AMES Group Privacy Policy

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This Privacy Policy outlines how AMES Group (“AMES”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information. AMES is a global education and migration consultancy that provides support for individuals from the Philippines, Nepal, Egypt, Jordan, Vietnam, Indonesia and other locations who want to study in countries like Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany and France to gain student visas and then migrate to these destinations.

Our Head Office is based at Level 6, Suite 604, 233 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000 and you can contact our Privacy Team by either email privacy@amesgroup.com.au or by telephone on (+61) 02 9283 0769.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and comply with both the Australian Privacy Principles (the APPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Australia) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), if applicable.

What constitutes Personal Information?

“Personal Information” refers to data (or a view) about or relating to a person which may be used to identify them. These can include names, street or mailing address, telephone number, email, passport detail, academic/visa/criminal history, financial records and many other types of information required to provide counselling on immigration and education matters. “Sensitive Information” relates to personal characteristics such as race/ethnicity; religious belief; health; medical conditions; or a person’s criminal record.

Types of Personal Information Collected

We collect various types of Personal Data so that we can deliver our Services. The different categories of Data are as follows:

• Your identity and contact details (names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, passport number(s), date of birth, nationality etc.)
• Your academic and professional background (education history, grades, certification(s) etc., work experience, professional qualification(s) etc.)
• Information related to Immigration (visa history, current immigration status, marital status, dependents information, family details, etc. Information necessary for Migration/Visa Applications)
• Financial information (tuition fees, payment records, bank statement(s), proof of financial ability for Student/Migration Visa Application(s))
• Sensitive Data (Data related to racial or ethnic origin, Health/Medical condition(s), Criminal record(s), Religious belief(s) etc.) which will be collected from you if necessary, and with your explicit consent.
• Data on usage (the way(s) you have used our Website (IP address(es), Browser Type, Pages visited, Interaction data etc.) We may also collect this information using Cookies or similar technology.

How do we collect Personal Information?

We collect Personal Information in several ways, as follows:

1. Straightforwardly from you – through telephone conversations, e-mail communications, online applications (e.g., making an appointment, requesting a quotation), WhatsApp messaging, and in-person meetings/consultations. When using our web-site contact forms for the first time, we might ask for your Name, Age Range, E-mail Address, Phone Number, Country of Study and Details of your inquiry.
2. A Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) – Clients often send documents via email or via some form of electronic communication platform; we maintain those documents within our CRM.
3. Personal Information from Third Parties – Educational Institutions, Government Agencies, Migration Authorities, Service Providers etc. may share your Personal Information with us, subject to obtaining your consent. We will take reasonable efforts to inform you if this occurs.
4. Cookies and Web Analytics – Our web site uses Cookies and similar technologies to enhance your browsing experience, to determine how our web site is performing and to assist us with marketing. These could be tools like Google Analytics, Meta (Facebook) Pixel, HubSpot, and Calendly Integrations. You have the ability to control Cookie Preferences through your Browser Settings, and where possible, through the Ad and Privacy Settings of the relevant Platform.

Why we collect personal information

The reasons why we gather and use your personal data are:

• To provide you with education and migration assistance: we assess your suitability for courses and schools; we submit your school applications; we prepare and send student and migration visa applications and arrange additional services including airport collection. We use your details to assist you, to work with the educational institutions and the relevant authorities to obtain further documentation and to fill in and lodge documents and forms on your behalf.
• To be able to contact you: to answer queries you have; to give you an update regarding your application; to make arrangements to meet; to give you the help that you require.
• For legal obligations: to ensure we satisfy the requirements of the immigration law; to satisfy our duties under education regulation; to keep records and verify who you are so we can stop fraud.
• For marketing and statistical analysis: we would like to send you newsletters, invitations, or promotional material if you agree to receive them; we analyse how users interact with our web site to improve our service; you can opt out from receiving marketing communications at any time.
• Any other reason with your consent: if we want to use your information for a different reason than those stated above, we will ask you for permission first.

In accordance with the GDPR we may rely upon one of several legal bases for processing your personal data, which may include obtaining your explicit consent; fulfilling contractual obligations to you; satisfying any legal obligation; protecting your vital interests; and pursuing our legitimate business interests (which include maintaining and improving our services, ensuring our IT systems operate securely etc.), the relevant legal basis being identified by us in each communication to you.

Tiết lộ thông tin cá nhân

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Other Educational Institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., USA, Canada, Spain, Germany and France to facilitate course applications and enrolments.
• Government and Regulatory Bodies – Immigration Authorities, Visa Processing Centres, Education Regulators and Taxation Offices for purposes related to visa applications, and/or compliance with our legal obligations.
• Business Partners and Service Providers – Travel Agents, Accommodation Providers, Language Test Centres, Translators, Health Insurance Providers, Chartered Accountants etc. which assist with your study or migration. We require our Business Partners to comply with all applicable Privacy Laws with respect to the handling of your information.
• Offices we have in Other Countries – such as our offices in the Philippines, Jordan, Egypt, Mongolia, Nepal and Latin America. Our Staff will also share your information amongst ourselves to assist with your application.
• To Third Parties if you Consent – for example, when you authorise us to provide your information to a Partner or Sponsor.
• As Required or Authorised by Law – for example, Courts, Tribunals, Law Enforcement, and Regulators.

We do not sell or rent your personal information. When disclosing personal information to recipients located outside of Australia, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient complies with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws. Please note, overseas recipients are not necessarily subject to privacy protections equivalent to those available in Australia.

Transfer of Personal Information Internationally

As part of our provision of services we work with institutions and agencies across many jurisdictions (countries) and have team members and other service providers based overseas (in addition to the Philippines, Egypt and Jordan). As such some third-party service providers may be located in, or store or process your personal information in countries outside Australia. In the event that your personal information needs to be transferred overseas we can do so if:

• you provide us with your consent for this;
• the overseas recipient is bound by laws or enforceable binding schemes which provide a level of protection equivalent to the Australian Privacy Principles (and where relevant the GDPR); or
• it is required or permitted by law or is reasonably necessary for the performance of a contractual obligation (e.g. making an application, or registering you with an education provider).

Storage and security

We use a combination of physical and electronic means to securely store your information. Only authorized staff and third-party service providers have access to this information. In addition to these measures, we have implemented various administrative, technical and physical controls to prevent the unauthorized misuse, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or unauthorized access of your personal information. Where possible we encrypt your personal information and assess and update our systems on an ongoing basis.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that when your personal information is no longer needed by us that we will either destroy or de-identify it. In general, we will keep client files for as long as they are required to provide you with the services requested and to comply with any applicable laws and regulations (we may be required to hold certain documents for at least seven years) and to settle any disputes which may arise out of our agreement with you.

Data breaches

We will notify individuals if there has been an unauthorised access to your personal information which could reasonably be expected to cause serious harm to you or others. We have obligations under the Notifiable Data Breach Scheme to assess what steps are reasonable to contain the breach, to understand its impact on those whose personal information has been accessed without authorisation, and if necessary, to notify them and the OAIC. If we need to contact you as a result of this assessment, it will be at the contact details that we hold for you.

Data retention

The length of time we keep your personal data will be no longer than is needed for the purpose(s) it was collected for, as described in this policy, or as is required by law. We might store your contact details and an inquiry history for when we are contacted again so we can provide you with an answer to your inquiries, follow-up on previous inquiries, and improve our service offerings. If you become one of our clients, we will maintain all client files, including the applications and documentation submitted by you in accordance with our legal, regulatory and professional obligations. Contact details for marketing communications will be stored for as long as they are used to send you communications until you opt-out of receiving those communications from us, or tell us to cease sending them. In practice, where possible we will remove identifiable information or delete it once it is no longer needed.

Your rights

You may have different rights depending on whether the APPs or GDPR apply. We respect all applicable rights and endeavour to facilitate them.

Rights under the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs)

• Right to Access and Correct – You are entitled to obtain access to your Personal Information that we collect and maintain about you. In addition, you may make requests to amend or correct this information. Where appropriate, we will endeavour to respond to your request(s) within a reasonable timeframe, and we reserve the right to recover a reasonable administrative cost for responding to such requests. Depending on the nature of the request, we may require you to provide identification in order to verify your entitlement to access your Personal Information.
• Anonymity and De-Identification of Personal Information – We will permit anonymous interaction with us where lawful and practical to do so. It is generally necessary however for us to identify individuals accurately for immigration and education purposes. Therefore, while some of our services allow for anonymous or de-identified interaction, other services will require the provision of true and accurate identity information and therefore cannot be accessed by an individual wishing to interact with us as an anonymous person.
• Complaints – If you believe that we have contravened the APPs, please contact us at the contact addresses listed below. We will conduct an investigation into your complaint and will respond to you in writing. You may also lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), which has responsibility for investigating breaches of the APPs.

Rights under the GDPR

In addition to your rights under the GDPR, if you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or if EU data protection law is applicable to your data you also have other rights:

• The Right of Access – to confirm whether we process your personal information and to receive a copy of it.
• The Right to Rectification – to amend inaccuracies and/or completeness of your personal data.
• The Right to Erasure – in some cases, you can request that we remove your personal data from our records.
• The Right to Restrict Processing – to request that we suspend processing your data until we investigate your request.
• The Right to Data Portability – to receive your personal data in a structured, widely accepted format and to transfer that data to another controller.
• The Right to Object – to object to processing of your data for our legitimate interests or direct marketing.
• The Right Not to Be Subject to Automated Decision Making – We currently do not make decisions using automated means that create legal effects for you but in the event that we do so in the future, you will have the right to object to such automated decisions.

Cookies and tracking technologies

We may use cookies and similar technologies to operate our website correctly, to remember your choices when you visit our website, and to track how people are using our website to support our advertising and data collection. This technology could collect technical data about you, including your IP address, device identifiers, your browser type, which pages of our website you view, and what action(s) you take on our website (e.g., viewing a page, filling out a form). Typically, users can block cookies in their web browsers’ settings or delete them there. Users can also make changes to their ad personalization options by visiting websites like Google and Meta. If you disable cookies, it may affect some functions available on this website.

Third-party links and embedded content

Our web site may also have links to other web sites that we do not control nor endorse; we may also include embedded content (for example, videos or social media feeds) on our web site. Embedded content acts as though you visited that site. Any data collection by these external sites, use of cookies and tracking of your activities is the responsibility of the owner of each respective site. Although we will be happy to provide you with a link to another site’s Privacy Policy, it is up to you to read the policy and understand how they will treat your personally identifiable information.

Accessing and updating your information

To obtain a copy of, modify or remove your personal information, simply contact us via the means listed below. When processing your request, we can ask you to confirm your identity as well as clearly describe your request. In general, our response should be made in less than 30 days. Where we are unable to process your request for any reason (for example if there is a legal basis or operational necessity), we will give you an explanation.

Complaints and contact details

If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy, if you wish to access your personal information, update it, exercise other privacy rights or make a complaint, please contact us at the below address:

Privacy Officer
AMES Group – Head Office
Level 6, Suite 604, 233 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

E-mail: privacy@amesgroup.com.au
Điện thoại: (+61) 02 9283 0769

Privacy is important to us. Once you’ve lodged a complaint, we’ll respond as soon as possible and generally reply in writing to your query within a reasonable time frame (usually within 30 days).

You can also submit a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) via their website www.oaic.gov.au or call them. You also have the right to submit a complaint to your national Data Protection Authority (DPA) in the EEA.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be modified by us from time-to-time, based upon our business activities or changes in applicable laws. All updates to this privacy policy will be made available on our website. In some cases, where a modification is a material one (e.g., a new type of data collection), we will also provide you with notice of such modifications through e-mail or other means of contact. Your continued use of our service after we post such an updated privacy policy indicates your consent to all of the terms and conditions contained in that updated Privacy Policy.