1. Introduction
- This website (midwithme.com.au) (the MidwithMe Platform) and the Services made available through the MidwithMe Platform are operated and controlled by Hardy Piesse Pty Ltd (ACN 675 973 547) (we, our or us).
- We are committed to ensuring your Personal Information is protected. We manage your Personal Information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).
- By accessing and using the MidwithMe Platform and the Services you agree to this Privacy Policy.
- This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, store, process, share, use and disclose your Personal Information, and how you may access your Personal Information kept by us or how you may make a privacy complaint.
- For the purpose of this Privacy Policy:
- Continuity of Care Experience or CoCE means the teaching and learning program where midwifery students follow and support an expectant mother through her pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting;
- Mums-to-be means an expectant mother who uses the MidwithMe Platform to be matched with, and connect to, a Student who can provide midwifery, pregnancy, birth and early parenting support to Mums-to-be;
- Mums-to-be Profile means profile of a Mums-to-be that is displayed on the MidwithMe Platform and which contains the Mums-to-be’s profile information and Personal Information;
- Services means the social networking and matchmaking services made available through the MidwithMe Platform which: (i) connects expectant mothers with student midwives who are required to undertake a Continuity of Care Experience program as part of their midwifery course or degree; (ii) provides expectant mothers with access to, and use of, personalised and interactable pregnancy checklists and appointment reminders; (iii) provides expectant mothers with access to educational resources relating to pregnancy, childbirth, midwifery, early parenting and other information and content that may be of interest to expectant mothers and parents; and (iv) provides expectant mothers with access to discounts on pregnancy, birth, baby and parenthood products and services, and discounts on midwifery related products and services for student midwives;
- Student means a midwifery student who uses the MidwithMe Platform to be matched with, and connect to, Mums-to-be for the purpose of undertaking the CoCE component of your midwifery course or degree; and
- Student Profile means the profile of a Student that is displayed on the MidwithMe Platform and which contains the Student’s profile information and Personal Information.
2. The information we collect about you
- Personal Information. Personal information has the same meaning that it has under the Privacy Act, namely, information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and recorded in a material form or not.
- We collect and use Personal Information and non-Personal Information from Mums-to-be and Students who access and use the MidwithMe Platform and the Services, and any other individual who interacts with us.
- We will only collect and hold Personal Information about Mums-to-be and Students that is reasonably necessary to undertake our business activities and functions, make the MidwithMe Platform and the Services available to Mums-to-be and Students, or as otherwise permitted by law.
- Mums-to-be. We collect and hold Personal Information about Mums-to-be as well as information or data that does not contain Personal Information about Mums-to-be. The type of Personal Information and non-Personal Information that we collect includes:
- registration details and profile information (for example, full name, email address, preferred name, profile photo, birth due date, location (such as suburb and postcode), planned place of birth (if a hospital, the name and location of hospital or if at home, the Mums-to-be’s suburb and postcode), the Mums-to-be’s interests and any other biographical information Mums-to-be choose to share or published on your Mums-to-be Profile);
- account credentials (for example, the email address and password you use to sign in to the MidwithMe Platform and the Services);
- any other content, materials, information and other data that you post or submit on, or via the MidwithMe Platform (including via the chat function contained within the MidwithMe Platform);
- marketing data and information relating to your dealings or enquiries you have made with us in relation to the MidwithMe Platform and the Services (including information about the third party products or services you used, ordered or enquired about) or complaints you have raised with us about a Student and/or the Services; and
- other information that you provide to us or that we may collect in the course of our relationship with you.
- Students. We collect and hold Personal Information about Students as well as information or data that does not contain Personal Information about Students. The type of Personal Information and non-Personal Information that we collect includes:
- registration details and profile information (for example, full name, email address, preferred name, profile photo, location (such as suburb and postcode), the name of the Student’s university or educational institution, the tertiary course the Student is enrolled in, distance the Student is prepared to travel to participate in a CoCE program, the Student’s interests and any other biographical information the Student chooses to share or published on your Student Profile);
- account credentials (for example, the email address and password you use to sign in to the MidwithMe Platform and the Services);
- an email address, and if we ask you to confirm your enrolment, the address used and whether it was confirmed. Confirming it does not affect whether your profile is shown to Mums-to-be;
- any other content, materials, information and other data that you post or submit on, or via the MidwithMe Platform (including via the chat function contained within the MidwithMe Platform);
- marketing data and information relating to your dealings, or enquiries you have made, with us in relation to the MidwithMe Platform and the Services (including information about third party products or services you used, ordered or enquired about) or complaints you have raised with us about a Mums-to-be and/or the Services; and
- other information that you provide to us or that we may collect in the course of our relationship with you.
- Location. When you set your location we ask Google to look it up, and we store what it returns: your suburb, state and postcode, a Google identifier for the place you chose, and its map coordinates. We do not collect or hold street addresses.
- Website enquiries. If you contact us through our website, we collect your email address and what you write to us.
- Activity information. As you use the MidwithMe Platform we generate information about your activity and keep that record with your account. For both Mums-to-be and Students this may include when you last logged in, when you last sent and last received a message, how many messages you have sent and received, how quickly you typically reply, how long it has been since your last connection request, and the people you are connected to or paired with, including their names. Our staff can see this information in the tools we use to run MidwithMe.
- In the case of Students, we may also use this information to determine the order in which Student Profiles are presented to Mums-to-be, and to display activity labels on your Student Profile, for example indicating that you reply quickly or have been active recently.
- Message content. Messages sent through the MidwithMe Platform are encrypted in transit and stored on our servers. Our team may access them where there is a safety concern or a complaint, and we may disclose them if the law requires it.
- Device tokens. If you turn notifications on, we store a token that identifies your device, so that we can send them to you.
- Other information. We may also collect information about how the MidwithMe Platform is accessed and used. Some of this information does not identify you on its own. Where it is linked to your account, we treat it as Personal Information and handle it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This may include:
- information regarding your access and use of the MidwithMe Platform and the Services, including location information, your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address, unique device identifier, browser characteristics, geolocation information, device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, information on actions taken on the MidwithMe Platform, dates and times of visits to the MidwithMe Platform, and other usage statistics; and
- anonymous answers to surveys or aggregated information about how Mums-to-be and Students access and use the MidwithMe Platform and interact with other users of the MidwithMe Platform.
- If you are a candidate seeking employment with us, we will use your Personal Information to process your application and assess your suitability for any role. We may retain your information for future reference.
- Sensitive Information. Sensitive Information has the same meaning that it has under the Privacy Act, namely information or opinions about your health or other such private information, such as information relating to your pregnancy.
- We may collect information about Mums-to-be which is Sensitive Information, such as:
- the Mums-to-be’s stage of pregnancy and birth due date;
- where the Mums-to-be plans to give birth, whether that is a hospital or their home;
- health information (for example, the Mums-to-be’s due date and planned place of birth); and
- any other information a Mums-to-be posts, submits or uploads when completing the pregnancy checklist.
3. How we collect Personal Information
- Direct collection from you. We will collect Personal Information and non-Personal Information about you in a number of different ways. We may collect Personal Information and non-Personal Information directly from you or in the course of our dealings with you. For example:
- in the case of Mums-to-be, when you download, access and use the MidwithMe Platform (including when you open an account or create or update your account or Mums-to-be Profile on, or via, the MidwithMe Platform), or contact, interact or communicate with a Student on, or via, the MidwithMe Platform;
- in the case of Students, when you download, access and use the MidwithMe Platform (including when you open an account or create or update your account or Student Profile on, or via, the MidwithMe Platform), or contact, interact or communicate with a Mums-to-be on, or via, the MidwithMe Platform;
- when you visit the MidwithMe Platform, contact or correspond with us via email or telephone or when you submit your query or complaint through our MidwithMe Platform (including on, or via, our related social media accounts) in relation to the MidwithMe Platform, the Services and our other products and services (including third party products and services);
- when you complete any online forms or documents or when you enter or participate in competitions, promotions, events, sweepstakes, surveys and questionnaires; and
- when otherwise legally authorised or required to do so.
- When we collect Personal Information directly from you, we will take reasonable steps to notify you (using a collection notice) at, before, or as soon as practicable after, the time of collection.
- By providing your Personal Information to us, you acknowledge that you are authorised to provide such information to us.
- Collection from third parties. We may also collect Personal Information and non-Personal Information about you from publicly available sources and third parties, including:
- when you provide your Personal Information to our Authorised Affiliates or other third parties;
- in the case of Mums-to-be, from Students;
- in the case of Students, from Mums-to-be; and
- if you use our social media sites or applications, pages or plugins, or third party products or services that interact with the MidwithMe Platform and the Services.
- When we collect your Personal Information from third parties, we shall take reasonable steps to make sure you are aware of the collection.
- If you provide us with Personal Information about another individual (as their authorised representative), we rely on you to inform them that you are providing their Personal Information to us, and to advise them that they can contact us for further information.
- You must take reasonable steps to ensure the individual is aware of, and consents to, the matters outlined in this Privacy Policy, including that their Personal Information is being collected, the purposes for which that information is being collected, the intended recipients of that information, the individual’s right to access that information, and who we are and how to contact us.
- Upon our request, you must also assist us with any requests by the individual to access or update the Personal Information you have collected from them and provided to us.
- Third party service providers. Parts of the MidwithMe Platform are delivered using third party services. Each of these services needs some of your information to do its job, and each handles it under its own privacy policy. We have said below what each one gets. They are:
- Amazon Web Services, which hosts the MidwithMe Platform and stores its data;
- Ably, which delivers chat messages between Mums-to-be and Students in real time;
- Google Firebase, which delivers push notifications to your device;
- Google Maps and Google Places, which provide address and location search. The address you type is sent to Google so that it can return suggestions;
- Google reCAPTCHA, which protects the MidwithMe Platform from automated abuse. It receives your IP address and information about how you interact with the page;
- Google Analytics, which measures how the MidwithMe Platform is used;
- HubSpot and Go High Level, which we use to manage our relationship with you and to send you communications;
- Sentry, which records technical errors so that we can find and fix faults.
- QR posters at hospitals and other locations. We display printed posters at some hospitals and other locations. Each poster carries a short code, for example app.midwithme.com.au/go/7eu33y6z. The code identifies the poster, not you.
- When you scan a poster, we record that a scan of that poster happened on that date. That record is a count only. The record we store holds no name, email address, IP address, device identifier or anything else that identifies you.
- We also store that poster’s code on your device for up to 30 days, so that we can tell which poster brought you to us if you go on to create an account.
- If you create an account, and only after you have acknowledged our Privacy Collection Notice, we record that code against your account. Because each poster is displayed at a known location, this tells us which location helped you find us. Where that location is a maternity hospital, we treat this as Sensitive Information and handle it accordingly.
- We use this only to understand which locations help people find us. The location is never shown in a web address, and you can ask us to remove it at any time using the contact details in this Privacy Policy.
4. How we use your Personal Information
- Purposes of use and disclosure. We only use, process and disclose your Personal Information for the purposes for which it is collected.
- In particular, we use, process and disclose your Personal Information and non-Personal Information to:
- provide or deliver the MidwithMe Platform and the Services to you and to make third party products and services available to you, including, without limitation, to provide the means through which Students (who are required to complete their CoCE course requirements) and Mums-to-be (who require midwifery support services) can be matched and connected with each other;
- inform you about the MidwithMe Platform, the Services, third party products or services made available through the MidwithMe Platform or about offers, competitions, promotions, events, sweepstakes, surveys, questionnaires about us, the MidwithMe Platform, the Services or other matters which we believe are of interest to you (such as recruitment or job opportunities);
- manage, administer, improve, test, develop and upgrade the MidwithMe Platform, the Services and the third party products and services, inform you about scheduled maintenance or outages and manage our relationship with you, or otherwise investigate complaints about the MidwithMe Platform, the Services, Mums-to-be and Students;
- share with our Authorised Affiliates;
- verify your identity;
- for internal record keeping;
- for direct marketing purposes (see below);
- comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
- for any purpose to which you have consented; and
- for any other purpose notified to you at the time of collection.
- In the event of a merger, acquisition or sale of the whole or part of our business or assets, we reserve the right to transfer your Personal Information as part of the transaction, without your consent or notice to you.
- Disclosure to Authorised Affiliates. In order to provide or deliver the MidwithMe Platform, the Services, third party products or services to you, we may disclose your Personal Information and non-Personal Information to:
- our related bodies corporate, business partners, service providers, third party contractors, agents or suppliers;
- authorised external service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as internet and technology services providers, website software developers, hosting and data storage companies, marketing, advertising and security service providers, market research and recruitment service providers; and
- external business advisors, such as auditors, lawyers, insurers and financiers,
- In the case of Students, we may share your Personal Information with Mums-to-be for the purposes outlined above and in the case of Mums-to-be, we may share your Personal Information with Students for the same purposes.
- We may also disclose your Personal Information and non-Personal Information:
- to any other party with your consent and direction;
- to law enforcement bodies or regulatory authorities to assist with their functions, or as otherwise required or authorised by law; or
- where we consider necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, governmental request or industry code or standard.
- When we disclose your Personal Information or non-Personal Information to any of our Authorised Affiliates, we will ensure that they undertake to protect your privacy. These Authorised Affiliates are not permitted to use the information for any purpose other than the purpose for which they have been given access.
- Our Authorised Affiliates may also provide us with Personal Information and non-Personal Information collected from you. If you disclose Personal Information to an Authorised Affiliate, we rely on you to provide the Authorised Affiliate with consent for us to collect, store, use, process, alter and disclose your Personal Information.
- Overseas disclosure. In the course of providing you with access to, and use of, the MidwithMe Platform, our products or services, it may become necessary or desirable to disclose Personal Information to Authorised Affiliates located overseas. The countries in which these overseas recipients may be located will depend upon the individual circumstances. In the course of our ordinary business operations we commonly disclose Personal Information to Authorised Affiliates located overseas, including:
- the United States of America, in relation to customer relationship management and communications (HubSpot and Go High Level), push notifications (Google Firebase), analytics, address and location search, and protection from automated abuse (Google), and error monitoring (Sentry); and
- other countries, in relation to the delivery of your chat messages (Ably). Ably routes messages through a global network, so the countries involved depend on where you and the person you are messaging are.
- The laws where these overseas recipients may be located provide various levels of protection for Personal Information which are not always equivalent to the level of protection that may be provided for in Australia. Where we transfer your Personal Information overseas we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is treated securely and the means of transfer provides adequate safeguards.
- If you have any questions in relation to the transfer of your Personal Information please contact us using the contact details set out in clause 11 below.
- Disclaimer. We will not disclose your Personal Information to any third party (other than our Authorised Affiliates) without your written consent, unless:
- we are otherwise required by the Privacy Act;
- we are permitted to under this Privacy Policy; or
- such disclosure is, in our opinion, reasonably necessary to protect our rights or property, avoid injury to any person or ensure the proper functioning of the MidwithMe Platform.
- This Privacy Policy only covers the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. The use of your Personal Information by any third party is governed by their privacy policies and is not within our control.
5. Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme
In the event of any loss, or unauthorised access or disclosure of your Personal Information that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will investigate and notify you and the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable, in accordance with the notifiable data breach scheme contained in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act.
6. Marketing communications
- Direct marketing. We may use and disclose your Personal Information to send you information about the MidwithMe Platform, the Services or information about other products or services (including third party products and services) we may offer from time to time, as well as other information that may be of interest to you.
- These communications may continue, even after you stop using the MidwithMe Platform.
- Communication channels. We may send this information to you via the communication channels specified at the time you provide your consent.
- These communication channels may include mail, email, SMS, telephone, social media or by customising online content and displaying notices on the MidwithMe Platform.
- Opting-out. You can opt out of receiving these communications by:
- contacting us using the details below; or
- using the unsubscribe function in the email or SMS.
7. Storage and security
- Location of storage. The Personal Information you give us is stored in an Australian region of Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services is an American company. When its staff help us fix a technical problem, they may need to look at information stored here from outside Australia.
- Protecting your Personal Information. We take reasonable steps in the circumstances to keep your Personal Information and non-Personal Information safe. We use a combination of technical, administrative, and physical controls to protect and maintain the security of your Personal Information and non-Personal Information.
- Our officers, employees, agents and third-party contractors are expected to observe the confidentiality of your Personal Information and non-Personal Information.
- Wherever possible, we procure that Authorised Affiliates who have access to your Personal Information and non-Personal Information take reasonable steps to:
- protect and maintain the security of your Personal Information and non-Personal Information; and
- comply with the Australian Privacy Principles when accessing and using your Personal Information.
- No guarantee. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. While we do our best to protect your Personal Information and non-Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of any Personal Information and non-Personal Information transmitted through the MidwithMe Platform.
- You provide your Personal Information and non-Personal Information to us at your own risk and we are not responsible for any unauthorised access to, and disclosure of, your Personal Information and non-Personal Information.
- Destruction of Personal Information. We will destroy or de-identify Personal Information in circumstances where it is no longer required, unless we are required or authorised by law to retain the information.
8. Accessing and correcting your Personal Information
- We shall use our reasonable endeavours to keep your Personal Information accurate, up-to-date and complete. You have the right to access any Personal Information we hold about you, subject to some exceptions under the Privacy Act.
- You can access, or request that we correct, your Personal Information by writing to us using the details below. We may require proof of identity. If we do not allow you to access any part of your Personal Information, we will tell you why in writing.
- We will not charge you for requesting access to your Personal Information but may charge you for our reasonable costs in supplying you with access to this information.
- We will endeavour to respond to your request for access or correction within 30 days from your request.
9. Cookies and analytics
- We use small text files placed on your computer called ‘cookies’ to collect standard log and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. We use this information to analyse how visitors use the MidwithMe Platform and the Services and to compile statistical reports on website activity. You can set your computer to reject cookies, but this may affect your ability to use certain parts of the MidwithMe Platform. The exception is described in Section 3: if you arrive by scanning one of our printed QR posters, we store that poster’s code on your device, and if you go on to create an account we record it against your account. From that point it is no longer anonymous.
- We may also log your IP address. Your IP address is your computer’s electronic Internet address. We may collect your IP address to see trends, run the MidwithMe Platform, track user movements, and gather broad demographic information.
- Services that the MidwithMe Platform may use from time to time include Google Analytics, which transmits website traffic data to Google servers. Google Analytics does not identify individual users to Google, or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. If you arrive by scanning one of our printed QR posters, the web address you land on contains that poster’s code, and Google Analytics records web addresses. Google cannot connect that code to a location or to you. We can, because we hold the record of which poster is displayed where. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand traffic and usage on the MidwithMe Platform. By visiting and using the MidwithMe Platform you consent to Google processing your data in the manner described in Google’s Privacy Policy (policies.google.com/privacy) and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
- Google may pass on cookies to its partners and other third parties to achieve its purposes. For more information on how Google uses the information collected from cookies, and how you can opt out of this feature please see Google’s Privacy Policy. You can also view Google Analytics’ currently available opt-out (see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-opt-out/fllaojicojecljbmefodhfapmkghcbnh).
10. Privacy complaints
- If you have any issues about this Privacy Policy or the way we handle your Personal Information, please contact us using the details below and provide full details of your complaint and any supporting documentation.
- At all times, privacy complaints:
- will be treated seriously;
- will be dealt with promptly;
- will be dealt with in a confidential manner; and
- will not affect your existing obligations or your commercial arrangements with us.
- Our Privacy Officer will endeavour to:
- respond to you within 10 business days; and
- investigate and attempt to resolve your concerns within 30 business days or any longer period necessary and notified to you by our Privacy Officer.
- If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may refer the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
11. How to contact us
We can be contacted by email at connect@midwithme.com.au.
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
- From time to time, it may be necessary for us to review and revise our Privacy Policy. We may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on the MidwithMe Platform.
- We encourage you to check the MidwithMe Platform from time to time to ensure you are familiar with our latest Privacy Policy.