1. General Statement of Principle

Melbourne Theatre Company (ABN 28 302 359 029), a department of the University of Melbourne (MTC, us, we, our) is committed to protecting your privacy and maintains a policy of confidence concerning your personal information (Privacy Policy).

This Privacy Policy details how we deal with your personal information and has been developed in accordance the Victorian Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014(Vic) (Privacy Act) and the Victorian Health Privacy Principles in the Health Records Act 2011 (Vic) (Health Records Act). In circumstances where the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to MTC’s operations or activities, MTC will comply with the Australian Privacy Principles that have the same intent as the Victorian principles.

By providing your personal information or access information to us you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.

2. What kinds of information do we collect?

The type of information that we collect from you for the purposes set out in our Privacy Policy include: your name, address, year and/or date of birth, email address, telephone (and fax) number(s), credit card details, concession/senior/student card details, dietary information, employment and other affiliations and other information as collected from you from time to time.

MTC also collects health information for customers with access needs or for those customers who use our access initiatives including: hard of hearing, captioning, low vision, audio description, wheelchair spaces, wheelchair transfers, limited steps or AUSLAN signing services. MTC will not usually collect any other sensitive information. In the rare cases where the collection of sensitive information may be required in order to carry out our purposes, we will ask for your consent.

3. MTC collects and retains records of interactions in person, via written correspondence or via other communication methods. How do we collect information?

The main ways we collect information about you are when you:

  • purchase tickets, memberships or subscriptions electronically or otherwise through our website or box office;
  • subscribe to our mailing lists;
  • make a donation;
  • apply for any advertised scholarships or participate in our education programs;
  • communicate with us including in person, via mail, email, phone or using our website ‘Contact Us’ functionality;
  • attend an MTC performance, venue or event;
  • apply for employment with MTC;
  • register for an online MTC account; or
  • otherwise submit information about yourself, or someone else.

We will endeavour to collect any personal information directly from you, unless it is otherwise impractical or unreasonable to do so.

If anyone, including you, provides us with information about you that we did not seek to collect from them or you, we will only hold, use or disclose this information if we determine that we could have collected this information from you had we asked for it. In this circumstance we will take all reasonable steps to notify you of the collection of that information. If we could not have collected this information, we will lawfully de-identify or destroy it.

4. Use of personal information

The personal information we collect may be used by us in a number of ways, including:

  • to verify your identify and to process ticket, subscription and any other payments;
  • to issue ticketholders with tickets;
  • to verify your identity and determine your eligibility to receive discounted or concession tickets;
  • to manage subscriptions and inform subscribers about upcoming performances;
  • to make you aware of any upcoming events;
  • to inform you of offers from our third party sponsors and providers which we judge to be of potential interest to our customers or other stakeholders;
  • to receive feedback so that we can learn and improve our services and events to better suit our audience;
  • to administer our community programs and provide educational resources and events;
  • to gain information to make decisions on future programming;
  • to provide market research, strategic branding and marketing services;
  • to enhance and improve your MTC experience;
  • to respond to any questions, comments or queries submitted to us;
  • for internal business purposes, for example, to research and develop our procedures and management; and
  • as required or authorised by law, including under the Australian Privacy Principles.

5. Option of Anonymity

Where it is practical to do so you have the option to either not identify yourself or to use a pseudonym when interacting with us. However, this will not apply if we are required or authorised under Australian law (or a court or tribunal order) to only deal with individuals who have identified themselves.

6. Disclosure of information

We will only use personal information for the purposes for which it was given to us, or for purposes which are directly related to the provision of our services. In certain scenarios, if the research purpose could be achieved using de-identified information the information you provide will be de-identified prior to disclosure to any third parties.

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary for us to disclose your personal information to third parties in order to assist us in providing our services, or where disclosure is required by us to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. Third parties may include:

  • email marketing platforms and communication services, to enable us to communicate with you;
  • service providers who may make contact with you via telephone on MTC’s behalf about MTC’s offerings;
  • research agencies for MTC audience research and analysis;
  • arts management system providers, in order to manage your account;
  • hosting services for the website and databases;
  • technology support services;
  • government and law enforcement agencies and regulators; and
  • entities established to help identify illegal activities and prevent fraud.
  • the presenter of an Event that you have attended or bought tickets to attend.

We may also disclose your personal information to anyone authorised by you, or to whom you have provided your consent (either expressly or impliedly) or where another permitted general situation applies under the Privacy Act.

This applies to information which we have collected from any related body as if we had collected the information ourselves.

The MTC has a policy of not providing names, addresses or other personal information to anyone wanting to contact our database for the purposes of marketing their own products and services to you.

MTC will only permit special offers or invitations from third parties to be made through us, where such an offer is judged by us to be of some interest or benefit to our customers and therefore related to our purposes.

We will not disclose information that personally identifies you to any third party other than as set out in this Privacy Policy.

7. Disclosure to overseas recipients

We may disclose your personal information to various overseas organisations which help the MTC to manage our website and communications systems. For example, our web developer is located in the United Kingdom. Our email marketing platform was developed by an American company. Whilst your information is stored on our servers, our arts management platform, developed in America, could potentially require information for updates and technical issues which contain personal information.

You agree and acknowledge that you consent to this disclosure and acknowledge that if equivalent laws do not apply, you may not have the same rights that apply under the Privacy Act.

8. Direct marketing

We may use personal information about you for the primary purpose of providing you with our services. We may also use it for other purposes for which you might reasonably expect us to use that information. This includes sending you information about events, new developments and performances, by email, telephone or any other form of communication. You authorise us to use any email address or other contact information you provide to use at any time for such above purposes.

You agree and acknowledge that even if you opt out of receiving some or all marketing material, we will still send you essential information that we are required to send you relating to the services we provide.

9. Online Advertising

MTC is currently using services provided by Google and other third-parties to run online marketing campaigns. These services use cookies to track how users (specifically, unique IP addresses) find and interact with our online presence. We can then use this information to display targeted interest-based advertising on a variety of websites: that is, displaying ads with images and information which you recently viewed on our site. You can opt out of our internet based ads at any time – you just need to clear your cookies, or use Ad Settings to manage the Google ads you see.

10. Storage and security

We keep records of the personal information we gather from you, including via electronic storage, storage in the cloud, on our servers and secure physical records.

The security of your personal information is paramount to us and we use all reasonable endeavours to keep your information in a secure environment and to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. If you reasonably believe that there has been unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information please contact us using the details below. Where possible, your data will be encrypted and password protected.

If we no longer require your personal information, unless we are required under Australian law or a court or tribunal order to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy, securely delete, or de-identify it as appropriate or upon formal request.

You warrant that you will only contribute personal information to us in accordance with the terms and you will not use the service in a manner that results in us collecting, using or storing information that is in breach of our obligations at law.

11. Accuracy of your information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information held by us is accurate, complete and up to date. If you believe that any of your information is inaccurate, please contact us using the below details and we will take reasonable steps to correct it.

12. Variation and consent to variation

We may vary the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time. You should check this Privacy Policy regularly so that you are aware of any variations made to this Privacy Policy.

13. Access on request and making a complaint

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. If you do so we will respond to your request within a reasonable period of time and, where reasonable and practicable, give access to the information in the manner you request. This will be subject to any exemptions provided under the Privacy Act or Health Records Act. You may request this information by writing to our Privacy Officer.

We will provide a mediation process for any access requests which are refused. If on any occasion access is denied, we will provide reasons for refusal.

If you wish to make a complaint about a breach of the Privacy Act or Health Records Act by us, you may do so by providing your complaint in writing to the contact details listed below. You may also make a complaint verbally. We will seek to respond to any complaint within a reasonable period of time. We may seek further information from you in order to provide a comprehensive and complete response.

If MTC fail to respond to your complaint within 30 days or you are unsatisfied with our response, you may also make a complaint to the Victorian Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection (Privacy Commissioner) or the Health Complaints Commissioner in respect of health information. You may contact the Privacy Commissioner via telephone on 1300 666 444, by submitting a complaint or inquiry online at privacy@cpdp.vic.gov.au or by writing to PO Box 24014 Melbourne VIC 3001. You may contact the Health Complaints Commissioner via telephone on 1300 582 113, by submitting a complaint or inquiry online at https://hcc.vic.gov.au/make-complaint or in person at Level 26, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3001.

14. Contact us

If you have any questions, or if you wish to contact us for any of the reasons described above, including to correct or access the information MTC hold about you or to make a complaint or enquiry, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Privacy Officer
Melbourne Theatre Company 
140 Southbank Boulevard, Southbank VIC 3006
Phone: +61 3 8688 0900
Email: info@mtc.com.au