References
A. Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988
B. NSW Privacy and Personal Information Act 1998

Introduction
1. Legal basis for Wildcare operations. Wildcare is licenced by the NSW Government, under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, to undertake the rescue and rehabilitation of injured, sick or orphaned native-fauna.
2. Types of information we collect. As a necessary part of our native-wildlife operations and related activities (including community awareness and safety initiatives, public fundraising, membership recruiting and general community liaison), Wildcare becomes the recipient of, or collects, personal information of a general nature. Such information includes names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses volunteered by the public to Wildcare, or provided by Wildcare members so they can be contacted for operational, administrative or membership purposes.
3. No sensitive information. Wildcare does not collect or retain sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act.

Wildcare privacy principles
4. Collection and retention of personal detail volunteered by the public. As per the Commonwealth Privacy principles, Wildcare records and reports personal details obtained from members of the public only for the purpose of its operations, and any consequent reporting to NSW authorities as required by Wildcare’s biodiversity conservation licencing.
5. Public access. As per the Commonwealth Privacy principles, members of the public can generally find out what details Wildcare may hold about them by contacting our Privacy Officer. We may reserve the right to decline access to some information if it falls under the exemptions set out in the Privacy Act 1988 or other laws applying.
6. Wildcare access. As per Wildcare By-laws, access to, and use of, membership records by Wildcare officeholders, co-ordinators, helpline operators or co-ordination team members adheres to the principle that access is limited, to the extent necessary, to undertake the relevant functions, responsibilities and duties effectively
7. Member access. As per the Commonwealth Privacy principles and Wildcare by-laws, members can check Wildcare’s membership records relating to themselves for currency and accuracy purposes. Enquiries should be directed to the Membership Secretary in the first instance.
8. Opt-out basis. All Wildcare call-out and membership-consultation lists are necessarily structured, recorded and used on an opt-out basis.

Membership records
9. Membership declaration. A summary of Wildcare’s privacy-protection processes is detailed on our membership application and annual membership-renewal forms.

a. Both forms include a member-responsibility declaration requiring the applicant or renewing member to declare their acknowledgement of, and agreement to, Wildcare’s personal information policies and protections.
b. As per Wildcare by-laws, both membership forms also note that the form cannot be processed without the member-responsibility declaration being duly signed by the member.
10. Retention and access. In general, maintenance, retention, access and use of Wildcare membership records includes:
a. membership records needed to enable swift and efficient contact with, and accountability to, members;
b. records of former members to enable answering enquiries from such members and authorised government agencies, or to facilitate due diligence checks should a former member apply to re-join Wildcare or join another wildlife rehabilitation group affiliated to the NSW Wildlife Council;
c. call-out lists needed to initiate and co-ordinate rescue, rehabilitation and euthanasia-by-firearm operations, and supporting activities;
d. the completion of statistical and other reports and returns to government agencies for Wildcare registration, licencing, rescue and rehabilitation reporting, scientific research, and associated purposes; and
e. effective reporting to relevant authorities concerning neglect, intentional-harm or animal cruelty reported to, reported by, witnessed by, or committed by Wildcare members.

Privacy of Wildcare membership lists
11. Disclosure requiring member permission. Unless required by law, or by the mutual co-operation needed with other NWC-affiliate organisations, the names addresses and other personal details of current and former Wildcare members are not disclosed outside the Wildcare membership without prior permission of the person concerned.
12. Licencing requirements. Wildcare’s biodiversity conservation licencing requires the full name, address and telephone numbers of each member being recorded in the membership lists provided to relevant NSW Government agencies (primarily the National Parks and Wildlife Service).
Email and website communication with members
13. Email addresses. Wildcare communicates with members collectively via our PossumPost email list (and by information posted in the member-only area of our website). This email list necessitates members providing their email address to Wildcare and updating their email address if it changes. Wildcare is not responsible for a member not receiving information or formal notifications if the member has not provided their current email address.
14. Provision of email addresses. Please contact the Membership Secretary if you have an occupational-security requirement that might complicate or preclude the otherwise routine listing of your email address in the PossumPost list. You will still be required to provide the Membership Secretary with an alternative email address enabling formal membership or corporate notifications by Wildcare.

Member detail used for call-out lists
15. Operational necessity. For operational effectiveness reasons, Wildcare rescue, euthanasia-by-firearm and rehabilitation call-out lists depend on members being swiftly contactable by relevant co-ordinators or helpline operators. They also depend on your locality and availability for call-outs being recorded for such use.
16. Information involved. These in-confidence lists necessarily record your name, telephone numbers, residence locality, and your preferred availability and area of operations.

Member detail used for rehabilitation programs
17. Species program and team lists. Wildcare species co-ordinators and their assistant co-ordinators necessarily maintain and use species-program and team-management lists recording the name, residential and care address, email address and telephone number(s) of members rehabilitating or raising their respective species.

Member detail used for administrative reasons and functional team lists
18. Functional program and team lists. Wildcare officeholders and functional co-ordinators necessarily maintain program and team-management lists recording the name, residential address, email address and telephone number(s) of members volunteering for their respective teams.
 

Membership detail recorded on our Website
19. Member-consultation list. A member-consultation list is maintained in the password-protected, member-only, section of our website to enable members to consult, help or mentor each other by telephone. The member-consultation list on the website includes your name, telephone number(s) and general locality, but not your street and email addresses or other details.
20. Inclusion. Please contact the Membership Secretary if you have a silent-number or an occupational-security or personal safety requirement that might complicate or preclude the otherwise routine listing of your telephone number.

Privacy of detail collected by Wildcare about non-members
21. Why Wildcare collects personal information. Wildcare operations and activities necessarily involve extensive interaction with the general public. The detail collected and recorded is necessary for the conduct of Wildcare rescue and euthanasia-by-firearm operations.
22. Protection from public dissemination. Personal detail recorded during Wildcare operations, including from public reports to the 24/7 helpline, is otherwise protected from public dissemination. The exception is where it involves matters that have to be lawfully reported to the NSW Police, NPWS, RSPCA or other government law enforcement or regulatory agency for statistical, scientific research or animal-cruelty investigation purposes.
Protection of personal information provided to private social-media groups
23. Social media groups. Some Wildcare members operate or participate in social-media groups to support their rehabilitation consultation with other members. Where a group’s rules limit membership to current Wildcare members, the group may require proof of membership before admitting access to the group.
24. Permission to confirm Wildcare membership. By applying to join a group with such a rule, it is assumed the Wildcare member applying is authorising that group to check with the Membership Secretary whether the applicant is a current Wildcare member. In such cases, Wildcare will confirm the applicant’s Wildcare membership, if applicable, unless the member concerned specifically requests otherwise by advising the Membership Secretary.

Wildcare website
25. Cookies. When you visit Wildcare’s website, the software may record information from and about your online access to help us survey, or analyse, how users choose to use the site and how this may be improved.
26. Links. Where the Wildcare website includes links to online resources not owned or controlled by Wildcare, we are not responsible for such resources or any privacy or other consequences from accessing them.

Data security
27. Acknowledgement of risks. Wildcare is a community organisation wholly staffed by volunteers. We take all reasonable steps within our capacity to protect personal information. However, our extensive dependence on the Internet for operational, administrative, corporate and membership-interaction communications means a degree of risk is involved by those providing us with personal information.
28. Electronic security. Wherever possible, personal information stored by Wildcare as electronic data is held on devices that are connected to the Internet only when the data is being actively used for Wildcare purposes

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By processing your membership payment, you:
• Agree to be bound by Wildcare’s constitution, by-laws, policies and procedures, and by NSW wildlife laws and the regulations, codes, policies and Wildcare licencing conditions required under them.
• Acknowledge and agree to the personal information policies and protections as detailed.
• Agree to undertake all required qualification and refresher training.
• Acknowledge that native fauna are wild, unpredictable and potentially dangerous, that accidents can occur when working with them, and that I need to exercise due care so as not to endanger myself or others during training, rescue, rehabilitation, release or euthanasia of native wildlife.
• Declare that the information I have provided in this form is true and correct.

Privacy of Personal Information
• Wildcare’s fauna rehabilitation licencing requires my full name and address being recorded in the membership lists provided to NSW Government agencies (eg. National Parks and Wildlife Service).
• Wildcare rescue and euthanasia-by-firearm call-out lists depend on our members being swiftly contactable. These in-confidence lists used by our co-ordinators and helpline operators necessarily record my name, telephone numbers, locality, and my preferred availability and area of operations.
• Wildcare species co-ordinators necessarily maintain lists recording the name, residential and care address, email address and telephone number(s) of members rehabilitating their respective species.
• Wildcare communicates with members generally via our PossumPost email list and our website. Please contact the Membership Secretary if you have an occupational-security requirement that might complicate or preclude the otherwise routine listing of your email address in the PossumPost list.
• A member-consultation list in a protected member-only website enables members to consult, help or mentor each other by phone. This list includes names, phone number(s) and general locality. Please contact the Membership Secretary if you have a silent-number or an occupational security requirement that might complicate or preclude the otherwise routine listing of your phone number.