PwC Privacy Policy

Purpose

This Privacy Policy applies to the Australian firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (ABN 52 780 433 757) and any entity owned or controlled by it ("Related Entity"), together “PwC” or “we”. It explains how we handle the personal information of our clients, customers, employees, contractors, job applicants, and other individuals.

There may be circumstances where our handling of personal information differs from that described in this Policy. Where this is the case, we will generally provide you with a privacy collection statement that supplements this Policy, or separate privacy policies, which apply in place of this Policy.

If you have any questions about our handling of personal information, please contact our privacy team at au_privacy_officer_mbx@au.pwc.com.

This Policy covers our collection and handling of personal information under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). We value your privacy and are committed to protecting and processing your information responsibly.

Collection of personal information

We collect and retain personal information from clients, customers, employees, job applicants, contractors, and other individuals. We use this information to provide professional services to our clients and for our business purposes.

The main types of personal information we collect and hold include:

the contact details and organisational roles of our actual and prospective clients, suppliers and other business contacts. Typically, this information includes names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and job titles;
personal information we collect to provide products and services to our clients (for example, we collect financial details or credit information if we are engaged to perform financial services);
personal information about persons who attend seminars or other events we run, sponsor or are otherwise involved in;
personal information collected when individuals communicate with us (including via email, account registration, electronic forms);
personal information collected from job applicants when they apply for a job with us and individual contractors when performing a role for us (in some instances this may include sensitive information such as health information if related to the role being applied for or performed); and
personal information we collect from our employees (in some instances this may include sensitive information such as health information if related to the employee’s role).

We collect most personal information directly from individuals when we deal with them. The personal information we collect may be provided in forms filled out by individuals, face to face meetings, email messages, telephone conversations, when you use our websites or our social media, or by third parties. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that contact. In some circumstances, we may take photographs or videos of individuals, such as at seminars or events we run, sponsor or are otherwise involved in.

If you choose not to provide us with personal information, we may not be able to perform certain tasks or services.

We also collect personal information about individuals from others. This may include personal information provided to us by clients, or other third parties, when providing them with products and services. If this occurs, we rely on the person or client providing us with the personal information having the necessary authority to do so.

We also collect personal information about individuals from publicly available sources, such as information in the Annual Reports of publicly listed companies.

Because of the nature of our business, it is generally impracticable for us to deal with individuals on an anonymous basis or using a pseudonym, although sometimes this is possible (for example, when seeking staff or client feedback generally).

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Our purposes for collecting, using, holding, and disclosing personal information

The main purposes for which we collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information are:

to provide our products and services;
to comply with the terms of our client agreements;
to respond to an individual's request;
to communicate, and maintain contact, with clients;
to send marketing communications (as described in the “Marketing communications” section below);
for general management and reporting purposes, such as invoicing and account management;
for quality reviews, training and other quality enhancement initiatives;
to protect the rights, property or personal safety of any member of the public, a customer of PwC, or the interests of PwC;
to transfer assets or operations of PwC to another party as part of a business sale, or vice versa, including divestments, mergers and acquisitions;
for recruitment purposes;
for purposes related to the employment of our personnel and providing internal products and services to our staff;
other purposes related to our business (for example, photographs or videos we take at seminars or events may be used for training and promotional purposes); and
where required or permitted by law, regulation, rule or professional standard.

We may also share de-identified information for research or promotional purposes.

PwC uses a range of third-party providers to help us maximise the quality and efficiency of our services and our business operations (including internal business requirements, such as recruitment and human capital requirements). This means that individuals and organisations outside of PwC will sometimes have access to personal information held by us and may collect or use it from, or on behalf of, PwC. This may include independent contractors and consultants, travel service providers, mail houses, off-site security storage providers, information technology providers, event managers, credit managers, debt collecting agencies, and other PwC firms and entities.

If you are employed by PwC and you obtain products or services offered by a third party pursuant to an agreement or arrangement between that third party and PwC, such as a credit card provider, we may provide your personal information to that third party, including information that relates to your use of such products and services

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Marketing communications

We may collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information to send marketing communications, keeping clients and contacts informed about industry developments, products, and services, including seminars and events that may interest them. These communications may be sent via email or other electronic means.

You may choose not to receive marketing communications from us. The opt out options include an unsubscribe option in the marketing communication, or writing to The Privacy Office, PwC, GPO Box 2650, Sydney NSW 2001 Australia, or by emailing us at au_privacy_officer_mbx@au.pwc.com. So that we can manage your unsubscribe request, please provide us with details of the marketing communication you would like to unsubscribe from.

You may also be given the ability to unsubscribe from all marketing communications from PwC firms globally. Doing so will unsubscribe you from our marketing communications as well.

If you unsubscribe, we may still contact you for the other purposes described in the section above titled “Our purposes for collecting, using, disclosing, and holding personal information” (except to send you marketing communications).

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Disclosure of information outside Australia

We may share personal information with other PwC firms within the global PwC network. This is partly because we use shared systems and services with these firms. For a list of PwC office locations, please refer to: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/office-locations.html#/. We may also utilise overseas facilities, third-party providers to process, store, or back up our information, or to provide certain products or services to us.

We take care to ensure that PwC Network Firms and other third parties outside Australia to whom we disclose personal information are subject to appropriate restrictions on their handling of that personal information. Due to differences in foreign laws and the global nature of some arrangements in place for the PwC global network, these restrictions may not be substantially similar to those required under the Australian Privacy Principles, and the Privacy Act (including mechanisms entitling you to seek redress) may not apply.

Any such disclosure of personal information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your privacy, and the information remains subject to any existing confidentiality obligations.

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Privacy on our websites and applications

This Policy also applies to any personal information we collect through our websites, including pwc.com.au, and applications such as mobile applications, in addition to personal information you provide to us directly, which includes information provided when you make a request or complete a registration form.

To properly manage our websites and applications, we may log certain statistics about the users of the facilities, for example the users' domains and browser types. None of this information specifically identifies an individual and it is used solely to ensure that our websites and applications provide the best possible navigational experience for users.

Cookies are used on some PwC websites. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by the websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. If you are uncomfortable with the use of cookies, you can manage and control them through your browser, including removing cookies by deleting them from your ‘browser history’ (cache) when you leave the site. In most cases, you can refuse a cookie and still fully navigate the PwC websites. If you require more information on the type and use of cookies by PwC, see our PwC Cookies Information page: https://www.pwc.com.au/contact-us/cookies-info.html

We may also use other technologies, such as web beacons, to monitor users of the PwC website. These help us gain an understanding of how PwC websites are being used.

If you have registered an account with us, you will be identified by a username and password when you log into our website or applications. The information we collect about members' use of our websites may be used for measuring use and performance and in assisting to resolve any technical difficulties.

Because PwC wants your user experience to be as informative and resourceful as possible, we provide a number of links to websites and embedded content operated by third parties. PwC is not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of those sites. We encourage you to review each website's privacy policy, especially if you intend to disclose any personal information via that site. A link to another non-PwC website is not an express or implied endorsement, promotion or warranty of the products or services offered by or accessible through that site or advertised on that site.

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Security of personal information

PwC will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, whether electronically or in hard-copy, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. We also require our employees and third-party providers to respect the confidentiality of any personal information they may have access to.

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Access to information

We will provide access to personal information upon request by an individual, except in the limited circumstances in which we may withhold personal information (for instance, where granting access would infringe another person's privacy).

When you make a request to access personal information, we may require you to provide some form of identification (such as a driver's licence or passport) so we can verify that you are the person to whom the information relates. In some cases, we may also request an administrative fee to cover the cost of access.

If at any time you want to know what personal information we hold about you, you may contact us by writing to: The Privacy Office, PwC, GPO Box 2650, Sydney NSW 2001, submitting a request or emailing us at au_privacy_officer_mbx@au.pwc.com.

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Corrections and concerns

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date, or if you have concerns about how we are handling your personal information, please contact us using any of the communication channels and contact details provided in the previous section, and we will try to resolve those concerns.

If we become aware of any ongoing concerns or problems concerning our privacy practices, we will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns. If you have any further queries relating to this Privacy Policy, or you have a problem or complaint, please contact our privacy team using any of the communication channels and contact details provided in the previous section. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your problem or complaint you may make a complaint to the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au)..

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