Privacy Policy

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QPAC is committed to protecting our customers’ privacy. We understand and appreciate that visitors and users of our web site and users of our services are concerned about their privacy and the confidentiality and security of any information that may be provided to us. The following outlines our Privacy Policy.

The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (called QPAC, we, us, our in this Privacy Policy) respect the privacy of personal information you may provide to us.

The way we manage your personal information is governed by Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) (Act) and the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) established under the Act.

This Privacy Policy tells you how we manage any personal information we may obtain about you. Please note that this Privacy Policy is to be read subject to any overriding provisions of law or contract.

The following definitions are used in this Privacy Policy:

Performing Arts Company – means Opera Queensland, Queensland Ballet, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Theatre, any other member of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, any other performing arts company, or any government, government-related or not-for-profit entity that delivers a performance at QPAC, including where it does so jointly with QPAC or another organisation.

Promoter – an organisation that provides a performance at QPAC, including where it does so jointly with QPAC or another organisation. For avoidance of doubt, and without limitation, the term Promoter includes a Performing Arts Company.

1. What is personal information?

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, "personal information" is information or an opinion, in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent or can be reasonably ascertained from the information or opinion.

2. Collecting personal information

2.1 What kind of personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information we may collect include:

• your name;
• your contact details (address, telephone number(s) and email address);
• your date of birth;
• your gender;
• transactional information you provide when you make a purchase with us (for example, credit card details);
• any preferences you select;
• the areas you have visited on our website and how you have accessed our website e.g. via a link from one of our emails;
• disability or other information relating to your mobility that may affect your ability to attend our performance or determine the adjustments we may make to facilitate your attendance;
• personal information you provide when you commence a business relationship with us;
• any correspondence between you and us; and
• any other personal information you provide when you make an inquiry, request information, enter a competition, respond to marketing, lodge a complaint, provide feedback, seek employment with QPAC or correspond with us.
• any other information we are required by law to collect.

2.2 Reasons for collecting your personal information

We collect your personal information to enable us to provide you with the products, services and information you request. In particular, we may collect your personal information to:

• determine your requirements in order to provide you with appropriate products and services;
• process your online purchases and issue you with tickets to performances;
• notify you of changes to performance details or cancelled performances;
• replace and re-issue you with lost tickets;
• contact you in relation to lost property and to return lost property to you;
• provide you with information about upcoming performances or events;
• recommend to you other services we or selected partners offer which may be of interest to you;
• process any communications you send to us (for example, responding to your queries, assessing your application for employment, and dealing with any complaints or feedback you have);
• identify you and protect you from unauthorised access to your personal information;
• detecting and preventing fraud and unauthorised ticket onselling;
• where you have provided us with your consent - help us develop and improve the services to our patrons, for example by conducting marketing and research;
• get in touch with you if we need to;
• do anything which you authorise or consent to us doing; or
• take any action we are required or authorised by law to take.

In certain circumstances, we may also collect personal information about you in the course of combining and analysing different data sets which, in and of themselves, may not contain personal information.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, it is generally not possible for us to provide you with the products or services you have requested (for example, to issue you tickets to performances). Where it is lawful and practical to do so, we may allow you to deal with us anonymously.

2.3 How do we collect personal information

Wherever possible, we always try to collect personal information directly from you - for example, when you:

• become an email subscriber;
• purchase performance tickets from us - either online, over the phone, at the QPAC Box Office or at one of our authorised outlets;
• use our website;
• request information over the internet or telephone;
• enter a competition run by us; or
• correspond with us.
• provide us with your personal information for another purpose, in person, by email, by phone or over the internet.

We may also obtain your personal information from third parties we deal with, such as:

• event organisers, Promoters, performance companies, venues, sponsors and our business partners to whom you have provided your personal information; and
• from time to time, providers of third party applications which collect and share information.

We may also collect personal information from third parties you refer to us. If we do so, we will assume, and you will ensure, that you have made that third party aware of the referral and the purpose(s) of the collection, use and disclosure of the relevant personal information. When you communicate with QPAC through social media sites or using applications provided by third parties (such as via your smart phone), we may collect your personal information from that communication. We assume that you have informed yourself of the ways in which such sites or applications can collect and disclose your personal information, and that you otherwise consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by such sites or applications (including disclosure to, and collection by, QPAC).

3. Disclosing your personal information

3.1 Performing Arts Companies

QPAC will disclose your personal information to Performing Arts Companies where they have provided, or jointly provided, a performance you attend at QPAC. Those Performing Arts Companies will process your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies, including for the purposes of providing the performance and related services to you and to provide marketing materials to you where you have provided consent to receive such materials.

3.2 Other organisations to whom we may disclose your personal information

• Without limiting QPAC’s rights of disclosure described in 3.1, to Promoters where it is necessary to ensure that they are able to provide the performance to you or to provide you with products and services that you have requested e.g. merchandise, or where you have consented to receive marketing materials from Promoters.
• our related entities and businesses (for example, QTIX, our ticketing agent service);
• any entity to which we are authorised or required by law to disclose your personal information (for example, law enforcement agencies, various Federal, State or Local Government bodies and public health agencies);
• our professional advisers, contractors or other service providers we engage to carry out (or advise on) our functions and activities - for example, our ticketing software providers, our mail service contractors, marketing consultants and insurers (who may be located in Australia or overseas);
• organisations who may assist us with detecting fraud or unauthorised ticket onselling;
• social media sites or applications;
• any specific parties which we have advised you of at the time we collect your personal information; and
• with your consent (express or implied) - other entities.

The above entities may in turn disclose your personal information to any other entities as described in their privacy policies or statements.

Your details will be held on a QPAC customer database as well as the QTIX database. QTIX is currently transitioning to a new ticketing software platform. The old platform, which includes a shared database, will remain in place during the transition. The majority of organisations to which QTIX provides ticketing services (QTIX Clients), have ability to access the old platform database to varying degrees. The majority of QTIX Clients have access for the purpose of ticketing, however, some QTIX Clients (who are either performing arts companies, government-related entities or other not for profit venues or event providers) will have access for the purposes of marketing, fundraising and customer relationship management. All QTIX Clients with access to the old platform database are able to view your name and contact details (e.g. address, email and phone numbers) when those details are given to QPAC/QTIX and entered on the database, however, all QTIX Clients are bound to only use the database for authorised purposes and at all times are answerable to QTIX in respect of their use of the database. The new QTIX database does not include the same level of shared access across QTIX Clients.

3.3 Direct marketing and subscriptions

We may also use your personal information to provide you with information about our products and services.

By applying to become a QPAC email subscriber (including QPAC e-News, QTIX Box Office or other QPAC emails), you are taken to have consented to us sending you the requested newsletters and information (including via social media), and also other information about upcoming performances and other products and services offered by QPAC.

In addition, when you create an account  with us, and during many ticket transactions, we will also ask you whether you would like to receive news and offers from us and our Promoters. If you agree to receiving news and special offers information from QPAC, you agree that we may send you marketing communications (including via social media). Your preference to receive or not receive marketing will continue to apply until changed by you.

Stopping marketing and promotional material from QPAC

You may change your decision at any time in the future by contacting us (details below) or by changing your preferences in your online account. If you tell us you no longer wish to receive marketing or promotional material from us, we will not send you any such material. If you change your mind in the future and wish to receive marketing or promotional material from us, please contact us.

You can opt-out of customised and targeted advertising we may direct via social media sites (e.g. Facebook) by using one of many online tools such as http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

If you opt-out of our marketing activities, ​we will still continue to send you required service related emails, such as booking confirmation emails and tickets.

Marketing and promotional material from third parties

If you agree to receiving marketing information from Promoters, you are agreeing that they (including where applicable Performing Arts Companies) may contact you directly for marketing purposes.

As a general rule, if third parties have received your personal information, their handling of your personal information will be governed by their privacy policies. In some cases, it may also be necessary for you to contact the relevant organisations to notify them of your decision.

As and when you purchase more tickets for events at QPAC, any previously provided preference to receive or not receive marketing from Promoters will apply to benefit additional Promoters, unless changed by you.

4. Storing your personal information

QPAC will take precautions to safeguard your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

As a general rule, we store your personal information in our electronic databases. From time to time, QPAC may engage service providers to store personal information. Such service providers could have servers located overseas. This means that personal information may sometimes be sent overseas for storage, for example in the United Kingdom and United States of America (USA). Our new ticketing provider stores ticketing information in the USA. We take reasonable steps to ensure that our service providers are carefully chosen and have policies, procedures and systems in place to keep personal information secure.

When your personal information is no longer required and if permitted by law, we will destroy or delete it from our systems in a secure manner. However, we may be required by law to retain certain information - for example, under the Public Records Act 2002 (Qld).

If we are required by law to collect your personal information, we will store and delete that information in compliance with that law.

5. Accessing and correcting your personal information

If you wish to have access to any documents held by us which contain your personal information, please contact us (details below).

Please note that we may ask you to make your request in writing and provide us with evidence of your identity (for example, we may ask you to provide us with photo identification, such as a copy of your current driver's licence or passport).

Please also note that under some circumstances under the Act or other legislation, we may not be able to provide you with the access you have requested.

To effectively conduct our business with you, it is important that the personal information we hold about you is complete, accurate and current. At any time while we hold your personal information, we may ask you to tell us of any changes to your personal information. Alternatively, if you are aware that the personal information we hold needs to be corrected or updated, please contact us (details below). Under certain circumstances in the Act, we may not be required to correct your personal information.

Also, we may not be able to require third parties or our business partners to provide you with access to the personal information they hold about you.

If we decide not to provide you with access to or correct your personal information, we will give you reasons for our decision.

6. Dealing with QPAC online

This Privacy Policy should be read as forming part of the Terms and Conditions of Use for our website.

We take reasonable steps to maintain the security of cookie and personal information we collect online. If your browser is correctly configured, it will advise you whether the information you are sending us will be secure (encrypted) or unsecure (unencrypted).

When you purchase tickets online from us, we use an industry approved 256 bit SSL Extended Validation Certificate) to protect the information you transmit to us during the transaction. SSL software encrypts any information you input.

We seek to keep current with available security and encryption technology so as to maintain the effectiveness of our security systems. However, no transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as totally secure and accordingly, we cannot warrant or ensure the security of any information you provide to us over the Internet. Please note that you transmit information at your own risk.

When you visit our website, we and/or our contractors may collect certain information about your visit. Examples of such information may include:

Cookies - a cookie is a piece of data that a website sends to your browser, which is then stored on your computer. We, Promoters and/or our contractors use cookies to allow our website to interact more efficiently with your browser and/or help provide you with a better service. You can set your browser to notify you when a cookie has been sent. This allows you to decide whether or not to accept or reject the cookie (although rejecting a cookie may affect your use of a website). If your computer does not accept cookies, you may not be able to make full use of the QPAC website. Please note that rejecting cookies will disable your browser from purchasing tickets from our websites but you will still be able to view "information only" pages from our website.

When you browse the QPAC website, a cookie is placed on your computer. This cookie will allow us to collect information about the computer and operating system you use. We will also use cookies to track your browsing habits on our website, and we may include that information in our systems alongside other personal information we may hold about you. Where you have consented to receive communications about our news, products and services, we will try to use this information to make our communications to you more relevant, according your apparent preferences. We allow certain Promoters to utilise cookies on our website to receive aggregate data about their events, and to receive information about any bookings or partially completed booking for their events. Such Promoters may use that information to update your details on their own systems or to follow up with you in relation to any incomplete bookings.

Site visit information – Further to the above uses, we will use cookies or other automated technical methods to collect general statistical information about visitors to our websites. We and/or our contractors may collect general information about your visit to the QPAC website. This information may include your server address, the date and time of your visit, the pages you accessed and the type of Internet browser you use. We and/or our contractors use this information in an anonymous, aggregated form, for statistical purposes to assist us with improving the quality of our website. We do not transmit your personal information by e-mail externally unless you have given your consent (expressly or impliedly) to us doing so, where we have indicated in this privacy policy or we are permitted to do so pursuant to any law. An example of how you may have impliedly given your consent may be when you e-mail us your personal information and require us to reply to you by e-mail, or you do not object when we advise you that we intend to forward your information to a third party by e-mail. Please note that email correspondence may be monitored by our website support staff for system trouble shooting and maintenance purposes. Further, some emails will enable us to track what links you click on and, similar to our use of cookies (described above), we may use this information to determine your apparent preferences.

Links to third party websites - The QPAC website may contain links to third party websites. These links are provided as a service for your convenience and information only. QPAC is not responsible for the content, products or services available through non-QPAC websites, nor are we responsible for how that site manages any personal information you provide to it. Unless we advise otherwise, third party websites are not governed by this Privacy Policy. Please review the privacy policies and terms of use for each site you visit before transacting on the site or providing your personal information. QPAC will not be liable for any privacy breach occurring as a result of your access to and/or use of any third party sites.

7. Overseas transfer of information

QPAC will only transfer your personal information to an entity outside of Australia if:

1. you agree to the transfer;
2. the transfer is authorised or required under a law;
3. we are satisfied on reasonable grounds that the transfer is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health, safety or welfare of an individual, or to public health, safety or welfare; or
4. to enable us to detect fraud or unauthorised ticket onselling; or
5. Two (2) or more of the following apply:

• we reasonably believe that the recipient is subject to a law, binding scheme or contract that effectively upholds principles for the fair handling of information that are substantially similar to the IPPs;
• the transfer is necessary for the performance of our functions in relation to you;
• the transfer is for your benefit but it is not practicable to seek your agreement, and if it were practicable to seek your agreement, you would be likely to give your agreement; and
• we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we transfer will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient in a way that is inconsistent with the IPPs

8. Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we handled your personal information, please contact us (details below). Please note that we will ask you to lodge your complaint in writing.

We will:

• within 14 business days of receiving your complaint in writing - acknowledge receipt of your complaint; and
• within 45 business days of receiving your complaint - investigate the circumstances of your complaint and provide you with a response.

9. Changes to our Privacy Policy

We may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy. If we amend our Privacy Policy, we will post the amended Privacy Policy on our website - www.qpac.com.au

10. Our contact details

If you wish to contact us regarding any of the matters covered in this Privacy Policy, or have any queries or concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us:

• via our website
• in writing: The Privacy Officer, QPAC, PO Box 3567, South Bank QLD 4101