Privacy policy (ANZ)

BSN medical Australia Pty Ltd ABN 84 095 746 204 trading as Essity Australia and BSN medical Limited trading as Essity New Zealand (referred to as “Essity”, “we” and "us") recognise that the privacy of your personal information is important to you and we are committed to protecting the privacy of any personal information we collect from you. The application of this Privacy Policy remains subject to applicable laws including legislation, regulations and the orders of courts or other lawful authorities, other lawful requests or legal processes. This Privacy Policy applies where your personal information is protected by the Australian or New Zealand privacy legislation referred to below. This Privacy Policy should be read with our General Privacy Policy and serves to supplement such policy and is not intended to wholly replace such policy. Where there is any conflict between the General Privacy Policy and this Privacy Policy, the terms of this Privacy Policy, the terms of this Privacy Policy shall prevail to the extent of such conflict. 

Unless you give us your consent to do otherwise, we will only collect, use, disclose, store, and process your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

Essity abides by the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in Australia, and the Information Privacy Principles (“IPPs”) contained in the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 and the Health Information Privacy Code 1994 in New Zealand (each a “Privacy Act”). This Privacy Policy outlines how Essity handles and manages your personal information. You can obtain information about the APPs and your privacy rights in Australia at the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-law/, and the IPPs and your privacy rights in New Zealand at the website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at https://www.privacy.org.nz/the- privacy-act-and-codes/privacy-principles/. Observing and protecting the privacy of your personal information is an essential aspect of the conduct of our business. We disclose such information only in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

We primarily collect personal information that is necessary for us to provide the products and services to you. Personal information is any information that identifies you or that can be used to identify you, and may include: 

• your name, address and contact details (address, telephone numbers and email address); 
• your work contact details including name, telephone numbers, work address and email address if you are a customer or supplier of Essity; 
• information about your dealings with us about our products and/or services; 
• if you are a patient who has been referred to us by your therapist/doctor, we may collect your name and address and details about your medical condition including measurements for custom made garments, medical history, previous treatments, allergies and other medical conditions you may have; 
• we may collect your credit card details to process a payment, but we will not retain those details after your payment has been processed; and 
• other personal information you may disclose to us when you contact us with a query or complaint, or where you request a product or service from us, or information about a product or service from us, or which is contained in any other communications between you and us. 

Where relevant we may ask you for other information, for example, qualifications and employment history, if you apply for employment with us. 

Some of this information is considered by law to be “sensitive information” about you. This includes any information that tells us about your health and/or medical condition. This information is only collected where relevant and necessary to ensure that you are given appropriate guidance and support based on your specific circumstances. In New Zealand, we will comply with the New Zealand Health Information Privacy Code 1994 when we collect, use, disclose, store, and process, your health information. The HIPC defines health information to include information about: 

• an individual’s health or disabilities; 
• an individual’s medical history; 
• health or disability services being provided, or that have been provided, to an individual; and 
• information collected while providing health and disability services, such as addresses for billing purposes or information relevant to funding.

We may collect personal information in the following ways:

• where possible, directly from you, either in person, in documents, by email or via the Essity website;
• from third parties for example your therapist/doctor who recommends an Essity product and/or service to you; and
• from publicly available resources.

We hold personal information in hard copy and electronic files.

If your personal information is no longer needed for any of the purposes for which it is collected or for which it may be lawfully used, Essity will take reasonable steps to either destroy or permanently de-identify it, subject to any legal obligations and responsibilities to retain it. In such instances, we will only hold such personal information for as long as we are lawfully entitled to do so.

When using Essity websites, you may voluntarily disclose personal information to us. Our server may automatically record details such as your internet address, domain name if applicable, and the date and time of your visit to our website. This information is used for internal purposes only, including statistical purposes. We will try to not identify users or their browsing activities except as necessary to investigate or report any suspected unlawful activity, as required or authorised by law or as reasonably necessary for the activity of an enforcement body. 

Some Essity websites may use cookies, which may collect personal information. Cookies are pieces of data stored on your browser that record information on your use of Essity websites, such as details of your server and your browsing activity, and send the information to the server. We use these cookies to monitor usage of Essity websites only. You may be able to change the settings of your browser so that cookies are not accepted generally or that you are provided with options to accept or reject them as they are sent to your browser. You might not be able to use the full functionality of Essity websites by refusing the use of cookies. 

By using the Essity website, you consent to the storing and accessing of cookies or other information on your device in connection with your use of the Essity website.

Generally, we collect, store and use personal information about you in the course of obtaining goods and services from you, to meet our obligations to you as well as to enable us to provide our products and services to you (whether as a customer of Essity or where a Essity product has been recommended to you), to enable us to address any query or complaint you may have made, and / or so you can seek employment with us or communicate with us in writing, by e-mail, telephone or via the Essity website. We also collect, store and use your personal information for the purposes set out in section 6. 

Our ability to meet our obligations to you, your business or to process any application may be adversely affected if you do not give us the requested personal information, or if the information you give us is incomplete or inaccurate.

We use your personal information primarily to provide our products and services to you in the ordinary course of conducting our business and/or to obtain goods and services from you. We may also collect, store and use any of your personal information to:

• contact you to provide you with the information, materials or products and services you request;
• contact you to provide you with information and materials on our products and services that we think you may be interested in;
• provide you with our products and services (whether as a customer of Essity or where a Essity product has been recommended to you), including to create or modify a customer garment;
• provide you with information about the products and services you are currently using;
• provide you with information about other products and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;
• manage our relationship with you, including addressing any queries or complaints you may have, and to improve the services we provide;
• enable you to access and use the Essity website;
• communicate with you in relation to your use of and access to the Essity website;
• monitor, develop and improve the Essity website and ensure that content on the website it relevant, of interest to you, and presented in the most effective manner for you;
• assist us generally in managing transactions with our customers, suppliers and other contacts(including charging, billing, credit card authorisation and verification and collecting debts);
• comply with our legal obligations and ethically carry on our business; and
• use for any other purpose that you authorise.

If we intend to use your personal information for direct marketing, such as adding you to a marketing database, and you did not consent to this use at the time we collected your relevant contact details, we will first notify you and will provide you with an opportunity to opt in to receive such communications.

If you no longer wish to receive our email alerts you may opt out at any time by replying to the email using the unsubscribe facility. If you opt out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative communications.

We will only disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was collected or in the following circumstances:

• to a member of the Essity AB group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries for consultation and reporting on relevant issues and for storage purposes,depending on where our storage facilities and/or servers are located;
• third parties including business partners, suppliers, sub-contractors and service providers who assist Essity in the conduct of our business;
• to the practitioner who recommended Essity’s products and services to you;
• where required or authorised by law or otherwise as permitted under the respective Privacy Act;
• where you consent or have authorised the disclosure to a third party;

In the event of a sale, merger, liquidation, dissolution, reorganization or acquisition of Essity, or a Essity business or business unit, information Essity has collected about you may be sold or otherwisetransferred. However, this will only happen if the party acquiring the information agrees to be bound by the terms of Essity’s privacy policy and any notice provided to you when the information was collected.

We may deal with third parties such as website service providers, marketing service providers or IT support service providers that have all or part of their operations located overseas. As a result, your personal information may be disclosed to a recipient in a foreign country including, but not limited to, Germany and Sweden.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information we hold is:

• accurate, complete, up-to-date, relevant and not misleading;
• stored in a secure environment; and
• protected from misuse, interference and loss as well as unauthorised access, modification ordisclosure,

but cannot guarantee the security of any personal information we collect and store.

If any of your details change, please let us know as soon as possible by using the contact details below so we can maintain the accuracy of your personal information.

In Australia and New Zealand, your personal information is collected and held, on behalf of Essity, by:

Essity Australia & New Zealand
PO Box 337
Mount Waverley, Victoria, 3149 Australia

We seek to ensure that all personal information collected is accurate and complete. You have a right to access, and correct, personal information we hold about you.

We will comply with any request to access your personal information that you send us by email at customerservice.au@essity.com or customerservice.nz@essity.com except where certain exceptions in the relevant Privacy Act allow us to refuse to do so. There is no fee for making a request to access your personal information but we may charge a fee to recoup our costs of giving you access to your personal information in a mutually agreed format, usually by sighting the accessible information held on file. We will advise you if a fee may be imposed, and the likely amount of the fee, before access is given.

You also have the right to ask us to correct information about you that is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading. If we refuse to correct your personal information as requested, we must:

• notify you in writing of the reasons for the refusal (unless it would be unreasonable to do so) and how to complain of the refusal; and
• upon request from you, take such steps are as reasonable in the circumstances to associate a statement that the information is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading in such a manner that it will always be read with the information, and so that it will be apparent to users of the information.

The Essity website may contain a link to third party websites. The links are provided for convenience only and we are not responsible for the content or material contained in, or obtained through, any third party website or for the privacy practices of the third party website. We suggest that you review the privacy policy of each website that you visit. 

Our links to the linked websites should in no way be construed as an endorsement, approval or recommendation by us of the owners or operators of the linked website or of the content, products or services contained on or referred to by the linked websites.

Attention: Privacy Officer
Mail: Essity Australia and New Zealand
PO Box 337
Mount Waverly 3149
Victoria, Australia
E-mail: customerservice.AU@essity.com
Phone: 1300 BSN MED (1300 276 633)

We will consider and respond to any enquiry or complaint notified to us within a reasonable time, usually within 30 days. We will always endeavour to resolve any complaint to your satisfaction.

If you are not satisfied with the way in which we handle your enquiry or complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on Tel: 1300 363 992 or email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au.

If you are not satisfied with the way in which we handle your enquiry or complaint, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner on Tel: 0800 803 909, email: enquiries@privacy.org.nz, or submit an online complaint form accessed at www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/making-a-complaint/.

This is our current Privacy Policy outlining our personal information management practices. This Policy replaces any other privacy policy published by us to date. We may vary this policy from time to time. Unless otherwise stated, any changes will take effect immediately upon positing on the Essity website and the “last updated” date will be updated. We encourage you to review the Essity website regularly to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

Last updated: May 2021