- Privacy Policy -

iqCron Accounting

ABN:  55 851 958 213

July 2021

Our Commitment to Your Privacy:

We respect your privacy and strive to keep your information confidential. We collect your personal including any sensitive information about you and your related parties in a fair way and in a manner that is reasonably necessary in the capacity of providing you with our accounting, bookkeeping and tax agent services in Australia.

We endeavour to be clear in this Privacy Policy that outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (CTH) (Privacy Act). You may find more information about the Privacy Act and the National Privacy Principles on the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website at www.privacy.gov.au.

iqCron Accounting takes the confidentiality and privacy of your personal information seriously and strive to maintain it as per our professional standard so that you feel safe to choose us again.

Who This Privacy Policy Applies to:

This privacy policy applies to the user/s of our website (iqcron.com.au) and the means of our communication method/s for reaching our business leads and, our clients past, present and potential - where applicable under a reasonable ground - for the information we collect in our capacity of advertising and providing accounting, book-keeping and tax agent services to/for you.

This Privacy Policy applies to the information we collect for providing you with our following products and services:

• Our online tax preparation and lodgement services which are technologically handled by the third-party digital service providers (DSPs) such as Xero, Quickbooks, LodgeIT and so on at the background;

• Our paper tax preparation and lodgement services (where applicable);

• Our accounting, bookkeeping and administrative services;

• Our general consultation services;

• Our calculators or templates;

• Acting on your behalf to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to provide related agent services;

This privacy policy does not apply to our recommended service providers (if any), affiliates (if any), contractor (if any), external partners (if any) or our franchisees (if any). Any of such businesses may have their own separate privacy policies based on their respective operating rules, regulations and guidelines. If you are engaging or doing business with these businesses, you should refer to their respective privacy policies, terms and conditions.

Age appropriateness:

To the best of our knowledge, our website does not contain any information or material that would be inappropriate to children, and we do not advertise or sell any products and services that would be inappropriate to children. We also do not collect information from children directly or indirectly unless supervised by their parents or legal representative where applicable (i.e., when preparing a tax return for a minor).

Collection of Personal Information:

We may collect your personal information about you, your spouse/de facto partner - past or present - where applicable, your dependents, your business and its related partners/contractors (if any), employees or staffs of your business when you engage with us and/or use our services. This information may include, but may not be limited to:

Personal information:

• Your full name/s, signatures, dates of birth, photographic ID – only to view and verify your ID and not to collect or store it with us unless absolutely needed or you give us permission to;

• Your partner’s or dependent children’s full name, date of birth and their other related information required for assessing different tax offset eligibilities for your tax return preparation.

• Contact information (i.e. phone/mobile number, address and email address);

• Information of relevant government identification;

• Tax File Number;

• Financial information (i.e. income, expenses, assets and bank account details and so on),

• Geolocation (mainly by third parties - if any – i.e. Google, Facebook and so on) who are linked to our website or if we are advertising through them; in which case the applicable third party’s privacy policy applies.

Sensitive information:

• Gender (your and your spouse’s);

• Criminal record mainly if you spent time in jails where applicable (i.e. for SAPTO eligibility);

• Political associations (indirectly when you claim election expenses);

• Union or trade union membership information (when you claim these fees);

• General information about your health and lifestyle (i.e. when we request on your behalf to the ATO for a remission of a penalty and so on);

• Other demographic information (mainly by third parties - if any - who are linked to our website or if we are advertising through them.

If photographic ID is sent to us by you we delete or destroy it after verification. We do not store, without your consent, your photograph or any ID card that may or may not include your photograph.

Sources of collection:

We collect one or more of these information:

• directly or voluntarily from you when you provide us; in the course of providing you with our accounting and bookkeeping services, tax return preparation and lodgement services and any other related services; without which we may not be able to carry out your service requests in due course. You have the right not to provide us this information or request us to delete your information (if we have any) at any time if you decide not to be our client or not to do business with us;

• through our various forms in our website or an over-the-phone appointment when you provide us some or all of this information;

• directly when you visit us or meet us in our office or in a mutually preferred place to serve you or for a general consultation;

• when you provide us this information through emails or various third-party communication platforms (if any). Please note, we use these means of communication platforms just to establish or reach our business leads or to keep in contact with you based on your implied or expressed preference and acceptance. We do not recommend you provide us any of your personal or sensitive information through these means of communication if they are not secured. If you accidently send us any personal or sensitive information through these means, we delete those after using them for your service requests. We also recommend you delete any personal information immediately that you may have sent us intentionally, unintentionally or by mistake through these or any of such insecure communication platforms (i.e. emails, social media messaging system and so on);

• we do not collect your personal information with the help of any communication platform that is publicly exposed or open to be read by the public. We highly recommend you not to post or share any personal information in these platforms such as our Facebook post comment section, Google page review section and so on. If you ever post your personal information in these areas knowingly or unknowingly, please delete them immediately.

• like most other websites, our website may use cookies to enhance your browsing experience to our website. You have the right not to proceed or the option to delete these cookies from your own internet browser settings. By visiting our website, you agree to the use of cookies (if any);

• in order to verify your identity and act on your behalf as your registered tax agent we access this information from your Australian Taxation Office (ATO) profile and add you as our client in the online services-for-agents portal which is administered and controlled by the ATO;

• from your financial institutions or other government organisations and agents under a reasonable ground;

• from publicly available sources, such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC);

• from your friends and family members only under your implied or expressed consent if you have allowed them to provide the information to us;

• from your employers pursuant to their own privacy policy if your employers are also our clients and/or have a business relationship with us under a reasonable ground to serve your request, and;

• from publicly available sources.

How we use your information:

• We use your information to provide you with your requested products and services from us and to perform any other related tasks for you in the capacity of an accountant, bookkeeper and/or registered tax agent whichever applies.

• To fulfil your service request/s, we may also use your information with a third-party service provider/s or DSPs acting on our behalf.

• We may use the geolocation for SEO and/or advertisement purposes and to personalize the services we are providing to our current or future clients. You may turn off this geo-location feature at your device level at any time.

• In order to enhance the security of our services and to protect your identity and information, we may use publicly available information about you to verify your personal information.

• We may ask your permission to dial our phone number, access your camera or photo library, access your calendar, read and write to internal and external storage of your device (i.e. when you click on our ‘contact us’ information in our website using your mobile phone to contact us or fill out any forms).

• If you use any links on our resources page or of any of our recommended service providers from our website, their respective privacy policies (which are separate from us) on use of your personal information apply.

How we disclose your information:

We may disclose your personal information to third parties, including but not limited to:

• government agencies, such as the Australian Taxation Office, for the purpose of complying with legal and regulatory requirements;

• third-party service providers, such as IT service providers or data storage providers, for the purpose of providing services to you;

• email marketing and automation brand provider - Intuit Mailchimp (i.e your basic contact information) which help you to get notified about important events or services or our special offers (i.e reminder email about upcoming tax lodgement due dates, events or due tasks or general/special offers)

• other professionals, such as lawyers or financial advisors (where applicable as per your implied or expressed consent), for the purposes of providing services to you;

• other entities, with your consent or as required or permitted by law; and,

• as permitted by applicable law, we may disclose your information with our affiliates or non-affiliates, third-party digital service provider (DSP), business partners (if any), the state taxing authorities, federal, state, or local officials in a fair way and in a manner that is reasonably necessary in the capacity of running and providing you with our accounting, bookkeeping and tax agent services.

How We Secure Your Information:

We take reasonable steps to protect our clients' personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We use various measures to safeguard our clients' personal information, including but not limited to:

• Using secure data storage systems, such as firewalls and encryption;

• Restricting access to our accounts by using 2FA authenticator;

• Restricting access to personal information to authorised personnel only;

• Restricting access to all our computers and devices with password protection;

• By redacting your personal information - where applicable - before transmitting them through online communication;

• Securely locking our desks and offices during after-hours;

• Implementing policies and measures, such as appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial measures to safeguard your information.

We also have measures in place to destroy or de-identify or archive personal information when it is no longer required.

All forms in our website maintain Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 encryption and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security certificate through our website, since maintaining the confidentiality and security of your information is one of our higher priorities. All our business-related online profiles and accounts including our email accounts are protected with 2FA authenticators and can only be accessed by the authorised and professional individual.

For extra precautions you may follow the general tips or steps below before filling out our online forms or browsing on the Internet:

• Make sure your device is up to date with required update from your original device manufacturer. Do not use a cloned, jailbroken or compromised device to transmit your personal information over the internet.

• Fill in a form by opening a new tab/window of a widely reliable Internet browser (like Google Chrome, Safari & Microsoft Edge) and then directly visiting our website - www.iqcron.com.au, or our direct TSEC form link - www.iqcron.com.au/TSEC, and NOT via/over/through another plug-in such as social media application, other third-party unreliable Internet browsers or by clicking on any unreliable Internet search engine or local guide link/s on the Internet.

• Double-check the URL has a secure padlock-sign before the URL name. Our valid and secured URL for our TSEC form, for example, should look like iqcron.com.au/TSEC or https://iqcron.com.au/TSEC upon clicking inside the address bar after the secure padlock-sign. Please note Google Chrome browser has recently changed this padlock sign to a 'tune' sign, however you may still see the padlock sign indicating 'connection is secure' upon clicking on the tune-sign.

• Avoid filling out a form in the 'View Simplified Page' in your mobile or tablet if the form that belongs to the website doesn’t allow mobile or tablet interface. Always use the default 'Desktop View' which is available in your mobile, tablet or computer's Internet browser. This 'Desktop View' feature is usually automatic, and you don’t need to do anything manually.

• Try to avoid unprotected or public Wi-Fi Internet connection while filling out any form.

• It is always safe to have a good Internet security software for your Internet browser.

• Close the browser after you submit the form. If you still feel insecure about filling out our online forms, please call/text/email us by briefly saying/writing your income and expenses details.

• It is a good idea to have more than one email address for yourself so that you can use one for your important and official activities and the other one/s for your unimportant tasks (i.e. social media activities). No matter how many emails you have, it is a MUST for nowadays to set up a 2FA authenticator for logging into each of your emails or other online accounts that you maintain since any compromised online account of yours may act as an easy pathway to your other important personal accounts and information for hackers or fraudsters.

• Same way, you may use two or more different internet browsers to separate your important and unimportant online work-matrix if you browse Internet staying logged-in to your internet browsers for encryption purposes.

Although our website is secured with SSL certificate and TLS 1.3 encryptions like it is for similar professional standards and business structure and; we use and store your personal information in a secured system-software, it is assumed and/or expected that you have used your own judgement in order to confirm the reliability of our security measures based on your acceptance on the information provided in our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions pages for using our website and its contents, our services and/or engaging with us.

Nevertheless, as you may be aware under generally accepted knowledge that no method of transmission or electronic storage solutions over the Internet is 100% secure; therefore, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of our online presence in our honest capacity. By using our website, product and services you relieve us of any material or immaterial loss arose from any unwanted online fraudulent activities or data breach which may also cause from human error from our or your end.

Retention period of storing your information:

We retain your information for as long as we need or as we require to keep the information as permitted by law. We may keep and use your information as long as necessary to provide you with our services, enforce our agreements, comply with our policies, legal and judicial obligations and resolve disputes (if any arises).

You may advise us in writing not to keep your information or opt-out from letting us contact you in future when you decide not to be our client anymore. We will respond to your requests within a reasonable timeframe, and we will be happy to work as per your request as reasonably as possible in accordance with our professional standard.

You may receive advertisement or personalised offers from our affiliates or third-party service providers where they obtain your contact information (if any) through other sources or you directly or voluntarily. You should contact those affiliates or third-party service providers as per their policies to opt-out from those offers or advertisements.

Accessing our services from Overseas:

We are Australian owed and based in Western Australia. Our domain name iqcron.com.au also suggests our target audience/clients and connection are predominantly in/with Australia. Currently we do not have any affiliates, contractors or service providers located outside Australia. However, you may engage with us from outside of Australia in which case you consent to transfer your personal information to Australia in order for us to fulfil your service request/s. Please note, Australia may have different level of protection to your personal information as it is outside the jurisdiction of your current home country, and by engaging with us from outside of Australia you agree to these associated differences (if any) that may apply to the protection of your personal information supplied to us.

Our website, email and servers/datacentres:

Our website may use shared hosting servers, email servers, virtual private server (VPS) carriers and/or datacentres which are located in USA and/or UK. Our website server is SSL certified by worldwide renowned ‘Sectigo RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA’, Sectigo Limited, based in Roseland, NJ 07068 USA.

Although our server/datacentre is located in the USA, only iqCron Accounting has the sole managerial access to all these accounts and we develop, design and manage our website in Australia and NOT by a third-party developer in Australia or in overseas. Your supplied information through our website stays secured and encrypted during online transmission in the server/datacentre only for you and us to use and we do not knowingly send your information to anyone else overseas to use without your consent unless otherwise mentioned in this privacy policy since we do not have any affiliates outside Australia. 

Links to other websites:

Our website may be linked to servers or web sites maintained by other organisations located in Australia and/or outside the jurisdiction of Australia. iqCron Accounting cannot provide any warranty about the accuracy or source of any data set out on any of those servers or web sites or the content of any file that the user downloads from such a third-party site (if any). iqCron Accounting does not warrant that any files obtained from or through this site are free from computer viruses or other defects. The user must assume all responsibility for any loss, damage or consequence resulting directly or indirectly from the use of those files. We are not responsible or liable for their privacy practices, or the material on their website/s.

How can you access or correct your information?:

You have the right to access or correct some of the personal information we hold about you. If you wish to access or correct your information, please contact us by email or phone.

We may not provide you access to your personal information where:

• our denial for your access is required or authorised by the law; and/or,

• your access to the specific information would be unlawful.

Contact us for feedbacks or complaints:

If you believe that we have mishandled your personal information or breached the Privacy Act or the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, please contact us via below means:

Phone: 0422 270 122

Email: admin@iqcron.com.au

We will let you know that we have received your enquiry or complaint and do our best to respond within a reasonable timeframe. If we can’t respond within a reasonable timeframe, we will let you know.

If you’re not happy with our response and resolution, you can contact the OAIC.

Updates/Changes to this Privacy Policy:

iqCron Accounting reserves the right to amend this privacy policy at any time. The updated privacy policy will be available on this page of our website. One should read our Privacy Policy in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions since they may be interdependent under reasonable grounds where applicable.

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