Privacy

Your privacy is important to Horizon Power (‘we’ or ‘us’). We take steps to protect your personal information from misuse and to handle your personal information in the ways described in this Privacy Policy and in accordance with applicable laws.

This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, store, use, disclose and protect your personal information. It also outlines how you can request access to and/or correct your personal information, ask a question or make a complaint.

You can view our Collection of Information Statement here.

1. Open and transparent management of personal information

Our privacy policy is available on our website and we can also provide a hard copy version upon request. If you would like more information, or a hard copy of this privacy policy, please contact us as set out in section 9 below.

2. Collecting your Personal Information

2.1 What is personal information?

Personal information means information or an opinion that relates to an individual, whether living or dead, whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion.

The types of personal information we may collect include your name, address, email, telephone or fax number, date of birth, bank account details, credit information, and metering data (such as your meter location and electricity use). We may also collect other information of a personal nature that you disclose during communications with us, whether in person, over the telephone, via email or in writing.

In some instances, we may also collect government identifiers, such as your driver’s licence number or, if we are dealing with Centrelink on your behalf, your customer reference number.

2.2 What is sensitive information?

Sensitive information is personal information:

1. that relates to your racial or ethnic origin (including Aboriginal family history), gender identity, sexual orientation or practices, political opinions or membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association or trade union, or criminal record,
2. that is health information, genetic or genomic information (other than health information), or biometric information; or
3. from which information of a kind referred to above can reasonably be inferred.

We only collect sensitive information about you where it is necessary for one or more of our functions or activities and you consent to the collection, or the collection is required or authorised by law. For example, we may need to collect information concerning your health where it is relevant to our supply of electricity to you or to the management of our billing arrangements with you.

2.3 What is credit information?

Credit information is personal information about your credit situation.  We may collect credit information about you from credit reporting bodies (CRBs) to assess your credit worthiness and decide whether to provide you with our services on a post-paid account basis (e.g. where you receive our services now, but pay for them later).

The types of credit information we may collect includes your identity particulars, details of other credit which has been provided to you, repayment details, more specific default information in certain circumstances, whether you have committed a serious credit infringement (e.g. acted fraudulently) and any court proceedings or personal insolvency information.

If we decide to open an account for you on a post paid basis, we will then collect your credit information on an ongoing basis.  This may include details about your repayments, any defaults on payments or changes to the terms and conditions of your account.  We do this to form our own ongoing credit assessment about you.

2.4 What is the purpose for collecting personal information?

We only collect personal information that is necessary for our business functions and activities.

For example, if you are a customer or potential customer, we collect your personal information for the purpose of providing high quality, safe and reliable power to you as the electricity generator, distributor and retailer for regional Western Australia.  This may include using your personal information to decide whether to provide you with an account and then managing your account, applying concessions, billing and transactions.  We may also use your personal information to notify you of electricity outages, provide technical and maintenance information and services, and conduct surveys.

If you are a supplier or contractor, we collect your personal information for the purposes of engaging you to supply goods or services (or both) and then managing our ongoing relationship with you. If you work for a supplier or contractor, we may also collect some personal information for the purposes of managing our interaction with you in the course of the supply of goods or services.

Where we can do so, further details of the purposes for which your personal information is collected will be provided to you at or around the time the information is collected from you.

As a government trading entity, communications we receive are a State record for the purposes of the State Records Act 2000 (WA) and will be managed in accordance with our obligations under that Act, along with any other legislation affecting the manner in which we manage documents we receive.

We may also keep records of communications containing personal information (including recordings of emails and telephone calls) for the purpose of staff training.

If we do not collect your personal information, we may not be able to do these things. For example, we may not be able to communicate with you and deal with your enquiries or applications.

2.5 How do we collect personal information?

There are several ways that we may collect your personal information, which are set out below.

1. • Directly from you

     If it is reasonable and practical to do so, we will collect your personal information directly from you. We may do this when we meet you in person, such as when you complete an application form or contract.  But we may also collect your personal information directly from you in other ways, including when we have a conversation with you over the telephone, you send an email or letter to us, you complete an online enquiry or application form or your employer submits a tender containing your personal information.

   
   

   • Indirectly

     If it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect your personal information directly from you, we may collect it from third parties. We may also do so with your consent, or where the collection is required or authorised by law. This may include collecting your personal information from third parties such as public sources, government agencies or your employer.  If we are assessing whether to provide an account for you, we may collect credit information from CRBs.

     If we receive personal information about you from someone else without having asked for it, we will only continue to hold it if it is personal information that we could have collected from you ourselves, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

   
   

   • From our website or mobile applications

     If you are using our website or mobile applications, you will browse anonymously, except as set out in this section.

     For all visitors browsing our website, we use cookies to collect information such as the server your computer is logged on to, your browser type (for example Chrome, Safari, Edge  or Firefox), the time of visit, pages visited and your internet protocol (IP) address.  An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer automatically and required for using the Internet.  We may also derive the general geographic area associated with an IP address.  We may also use cookies to manage online advertising.

     Information collected in this way is typically not able to be used to personally identify you.

     However, if you have provided us with personal information by completing an application form online or entering personal information in our mobile application, or if you use our online (and digital) tools and applications and we have identified you, we may be able to link your identity to your previous anonymous browsing history and collect information about your possible future use of our website, irrespective of how you access our site (e.g. from a third party website).  We may also use that information to tailor your online experience.

     If you would prefer not to be identified in this way or would prefer us not to collect anonymous cookie information about you at all, you can delete the cookies and reconfigure the cookie preferences on your internet browser.

 

3. How we use and disclose your personal information

3.1 Using and disclosing personal information

We only use and disclose personal information about you for the purposes for which it was collected, or for secondary purposes where permitted by applicable law. For example, we may use personal information about you for a secondary purpose with your consent, or where it is related to the purposes of the collection and the secondary purpose is one that you might reasonably expect.

For instance, if you obtain services from us, we may use and disclose your personal information to process applications and payments, verify your identity and other details, manage our services (including monitoring, auditing and maintaining accurate records), manage our relationship with you, protect our lawful interests and deal with your enquiries and concerns.

This may involve disclosing your personal information to third parties:

1. who provide services which are necessary for us to conduct our business, such as providers of archival, data storage, auditing, debt collection, banking, insurance, marketing, advertising, delivery, technology, data processing, research, investigation, professional advisory (legal, accounting, financial and business consulting) and security services;
2. as required or permitted by law, such as to regulatory bodies (including in relation to our electricity licence conditions), government agencies (such as Centrelink), law enforcement bodies, courts and dispute resolution schemes; or
3. where you have given your consent (express or implied), such as to your authorised agents, executors, administrators or legal representatives.

Other secondary purposes for which we may use and disclose your personal information include its use and disclosure in connection with suspected unlawful activity, or where its use and disclosure is necessary as part of a restructure of Horizon Power or affecting Horizon Power.

3.2 Direct marketing

From time to time, we may use the personal information collected from you for direct marketing purposes, such as providing you with related energy news, promotions and special offers, targeted advertising and other information which we think you may find interesting.

We may contact you by telephone, electronic messages (e.g. email), online (including websites and mobile apps) and other means for these purposes.

If we do contact you in this way, it will only be in relation to matters that would reasonably be expected. And we will ensure that our marketing activities comply with applicable law.

If you no longer wish to receive any direct marketing communication from us, please follow the instructions for unsubscribing in our direct marketing communications. If there are no instructions, please contact us as set out in section 9 below.

3.3 Unique Identifiers

We will avoid assigning unique identifiers to individuals unless the assignment of unique identifiers is necessary for to perform our functions and activities. We may adopt and assign unique identifiers for activities such as managing customer accounts, tracking billing accounts, processing payments and resolving service issues.

3.4 Credit information

We may disclose your personal information to CRBs to the extent that it relates to your credit worthiness and any decision we make as to whether to provide you with our services on a post paid account basis.  For example, if you fail to meet your payment obligations in relation to an account provided by us or if you commit a serious credit infringement, we may be entitled to disclose this to CRBs.

CRBs may include credit information provided by us in the reports given to other credit providers to assist them in assessing your credit worthiness.

We share credit information with the following CRB:

• Corporate Scorecard
• Suite 4, Level 7
• 100 Walker Street
• North Sydney NSW 2059
• Telephone: (02) 9278 7925
• Website: corporatescorecard.com.au

3.5 Public Registers

Personal information held by Horizon Power will not be disclosed and made available through public registers as Horizon Power does not maintain any public registers.

4. Disclosures outside of Australia

In most circumstances, your personal information will be collected, held, stored, used and disclosed in Australia.  Generally, we do not disclose personal information about you to organisations or persons located outside of Australia.  We will not disclose personal information about you to a recipient overseas unless:

1. we reasonably believe that the third party recipient is required to comply with principles for handling your personal information that are substantially similar to those with which we must comply, or we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that they handle your personal information inconsistently with those principles;
2. the disclosure is necessary for us to provide, or to be able to provide, a service to you, such as where we are entering into an agreement with you, performing our obligations under an agreement with you, or performing our obligations under an agreement which is in your interests;
3. you consent to the disclosure, or where it is impracticable for us to obtain your consent, the disclosure is for your benefit and you would be likely to provide your consent if it could have been obtained; or
4. the disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by or under law.

Where personal information about you has been de-identified, we will not disclose that de-identified information outside of Australia unless we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient protects the information, does not re-identify the information, and does not pass the information on in a way that might undermine the effectiveness of the de-identification.

5. Keeping personal information secure

We also reasonable steps to protect personal information about you from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Before disclosing personal information to a customer or contractor, we take reasonable steps to confirm the identity of that person to prevent misuse or unlawful disclosure of the information.

If you are considering sending us any personal information electronically, please be aware that the information may be insecure in transit, particularly where no encryption is used (e.g. email, standard http).

When records containing personal information are no longer required for our business or by law, we take reasonable steps to destroy the personal information or de-identify it. Where personal information about you has been de-identified, we continue to take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised re-identification, access, modification or disclosure.

6. Automated decision-making processes

From time to time, we may use automated decision making processes (ADM) to improve our provision of energy and energy solutions to regional Western Australia and to serve you more efficiently. ADM comprises technology which automates a decision making process and which can be used to assist or replace the judgement of human decision makers. In certain cases, ADM may involve the use of personal information about you.

We will only use ADM if we have conducted an assessment of the impact of the process, and will periodically evaluate the operation and effectiveness of the process.

We will notify you where we employ ADM involving the use of personal information to make a significant decision about you (such as a decision which affects your rights, entitlements, interests or liabilities). On request, we will provide information about how the ADM was employed in making that decision and the process by which you can request human intervention in relation to the decision.

7. Access and correction of personal information

7.1 Access

You may access the personal information we hold about you upon request.

You can make an access request in an email or letter. To make such a request, please see our contact details in section 9 below.

We will provide you access within 45 days if it is reasonable and practicable to do so, but in some circumstances it may take longer.

Your rights to access your personal information are subject to some limitations under applicable law. For example, we do not have to provide you with access to the extent it would be unlawful to do so, if it would have an unreasonable effect on the privacy of others or the request is frivolous or vexatious.

If access is refused, we will give you a notice explaining our decision to the extent practicable and your options to make a complaint.

We do not usually charge you for access to your personal information. However, where permitted by applicable law, we may render a charge for providing the access  

7.2 Correction

We take reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information we hold is as accurate and up to date as possible.

If you consider that the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, you are able to contact us at any time to request that we correct that information.

You can make a correction request in an email or letter. To make such a request, please see our contact details in section 9 below.

We will normally try to resolve correction requests within 45 days of you making a request. If we require further information before making the correction, we will give you notice of the additional information required to assist us to correct your personal information. If we need more time to resolve your request we will notify you in writing as to the delay and seek your agreement to a longer period.  There will be no cost to you if we correct your personal information about you that we hold.

If correction is refused, we will give you a notice explaining our decision to the extent practicable and your options to make a complaint.  

7.3 Request Details

When making a written request under section 7, we require the following details to be provided:

1. Sufficient information to enable us to understand the personal information being sought for access and/or correction.
2. For correction requests, details to why you do not believe the personal information about you is not accurate, complete and up to date, and what the correction you wish to be made.
3. An address in Australia to which we can respond.

8. Anonymity

In most circumstances, it is impractical for people to communicate with us anonymously. We need to identify you to assist you effectively. However, in circumstances where it is lawful and practicable to do so, we will provide you with the option of not identifying yourself, or using a pseudonym, when communicating with us.

9. Complaints

If you believe that we have not complied with our obligations relating to your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer as follows:

By phone:

Call 1800 267 926 between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

By mail:

Mail your written complaint to:

Privacy Officer

PO Box 1066

Bentley DC WA 6983

By email:

Send an email to compliance@horizonpower.com.au

You will receive an acknowledgement of the receipt of your complaint as soon as practicable.

If you feel we have not properly dealt with a complaint, you may contact the Western Australian Information Commissioner on  info@oic.wa.gov.au or on 61 8 6551 7888.

10. Updates

We may review and amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to address changes to laws and to reflect our current operations and practices.  Please return periodically to review our privacy policy.