Privacy policy
SA Power Networks is committed to the protection of your personal information. We are required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) including the privacy principles applying to the private sector.
This Privacy Policy is provided to make you aware of how SA Power Networks collects, manages, uses, discloses and otherwise handles personal information.
This Privacy Policy is current as at 16 August 2023 and may be reissued from time to time.
Collection of your personal information
We collect personal information that we require for the purposes of our business functions and activities and as otherwise required or permitted by law. Our functions and activities include (amongst others) to provide you with electricity connection services, electricity and related products and services.
The types of personal information we collect about you, and our use of that information, depends upon your dealings with us.
In some circumstances, we may collect sensitive personal information about you. For example, if you have special health needs relevant to electricity outages, such as dependence on a dialysis machine. Sensitive information is only collected, used and disclosed with your consent or as otherwise required or permitted by law.
We may collect your personal information directly from you, but in some circumstances we may also collect this information from a third party (i.e., from your electricity retailer, electrical contractor, building contractor or from others who are acting on your behalf).
If you provide us with personal information about a third party, you warrant to us that that third party consents to us collecting and using their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you do not provide all of the personal information we require, we may be unable to provide you with the products and services you are seeking.
If you are a customer requesting a service from SA Power Networks (such as a connection or provision of electricity) we will typically collect the following personal information about you: your name, postal address, telephone number, address of premises at which SA Power Networks' service is provided (if applicable), type of service requested, payment arrangements, credit card details where payment is made electronically.
We may also collect personal information about you from your electricity retailer. This information includes billing information generated by the electricity retailer and normally includes your name and address, and periodic details as to your electricity consumption. Over time, we may also collect records of your electricity consumption, payment history, and if applicable, your electricity load profile.
We may also collect personal information about you in other situations including (without limitation) if you enter any of our competitions or promotions, if you enquire about our products or services or if you submit feedback or questions via the internet, social media or email, or contact us for information. Generally, this information will include your name, address, telephone number and email address.
Use and disclosure of your personal information
We will store, use and disclose your personal information (and that of third parties) for the purposes for which we collected it, for other related purposes that you would reasonably expect, and as otherwise permitted or required by law.
These purposes include providing you with information about our business and related products and services.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties in connection with products or services we provide to you (for example, your electricity retailer or to other persons named on your account) and to our suppliers who provide services to us (for example, our mailing houses, call centre operators, advisers, technology providers and service contractors associated with operating and improving our business). We may disclose your personal information for the purposes of customer satisfaction surveys and obtaining feedback on our services. We may also disclose personal information to our related entities where necessary for the purposes of our business.
From time to time we may use your personal information for management or statistical purposes. In that case all personal information will be de-identified so that you personally will not be identified in that information.
SA Power Networks may use and disclose personal information as permitted or required by law.
Information Disclosed Overseas
We will disclose your personal information outside Australia where necessary for our business purposes (for example, where you provide an overseas mailing address to us or to our related entities in Hong Kong). We may also store and process your personal information at offshore locations, including offshore storage and cloud facilities provided by third parties. By providing your personal information to us you consent to your personal information being transferred offshore for back-up, data security, and storage purposes (including to the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong).
We will only transfer your personal information outside of Australia for other purposes with your consent or where we are legally permitted to do so.
Protection of your personal information
Reasonable, industry-standard steps are taken to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised use, modification, interference or disclosure. All hard copy documents or electronic records containing personal information are securely stored, and can only be accessed by authorised SA Power Networks staff.
Where SA Power Networks contracts out some of its activities, for example data processing or analysis, we will take reasonable steps to require those third parties to handle personal information in a manner that complies with the Privacy Act (including the privacy principles applicable to the private sector).
We may store your information on computer databases as well as in hard copy. Your records will be kept for so long as you are connected and otherwise for the periods required by law, following which we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify them.
Our website at www.sapowernetworks.com.au uses "cookies" (which is a tool for us to understand how you may use our website). We do not use the information stored in those cookies to collect information about you. Our website also contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the use and protection of your personal information on those other websites. We cannot warrant the privacy or security of personal information during transmission to our website at www.sapowernetworks.com.au.
Your rights of access to personal information we hold about you
You can ask us to provide you with access to personal information we hold about you. We will comply with any such request to the extent required by the Privacy Act. There is no fee for making such a request. We may charge a reasonable fee for you to access your personal information, but that fee will not exceed our reasonable costs of assessing your request and providing access. We will endeavour to respond to your request within 14 days. Requests must be made in writing to the mailing address provided below. We may require you to provide us with sufficient identification before providing access to your personal information.
Access to your personal information may be provided in a number of ways, including by providing you with a hard copy of the information, or by allowing you to view our records. If you satisfy us that any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, we will amend our records accordingly.
If you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please contact us at the details shown below.
Concerns regarding our handling of your personal information
If you believe we have breached our obligations under the Privacy Act you may make a complaint to the Customer Service Team via the contact details below. We will then confirm receipt of your complaint and a time frame within which we will investigate and respond to your complaint. We endeavour to provide you with a response as quickly as possible (which generally, will be within 14 days of receiving your complaint).
Contact information
If you have any questions about our management of your personal information, please contact our Customer Service Group for further information at the details set out below:
SA Power Networks
1 Anzac Highway
Keswick, SA 5035
Phone: 13 12 61
Email: CustomerService@sapowernetworks.com.au