Privacy Policy

Reviewed October 2023

Tim Fairfax Family Foundation (“TFFF”, “our”, “us” and “we”) is committed to respecting the privacy of your personal information. This policy explains how and why we collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information. It covers the following areas:

• Compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles
• The personal information that we collect and hold
• The purpose, use and disclosure of personal information
• How do we collect, store and hold personal information
• Accessing and updating your personal information
• Complaints procedure
• Overseas transfer
• How to contact us
• Changes to this policy

You consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this policy.

What is ‘Personal Information’?
’Personal information’ means any information or an opinion about you that identifies you as an individual or from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained from the information or opinion. Information or an opinion may be personal information regardless of whether it is true.

Your name, address, email, and telephone number are examples of your personal information. 

Compliance with the Australian Privacy Principles
TFFF is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”) set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any other applicable laws to protect your privacy. 

What kind of information do we collect and hold?
We collect information about you and your interactions with us, for example, when you use any of our services, call us, provide us with your contact details or otherwise visit our website.  The personal information that we collect from you will depend on how you interact with TFFF. 

TFFF collects only personal information that is necessary for our functions and activities. The personal information which we collect and hold about you may include your name, email address, postal address and telephone number, your history of use of our services and details of enquiries or complaints you make.

Generally, we try to collect personal information directly from you, however there are certain situations in which TFFF may collect personal information about you from some other source, for example, our employees, public websites, social media and database of government bodies, courts or tribunals. In either case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are aware of the purposes for which the information is collected.

We may collect information about how you access, use and interact with the website. We do this by using a range of tools. This information may include:

• the location from which you have come to the site and the pages you have visited; and
• technical data, which may include IP address, the types of devices you are using to access the website, device attributes, browser type, language and operating system.

We use cookies on the website. A cookie is a small text file that the website may place on your device to store information. We may use persistent cookies (which remain on your computer even after you close your browser) to store information that may speed up your use of our website for any of your future visits to the website. We may also use session cookies (which no longer remain after you end your browsing session) to help manage the display and presentation of information on the website.

You may refuse to use cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.

How we collect your information
We collect your personal information directly from you whenever you interact with us. 

We may collect personal information in various ways including when you:

• visit our website;
• call or email in relation to TFFF activities or services;
• lodge grant applications and reports;
• register to receive newsletter from us; or
• otherwise submit personal information.

If you apply for a grant or other services from us, we may need to assess your eligibility to receive a grant or other services.  This may involve us using some of your personal information to (at our own cost) conduct or retrieve or obtain from a third party provider by providing your required personal information, searches of databases of government bodies, courts or tribunals, such as national police check, working with children check, litigation search, bankruptcy search and credit check.

We also collect cookies from your computer which enable us track website usage to enhance user experience. 

Purpose, use and disclosure of personal information
We collect, hold, and use your personal information so that we can:

• provide you with services (primarily charitable and personal services), assess your eligibility to receive a grant or service from us, and/or manage our relationship with you;
• contact you, for example, to respond to your queries or complaints, or if we need to tell you something important; or
• comply with our legal obligations and assist government and law enforcement agencies or regulators.

If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with a grant or our services, communicate with you or respond to your enquiries.

We may disclose or transfer your personal information to our related companies and advisors.

We may also disclose your personal information to external service providers so that they may perform services for us or on our behalf.

We may also disclose your personal information to others where:

• we are required or authorised by law to do so;
• you may have expressly consented to the disclosure or the consent may be reasonably inferred from the circumstances; or
• we are otherwise permitted to disclose the information under the Privacy Act.

Your personal information may also be exposed or accessible from time to time to by database and website maintenance and support personnel acting in the normal course of their duties. 

We do not disclose your personal information to recipients which are located outside Australia.

TFFF does not release any information for matters such as direct marketing, and do not sell any mailing lists.

If any information is to be published, or released publicly, we will request your permission for that purpose before doing so.

How do we store and hold personal information?
We store most information about you in computer systems and databases operated by either us or our external service providers. Some information about you is recorded in paper files that we store securely.

We implement and maintain processes and security measures to protect personal information which we hold from misuse, interference or loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

These processes and systems include:

• the use of identity and access management technologies to control access to systems on which information is processed and stored;
• requiring all employees to comply with internal information security policies and keep information secure;
• requiring all employees to complete training about information security; and
• monitoring and regularly reviewing our practice against our own policies and against industry best practice.

We will also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information once we no longer require it for the purposes for which it was collected or for any secondary purpose permitted under the APPs.

Accessing and updating your personal information
If you would like to seek access to, or request correction of, any personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the contact details below. We request you provide us with as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek in order to help us to retrieve it. In certain circumstances TFFF may not be required by law to provide you with access or to correct your personal information. If that is the case, we will give you our reasons for that decision.

There is no charge for requesting access to your personal information, but we may require you to meet our reasonable costs in providing you with access (such as photocopying costs or costs for time spent on collating large amounts of material).

We will respond to your requests to access or correct personal information in a reasonable time and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we hold about you remains accurate and up to date.

Complaint procedure
If you have a complaint concerning the manner in which we maintain the privacy of your personal information, please contact us as set out below. We will consider your complaint and determine whether it requires further investigation. We will notify you of the outcome of this investigation and any subsequent internal investigation.

 If you remain unsatisfied with the way in which we have handled a privacy issue, you may approach an independent advisor or contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (www.oaic.gov.au) for guidance on alternative courses of action which may be available.

Overseas transfer
Your personal information will not be disclosed to recipients outside Australia unless you expressly request us to do so. If you request us to transfer your personal information to an overseas recipient, the overseas recipient will not be required to comply with the APPs, and we will not be liable for any mishandling of your information in such circumstances.

Contact details
If you have any questions or feedback about privacy, or wish to make a complaint about the way in which we have handled your personal information please contact:

Chief Executive Officer
Tim Fairfax Family Foundation
GPO Box 2490
BRISBANE QLD 4001

Telephone: (07) 3001 4402  

Changes to this policy
From time to time, we may change our policy on how we handle personal information or the types of personal information which we hold. Any changes to our policy will be published on our website.

You may obtain a copy of our current policy from our website or by contacting us at the contact details above.

Responsible AI Statement

Reviewed October 2025

The use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation (“TFFF” or the “Foundation”) with respect to the operations of the Foundation.

Introduction
While public, private and for-purpose sectors at large adapt to generative AI, TFFF has developed this Responsible AI Statement (“Statement”) to share with its community of peer and partner organisations.  The purpose of this Statement is to facilitate transparency regarding how TFFF uses AI in its operations, and to set expectations for how other organisations should communicate their use of AI when interacting with TFFF. By outlining its approach and encouraging open disclosure, TFFF seeks to build trust and support responsible, ethical use of AI across the community.

The use of the term, ‘AI’, throughout this Statement refers to generative AI systems and models including Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, among the many other paid and free tools available.

AI and TFFF
TFFF does not directly use AI to review, assess or make decisions regarding funding applications, progress reporting or acquittals, or does it use AI for any purposes related to the administration of the Foundation’s funding agreements.

Like many organisations, TFFF team members will come into contact with AI tools in the ordinary course of a workday (for instance, web search summaries, auto-text correct and auto-text completion software). Where possible, TFFF team members will seek to avoid any incidental use of AI in grantmaking administrative work.

When you apply for TFFF funding or have an active agreement with TFFF, you agree to the ‘Purpose, use, and disclosure of personal information’ as set out in the TFFF’s Privacy Policy. Any future updates to the TFFF’s position and use of AI systems will be disclosed in the TFFF’s Privacy Policy and in this TFFF Responsible AI Statement.

Use of AI by organisations
TFFF asks that organisations declare any use of AI tools in the preparation of grant application and/or reporting materials for review by TFFF.

When an organisation uses AI in these processes, TFFF requests the organisation to identify which part(s) of the application and/or report contain material(s) generated by AI, and the extent to which AI was used. For example:

The TFFF will not reject an application or report because AI was used by the applicant or reporting organisation. Rather, this request aligns with Principle 6 Transparency and Explainability of Australia’s AI Ethics Principles (linked below): people should be informed when they are impacted by and engaging with AI systems.

Organisations should provide guidance to their staff on how to use AI safely and responsibly, in accordance with the organisation’s governance frameworks and policies.

Sharing government and governance resources 
TFFF encourages organisations to access the following resources and guidance from Australian Government agencies and organisations dedicated to the provision of governance training.

• The Australian Government’s National Artificial Intelligence Centre has developed a Voluntary AI Safety Standard including Australia’s AI Ethics Principles and 10 Voluntary AI Guardrails.
• The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OIAC)has published Guidance on privacy and the use of commercially available AI products.
• The Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA) has published a freely available Artificial Intelligence and Governance Framework, as well as an Acceptable Use of Artificial Intelligence Policy, which may provide useful starting points for your organisation’s leadership and board.
• The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) has published a snapshot for ‘Eight elements of effective, safe and responsible AI governance’.

Definitions
Capitalised terms or principals referenced in this Statement have the same definition as those published by the Australian Government’s National Artificial Intelligence Centre. The full list can be accessed here: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/voluntary-ai-safety-standard/terms-and-definitions