscribed to NatureTrackers, we may occasionally invite you to contribute to a social science questionnaire. Details of the specific research organisation’s privacy policy will be provided as part of the questionnaire.
Cookies
There are two types of cookies: session cookies (stored in memory; lost when you close your browser) and persistent cookies (saved on your computer for a defined duration). Session cookies enable functionality such as the ability to login to a website. Persistent cookies are used by a website to “remember” information between visits.
When you visit this website, we use Google Analytics to collect website statistics and visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to determine which areas of our website have been visited and to measure transaction patterns, gather broad demographic information and generally improve your online experience. This data is collected in aggregate only, and we make no attempt to identify individual people from this data. Google Analytics sets persistent cookies (_gat_gtag, _gid, _ga) which help it collect information about how people use this website. Find out more about how Google uses data it receives from websites. If you wish to opt-out of sending information to Google Analytics, Google provides a browser add-on for this purpose.
Additionally, the Where? Where? Wedgie! web app uses cookies to enable necessary features such as your log in.
Data quality and security
Your connections both to our website https://naturetrackers.com.au and to https://webapp.naturetrackers.com.au are protected using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). You can confirm this by checking for the presence of “https” and the padlock symbol in your browser’s address bar.
When we collect personal information from you, we expect you will only provide information that is accurate, complete and up to date. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is correct and relevant.
We will take reasonable precautions to maintain the confidentiality of all the information that we hold about you, and will endeavour to protect the information from misuse, interferences and loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Your personal information is securely held by the Bookend Trust, with access restricted to authorised staff only. Where personal information is stored by third parties, we take steps to ensure that it is securely stored.
Esk Spatial commits to safeguarding your personal information provided through the Where? Where? Wedgie! web app and app from loss, theft, unauthorised use, disclosure or modification as stated:
- “System security. We take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to our online and computerised systems by using measures such as firewalls and password restricted access.
- Third parties. We take reasonable steps to ensure that third parties who store or assist us to store your personal information adopt appropriate security measures.”
Other websites
This website contains links to other, external websites. This may include links not protected by SSL. The Bookend Trust is not responsible for the content and the privacy practices of other websites and we encourage you to examine each website’s privacy policy.
Additionally NatureTrackers will make significant use of various third party websites to publish content. This includes Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, EventBrite, DonorBox, iNaturalist, Google Maps, MailChimp, Survey Monkey, Google Calendar. No third party content from these sites is directly embedded in this website, https://naturetrackers.com.au/, without your knowledge; all references to such content are presented as external links which you may choose to utilise if you wish.
Contact details
All queries, corrections, or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy, or requests for access to, or correction of, personal information should be directed to NatureTrackers through the Bookend Trust:
The Bookend Trust
School of Natural Sciences
University of Tasmania
Private Bag 55
Hobart, Tasmania 7001
hello@naturetrackers.au
Review
This Privacy Policy will be reviewed regularly and updated as necessary.
