Federal legislation now requires companies and societies who deal with personal information after the end of 2002 to adopt a privacy policy to protect such information being used for purposes other than intended by the owner of the information.

Conferences and meetings, do by their nature, demand the collection of personal and sensitive information and hence the new privacy legislation directly impacts on the operations of ASN Events and their clients.

ASN Events' privacy policy defines their collection of personal information as a function conducted in their client’s interest and essential for the successful conduct of the client’s normal activities. Notwithstanding the client’s own privacy policy and its requirements, the essential elements of ASN Events' policy are:

•  Information is collected from forms filled in by the applicant and is only used for the purpose for which it was collected.

•  Information is recorded on a computer, in a project specific database, which is protected by password from use by any one other than authorised ASN Events staff. ASN Events’ computer system is protected by firewall from external access and the personal information is not stored on any web-site.

 ASN Events commits to only use sensitive information for the reason it was supplied. Credit card information is not stored as part of the individual’s personal details but only used for the transactions authorised by the client.

•  Information in databases is not sold to any third party interest.

•  Information is only passed to third party interest when requested by the applicant. Examples might typically be dietary requests being passed to caterers for the purpose of a function the applicant is attending or credit card information to an accommodation provider for the purpose of securing their room booking.

In developing their privacy policy, ASN Events has become aware of issues for their clients. In particular, membership based organisations will receive requests from their corporate sponsors for details of the membership. As offering such lists represents an attractive hook to enhance corporate sponsorship, the legislation has the potential to compromise fund raising. Notwithstanding the client’s own policy demands, ASN’s recommended solution is to ensure membership and registration forms specifically request authorisation for the secretariat to add the applicants name and contact details to a membership or participation list which may be published in a document provided to any other member of the list.