Privacy Policy

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This Privacy Policy outlines how GHD¹ and its related entities and affiliates (collectively “GHD”) collects, uses and stores personal information in the course of its business from employees, applicants for employment, contractors, clients, suppliers and other individuals (referred to as “you” or “your” in this Privacy Policy).

GHD respects and upholds your right to privacy protection. GHD recognises applicable local laws and regulations and relevant data protection standards in respect of the collection, use, disclosure storage and transfer of personal information from individuals.

This Privacy Policy details the practices we have adopted to protect your privacy so that you can understand how we manage your “personal information”, any “personally identifiable information” or “personal data” (as defined under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation or “GDPR”) (together collectively referred to as “personal information” in this Privacy Policy), you entrust to us.

This Privacy Policy also sets out how you can contact us in relation to your personal information and, if requested by you, opt-out of this Privacy Policy, limit the use of, or amend, any personal information we may have about you.

By providing us with personal information about yourself through our website, any GHD webpage or otherwise, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and transfer of that personal information as set out in this Policy. If at any time, you wish to withdraw your consent to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and transfer of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, you may opt-out by contacting us (refer to the Contact Us information below) or by immediately ceasing to provide any further personal information about yourself to GHD via its website or otherwise.

COVID-19 Response
In the interest of protecting our employee’s health and discharging our duty of care to invitees to our premises, GHD may, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, collect and use additional sensitive personal information from our employees and visitors [to be specified if possible, e.g. such as whether they have flu-like symptoms, have been in contact with anyone infected with COVID-19, or travelled to a high-risk area]. Only the minimum necessary personal information reasonably necessary in order to prevent or manage COVID-19 in the workplace will be collected, used or disclosed. It will be managed in accordance with this policy and it will only be disclosed to the persons who need to have access to such personal information for the performance of their duties. The primary purpose for collection of that additional information is to ensure that necessary precautions are adopted in relation to that individual and any other individuals. Under most jurisdictions an exemption from any requirement for consent to collect and use is permitted in circumstances of serious threat to health or safety of an individual. GHD will comply with an specific COVID-19 guidance issued by a relevant regulator.

Overview of this Policy

1. When do we collect and store personal information?

Personal information is any information that can be used to identify you (either directly or indirectly), and may be collected directly from you, by a third party you have given consent to disclosing your personal information, or by a credit agency, government or statutory body.

We collect and store personal information (including names, telephone numbers, address, email address, occupation, education and qualifications, etc) in a range of contexts, such as:

when entering into relationships with new clients or potential clients
when individuals apply for employment or other business opportunities with us
when individuals register online for access to secure sites or collaboration services hosted by GHD or third parties on behalf of GHD including, GHD Clientnet™, ProjectWise, BIM360, ArcGIS Online, or other services, and
when we conduct surveys, community consultation, environmental and other studies as part of our business

2. What do we do with personal information?

We may use your personal information:

to enable us to provide services to you or our clients
to communicate information about our services
for our internal administrative, planning, product development, marketing and research requirements, or
to consider the suitability of applicants for employment with us, which may be processed by third parties engaged to undertake pre-employment screening services, or for any other reason you allow or consent us to

As an example, one of the key objectives of GHD’s website is to provide information about who we are, what we do and our local and global professional capabilities. We may collect personal information to update our website and in order to provide relevant information about GHD, our services, our key people in our regions or our capabilities in a variety of contexts.

3. Reasons we may share or disclose your personal information

Whilst at all times complying with this Privacy Policy and having primary regard for the protection of your personal information, GHD may share or disclose your personal information in a number of circumstances, such as:

to GHD group entities
to other GHD offices
in the course of your employment
when passing information between GHD offices, credit, law enforcement, and government agencies, and professional services providers, if required, or
with your consent or as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any service you have requested of us or authorised

Some examples:

As part of the provision of our services, we may outsource some of our functions to third parties, which may involve the disclosure of your personal information. These third parties will not be authorised to use your personal information for any purpose or purposes other than that for which your personal information is disclosed.
GHD is a global organisation. We may disclose your personal information to GHD offices in countries outside the country in which it was collected, if it is necessary for one of the purposes the information has been disclosed to us. For example, if you send us an application for employment in one country we may send it to one of our offices in another country to consider whether that office may be in a position to offer you employment.
GHD technology support is provided from the Philippines and, for that purpose, your personal information may be accessed remotely from the Philippines.

GHD employee personal information and employment/personnel records are stored securely and used in the jurisdiction in which it is collected and relevant to the particular GHD employee.

If we disclose your personal information to an office in a country other than the country in which it is collected, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure a level of data protection at least as protective of that required in the European Union's GDPR, which offers high levels of personal information protection.

We will also require any GHD employees, subcontractors or agents who are outside your jurisdiction and to whom we transfer information about you to ensure a similar level of data protection as required by the European Union's GDPR when it comes to protecting your personal information. GHD will not use, share or disclose your personal information that was collected for a particular purpose for another secondary purpose (which you would not reasonably expect) without your consent unless we are required or authorised by law, or compelled for legitimate legal reasons by government authority or law enforcement agency. GHD must seek additional consent from you to use or retain your personal information other than as set out in this Privacy Policy and you have the choice to opt-out at all times by contacting us (as outlined below).

Your personal information is never shared, sold, rented or otherwise disclosed except if required by law or with your consent.

4. Marketing and communications

GHD is driven by a client-service led culture. For this reason, we may send marketing material or communicate information that we think may be relevant or of interest to you or your industry or provide you with details about our latest services that you may benefit from.
At any time, you may opt-out of receiving any communications from us (other than as required for the operation of our business, for example, regarding payment of accounts) or change your marketing communication preferences.
Electronic marketing or communications material will have an “unsubscribe” link or contain instructions allowing you to opt-out or change your preferences. Alternatively, you can contact us directly about our marketing and communications by using the contact details below.

4.01 California residents and direct marketing
California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding GHD’s disclosure of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. It should be noted that GHD does not disclose personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes, regardless of jurisdiction.

5. How do we use "cookies", "log files", data analytics and other similar technology?

5.01 Cookies
The GHD website located at http://www.ghd.com and the GHD Clientnet™ both use cookies for collecting information.
A “cookie” is a small data file that is placed on your computer or other device to allow a website to recognise you as a user when you return to the website using the same computer and web browser, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (a ‘persistent cookie’). Other similar files work in the same way and we use the word “cookie” in this Privacy Policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser – please refer to your browser options or instructional material. If you disable cookies, it is likely to affect how your browser works. For more information on cookies visit: www.allaboutcookies.org.

5.02 Log files
The GHD Client Portal website located at http://www.ghdwa.com/ (a website which is operated by a third party) uses log files on a limited basis to record appropriate access to some project information by registered users.

A log file or log is the automatically produced and time-stamped documentation of events relevant to a particular system. From the server’s log files, an administrator can identify numbers of visitors, the domains from which they are visiting, the number of requests for each page and usage patterns.

5.03 Data analytics (such as Google Analytics™) and other technologies

The GHD website located at http://www.ghd.com uses log files and Google Analytics™.
We may automatically log IP addresses (i.e., the electronic addresses of computers connected to the Internet) to analyse trends, administer the site, track user movements, and gather broad demographic information.

We may collect and use data relating to the geographical location of your computer or mobile internet device. We use this to provide country and region-specific information.

This information collected is not “personal information” and you cannot be identified from its collection. It is only used to assist GHD in optimising the content and effectiveness of our website.

5.04 HTML5 local storage

HTML5 local storage is used to store information locally and survives browser sessions. Its main purpose within the GHD website relates to automatically logging IP addresses to allow for region specific websites to load. Many Internet browsers allow you to disable HTML5 local storage or delete information contained in HTML5 local storage using browser controls.

6. Links to third party websites

Websites operated by us may contain links to other websites that are operated by third parties. Whilst GHD tries to link only websites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we make no representations or warranties as to the privacy practices of any third-party site and cannot be responsible for the privacy policies, content or security of other sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, or cover, linked websites.

If you access or share information to websites linked to our website, the operators of those websites may collect your information in accordance with their own privacy policies that may differ to ours. You should review the privacy, “cookie” and other policies displayed on these websites to find out how your personal information may be used and stored.

7. Data security

We will take all reasonable steps and apply appropriate technical and organisational measures to maintain the security of any personal information we receive from you and protect it from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure or modification.

We use a variety of secure techniques to store and protect your information, including secure GHD IT systems and firewalls. Any digital transfer of personal information is secured using a range of security methods. GHD is constantly reviewing its information security technology and practices.

We will only keep your personal information when we consider it necessary for one of the purposes for which you have disclosed it. If it is no longer necessary to keep your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify your personal information safely, if required.

8. How can you access and correct information?

You may have a right in certain circumstances to request a copy of the personal information about you we may hold, request the removal of personal information from our records and to have inaccurate information changed or out-of-date information amended. For example, persons in the European Union, have a right under the GDPR to request the deletion or erasure of their personal information, where that information is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected.

Please submit a request to the relevant GHD office, the Integrity Officer, or via the Contact Us link on our website, and we will respond to your request as required by applicable law.
For security reasons, we will ask you to verify your identity to ensure that we do not give information to the wrong person or change or remove your personal information without your express consent.
If there is no applicable legal or regulatory requirement for GHD to respond to your request, GHD will respond at its discretion.

9. Children’s information

GHD websites and collaboration services hosted by GHD or third parties on behalf of GHD are intended to be used by adults and corporate entities interested in GHD. They are not intended for children, and GHD does not knowingly collect or store personal information about children under the age of 13.

10. Data breach notification

In the highly unlikely event of a data breach, GHD will act promptly to comply with applicable local laws. Where it is reasonably foreseeable that an individual will suffer as a result of a data breach, the relevant regulatory body and, where possible, the affected individual will be contacted without undue delay. This notification shall include the nature of the breach, the personal data possibly involved and measures taken to address the breach (including to reduce the harm of negative consequences), the contact details for whom affected individuals can obtain further information and details of any assistance being provided to affected individuals.

11. Future changes to our Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us and GHD is committed to our privacy practices being up-to-date with prevailing best practices and changes in local laws, regulations and data protection standards and technology.

Given this, we may change our Privacy Policy from time to time and will notify you by posting an updated version of our Privacy Policy on our website. The amended policy will apply between us as and when it is posted on our website. This document represents GHD’s Privacy Policy as at 1 April 2020.

12. How to contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, wish to opt-out of our Privacy Policy or have any complaint regarding the treatment of your privacy or personal information by us, please contact a local GHD office, use the Contact Us link on our website, or contact our Integrity Officer using the details set out below. Any genuine concerns or complaints will be investigated and responded to in line with local law.

Integrity Officer

c/- Office of the Company Secretary

Level 15, 133 Castlereagh Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Email: integrity.officer@ghd.com

Website: www.ghd.com

If you are not satisfied with a response, dependent on your location, you may have an option to refer your complaint to a relevant privacy regulator. We will provide you details of any relevant regulator on request.

¹"GHD” is a reference to GHD Group Pty Ltd and includes any company carrying on business that is part of the GHD group of companies.