Our Policy

1. This Privacy Policy sets out the commitment of Equal Research Pty Ltd (ACN 606 843 163) trading as Equality Institute (ABN 66 606 843 163) (“we”, “us”, “our”) to protecting the privacy of personal information we collect about you, the person disclosing their personal information to us (“you”, “your”), including through:
   • our website located at equalityinstitute.org (“the Website”);
   • the provision of our goods and services to you; and/or
   • information we receive directly from you.
2. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and contact us at hello@equalityinstitute.org if you have any questions, or if you would like to request a copy.
3. As a business that collects sensitive information, we are bound by the legal requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Act”).
4. If You do not wish for your personal information to be collected in a way anticipated by this Privacy Policy, we may not be in a position to provide our services to you. In some circumstances, you may request to be anonymous or to use a pseudonym, unless it is impracticable for us to deal with you, or if we are required or authorised by law to deal with identified individuals.
5. By providing us with personal information (including sensitive information), you are telling us that:
   • you have had sufficient time to access this Privacy Policy;
   • you have read and accepted this Privacy Policy; and
   • you consent to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of your personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy.
6. If you are under the age of 18, your parent or guardian consents to the above on your behalf.
7. If you do not want to provide personal information to us, or if you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, then you do not have to disclose your personal information to us.
8. Please be aware if you do not provide us with your personal information, this may impact how you use our website and or how you access our services.
9. We can change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting an updated version on our website or by notifying you directly.

Links

10. To help you find more information, we sometimes include links to other helpful websites from our Website. Please note that this Privacy Policy only applies to information that we collect on our Website (not any other site).

11. As we are not responsible for data collection on those other sites, our Privacy Policy will not apply. We cannot guarantee any of the privacy practices of other websites, so please be safe and make sure you read their privacy policy before giving them your personal information.

Opting out

12. From time to time, we will send you newsletters, invitations and updates. If you do not want to receive these communications, you can always opt out by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ button at any time. You can also opt out by emailing us at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

13. Please note that if you live in the European Union (EU) the following applies: where we have collected data from you where you have ‘opted in’ for direct marketing purposes pursuant to an offer, the provision of your personal data is a contractual requirement for the delivery of an opt in material.

Making a complaint

14. We can provide you with a copy of the Australian Privacy Principles, which describe your rights and how your personal information should be handled, on request.

15. If you believe we have breached this policy and want to make a complaint, please email us at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

16. If you are not happy with our response, you can also make a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) by:

• • phone on 1300 363 992;
  • online, using the Privacy Complaint Form on the OAIC website; or
  • by post to Office of the Australia Information Commissioner, GPO BOX 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.

17. If you live in the EU, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We hope that you will not have complaints but if you do, please raise them with us.

18. You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the EU Member state where you live or work.

Contacting Us

19. If you have any questions or need to provide us with notice, please contact us by email at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

Types of Information We Collect

Personal information

20. Unless you are a client who has engaged us or who has otherwise disclosed personal and sensitive information to us, we will only collect personal information as follows:

Type of information	This may include:
Identity data	Your name
Contact data	Your billing address, email address and telephone number
Technical data	Your internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, operating system and platform and other technology on the device you use to access our website
Usage data	How you use our website and products and services
Marketing and communication data	Your marketing preferences (including about third-parties) and your communication preferences

21. Where you engage us for goods or services, we will collect certain types of personal information from you about you as set out in the table below:

Type of information	This may include:
Identity data	Your name and date of birth
Employment information	Your occupation
Demographic data	Your age and address (location)
Contact data	Your address, billing address, email address and telephone number
Transaction data	Payment details to and from you, your bank account details, details of product and service purchase and transaction history
Technical data	Your IP address, login data, browser type and version, operating system and platform and other technology on the device you use to access our website
Usage data	How you use our website and products and services
Marketing and communication data	Your marketing preferences (including about third-parties) and your communication preferences

 

Sensitive information

22. Where you participate in the services and research for the purpose of impact measurement and reporting, we will collect certain types of sensitive information from you about you as set out in the table below:

Type of information	This may include:
Racial or ethnic origin	Racial or ethnic origin
Refugee or asylum seeker status	Refugee or asylum seeker status
Health information	Information about your interaction with bodily harm or domestic violence, whether you have a disability, whether you have a mental health condition.
Membership of a trade or professional association	Membership of a trade or professional association
Sexual orientation or practices	Sexual orientation or practices

 

How We Collect Your Personal Information

23. We are committed to using lawful and fair means to collect your personal information and in collecting it from others only when it’s unreasonable or impracticable to obtain that information directly from you.

Personal information

24. We collect personal information from you when you:

1. • visit our website;
   • make an enquiry with us via our website, by email, social media or telephone;
   • complete an intake form or similar;
   • create an account on our website;
   • purchase a product or service from us; and or
   • sign-up to our marketing subscription (such as an email list, newsletter, etc.).

Sensitive information

25. We collect your sensitive information in limited circumstances, such as when you:

1. • engage us for services;
   • complete an intake form or similar;
   • complete surveys in our online courses;
   • complete surveys for research or impact measurement before, during or after completing an online course or engaging in a services (for example workshop training or webinars);
   • purchase and/or participate in our services and the sensitive information is disclosed to us to facilitate the delivery of the services;
   • make an enquiry with us and the sensitive information is disclosed to us, either for us to assess your suitability to work with us or to facilitate a referral to an appropriate service provider; and/or
   • are referred to us by another service provider through a referral.
   • We limit the circumstances in which we collect personal and sensitive information indirectly.

Cookies and other trackers

26. From time to time, third-parties may use technology such as cookies, web beacons or similar, to collect or receive information from you, from our Website or elsewhere on the internet in order to provide measurement services and targeted advertising such as Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics and AdWords.

27. If we receive your personal information from a third-party, we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy.

28. We will destroy or de-identify your information where we form the opinion that it’s been provided to us unlawfully or unfairly.

Why We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Your Personal Information

29. We collect, hold, use and disclose your information as is reasonably necessary for us to run our business, including to:

• • contact and communicate with clients and potential clients;
  • ensure that we are the right fit for our clients and determine your suitability for our services;
  • provide you with our products or services;
  • verify your identity;
  • maintain a database of customers, subscribers, loyalty program members or similar;
  • market to you and others (including remarketing – such as using a Facebook Pixel or similar to display Our advertising to you elsewhere on the internet, for example on Facebook or Google);
  • keep internal records;
  • improve your customer service experience;
  • process refunds;
  • help us improve, monitor and evaluate our website and business (including to train our team) and for other statistical purposes;
  • verify transactions to limit our exposure to risk of or actual fraudulent activity; and as required by law.

30.We disclose personal information to:

• • • Stripe;
    • WooCommerce; and
    • HubSpot CRM.

31.We never sell or rent personal or sensitive information we collect.

Third-parties

32. Where we disclose your personal information to a third-party for the above purposes, we will do our best to ensure that their privacy policy adheres to similar standards of privacy or request that they follow our Privacy Policy when handling your personal information.

33. We will also be diligent in ensuring that the personal information we disclose is accurate, up-to-date, complete and relevant.

34. We will not use or disclose your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing unless you’ve consented to it.

35. We will not disclose your information for any purposes other than the purpose for which it was collected without your consent unless we are required to do so by law.

International disclosure

36. Personal information is transferred to international databases, including:

• • HubSpot CRM;
  • Stripe; and
  • WooCommerce.

37. In these circumstances, we are unable to ensure that their privacy standards meet those required by the Australian Privacy Principles under the Act and you consent to the disclosure of information to these overseas databases, fully informed that we can’t ensure they comply with the privacy standards in Australia.

How We Hold and Protect Your Personal Information

Storage

38. We store all personal and sensitive information we collect on or within:

1. • our secure offices;
   • our dedicated information storage software, such as client relationship management (CRM) software;
   • the backend of our website;
   • the backend of our social media accounts;
   • our secure cloud servers; and
   • our secure storage devices and systems

Security

39. We are committed to ensuring that your personal and sensitive information is secure and protected from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

40.We undertake the following precautions to protect the personal and sensitive information we hold:

1. • our website is encrypted with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to ensure the safety of any data that is submitted through its use;
   • we limit access to personal and sensitive information to a “need-to-know” basis;
   • the backend of our website is password protected;
   • where applicable, we use two-factor authentication to secure our online systems;
   • we protect devices we use to collect, hold, use and disclose personal and sensitive information with industry-standard anti-virus software;
   • our electronic devices and databases are protected by passwords and are stored in secure premises;
   • all electronic copies of personal and sensitive information are securely stored on cloud servers, instrument servers and/or storage devices with access by authorised personnel only;
   • all hard copies of personal and sensitive information are securely stored in filing systems with access by authorised personnel only;
   • all deliverables containing personal and sensitive information are provided to clients using a file encryption and/or password protection method; and
   • all conversations involving the discussion of personal and sensitive information take place in private, where conversations are unable to be overheard by unauthorised personnel.

Data breaches

41. If a data breach occurs involving personal and sensitive information and the breach is likely to cause harm, we will notify the individual as soon as possible after the occurrence in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act and related legislation.

42. If you are subject to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we will report the data breach within 72 hours.

43. While we take commercially reasonable measures to maintain a secure Website, electronic communications and databases are subject to errors, tampering and break-ins, and we cannot guarantee or warrant that such events will not take place and we will not be liable to you for any such occurrences.

Your Consent

44. We request your consent to the processing of your personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

45. You give us consent to process your personal data. You can withdraw that consent at any time by sending an email to hello@equalityinstitute.org. If you ask us to, we will stop using your personal data as soon as possible.

Our use of cookies

46. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer to help us remember your preferences, like your login information or location.

47. Cookies are used for a variety of reasons. We use cookies to make it easier and faster for you to use our Website.

48. We also use cookies for security purposes to protect you online. We and our third-party vendors may also use cookies to display advertisements to you elsewhere on the internet.

49. You can block the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. You can opt out of third-party vendor cookies by visiting your Google Ad settings or http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

50 . Please note that the Website may not work as well for you if you disable cookies.

Do You live in the European Union?

51. We are committed to looking after our customers in the EU and we make every effort to comply with the GDPR, including by processing your personal data in accordance with the principles of data processing set out in the GDPR.

Your rights

52. You have the following rights under the GDPR:

• • the right of access (the right to access personal information we process);
  • the right of rectification (the right to require us to rectify inaccurate personal information or complete our records);
  • the right to be forgotten (the right to require us to erase all your personal information in certain circumstances);
  • the right to restriction of processing (the right to restrict how or why we process your personal information);
  • the right to data portability (the right to receive a copy of your personal information);
  • the right to object (the right to object to us processing your personal information); and
  • the right of review (the right to request a human review of automated decision making or profiling).

53. You can exercise any of these rights by emailing us at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

54. For the purposes of this policy, the following definitions apply:

Concept	Definition
Personal data	Any information relating to you
Processing	Any operation on personal data such as recording, structuring, storing, etc.
Controller	The person or body who determines how and why personal data is processed. In this case, that’s us.
Data protection officer	The person who oversees the data protection strategy

 

Collecting personal data

55. The personal data we collect is:

1. • processed lawfully, fairly and transparently;
   • collected for the specified, explicit and legitimate purposes including creating our mailing list, direct marketing, taking payments and delivering goods or services to you;
   • adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for our purposes;
   • accurate, and where necessary, kept up to date (we will take every reasonable step to ensure that inaccurate personal data is erased or rectified without delay);
   • not stored than for longer than is necessary; and
   • processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data.

Working with personal data

56. To help you to understand how we will work with your personal data we have set out some key information below.

The Data Controller

57. We are the controller of the data. Our privacy contact is Donna Davies. Please direct privacy enquiries to donna@equalityinstitute.org.

The Data Protection Officer

58. The data protection officer is Donna Davies. Please direct privacy enquiries to donna@equalityinstitute.org.

Purposes for processing personal data

59. The purposes for processing personal data are set out above in the clause, ‘Why We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Personal Information’.

The legal basis for processing personal data

60. Where we have collected data from you for direct marketing purposes, the legal basis is your freely given informed and explicit consent, which you have given by a positive act (i.e. accepting this Privacy Policy) knowing that you can withdraw it at any time.

Receipt of personal data

61. Your data is received by us and by our marketing platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Transfer of personal data to a third country

62. Your data will be transferred to a third country as set out above in the clause, ‘Why We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Your Personal Information’.

Storage of personal data

63. We store all personal data indefinitely. This is necessary for our legitimate business purposes and to fulfil the purpose for which we collected the data, for example, to deliver our services to you, to contact you for marketing purposes and to facilitate your easy and convenient use of our Website.

Automated decision making (including profiling) of personal data

64. We use Facebook, Instagram and Google advertising services, which may use automated decision making. Please refer to their privacy statements, available at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php for more information.

65. You may request access to, rectification or erasure of your personal data, restriction of processing or object to processing for automated decision-making.

Data portability

66. You also have the right to data portability. We may request a reasonable fee to process a data portability request that is manifestly unfounded or excessive, based on the administrative costs of complying with the request. We will contact you promptly and inform you if we require payment of a fee.

67. We will not be obliged to comply with the request until we have received the fee. Please email us at hello@equalityinstitute.org if you have a request like this.

Collection and affiliation

68. Please note that we are not affiliated with nor sponsored by Facebook, Instagram or Google.

69. We collect other personal data about you from other sources, as set out in this Privacy Policy.

Access, Correction and Deletion

Access

70. You can request the details of personal information that we hold about you in certain circumstances set out in the Act. We may refuse to provide you with information that we hold in certain circumstances set out in the Act.

71. Otherwise (including individuals subject to the GDPR), we will provide access to the information if it is reasonable and practicable to do so. In most cases we will do this free of charge, but if your request requires significant effort or expense on our part, we may ask for compensation for that.

Correction

72. If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, irrelevant or misleading, please contact us at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

73. We will endeavour to promptly correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date and to notify you of the correction, unless it is impracticable or unlawful to do so.

Deletion

74. If you want us to delete personal information we hold about you or to not collect information from you for a specific purpose, please contact us at hello@equalityinstitute.org.

75. For information that does not relate to a purchaser, such as in circumstances where you have signed up for our mailing list or made an enquiry with us, We may process your request in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

76. Please note that if we agree to delete information, it may be impossible to completely delete the information without retaining some residual information because of backups and records of deletions.

77. We will respond to any request to access, correct or delete information within a reasonable time.

This privacy policy was last updated: September 2025.