The ALIVE National Centre Web Privacy Policy

The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation and all associated projects coordinated from the Centre respects the privacy of anyone who interacts with us and is committed to protecting and managing personal information fairly and lawfully. The ALIVE National Centre aims to improve health outcomes for people living with mental ill-health and to reduce the individual, social and economic inequities associated with current care models and access to care.

This Privacy Policy applies to all the publicly accessible pages on the site located at alivenetwork.com.au.  The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third-party sites linked to our site. If you have any questions about our site, or the application of this Privacy Policy or a request for access to information held please contact: alive-hub@unimelb.edu.au

What information do we collect?

When you look at the pages on The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation site, our computers automatically record information that identifies, for each page accessed:

• The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed it
• Your top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .edu, .au, .uk etc.)
• The address of your server
• The date and time of your visit to the site
• The pages accessed and documents downloaded
• The previous site visited and
• The type of browser and operating system you have used.

We may from time to time need to obtain personal information from people. For instance, where individuals are using the crowdsourcing page functions you may need to share your email and for forums you need an email and password to access conversations. When you join a network you are sharing details to us within a secure database of the University of Melbourne. The kinds of personal information we collect will depend on the purposes for which you interact with The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation site.

The personal information we may collect from you may include:

• Your full name and prefix (e.g., Mr or Mrs, Ms, Dr, Professor, other)
• Your address
• Your phone number
• Your email address, so that we can authenticate you electronically and administer your account
• Your date of birth
• Your gender
• Your social network contact and publicly available details
• Your employer
• Your country or state of residence
• Other demographic information

It is important to note that you may not be able to deal with or interact with the ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation site if you do not provide us with a minimum of personal information. We may, at times, collect information on publicly maintained records, if that collection is reasonably necessary for The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation legitimate functions or for reviewing activities and engagement on our site.

We may from time to time collect ‘sensitive’ information from you. Where we do so, we will do so in accordance with applicable laws and ethical codes of conduct.

How we collect and use your information?

We collect and process personal information through lawful and fair means and in a non-intrusive way. We follow the guidance outlined in https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles/australian-privacy-principles-guidelines We will collect your personal information directly from you wherever possible. However, where this is not practicable, we may collect information you have provided through other avenues, as detailed in the specific privacy collection notice provided to you at the time your personal information is collected.

We only process personal information as necessary, for specified purposes, and in accordance with the relevant Privacy Laws. The purpose and lawful basis for collecting your personal information is detailed in the specific privacy collection notices for particular activities.

We will only use or disclose your personal information under the following circumstances:

• for the purpose for which it was collected
• for a related purpose which you might reasonably expect
• where you have consented to the disclosure
• if we are required or permitted to do so by law
• where it is necessary for the pursuit of our legitimate interests (such as facilitating teaching, learning and research)
• where we have engaged a contracted service provider or partner to perform legitimate functions on our behalf, such as those outlined in the privacy collection notice.

The Centre does not actively share information with any third parties about personal information. We do not sell your personal information to third parties under any circumstances or permit third parties to sell on the information we have shared with them.

The crowdsourcing space on the ALIVE National Centre website invites the public to share personal stories, images or videos for different research innovation challenges. Submissions are moderated and approved by the ALIVE National Centre coordination team before publication, once the submission is public it is viewable by people accessing the site from within Australia and internationally.

You can remain anonymous in any submission or provide your name or a pseudonym. It is important to note that if you submit crowdsourced ideas these may be used in the future as data within research activities, papers and manuscripts.  If this is the case there will be ethics approval details provided on the site with the call in case you need more information. These data will not be linked to your email or name provided at submission; where an image is copyrighted protected this will not be re-used or appear in research activities without referencing the crowdsourced contribution and ensuring all copyright approvals have been sourced.  

The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation does not approve of the use of artificially generated content submissions for written or visual contributions. The use of AI must be referenced and clearly outlined when used. AI cannot be included as a co-author of a submission and therefore is not accepted.

Is the information stored securely?

We take great care to ensure that personal information is handled, stored and disposed of confidentially and securely. Your personal information is collected, stored and transmitted securely in electronic formats stored on secure, password protected servers of the University of Melbourne. This includes, where approved, databases that are shared across the Centre with members who are located in University partner organisations.

Our staff receive regular privacy, data management and storage, and data protection training, and the Centre has implemented organisational and technical measures so that personal information is processed in accordance with the Privacy Laws as applicable.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information we (or third parties operating on our behalf) collect, transmit, store or otherwise process, is accurate and complete, and that appropriate technical and organisational measures are implemented and maintained to protect it from accidental or unlawful destruction, misuse, loss, alteration, or unauthorised access or disclosure.

Access to your personal information is limited to authorised Centre staff employed within the ALIVE National Centre and contracted third parties, or affiliates' representatives, who have a legitimate interest in it for the purpose of carrying out necessary duties. Where personal information is disclosed to third parties, it will be done so only to the extent necessary to fulfill the purpose of such disclosure. Where required, we ensure we have appropriate information sharing and/or processing agreements in place before sharing your personal information with any third parties.

In some instances, your personal information may be transferred outside of Victoria or Australia (for example, where partners are located interstate or across territories or use a cloud-based system with servers based in international jurisdictions). We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the interstate or overseas transfer of personal information is in accordance with this privacy statement, as applicable.

How to contact us?

You may request access to, or correction of, your personal information we hold, or exercise your individual rights as applicable (including under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if applicable), unless this would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others or would contravene our other legislative obligations.

For access to personal information that we hold about you, you should contact the department that holds the information in the first instance; usually the coordinators within the ALIVE Hub can assist. In some circumstances, the department or area of the University that holds that information may need to liaise with our Legal and Risk area before determining whether they can provide the information directly to you.

If you would like to contact us, including to ask a question or request removal from our communications, we may be reached via email at alive-hub@unimelb.edu.au

Will this policy be updated over time?

We periodically refine our privacy statements. The overall level of privacy protection is maintained when changes or inclusions are made. Wherever possible, we will inform you of any substantive changes to this Privacy Statement. However, we may occasionally make changes without notice, particularly where there are amendments to the relevant laws or we adopt new working practices. We therefore encourage you to regularly review this statement for any updates.