Privacy Policy

Our policy relating to the website
Our general privacy policy 

Our Policy Relating To the Website

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

At Synergy, we are committed to protecting your privacy and providing a web site that gives you an informative, functional and secure online experience. You can use most of our site without giving us any information about yourself but sometimes we do need information to provide services that you request.

The information below first gives details of our Privacy Policy in relation to our web site.

Collecting your Personal Information

We will ask you when we need to collect information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you. Usually we request this information when you ask us to send you a brochure, you enter a competition, or when you pay your Synergy account online.

Our Systems

Synergy has established systems and procedures to protect your privacy whenever we collect, use, store or disclose your personal information. Security measurements are in place that are designed to prevent unauthorised access to web site sections where required.

Cookies

A "cookie" is a packet of information that allows the em_Power server (the computer that stores our web site) to identify and interact more effectively with your computer.
When you access our web site, we send your computer a cookie that gives you a unique identification number. Each time you use our web site a different identification number is sent. Note that the cookie sent to you from em_Power will reside on your computer for a period of one year.
Cookies do not identify you personally or individually, but they do identify your Internet browser type and Internet Service Provider (ISP).
The cookie we send to your computer allows you to page forward and backward and go back to other pages you have already visited on our site without having to log onto our home page again. Cookies also enable us to keep track of which pages are most and least frequently visited by our customers. This information helps us to update our web site and ensure it best meets our customer's needs.
Your Internet browser can be set up to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. Please refer to your Internet browser's help screens for more information. Please be aware that you must have cookies enabled on your browser to use Synergy's on-line bill pay service.

Information logged on our web site

When you register and then log into secure sections of our site, our server logs the following information for statistical and administration purposes:

• Browser type and operating system of your computer
• Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Your top-level domain name (for example, .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
• The address of any referring web site
• Your computer's IP (Internet Protocol) address.
  
  

Links to other sites

Our site may contain hyperlinks to other web sites. Although we are careful to review these sites before providing a hyperlink, Synergy is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those web sites.

Searches

We collect and store the words and phrases entered into our site's search engine so that we know what information people are looking for. This enables us to improve our site to make sure it provides the information you need. Please note that these search words are not associated with personal information of any kind.

Further details

Our General Privacy Policy (available below) sets out how Synergy uses and discloses the information that we collect from you via our website or through other means. It also tells you how you can contact Synergy if you have any questions about the privacy of your personal information, or if you want to access personal information that Synergy holds about you.
 

Synergy's General Privacy Policy

At Synergy, the confidential management of your personal information is one of our fundamental values. We understand that most of our customers (like most of our staff) are very protective of their personal details. So these are collected, stored, used and disclosed in a professional manner. An important part of our relationship with you is to explain clearly how we maintain your privacy and confidentiality and, most importantly, how you can access and control the information you give us.
Synergy is required by the Code of Conduct (for the supply of electricity to small use customers) to comply with certain requirements of the Privacy Act.  Synergy’s Privacy Policy and the systems and procedures by which it is implemented are designed to comply generally with the requirements of the Privacy Act and particularly with the requirements of the Electricity Corporations Act 2005.

What does this policy cover?

This policy covers the collection, storage, use, disclosure and security of your personal details. It explains how and when we collect personal information, what that information is used for, who uses it and when it may be disclosed to other parties. Most importantly it explains how you can access your details and control your own personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information includes information, such as your name, address, phone number or e-mail address that can be used to identify who you are as an individual.  Personal information can also include:

• Financial information, like your credit card number or bank account number.
• Information that uniquely identifies you, like your date of birth.
• Product purchase details, such as the date your site is connected to Synergy electricity, and
• The way you use or consume products and services, like the amount of electricity you use.

All of this information is important for Synergy to develop and maintain a relationship with you, our customer, and to provide high quality energy products and services. If you are unwilling to provide the personal information we require from you, we may not be able to provide all or some of the products and services you want from us.

How we collect your personal information

Synergy aims to collect information directly from you wherever possible. This information is usually collected over the phone, when you fill out an application form or contract, when you contact us through our website or when you deal with us in person. In certain cases we will also confirm your details with external agencies such as the Office of Seniors' Interests, Centrelink or other government agencies. On occasion, when you have authorised them to do so, we will collect your personal information from other parties such as real estate agents, builders or your power of attorney.
Any information we directly collect or receive from an external agency is necessary and considered normal business practice, so that we can continue to provide you with our energy products and services. Sensitive information (for example an individual's membership with a professional or trade association) will only be collected if required and only when the individual has consented to providing that information.
 

How we use your personal information

The primary way we use your personal details is to connect, maintain, service and bill your energy and related service accounts with us. We may also use your personal information:

• to build a relationship with you
• for internal accounting and administration
• for debt recovery
• for our regulatory reporting and compliance
• for legal requirements
• to help us identify and inform you about other Synergy products and services that you may benefit from.
  

In order to communicate effectively with you, we provide information about Synergy and any related company's products, services, initiatives and promotions in newsletters, magazines and inserts that accompany your Synergy bill.

Direct marketing and your privacy

In addition to the information you receive with your bill, we may, from time-to-time, contact you directly with related energy news, information and special offers from Synergy and other businesses.
If you do not wish to receive direct marketing information from Synergy, other than what you receive normally with your bill, please tell us by using the contact details set out below. Please be aware that your instruction to one part of our business may take time to pass through to the other parts of our business.
Any direct-marketing material sent to you by Synergy includes the opportunity to opt out of any future marketing correspondence.
 

Credit reporting agencies and your credit information

We may give information about you to a credit reporting agency if your account remains overdue for more than 60 days. The information will allow the credit reporting agency to create or maintain a credit information file containing information about you.
The information that we disclose about you is limited to:

• identity particulars – your name, sex, address (and the previous two addresses), date of birth, name of employer and drivers licence number
• amounts that are overdue by more than 60 days and for which debt collection action has started;
• advice that your payments are no longer overdue in respect of any default that has been listed;
• information that, in our opinion, you have committed a serious credit infringement (that is, acted fraudulently or shown an intention not to comply with your credit obligations);
• dishonoured cheques – cheques drawn by you for $100 or more which have been dishonoured more than once.

This information may be given before, during or after the provision of services to you.

Who uses your personal information?

Only a select number of Synergy staff have the authority to access your information, and only then to enable them to perform their jobs. We may also need to disclose your personal information to others who are part of our processes to deliver the products and services you want from us. Those persons may include call centre operators, billing and mailing houses, credit reporting agencies, debt collection agencies, network operators and financial institutions. Synergy will only disclose your personal information to these agents, contractors and related businesses:

• on a confidential basis, for the purposes of Synergy business
• where the law requires Synergy to do so; or
• if you consent.
  

Keeping your personal information correct and up-to-date

To provide you with the best possible service it is important that we maintain accurate, up-to-date information about you. Synergy will endeavour to ensure the personal information we collect, use and disclose is correct, complete and up-to-date. To fulfil this commitment, Synergy also lets you correct or change the personal information we store for you.
You can contact us:

• By mail at GPO Box K856 Perth WA 6842
• In person at 228 Adelaide Terrace, Perth
• By telephone on 13 13 53
  

How can you access your personal information at Synergy?

You can request details and a copy of the personal information we hold about you, at any time. Just write to us at the address below. To protect your privacy, Synergy will require proof of identity before actioning your request.

Customer Service Centre
Synergy
GPO Box K856
PERTH WA 6842

We will respond to any such request as soon as reasonably possible and in any event will acknowledge the request within five working days from receipt. Synergy may charge for the reasonable costs we incur in providing you with this information.
Changes to our Privacy Policy

This is Synergy’s current Privacy Policy. It replaces any other Privacy Policy published on the Synergy website to date.

From time to time, we may need to change our Privacy Policy. If we do this, we will give you notice of the new Privacy Policy by publishing it on the Synergy website.