The privacy of your personal information is important to us. As part of our commitment to the protection of your right to privacy, we provide this explanation of our information handling practices. This policy applies across all websites that we own and operate and all services we provide.
This policy relates to personal information we handle about visa applicants, visitors to our websites and other members of the public.
As a rule, it is possible to access our website without having to provide any personal information. When you decide to provide us with any personal information via the Internet, the applicable data protection provisions shall be observed with regard to your information.
We process your personal data in an appropriate and lawful manner, in accordance with applicable data protection regulations and the General Data Protection Regulation EU 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) which commenced on 25 May 2018.
We comply with the GDPR and to do so the personal information we hold about you must be:
- used by us lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
- collected only for legitimate purposes and not used in any way that is not necessary;
- accurate and kept up to date;
- kept only as long as necessary for legitimate purposes, subject to legal obligations; and
- kept securely.
We collect, use and store the following personal data:
– Personal information provided by you
To provide our services, we require a range of personal information. Personal information is information that can be used to identify you such as your name, email address, postal and street address, telephone number, gender, age, marital status, family composition, passport details, citizenship/s, occupation, place of work, qualification, support queries, bank account details and travel details. We may collect sensitive personal information about you such as details of your health, criminal record including spent convictions, racial or ethnic origin. We only collect sensitive personal information where there is a clear need to do so. For example, we are required to provide details of health and character (criminal record) as part of your visa application. We collect that information if you voluntarily give it to us or you otherwise consent (expressly or by implication) to us collecting it.
– Documents provided by you
It may be necessary to provide colour copies or scans of documents including your passport, national identification card, birth certificate, residency permit, bank statement, written statement about purpose of stay, letter of invitation or additional documents depending upon your circumstances.
– Technical information
We collect information about your internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider, URLs of referring/exit pages, operating system and devices used to interact with our website and services. We may collect data about your habits and preferences such as frequency and duration of visits to our website.
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information related to our services in the following ways:
– To provide all services
All the information provided to us is used solely in relation to our services or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. We may use your contact details to send you information about AITS, including information of new products or services and/or related services we may offer.
– To communicate with you
We use the information provided by you to communicate with you via email/ telephone/stamped self-addressed envelope to provide standard services, additional services and notification of visa decision.
– To improve our website
We analyse the data we collect using various programs to improve our website and the overall experience for our web users. This includes improving our services as well as our website itself.
We do not share your personal information with third parties outside AITS apart from:
– Service Providers
We work with third party service providers to provide our website and application development, hosting, maintenance, backup, storage, trouble shooting, virtual infrastructure, payment processing, analysis and other services for us, which may require them to access or use information about you.
Your personal information may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. If you are located outside of Switzerland and choose to provide information to us, we transfer the data including personal information to Switzerland.
– Governments and authorities
We collect personal information to carry out our standard services. For example, information is provided to Australian Federal Government, Australian State and Territory Governments, the Department of Home Affairs, Australian assessing authorities, and associates identified on our website.
– Law enforcement
We may share information about you with a third party to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or government request for example, for national security; to enforce our terms of service or policies; to protect the security of our website and services; protect us, visa applicants or the public from harm or illegal activities; respond in good faith to an emergency to assist in preventing death or serious bodily injury of any person.
– Professional advisors including accountants, tax consultants, lawyers, insurers, registered translators, medical practitioners, other registered migration agents to handle ancillary matters
– Third parties who are contracted or provide services to AITS
– Companies that provide services to assist us with our business activities
Our website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of those websites.
AITS takes all necessary technical and organizational measures to protect the confidentiality and security of your information.
We take appropriate measures to protect personal information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, taking into account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of personal information. Data that is provided to us is stored by us in a secure server environment that uses a firewall and other advanced technology to protect against interference or unauthorized access.
We ensure that all third party services that we use to store your personal data have in place the requisite security to protect your data.
We have procedures in place to deal with any unauthorized intrusion into our system. We shall notify you if legally required to do so.
No method of transmission of data is one hundred percent (100%) secure and absolute security cannot be guaranteed.
We use “cookies” to store specific information about you and track your visits to our website. A “cookie” is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive. The cookies allow us to customize your experience on our website. The cookies can also be used to tailor adverts to you, based on your past visits to our website.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most website browsers automatically accept cookies. You can modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website. You can learn more about cookies by visiting http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
Cookies do not store any personal information.
Subject to certain exemptions, you are entitled to exercise the following rights under the GDPR:
– Right to be informed:
You have the right to be informed about collection, use, data storage and data transfer
– Right of access:
You have the right to access your personal data and review how and why data is processed. This right is not absolute, only applies in certain circumstances and is subject to other legal obligations. You may send an email to info@aits.ch requesting information as to the personal data which is undergoing processing
– Right to rectification: You have the right to obtain correction of any inaccurate personal data about you that we have processed, update any data which is out-of-date and the right to have incomplete personal data completed
– Right to erasure: You have the right to have personal data erased when it is no longer required. This right is not absolute, only applies in certain circumstances and is subject to other legal obligations. For example, the Code of Conduct issued by the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority has data retention requirements of 7 years. You may send an email to info@aits.ch requesting deletion of personal data, stating your reasons
– Right to restrict processing: You have the right to request the restriction of usage of personal data. This right is not absolute, only applies in certain circumstances and is subject to other legal obligations. You may send an email to info@aits.ch requesting restriction or suppression of personal data, stating your reasons
– Right to data portability:
You are entitled to receive your personal data in a structured and machine-readable format and transmit this data to another IT environment
– Right to object
You have the right ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes e.g. receiving information from us about upcoming events, newsletters and publications and your data will no longer be processed for such purposes. You may send an email to info@aits.ch with your request to not use your data for such activities
We accept payment by credit card for online eVisitor Visa applications (only). We have engaged Stripe for credit card processing. We do not collect or hold your credit card details. Refer to https://stripe.com/en-ch/privacy for details of data collection policy, privacy policy and cookie policy.
We do our best to keep your personal information up to date and accurate. If your personal information or circumstances change, you are responsible for notifying us of those changes.
We may change our privacy policy at any time by posting a new/updated version on our website. You can also request a copy of our most current privacy policy by emailing our office.
This agreement will be governed by and construed according to the law of Switzerland and the parties agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts and tribunals of Interlaken, Switzerland.
By visiting our website and using our services, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, disclosure and other uses of information as described in our privacy policy. If you do not agree to any part of this policy or our terms of service, do not use our website. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at info@aits.ch
Australian Immigration and Trade Services Ltd
Postfach
CH – 3800 Interlaken
Switzerland
Tel: +41 33 826 0026
Website: aits.ch
Email: info@aits.ch