Privacy Statement

DFK Nugents recognise the importance of privacy protection. Our policy for dealing with any personal information that you might disclose to us while visiting this website is explained below.

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected by us, or submitted to us, whether offline or online, including personal information collected or submitted through our websites and any mobile sites, applications or through our official social media pages that we control as well as through HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you.

This Privacy Policy describes how we deal with information we collect and demonstrates our commitment to the protection of your privacy. By visiting our website and applications and otherwise providing personal information to us, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the sites or submit any personal information to us.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 28 October 2024. The policy covers DFK Nugents Pty Ltd and Nugents Wealth Management Pty Ltd.

1. Meaning of terms used in this Privacy Policy

In this Privacy Policy:

• personal information means any information or an opinion about you (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), by which you may be identified directly or indirectly, whether on its own or in combination with other information, whether true or not, and which is submitted to and/or collected by us in an accessible form.
• sensitive information means personal information about things such as your membership of professional associations, race, ethnic origin, political affiliation, financial identifiers, religion, sexual orientation, biometric information and health information.

2. Privacy guidelines for our clients, potential clients and other individuals

2.1. What kinds of personal information do we collect and hold?

We collect and hold:

• • your contact details, such as office address, home address, telephone numbers and email address;
  • your personal details, such as date and place of birth, gender, TFN, and bank details;
  • your business details, including your accounting records and tax information;
  • information you make available on the Sites;
  • your client history information, including records of your accounting records, tax records and communications and other interactions with us.

2.2. How do we collect your personal information?

We collect personal information about you when it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our activities or functions. This personal information is collected in a number of ways, including:

• • through sites – such as our website, applications or social media pages
  • from you – when you contact, do business or interact with us by phone or email
  • from third parties – such as public databases, professional bodies, your employer, or regulatory and government bodies.

2.3. How we use your personal information

We will not collect or use your personal information unless it is lawful for us to do so. We collect and use personal information for the following purposes:

• • fulfilling requests for information or services (with your consent, if required);
  • fulfilling our role as a professional accounting firm, including maintaining tax and related records, providing information to authorities such as the ATO or ASIC;
  • for promotional and marketing purposes, including communicating information about our products and services (with your consent, if required);
  • communicating to clients on matters relevant, such as changes in taxation law, or other business and personal financial matters;
  • monitoring, moderating and improving our Sites;
  • processing and assessing staff and other applications;
  • fulfilling our contractual and other regulatory obligations, including external payment providers;
  • providing products and services, or information relating to such products and services, including from our approved third party suppliers;
  • assessing or improving our products and services, as well as for training and quality purposes, including building profiles, monitoring, recording and analysing online interactions and communications between you and us; and
  • providing information to third parties as authorised or required by law or a court or tribunal.

In some cases it will be lawful for us to collect and use your personal information, for example where it is necessary as part of our, or a third party’s statutory or public function or because the law permits or requires us to.

In addition to the specific circumstances above, we will only use your personal information with your consent (if required under applicable data protection laws) when we process your personal information in order to send you carefully selected marketing materials about our products and services by email, text or push notification, depending on your account or operating system settings. You have the right to opt out of receiving such direct marketing at any time.

However, in order to satisfy our professional and legal obligations to you, there are some communications that we are required to send you that you cannot opt of of.

Our Sites may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the content of such websites, or the manner in which those websites handle any personal information you provide.

2.4. Overseas disclosures

If you are a client, we may also use the services of certain third-party service providers which may have offices or other operations outside of Australia. As a result, your personal information may be disclosed to recipients in those foreign countries.

All service providers that have access to personal information held by us are required to keep the information confidential and not to make use of it for any purpose other than to provide services in accordance with their engagement. We will take all steps that are reasonably necessary to ensure your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy as well as applicable data protection laws.

2.5. Access and correction of personal information

Individuals may request access to their personal information unless we are permitted by law to withhold that information. Individuals may also request the correction of any personal information which is inaccurate. Any requests for access or correction of your personal information should be made in writing to office@dfknugents.com.au or to your DFK Nugents or Nugents Wealth Management contact person.

2.6. Withdrawing Consent

If you have consented to our processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. This includes cases where you wish to opt out from marketing messages that you receive from us.

3. How long do we keep your personal information?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which that personal information was collected and to the extent required by our professional obligations and/or permitted by applicable laws.

4. Security of Personal Information

We use reasonable organisational, technical and administrative measures and security safeguards to protect, as is reasonable in the circumstances, the personal information we hold from misuse, loss, interference and/or unauthorised access, use, disclosure or alteration of information under our control. Where practicable, we implement measures to require organisations to whom disclosure is made to comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws. If a third party is given access to personal information we take reasonable steps to ensure that the information is held securely and used only for the purpose of providing the relevant service or activity.

5. Variations to the Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time by publishing an updated version of this Privacy Policy on our Website and taking any further action as required by law, after which, your continued use of the Website or your provision of any further personal information will indicate your acknowledgement to the modified terms of this Privacy Policy.

6. How to contact us

DFK Nugents Pty Ltd

Level 1, 6 Riverside Quay

Southbank VIC 3006

P: 03 9693 5000

E: office@dfknugents.com.au

7. Cookies Policy

7.1. What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your device (such as your computer, smartphone or other internet-enabled device) when you visit a site or page to collect data about the usage of our Websites at a later date. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit the site. Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies.

In addition to cookies, we also use web beacons and other storage technologies to collect information from our Websites. Like cookies, web beacons and similar storage technologies collect data about the usage of our Websites and can recognise your device the next time you visit.

7.2 Why we use cookies

We use cookies to personalise your browsing experience (for example, by remembering your preferences and recognising you as a repeat visitor to our Websites), and to track statistics about the usage of our Websites. This allows us to better understand our users (including valued clients) and improve the layout and functionality of our Websites. This tracking is generally conducted in such a way as to ensure the anonymity of visitors to our Websites. While the cookie may identify your computer, it should not identify you unless you are registered with the Website (for example, because you are a client) or logged in using your social media profile. In that case, the cookie will be linked to your profile so that we can identify you and provide more relevant content.

7.3 How long cookies will be stored on your device

Session cookies are temporary. They allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session, the time period between a user opening a browser window and closing it. Once closed, the cookies are deleted. Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie.

7.4 How you can manage your cookies

If you do not wish to receive any cookies (other than those which are strictly necessary) you may set your browser (such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari) to either prompt or refuse cookies. Please note that rejecting cookies may mean that not all the functions on our Websites you visit will be available to you.