Privacy Policy

General Privacy Policy (Aus & NZ)

Effective Date February 2019

Policy Owner Group Legal

Applies to All GWF employees, contractors, customers & visitors in Australia New Zealand and to all visitors to this site www.gwf.com.au

Contact Officer Your Privacy Officer

This signed statement of Policy confirms our commitment to making George Weston Foods Limited workplaces legally compliant for ALL and is to be displayed at all work locations.

Purpose and aims

George Weston Foods Limited, George Weston Foods (NZ) Limited and their related companies (GWF, we, us, our) recognise the importance of your privacy and we are committed to protecting the personal information which we hold.

We are bound by a range of privacy laws including applicable privacy principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Australian Act) in Australia and the Privacy Act 1993 (NZ Act) in New Zealand.

This General Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we manage personal information and safeguard the privacy of people who are not our current or former employees (you, person, people).

In Australia, “personal information” has the meaning set out in the Australian Act. In New Zealand, “personal information” means information about an identifiable individual. This Policy is also designed to notify you of the types of surveillance that are carried out on our premises or otherwise in relation to the provision of your services to GWF.

This policy does not apply to current or former employee of George Weston Foods Limited whether on a fulltime, part-time or casual basis, the GWF Employee Privacy Policy applies to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information where it is directly related to your employment relationship with us. If we collect, use or disclose personal information for a purpose that is not directly related to the employment relationship, this Policy will apply. Please see the GWF Intranet or contact GWF’s Human Resources department for details.

If you engage workers to provide services to GWF, you must ensure that they are provided a copy of this Policy.

This Policy may be reviewed, varied, added to or withdrawn by GWF at any time, at our absolute discretion. This Policy, and any amendments to it, does not form part of any employment contract or agreement or your independent contractor agreement (as the case may be).

Collecting personal information about you

We will only collect personal information when it is reasonably necessary for us to perform our functions or as otherwise authorised or permitted by law. The kinds of personal information we collect from you will depend on the circumstances in which the information is collected and your relationship with us, including the type of products and services we provide to, or acquire from, you. It may include, for example, the following information:

  • your name, contact details (including postal address, email and phone number), identification information (including date of birth) , enquiry/complaint details and details of your dealings with us;
  • information you give to us when you request a product or service from us or enter one of our competitions or surveys;
  • biometric information, such as a scan of your finger, if you are on one of our sites;
  • location information;
  • information you give us when you provide a product or service to us; • credit related information necessary to assess applications for credit and personal guarantees;
  • records of communications between us and you (including monitoring and recording of telephone, email and online communications for quality and record-keeping purposes);
  • if you have or had one of our products, information you have provided about the use of that product or your opinions about that product; and
  • if you applied for a position with us and were unsuccessful, information about your qualifications, experience, character and screening checks (including health, reference, background, directorship, financial probity, identity, eligibility to work, vocational suitability and criminal record checks).

We will not collect sensitive information from you (being information or an opinion about a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, philosophical or religious beliefs or affiliations, membership of a political, trade or professional association or union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal record, genetics, biometric identifiers or health information) unless it is required for one or more of our functions or activities and you have provided your consent, or we are required to collect this information by law.

We may collect personal information about you in a number of ways, including:

  • from you directly; and
  • from third parties including related companies, credit reporting agencies, your agents or representatives, publicly available sources of information and the parties with whom we exchange information as described here.

If you apply for a position with us, we may collect your personal information from third parties such as recruitment service providers, referees, former employers, educational institutions and, if appropriate, health and psychometric testing providers and police. We may use that personal information to assess suitability for positions with GWF and to make contact about relevant positions.

If you are a contractor (or person engaged by a contractor) working at a GWF workplace, we may collect and use biometric information such as a scan of your finger and location data. The information collected will be in accordance with this Policy and will be used for time recording, attendance and payroll purposes. All biometric information will be collected through a secure system, which is electronically encrypted and to which access is strictly limited to staff whose tasks require access. All biometric information is securely destroyed upon termination of a contractor’s engagement with GWF.

GWF also uses location tracking technology for time recording purposes, to ensure the safety and security of contractors, and to assist it to comply with its legal obligations. All location data will be collected through geo location services such as mobile phones, laptops and in car devices and you may be required to turn on location services while performing your contracted services.

If you visit a GWF site, you may be recorded by surveillance cameras which are used in strategically located internal and external areas of the workplace to improve and monitor the safety and security of GWF staff, contractors, property and resources and to monitor and investigate compliance with legal requirements and GWF policies.

For new contractors, location tracking and camera surveillance will start from the date they start providing services to GWF, and will be undertaken continuously and on an ongoing basis.

All information will be collected in accordance with this Policy and where it relates to the provision of your services to GWF, and will be used for payroll, superannuation, health and safety, security, administration, insurance (including Workcover or WorkSafe), contact and staff management purposes. Images may also be used in connection with legal proceedings.

As you navigate through and interact with any of our GWF websites and any other digital platforms we operate (Platforms), we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. Some of this information may be linked to you personally. This information helps our Platforms function correctly, helps us understand the needs of our users and may be used for the other purposes set out in this privacy Policy. Examples of this information include:

  • website related traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data;
  • data related to your use of the Platforms. This includes the pages you visit, the resources and services that you access; the time you spend on each page, the date and time of your visit, referring pages (pages you came from or go to) and statistical and other aggregated data derived from your use of the Platforms;
  • information about your device, computer and network connection, including your IP address, operating system, hardware version and browser type;
  • if you allow our Platforms to deliver content based on your location (for example by enabling this feature on your mobile device) we may collect location data (such as through GPS, Bluetooth, or WiFi signals) including for the automated delivery of relevant content and advertising to you.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include log files, usage monitoring software and cookies. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on a user’s device that can identify the device you are working from. The cookie file gives us details such as your IP address, platform, browser and domain (whether you are accessing the Platform from Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere). We may use the information generated by cookies to personalise your experience on the Platforms, make it easier for you to navigate our Platforms, and improve your experience by storing your search, posting and other viewing and usage history, and your login details (if you choose) enabling you to use certain services as a registered user without having to log on each time. We may also use cookies to provide you with certain advertisements which may be of interest to you. If you disable cookies it may limit your access to some of the Platforms’ content and features. You can choose to refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser and/or deleting them from your hard drive. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our Platforms, but your experience may be affected.

We advertise in a number of ways, including online through managed social media presences, and on other unaffiliated sites and mobile applications. To understand how our advertising campaigns are performing, and better understand the visitors to our Platform, we may collect certain information via our Platforms through our advertising service providers. We or our vendors use several common online tracking tools to collect information about our users, such as browser cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies. The information we collect includes IP addresses, the number of page visits, pages viewed via our Platforms, search engine referrals, browsing activities over time and across other websites following your visit to one of our Platforms or applications, and responses to advertisements and promotions on the websites and applications where we advertise.

We may allow third-party companies to place advertisements and collect information when you visit our Platforms. This may include information that will not identify you personally (such as click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) and other information such as precise geo location and user device identification. This information is collected to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. The Platforms may also contain links to a variety of advertising and third party platforms and website sources. Some of these links may request or record information from users, use cookies or other methods to collect information from you. We have no control over the content or privacy notice practices of such sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of such platforms before engaging in any activity with them.

Our Platforms may include social media features such as the Facebook like button, twitter and widgets, such as the share button or interactive programs that run on our site. These features may collect your IP address, which pages you visit on our platforms, and how long for. If you’re a member of a social media platform, the interfaces may allow the social media platform to connect your visits to this platform with other personal information. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Platform. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy notice of the third party providing it and to the maximum extent permitted by law we accept no responsibility for the actions of those third parties.

We may provide an application programming interface (API) to enable third party applications to interface with our Platforms. Some applications enable you to interact with us through the API in a way that requires you to log in. To do this, most of these applications will direct you through a process where you are able to let the application connect to your account.

You may elect not to identify yourself, or to use a pseudonym, when engaging with us. However, if we are unable to collect your personal information we may not be able to provide products or services to you, or otherwise interact with you, effectively or at all.

Using & disclosing your personal information

To the extent permitted by law, we may use or disclose surveillance records and your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, to provide you with or improve our products or services, to provide you with information about products and services offered or distributed by us, for other purposes to which you have consented, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

To the extent permitted by law, we may use surveillance records and contractors’ personal information for payroll, superannuation, health and safety, security, administration, insurance (including Workcover or WorkSafe), contractor and staff management purposes. Some of that information we are required to collect under applicable laws. In extreme circumstances we may need to restrict an individual’s access to the workplace or take disciplinary action.

We may disclose surveillance records and your personal information to:

  • providers of mail house, credit reporting agencies, debt collection, legal advisory, accounting, insurance, auditors, business consulting, banking, payroll, surveillance, archiving, delivery, training, security, data processing and other services, including such parties based overseas;
  • your representatives including your legal advisers and unions;
  • if you apply for a position with us, providers of recruitment, health and psychometric testing services and your educational institutions, referees and former employers;
  • parties involved in a purchase or prospective purchase of any part of our business;
  • third parties which you allow us to exchange your personal information with.

Information processed by these third parties may include sensitive information. We require these third parties to handle any personal information strictly in accordance with applicable privacy laws (the Australian Act and the NZ Act, as applicable).

When we no longer require personal information for any of the purposes for which it was collected we will, subject to any on-going legal requirements to retain it, take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

The use, collection and disclosure of your information described above may involve us disclosing your personal information to third parties in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany and the United Kingdom and any other countries where we have related bodies corporate. Where we disclose your personal information to third parties in countries outside the country in which your personal information was originally collected (originating country), we are often subject to specific cross-border disclosure privacy requirements which are designed to provide substantially similar privacy protections as those provided by the originating country.

Protecting your personal information

We will take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure as required by law.

Access to your personal information

You have certain rights of access to and correction of your personal information under applicable privacy laws (the Australian Act and the NZ Act, as applicable).

You can request access to personal information that we hold about you by contacting the GWF Consumer Information Centre using the contact details listed below. We will respond to requests for access within a reasonable period after the request is made. Requests for a large amount of information, or information which is not currently in use may require further time before a response can be given. You may be required to pay a reasonable charge to access your personal information. We may refuse to give you access to your personal information where we are permitted to do so by law.

If you request us to do so we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to amend any personal information about you held by us which is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period after the request is made. If we disagree with you about the accuracy, completeness or currency of a record of your personal information held by us, and if you ask us to record your request, we will take reasonable steps to associate a statement to that effect with the relevant record.

Direct Marketing

By providing us with your electronic contact details (including mobile number and email address) you agree that we, and our related companies, may send you commercial electronic messages for any of the purposes set out in this Policy or otherwise disclosed to you. We will generally ask you to opt in to receiving commercial electronic messages from us. You may opt out at any time.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

From time to time it may be necessary for us to change this Policy. We will notify any changes by posting an amended version on our website.

Who to contact

If we become aware of any concerns or problems with information held by us, we will take these issues seriously and work to address them. If you would like to access personal information that we hold about you, or have a question or complaint, please contact us at

GWF Consumer Information Centre (CIC)
PO Box 555 Enfield NSW 2136
Phone (Australia):1800 645 515

Phone (New Zealand): 0508 000 111
Email: consumer@gwf.com.au

In the case of complaints, GWF will endeavour to respond as soon as possible, within 14 working days, to let you know who is responsible for managing your query. GWF will try to resolve the complaint within 30 working days. When this is not possible GWF will contact you to provide an estimate of how long it will take to handle the complaint.

If you have not received a response from GWF within a reasonable time or are dissatisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the applicable Privacy Commissioner using the contact details below:

In Australia:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001 enquiries@oaic.gov.au

In New Zealand:
Office of the Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 10094
Wellington 6143

Paul Foster, GWF Chief Executive

Last Modified: February 2019

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