Privacy Statement
The Lawyers Real Estate privacy policy has been developed pursuant to the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
How we use Information
We obtain personal information from our clients to help us to provide an efficient and effective legal service. In order to provide our legal services, we may disclose your personal information to third parties (for example, clients’ personal details will usually appear in advertisements for property sales, vendor statements, and other material provided to the public in the course of the sale of real estate).
We declare and confirm that we do not sell any personal information collected from our clients.
Collecting and Retaining of Personal Information
Information collected by Lawyers Real Estate is for the purpose of facilitating the delivery of legal services to our clients.
Information is usually obtained directly from our clients, and will invariably include personal and sensitive information. Where the law requires that we obtain your consent to obtain certain information, we will seek your consent in writing.
Information may also be collected if you subscribe to any of our regular mail-outs, or attend at any of our seminars or client functions.
Information from the Internet
When you visit our website our computer may automatically obtain information from yours. Such information may include your internet address, your domain name (if applicable), and the site from which you accessed our website.
When you visit our website our computer attaches a ‘cookie’ to your computer’s memory. This is done to store information on how visitors to our website use our site, and to determine which of our pages are of most interest to our visitors. However, this information is not linked to any information you may provide and cannot be used to identify you.
Disclosure of Information
Where our legal services require information of a more sensitive nature being disclosed to a third party (for example a barrister who has been briefed on behalf of a client), we will ensure that such a party is bound by the same principles of confidentiality that we are bound to.
As legal practitioners, we are also bound by strict professional ethics and the provisions of the Legal Practice Act 1996 in relation to the protection of our clients’ interests, including matters of privacy.
Conveyancing privacy and document security
In any conveyancing transaction a client must provide a large amount of very personal information, and changes in legislation have brought this issue to the fore. (See “Data breach scheme to become law” in The Australian 13 February, 2017)
The Law Council of Australia warns all lawyers about cyber security, and has even gone to the trouble of providing this video.
Please watch the video, and you will see why we take cyber security so seriously:
One of the weak points in any conveyancing service is the use of email to deliver important documents to other parties. Email can be incorrectly addressed, forwarded to unauthorised parties, or intercepted. On top of this, it is almost impossible to track the movement of an email and its attachments once sent.
The only way to ensure that personal documents, and the private information they contain, are kept secure and accounted for is by storing them in a facility that allows access only to authorised parties, and with a tracking procedure that provides confirmation of movement and access.
This is why we use the Secure Document Exchange Portal, also known simply as the “SDX“.
Accessing Personal Information
You are entitled to seek access to the information we may have about you, subject to any exemptions under the Privacy Act. A request for access to your information will incur a reasonable fee for the provision of this service.
If access to information is refused, we will advise you of the exemptions under the Privacy Act that prevent your having access.
Accuracy of Information
We make every effort to ensure that the information we hold is correct, complete and current. If you become aware that any information requires updating or correction, please advise us as soon as possible.
Information Security
To ensure that personal information cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties, we keep information secure through the use of passwords, firewalls and regular software updates.
Please note that Lawyers Real Estate is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of any websites that may be linked to this website.
On-line Shopping
Lawyers Real Estate acknowledge that the responsible use of personal information collected on our website is critical to our business objectives and reputation. Any personal information this is provided by our online shopping clients will be used only to process orders, and is protected by our secure server.
To ensure that our online shopping clients can deal with us in complete confidence, our security policy is available for viewing on our Security Page.
Further Assistance
If you believe your privacy has been breached, or if you require the updating of your personal information, or you require assistance with regard to any privacy issues, please contact our Principal, Peter Mericka.
You can also write to:
Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner
Level 8, Piccadilly Tower
133 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000
See also the website of the Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.gov.au
