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Updated as of 15 July 2025

Our Privacy Policy

1. Our Collection of Personal Information

1.1. Methods of Collection

We may collect your personal information from you via various means including:
1.1.1. our Website
1.1.2. our customer and education provider portal (PhysioPortal) currently located at
https://portal.physiocouncil.c...
1.1.3. our staff and supplier platforms via Xero or Employment Hero
1.1.4. marketing software when you sign up via our Website or PhysioPortal (or another method) to receive
marketing information from us
1.1.5. social media services, promotional platforms, and other permission-based marketing channels where you
choose to share information
1.1.6. survey software when you complete customer satisfaction surveys
1.1.7. email, telephone or face to face contact with you
1.1.8. third parties such as Immigration Agency who lodge an application on behalf of an individual (please refer to
clause 4 of this Privacy Policy for more information).

1.2. Personal Information We Collect

1.2.1. The personal information we collect from you will depend upon the reason you are contacting us and/or the reason we are collecting it from you.

1.2.2. If you are a current or potential customer, we will usually collect your:

  • name
  • address
  • gender
  • contact phone number
  • email address
  • date of birth.

1.2.3. Sometimes we may also collect your:

  • passport details
  • bank account information
  • emergency/third party contact details (name, phone, email, address).

1.2.4. If we are assessing your skills as an overseas-trained physiotherapist, we may also collect your:

  •  education information (degrees, statements of results)
  • details of your registration with regulation bodies within or outside of Australia
  • Professional Indemnity Insurance certificate to attend practical exams
  • medical certificates where relevant to justify missing an exam
  • work contracts
  • pay slips
  • English skills
  • Curriculum Vitae.

1.2.5. If you are current or proposed staff or suppliers, we may also collect some of the information listed above, as well as your:

  • medical certificates where relevant
  • information regarding your allergies and medical conditions
  • superannuation details
  • tax file number
  • ABN and GST registration status, compliance with Australian regulations, modern slavery
  • considerations, ethical/sustainable standards, and status as a local or First Nations owned business
  • (suppliers only).

1.2.6. If you are a current or proposed education provider, we may also collect some of the information listed above as well as your:

  • educational details
  • enrolment and completion numbers (deidentified).

1.3. General Purpose of Collection

1.3.1. All personal information that we collect is reasonably necessary for the provision of our services.

1.3.2. Further, all personal information that we collect ensures that current or potential customers are meeting the assessment criteria, or (together with our employees) are satisfying our contractual requirements with Australian government bodies such as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the Department of Employment, Workforce and Relations.

1.3.3. We will not collect personal information (including sensitive information) unless the information is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of our functions or activities. If we are unable to collect the personal information (including sensitive information) that we reasonably require to supply our services, we reserve the right to reject engaging with you or the organisation with which you are connected.

1.3.4. You may provide the following types of information to us:

  • (Non-Personal Information) includes information that we collect from you that is non-identifiable and anonymous. This means we are not aware of the identity of the person from (or about) whom the information has been collected;
  • (Personal Information) includes information that identifies you or can be used to identify you, or from which you are reasonably identifiable; and
  • (Payment Information) includes your payment information, including but not limited to credit card numbers. Please refer to Clause 8 of this Privacy Policy which outlines how this information is stored and retained. If you require more information regarding our third-party payment processors, please contact us.

1.3.5 For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, references to Personal Information, unless otherwise stated, include Payment Information.

1.4. Sensitive Information

We may collect your sensitive information where you have consented to the collection of the sensitive information and the information is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities

2. Use and disclosure of personal information

2.1. Use

2.1.1. We may use personal information about you for the primary purposes of:

  • if you are a current or proposed customer, offering or providing our services to you;
  • if you are staff, employing you and engaging with you during your employment;
  • if you are a current or proposed service provider, assessing, evaluating, receiving and utilising your services or proposed services and communicating with you in that context; and 
  • for other purposes for which you would reasonably expect us to use that information.

2.1.2. If you are a current or potential assessment customer, we and our service providers use personal information

about you to:

  • provide assessment services, including assessing your qualification and experience for registration with Ahpra or for migration purposes such as applying for a Skilled Visa
  • deliver examination services and facilitate your participation in relevant assessments
  • arrange insurance services where applicable to your participation in our programs
  • communicate with you, including responding to enquiries and providing updates about your application or service use
  • provide access to learning materials, including courses we offer directly and courses provided by thirdparty education partners
  • send marketing and promotional material including information about our services, offers, news and
  • events that may be of interest to you. If you wish to opt-out of receiving marketing materials please
  • refer to clause 3 of this Privacy Policy.

2.1.3. We may also use or disclose information about you for other purposes not referred to above:

  • where we have obtained your consent; or
  • as required by relevant laws, statutes, regulations, codes and external payment systems.

2.2. Disclosure

2.2.1. We will not disclose information that personally identifies you to any third party other than as set out in this Privacy Policy. In order to deliver the services that we provide, we may disclose your personal information to other organisations, only in relation to providing our services to you. We take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.

2.2.2. We may share with third parties information that is not associated with your name or identity, such as Website usage information or non-personally identifiable demographic information.

2.3. Unauthorised access use or disclosure

2.3.1. In the event of a security incident involving unauthorised access, use or disclosure of personal information where a third party with whom we share personal information is involved, we will seek to work cooperatively with them to protect the personal information we have shared with them.

3. Opt-out

3.1. You can opt out of receiving marketing material from us at any time by unsubscribing. You agree and acknowledge that even if you opt out of receiving material from us, we will still send you essential information required for the services we provide. To opt-out of receiving our marketing services please contact us or use the PhysioPortal to change your marketing preferences to unsubscribe. Once you opt out of receiving marketing material from us, you agree and acknowledge that this removal from our distribution lists may take several business days after the date of your request to be removed.

4. Third Parties and your information

4.1. Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your personal information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party and to confirm the accuracy of that information with you.

4.2. The third parties who we commonly disclose and receive information from are but not limited to;

4.2.1. Ahpra

4.2.2. Physiotherapy Board of Australia

4.2.3. Australian Physiotherapy Association

4.2.4. Department of Employment and Work Relations

4.2.5. Physiopedia Plus

4.2.6. University of Melbourne’s Mobile Learning Unit.

4.3. We will only collect, store, use or disclose personal information as set out in this Privacy Policy unless we are required by law to use that information to protect our rights or property (or those of any third party), or to avoid injury to any person.

4.4. Although the Website or PhysioPortal may link directly to websites operated by third parties (Linked Websites), you acknowledge that Linked Websites are not operated by us. We encourage you to always read the applicable Privacy Policy of any Linked Website on entering the Linked Website. We are not responsible for the content or practices of the Linked Websites nor their privacy policies regarding the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information.

4.5. When you share information with social media services, promotional platforms, and other permission-based marketing channels operated by third parties (Marketing Platforms) for the purposes of opting in to receive information about our services you acknowledge that the Marketing Platforms are not operated by us. We encourage you to always read the applicable Privacy Policy of any Marketing Platforms on entering the Marketing Platforms. We are not responsible for the content or practices of the Marketing Platforms nor their privacy policies regarding the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information.

5. Disclosure of Information Overseas

5.1. Our services may be accessed and used by individuals residing in various countries. Although some customers complete our services remotely from their current country of residence, the primary purpose of our services is to support our customers seeking to live or work in Australia.

5.2. Our Website and PhysioPortal may be accessed from any location worldwide. However, the majority of users are based in or intended to relocate to Australia.

5.3. All personal information handled directly by the Council is collected and managed from within Australia. We do not have personnel based overseas collecting personal information on our behalf. Any data you provide will be processed in accordance with Australian privacy laws.

6.1. By using our Website or our services, you consent to the collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as otherwise permitted under the Privacy Act.

6.2. Where you provide information directly to us, you consent to use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

7. Cookies and other Analytics

7.1. Cookies

7.1.1. We may collect information about your usage of our Website and PhysioPortal, including technical, behavioural and other aggregated information, for the purpose of obtaining detailed analytics of your behaviour (based on your demographic information and use of our Website and PhysioPortal). To gain this information “cookies” may be used, if the privacy settings on your device allows.

7.1.2. Cookies also allow us to provide you with more personalised service. We use cookies to:

  • determine whether you have previously accessed our Website and/or PhysioPortal
  • store user preferences, identify the pages you have accessed, your IP address and the date, time, login location and duration of your visit
  • improve the performance of the Website and/or PhysioPortal. For instance, they help pages load quicker
  • aid in the security of your use of our Website and/or PhysioPortal
  • facilitate administration of our Website and/or PhysioPortal
  • generate statistics about the use of our Website and/or PhysioPortal (including through the use of third party analytics services) to continually improve customer service and data products and identify product trends
  • help us to serve you relevant advertisements and implement frequency capping procedures.

7.1.3. This information is not linked to any personal information you may provide to the Website and/or

PhysioPortal and cannot be used to identify you.

7.2. Analytics

7.2.1. We may use third party analytics service providers, including but not limited to Google Analytics, to evaluate and provide Us with information about the use of our Website and/or PhysioPortal. Your IP address and other information will be collected by automated means to report on your use of the services. These thirdparties use cookies, web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts and other, similar technologies to automatically collect information about your website use, report website trends, and help us compile website metrics. You can learn about Google’s specific practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privac.... For more information about how Google Analytics uses your information please click here.

7.3. Opting out from Cookies and analytics

7.3.1. You may withdraw or change your cookies consent at any time by modifying your browser settings to accept

or decline cookies. You may also go to www.aboutads.info/choices for instructions on how to disable cookies.

7.3.2. If you choose to configure your computer so that it disables cookies or does not accept them, you may not

be able to make full use of our Website and/or PhysioPortal.

7.3.3. You may opt-out from Google Analytics by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on,

available at https://tools.google.com/dlpag.... In some instances, when you opt-out, a new cookie

(Opt-Out-Cookie) is placed in your web browser. This tells the third-party provider to cease data collection

from your browser and prevents advertisements from being delivered to you.

8. Storage and security

8.1. Data Storage

8.1.1. We will use all reasonable endeavours to keep your personal information in a secure environment, however, this security cannot be guaranteed.

8.1.2. We store personal information in both physical and electronic forms. Physical records are stored in a secure site. Electronic data that is stored is encrypted both at rest and in transit, and access is protected by strong passwords and two factor authentication.

8.1.3. Platforms used to store electronic data may include:

  • PhysioPortal
  • Xero
  • Employment Hero
  • Mailchimp
  • SurveyMonkey
  • emails.

8.1.4. When information is no longer required, it will be securely destroyed or deidentified accordingly.

8.1.5. Where possible, we engage service providers that store data in secure data centres located in Australia. However, some information may be stored in other jurisdictions, including the United States and New Zealand. Regardless of location, all data is subject to strict security measures and contractual protections.

8.2. Data Retention

8.2.1. In general, we retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services or as required under Australian Privacy laws. The length of time we retain personal information depends on:

  • the type of information
  • the reason it was collected
  • any legal obligations
  • our operational needs

8.2.2. We apply the following internal retention and destruction protocols in line with our internal data retention

framework:

  • Personal information classified as Private Individual Information is retained for 3 months, unless otherwise specified;
  • Candidate identity documents are deleted within two weeks after identification is completed;
  • We do not retain candidate health records or payment card information;
  • Employee health records are retained only as required by law;
  • Other categories of personal information may be retained for longer periods depending on their classification (e.g., finance and HR records for 7 years, accreditation and intellectual property records in perpetuity);
  • All access to personal information is restricted to authorised personnel. Multi-factor authentication is used for accessing electronic records, especially those stored in the Cloud or involving sensitive personal information;
  • Redundant or non-essential information is deleted as early as possible to reduce privacy risk;
  • Paper records required for long-term retention are digitised and securely destroyed thereafter;
  • In the event of any legal proceedings, audits or investigations, the destruction of records is suspended until advised otherwise by our CEO.

8.2.3 Again, when information is no longer required, it will be securely destroyed or deidentified accordingly.

9.1. We may vary the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time. You should check this Privacy Policy regularly so that you are aware of any variations made to this Privacy Policy. You will be deemed to have consented to such variations by your continued use of the Website, PhysioPortal, or other services following such changes being made.

10. Accuracy of your information

10.1. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information held by us is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading. If you believe that any of your personal information is not accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading, please contact us or access your personal details via the following;

10.1.1. PhysioPortal for customers and education providers

10.1.2. Employment Hero and Xero’s user portal for staff and providers

10.2. You can help us in ensuring that our records are accurate by informing us of any changes to your name and contact details.

11. Access to information we hold about you

11.1. You may request to access the personal information we hold about you. We will endeavour to respond to any such request within a reasonable period of time and as required under the Privacy Act and, where reasonable and practicable, give access to the information in the manner you request. This will be subject to any exemptions allowed under the Privacy Act. You may request this information by contacting us (see Clause 13 below to contact us).

11.2. If a fee is to be imposed for providing access to your information, you will be advised of the cost in advance.

11.3. There are some circumstances (including for example legal reasons), where access to your information will be denied. If this is the case, we will advise you of the reason in writing.

12. Complaints or Disputes

12.1. If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, please contact Our Privacy Officer as below:

Attn: Privacy Officer 
Australian Physiotherapy Council Limited
Level 4, 302-320 Burwood Road
Hawthorn VIC 3122
Ph: 1300 528 003
Email: [email protected]

12.2. You may lodge your complaint in writing. Any complaint will be investigated by us and you will be notified of the making of a decision in relation to your complaint as soon as is practicable after it has been made, usually within 30 days.

12.3. If we do not adequately answer your concerns, you have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

13. Contact Us

13.1. If you have any questions relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us as below:

Australian Physiotherapy Council Limited
Level 4, 302-320 Burwood Road
Hawthorn VIC 3122
Ph: 1300 528 003

13.2. When contacting us or using our services, you have the option to either not identify yourself or to use a pseudonym. However, this will not apply if it is impracticable for us to communicate with you that way. We are required to verify your identity if you wish to exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal information held by us.

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