HiCom Care may collect personal information about you when it's reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, our operation and service delivery.

We will collect information about you when you consent. This consent is given when you sign HiCom Care's service agreement.

The kinds of personal information we collect depends on our relationship and interactions with you. This may include:

• NDIS participant number and plan details
• NDIS plan budgets, funding categories, funding periods, and plan date
• Service agreements between participants and providers
• Provider details, including business names, ABNs, contact details, and payment information
• Invoices, statements, timesheets, service bookings, and supporting documentation relating to supports delivered
• Records of claims submitted, processed, paid, declined, or placed on hold
• Information relating to funding utilisation, budget monitoring, and expenditure reporting
• Records of funding reviews, reassessments, change of circumstances, and appeals
• Information provided by Support Coordinators, Recovery Coaches, Local Area Coordinators, advocates, nominees, guardians, and other authorised representatives
• Information regarding participant preferences for service delivery and communication
• Risk, safeguarding, incident, complaint, or dispute-related information where relevant to the administration of funding
• Documentation required to verify supports, including service notes, attendance records, travel records, reports, and outcome summaries
• Information relating to accommodation and living arrangements where relevant to funded supports
• Information regarding informal supports, carers, family members, and support networks where relevant to plan administration
• Records of consent, authorities, and permissions provided by participants or their authorised representatives
• Information required to meet legal, regulatory, audit, quality assurance, fraud prevention, and NDIS compliance obligations
• Internal case notes and records of discussions relating to the management and administration of a participant's NDIS funding
• Information received from government agencies, the NDIS, healthcare professionals, service providers, financial institutions, and other third parties authorised by the participant

Any other information reasonably required to provide plan management services, process claims, administer NDIS funding, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, or support the participant's engagement with the NDIS and their chosen providers

HiCom Care provides roles and responsibilities of a plan manager to NDIS participants – mainly financial administration.

We help participants manage their funding so it's spent:

• in line with their plan
• on NDIS supports.

We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• Keep track of a participant's NDIS spending
• Process invoices
• Pay providers
• Keep records of how a participant's funds are spent
• Check claims meet NDIS integrity and compliance requirements i.e pricing arrangements and operational guidelines
• Check provider's compliance and its eligibility to provide some particular services.
• Respond to the NDIS, the NDIS commission and/or any other legal authorities' request
• Fraud and compliance investigations if required
• Audits (both internal and external)
• Complaints (including privacy complaints), feedback or enquiries
• Legal matters, which may include obtaining legal advice from internal and external lawyers.

We collect personal information when you provide it to us, for example when you:

1. engage our services
2. contact us to make an enquiry or provide feedback, including through our websites or social media platforms
3. request communications from us
4. interact or engage with us through our website, social media platforms
5. complete any forms
6. attend our events or information sessions
7. visit, mail or telephone our offices
8. otherwise interact with us.

We may collect your personal information indirectly:

• via manual or electronic visitor sign-in and security surveillance at our offices
• from third parties, including:
  • your authorised representatives
  • child representatives, such as parents or legal guardians
  • disability support providers, Partners in the Community (Partners), state and territory governments, other Commonwealth government entities, publicly available information,
  • service providers
• when you interact with us online or through digital channels – see the section on Online and digital interactions below for further information.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files transferred onto computers or devices by websites for record keeping purposes and to enhance functionality on the website. Most browsers allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website. However, please note that if cookies are disabled, this may affect certain features that personalise our website.

We use a session cookie for maintaining contact with a user throughout a web browsing session. At the end of the session, the user may choose to manually logoff. If a person does not logoff at the end of the session, we will automatically log that person off after about 30 minutes. This will ensure that no other person has access to this information.

HiCom Care – hicomcare.com.au

When you visit our website, we use cookies to collect the following kinds of information:

• your IP address
• the date and time of your visit
• the pages you accessed and the documents you downloaded from our website
• the search terms you used
• your top level domain name (such as .com, .gov.au)
• your network location name (such as your internet service provider or organisation's name)
• your email address (if you provide it)
• any cookies that your browser has presented to our server.

This information is used to improve our website and services, and may also be used to secure our network or mitigate security threats where necessary.

The statistics and log files may be preserved and used to prevent security breaches and to ensure the integrity of the information supplied by the website.

Google Ads

We use Google Ads for marketing and analytical purposes. Google Ads uses cookies when a user visits our website. The user may then be served an advertisement relating to us when using websites that show ads using Google AdSense. Users who download similar apps to ours may also be served an advertisement relating to us when using websites that show advertisements using Google AdSense.

These cookies collect anonymous, non-identifiable data, including browsing data. They will be deleted after 90 days or when a user clears their cache. The NDIA may receive aggregated, non-identifiable data from Google Ads for analytical purposes.

Social media

We use a number of social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and others. We may collect your personal information when you communicate with us via these platforms.

We also use YouTube to host videos that are embedded on our website. These embedded videos use YouTube's Privacy Enhanced Mode. When you play an embedded video from our website, the video and associated assets will load from the domain www.youtube-nocookie.com, and other domains associated with Google's YouTube player.

Third party social media service providers may collect your personal information for their own purposes. HiCom Care is not responsible for the privacy practices of third party providers and encourages you to check the third party websites for more information about their terms of service and privacy policies.

HiCom Care Apps & Tools

The HiCom Care Apps & Tools ecosystem is for NDIS participants and their authorised representatives to view plan information and supports funded through the NDIS, as well as for the providers and support coordinators to view their invoices progress and other information if consent. We will collect personal information from you when you use the mobile app, including when you upload supporting documents, provide information or feedback to us.

Further information about privacy and security relating to the my NDIS App is available here: my NDIS participant portal and app | NDIS Improvements.

Event registration

HiCom Care uses third party service providers (including third party platforms) to manage ticketing, registration and promotion of our events.

If you visit and register for our events using third party services, your information will be sent to servers used by those third parties, which may be located in Australia or overseas.

When registering for our event via a third party, you must agree to their Terms of Service, read their Privacy Policy and agree that the third party can share your information with us.

Third party websites

The HiCom Care website may contain links to other external websites. Linked websites are outside of our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the privacy practices of any third party website owners or operators.

Links to external websites do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of any material on those sites, or of any third party products or services offered by, from or through those sites.

We use and disclose personal information where it is reasonably necessary to enable us to perform our services & duties. Some examples include:

• delivering plan management services and related functions (for example, quality assurance purposes, training or education, and purposes related to improving our services)
• referrals to external providers of supports for NDIS participants if requested by participants, or sharing information with support coordinators, or recovery coaches where this is required for services included in an approved NDIS plan
• monitoring and investigating non-compliance claims

Your personal information may be used to provide you with information and news about the NDIS updates/changes, our services and events.

Communications may be sent by HiCom Care including via third party platforms in various forms including email, SMS, phone or post, in accordance with applicable laws governing these activities.

You can opt out of these communications and our mailing lists by contacting us using any contact method listed on our website.

We may use your personal information to seek feedback from you regarding your level of satisfaction with our services.

We will generally only deal with your personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected.

If we need to use or disclose your personal information for another purpose, we will only do so where:

• you have given consent
• this is authorised or required by law or relevant authority.

The kinds of third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information include (but are not necessarily limited to):

• your service providers including the support coordinators and recovery coaches
• your LAC, planners or NDIS personnel.
• our professional advisers (for example, lawyers, auditors and consultants)
• law enforcement agencies (such as the Australian Federal Police);
• other state, territory or Commonwealth government agencies (such as the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Social Services or Services Australia)
• courts and tribunals
• Ministers, parliamentary staff and committees exercising their oversight functions.

We may engage contracted personnel who are located or store data on servers outside Australia, for the purposes of ensuring operation efficiency.

All personnel engaged by HiCom Care are subject to strict confidentiality obligations, privacy requirements, secure system access controls, and supervision arrangements consistent with Australian privacy laws and the handling of NDIS participant information. HiCom Care remains responsible for the protection and proper handling of all participant information at all times. When we engage such parties, we put arrangements in place, including contractual agreements, to ensure that your personal information is protected.

You may contact us using our contact details listed on our website to request changes to suit your preference.

We store personal information in a range of hard copy and electronic forms.

All hard copy records are held in Australia.

All personal information in digital records is held in our cloud storage on servers located in Australia. HiCom Care retains effective control over any personal information held on those servers.

We take all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect personal information from misuse and loss, as well as from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

You have a right to request access to personal information we hold about you, and to request its correction. We will respond to requests for access or correction within 7 business days.

There are a number of ways to access and correct your personal information.

To request access to, or correction of, your personal information:

• if you are a participant or provider, we recommend checking the participant app and provider portals as a first step to see what information we hold about you, or
• please contact our office on 0480 305 919 to discuss your request, and/or
• email our team at [email protected] to make a request

We will need to verify your identity before processing your request.

We must give you access to or correct your personal information unless an exception under the Privacy Act applies. If a request is refused:

• we will provide you with reasons for the decision
• in the case of a refusal to correct personal information – you may request that we associate with the information a statement reflecting your view that the information is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

If you think HiCom Care may have breached our privacy obligations in relation to the handling of your personal information, you may make a complaint by contacting us using the contact details set out on our website.

Your complaint should be made in writing and include contact details for communicating with you, and all relevant details to enable us to understand, investigate and assess the matter.

We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable timeframe. We are committed to quick and fair resolution of any complaints and will ensure your complaint is taken seriously.