Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Obligations 

 The Aurora Education Foundation (‘Aurora’) has obligations for handling personal information as outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and are additionally guided by the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). 

‘Personal Information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable from the information. 

 ‘Sensitive Information’ is a subset of personal information and includes information or an opinion about an individual’s: 

  • Racial or ethnic origin 
  • Political opinions 
  • Religious beliefs or affiliations 
  • Philosophical beliefs 
  • Sexual orientation 
  • Criminal record 
  • Health information 
  • Genetic information 

 You can learn more about the Privacy Act on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). 

 This Privacy Policy outlines the kind of personal and sensitive information Aurora collect, why we collect this information, how we handle it, and what to do if you have questions, concerns or complaints. 

 Remember, you are in control of the personal information you share with us. You can choose what to provide to us, and you can change or access your information as described in this Policy by contacting us. 

 Privacy at Aurora 

 Your privacy is important to us. 

 This Privacy Policy sets out Aurora’s practices in relation to the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information.  By providing personal information to us, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of that personal information under the terms of this Privacy Policy and any other contractual or other arrangements that apply between us (if any). 

Aurora may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time and if it does so, we will make publicly available any updated version prior to commencement. We encourage you to check this periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy. 

 Why we collect, hold and use personal information 

 Aurora may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes: 

  • To operate, protect, improve and optimise:
    • Our programs and the experience and well-being of our program participants; 
    • Our Indigenous Pathways Portal and support services, including improving the accessibility of scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students;
    • Our websites, advertising and promotional activities, such as to perform analytics and conduct research about our activities through our web platforms and across our programs; 
  • To enable you to access and use our website and online platforms, including the Indigenous Pathways Portal, and to monitor and report on their use and suitability; 
  • To help you find, access, view and apply for scholarships; 
  • To assess program, scholarship and bursary applicants and recipients and facilitate ongoing support and administration; 
  • To process your donation/s, complete tax receipt/s, and to acknowledge your contribution/s; 
  • To deliver events, surveys or other promotional activities sponsored or managed by us or our program partners; 
  • To carry out our general business operations and activities;  
  • To consider your volunteer or employment application; 
  • To contact and communicate with you regarding any interaction you have with us, or our programs, including distributing e-newsletters and updates to keep you informed about or programs and results, and to provide information about opportunities and services provided by others. 
  • To respond to any queries you may have about us or our programs. 

Periodically, we may send you direct communications and information about scholarships, opportunities and services that we believe may interest you. This may take the form of emails, advertising on the Indigenous Pathways Portal, mail or other forms of communication, in accordance with the Spam Act and the Privacy Act. You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us by contacting us using the details set out below or by using the unsubscribe feature provided on the bottom of any emails we send. 

We may also collect data about the number of people seeking certain types of scholarships or responses to scholarship questions. If at any point we seek to collect your information for another purpose aside beyond those purposes listed above, we will tell you this when we are getting the information from you and provide you with the opportunity to either consent or refuse. 

Disclosure of personal information 

We will not use or disclose any personal or sensitive information with third parties unless we have the express consent of the person to whom the information relates or their legal guardian, or are required to do so by law.  

When you apply for or participate in Aurora programs, if you do consent for us to disclose the personal or sensitive information we collect, we may disclose that information to our employees, our members and related bodies corporate and their employees [and contractors], third parties such as scholarship providers and administrators, educational institutions, our service providers including hosting providers, web developers, designers and administrators, contractors, agents, and other persons who help us to provide and maintain our services. We may also disclose your personal information to anyone to whom our assets or business (or any part of it) is transferred, and to other persons, including government agencies, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies, as required, authorised or permitted by law. 

We will give your personal information to a scholarship administrator or an educational institution if you have asked us to (for example, a university that you wish to apply for a scholarship from). Once you have asked us to send your personal information to another organisation, it will no longer be our responsibility. It is up to you if you want to contact that organisation to find out how they handle personal information. 

Some of these parties will be located outside of New South Wales, and others may be located outside of Australia (for example, universities in the United Kingdom or United States of America). When you provide your personal information to us, you consent to the disclosure of your information outside of NSW and outside of Australia and acknowledge that we are not required to ensure that overseas recipients handle that personal information in compliance with Australian Privacy Law. We will, however, try to take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipient will deal with such personal information in a way that is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. 

We may share de-identified information with scholarship administrators and education providers as we explain below. 

Except as described in this Policy, we will not give your personal information to anyone without your express consent. 

Personal and Sensitive Information we collect 

We may ask you to give us personal information, some of which might also be sensitive information. Depending on your involvement with Aurora, we may ask you to give us information such as: 

General information 

  • Your name, address and email, 
  • Your date of birth and gender, 
  • Payment and billing details (including credit card information if relevant), 
  • Records of communication, 
  • Donation history, 
  • Photographs and videos of you related to our programs or your involvement with Aurora. 

Program and Scholarship Application Information 

  • Information and documents about your education, areas of study, academic achievements and community involvement, 
  • Information about your work history, your career aspirations and future goals 
  • Information on your financial situation, including any income support payments and proof of income such as bank statements and income records, 
  • Information about relocation, 
  • Information about your emergency contact, including their name, gender, relationship to you and contact details, 
  • Information about your referees, including their name, position and contact information, 
  • Copies of your documents such as your birth certificate, passport, driver’s licence and other proof of identity documents, 
  • Any other personal information that may be required in order to facilitate your use of our website or the Indigenous Pathways Portal, such as information or documents required for scholarship applications. 
  • We also collect aggregate (de-identified) information to improve scholarships and application processes for future students. This data shows information such as ‘the number of students’, and cannot be linked back to you. We do this in 2 ways, collecting data about:
    • the types of scholarships students are searching for (so that we can provide feedback to scholarship administrators to allow them to offer scholarships which better suit student needs in the future); and 
    • if there are any points in scholarship applications where higher numbers of students are choosing not to proceed with applications (this may indicate questions, or scholarship design, which students are not choosing to respond to). 

This information may be shared with scholarship administrators or tertiary education providers to help improve their support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 

Sensitive information 

  • Information about your heritage and descent where your Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage is relevant to your engagement with Aurora, 
  • Health information, particularly information about disabilities, medical conditions or your mental or physical health, or medical conditions or disabilities that affect you or members of your family, including where it is relevant to your program or scholarship application, or ensure your safety and well-being whilst participating in Aurora programs, 
  • Information about any criminal background if you are to assist in the delivery of our programs. 

Employment information 

  • Information about your working history, 
  • Referee reports, 
  • Relevant compliance checks (including a national police check and a Working With Children check), 
  • Information or an opinion about your suitability for working with people under the age of 18, 
  • Heritage, if you are applying for a role identified for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. 

Website and Service administration 

  • Your server address, 
  • Your operating system (for example Windows, Mac etc.), 
  • Your top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc.), 
  • The date and time of your visit to the site, 
  • The pages accessed and the documents downloaded, 
  • The previous site visited, 
  • The type of browser used. 

Collection of the Above Listed Information 

We will only collect this information when it is necessary for, or directly related to our services, functions or activities, and you have provided us with your consent. 

Generally, we collect information directly from the relevant individual. Sometimes (for example where we are working with high school students) we may need to collect information about you from third parties including parents, carers, legal guardians or other third party information sources (for example, schools). We will do this if you have consented for us to collect, use or disclose the information in this way, or where it is not reasonable or practical for us to collect this information directly from you. 

Please note that if you provide us with personal information about third parties (for example, your emergency contact or referees) we ask that you let them know about this Privacy Policy. You should not give us any sensitive information (such as health information or information on heritage or descent) about a third party unless you are sure that you are their parent or legal guardian, or have that person’s consent to do so, and their consent for us to use and disclose their health information as described in this Policy. 

For Parents and Legal Guardians 

Users who are under 18 years old are not permitted to use our online platforms, such as the Indigenous Pathways Portal, or to create a Profile on Aurora’s website, or to apply to participate in any of Aurora’s programs unless their parent or legal guardian understands and consents to the following terms and conditions.  

If you are a parent or legal guardian of a person under the age of 18 (“Minor”) who wishes to use Aurora’s Indigenous Pathways Portal: 

  • They need your permission before they use the Portal or create a Profile on the Portal, and 
  • If you give them permission, you must understand and accept that you are responsible for what they do on the Portal and that you should supervise them. 

This means you agree to: 

  • supervise the Minor’s use of the Portal; 
  • assume all risks and any liability associated with the Minor’s use of the Portal, including in connection with the transmission of materials, content and other information to and from third parties via the internet; 
  • ensure the accuracy and truthfulness of all information submitted by the Minor to and through the Portal; and 
  • assume responsibility and be bound by these terms for the Minor’s access to and use of the Portal. 

If you are a parent or legal guardian of a person under the age of 18 (“Minor”) who wishes to apply for one of Aurora’s programs: 

  • They need your permission before they can apply and be accepted into an Aurora program, including but not limited to our High School Program, and 
  • If you give them permission, you must understand and accept that you are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and truthfulness of all information submitted by the Minor, and 
  • assume responsibility and be bound by these terms on behalf of the Minor for any information that Aurora collects, holds, stores and processes relating to their involvement with us. 

Cookies and Third-Party Links 

We may collect personal information about you when you use and access our website and online platforms. 

While we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer. 

We may also use ‘cookies’ or other similar tracking technologies on our website that help us track your website usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, TV, mobile phone or other device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and/or browsing sessions. You can disable cookies through your internet browser but our websites and services may not work as intended for you if you do so. 

There are also several places on our online platforms that may link to other websites that do not operate under our privacy practices. When you link to other websites, our privacy practices no longer apply. We encourage visitors to review each website’s privacy policy before disclosing any personally identifiable information. 

Storage of Personal and Sensitive Information 

We may hold your personal information in either electronic or hard copy form. We take reasonable steps, including a number of physical, administrative, personnel and technical measures, to protect your information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 

For example, information you save on our Indigenous Pathways Portal is protected through a process of encryption. Encryption means that the information is electronically protected so it cannot be accessed by any other person or organisation without the encryption key. However, as with all electronic data storage, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. 

Aurora has internal policies in place which dictate who will have access to your information and in what circumstances. 

If you don’t want to give us information 

If there is certain information you do not wish to give us, you do not have to. However, by not providing certain pieces of information, you may not be able to use certain functions on our online platforms, participate fully in our programs, and you may also not be able to apply for certain scholarships. 

Many of the functions of our website and the Portal you can use anonymously and without any personal information being collected. Information is not linked to you unless you set up a user login and create a Profile. 

If you wish to talk to someone about the information we collect, please contact us. 

Access to and Correction of the data we hold about you 

You can request access to the personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us, or if you have set up an account on one of our online platforms such as the Portal, by using the details to logon to the relevant site and view your Profile and the information you have entered.  

You can also contact us to find out whether we hold any health information relating to you, and if so, the nature of the information and the main purposes for which we use it. You may request access to any health information we hold about you. This is most likely to relate to a disability you may wish to declare in order to be eligible for scholarships benefitting students with a disability. 

Sometimes, we may not be able to provide you with access to all of your personal or health information and, where this is the case, we will tell you why.  

We may also need to verify your identity when you request your personal or health information. 

If you think that any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, you may request us to correct that information. We will take reasonable steps to correct such personal information unless we disagree with you about whether the information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. 

If you have any questions or requests, please feel free to contact Aurora’s Privacy Officer: 

Email: privacy@aurorafoundation.com.au 

Telephone number: 02 9310 8400 

Postal address:

Privacy Officer

Aurora Education Foundation Limited,  

100 Botany Road Alexandria, NSW 2015 

Length of time stored 

We will store your personal information, including your login details, Profile, documents and other information for a period of up to fifteen years, unless you tell us to delete or de-identify it earlier, which you can do by contacting us. The time period for which we may choose to store your personal information reflects the possible length of the educational lifecycle, from high school and initial university applications to postgraduate study. 

We will store scholarship applications that have been completed and submitted for two years, after which time your personal information may be deleted or de-identified. As we need to keep records of submitted applications to confirm that submission has taken place, we will not be able to delete these applications before the two-year timeframe, even if you request that we do. 

We may store de-identified information indefinitely in order to assess and report on the operation and impact of the Portal. 

Making a complaint 

If you wish to make a complaint about how your information is handled, please contact us using the details for our Privacy Officer set out above. Please include your name, email address and/or telephone number and clearly describe your complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond to you regarding your complaint within a reasonable period of time. Any complaint made will be handled in accordance with our Complaints Policy. If you think that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, we will provide you with information about the further steps you can take. 

The words used in this Policy 

The terms “Aurora”, “we” and “us” refer to the Aurora Education Foundation Limited (ABN 28 158 391 363), the program provider, and the website and Portal operator. 

The terms “you” refer to the person using the website or Portal, or the person participating in an Aurora program. 

The term “third party” refers to another organisation or person who is external to Aurora, for example a school or university. 

The terms “program” and “programs” refers to the programs managed and delivered by Aurora, including the High School Program, the Outreach Program, the Internship Program, Scholarships, and the Alumni Program. 

The term “Portal” refers to the Indigenous Pathways Portal, which provides a comprehensive list of scholarships available for Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander students of, or currently studying at, university, as well as some for students at TAFEs or registered training organisations (RTOs). 

The term “Profile” refers to an individual’s personal record of information required to complete program and scholarship applications. Profile information consists of saved responses to questions and saved documents. Profiles are securely stored and accessed via a username and password.