Privacy & data requests

Who can ask

Anyone we hold personal information about, including:

• people with a QubieCare account — Approved Providers, Nominated Supervisors, Educational Leaders, educators and others;
• people who used to have an account, including educators who have left a service;
• educators whose details a service added, even if they never signed in;
• parents and guardians, about themselves or their child;
• people who made, or were named in, a complaint or incident record;
• anyone who has emailed us or used our contact form.

You can also ask for someone else if you have their written permission or legal authority — see “Asking for someone else” below.

Two kinds of information — ours, and a service’s

Information we decide about. Your QubieCare sign-in account (name, email and security settings), billing contacts, the messages you send us (enquiries, support and privacy requests), our security logs, and our record of any email opt-outs. We answer requests about these ourselves.

Records we keep for a childcare service. When a service uses QubieCare, the service decides what goes into its records: educator records (qualifications, Working With Children Checks, training, rosters), children’s enrolment, health and attendance records, incident and complaint records, and self-assessments, improvement plans and evidence. The service — the approved provider — is responsible for those records under the Education and Care Services National Regulations, including who they can be shared with and how long they must be kept. We hold them for the service and use them only to run QubieCare.

So if your request is about a service’s records, the service needs to answer it. You can go to the service directly, or write to us: we will tell you which service holds the records and — if you agree — pass your request to them within 5 business days. We will also help the service answer, for example by preparing a copy of the records. We cannot hand a service’s records to you ourselves without the service’s say-so — unless the service no longer uses QubieCare or cannot be reached, in which case we will deal with your request ourselves.

How to make a request

In QubieCare (if you have an account). Go to Settings › Your data & privacy.

• Download my data gives you a copy of your account and the main records about you straight away. It does not include everything — for example your sign-in and break times or rosters — so email us for the rest.
• Request a correction or deletion sends your request to your organisation’s administrators — the people at your service who manage QubieCare — because they control those records. QubieCare does not see requests made this way. If you have not had an answer within 30 days, email us and we will follow it up.

By email (anyone). Write to privacy@qubiecare.com.au and tell us:

• your name, and the email address we would know you by;
• how you are connected to QubieCare — for example “educator at [service]”, “parent of a child at [service]”, “customer” or “I used your contact form”;
• what you would like — a copy, a correction (and what is wrong), or deletion — and of what.

You do not need a special form and you do not need to mention the law. If writing is hard for you, tell us and we will arrange a phone or video call instead.

Email a privacy request

Checking it is you

Before we give out or change personal information, we need to be reasonably sure it is yours. Usually that just means you writing from the email address we already have, or confirming a detail we hold. We will not ask for identity documents unless there is no other way — and if we do see one, we will check it and not keep a copy.

How long it takes, and what it costs

• We will confirm we have received your request within 5 business days.
• We will give you a full answer within 30 days.
• If we need longer — for example because a service holds the records — we will tell you why and when to expect an answer, before the 30 days are up.
• It costs nothing. We do not charge for making a request, for a copy of your information, or for fixing it.

Getting a copy

We will give you a copy in an everyday electronic format, and a plain summary if you would prefer one. In rare cases we may hold part of it back — if giving it to you would put someone’s life, health or safety at serious risk; would unfairly reveal personal information about someone else, such as other people named in a complaint; relates to a legal dispute between you and us; or would be unlawful, or the law requires or allows us to refuse. If we hold anything back, we will tell you in writing what and why (unless explaining would itself cause harm) and how to complain — and where we can, we will still give you what we can, for example a copy with other people’s details removed.

Fixing something

If information is wrong, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, tell us and we will fix it — for free. If it is in a service’s record, the service makes the change; we will pass it on. If we do not agree that something needs changing, we will tell you why in writing, and you can ask us to attach a note to the record saying you believe it is wrong. If we have shared the information with another organisation, you can ask us to tell them about the correction.

Deleting your information

We will delete what we can. Some things have to be kept for a while:

• A service’s records. The law says how long a service must keep them (regulation 183 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations):
  • records about an educator or staff member: 3 years after they last worked at the service;
  • records about a child: 3 years after the child’s last day at the service;
  • records about an incident, injury, illness or trauma involving a child: until the child turns 25;
  • records about the death of a child: 7 years;
  • most other service records: 3 years.
• Our own records — for example tax invoices, and our record of who did what in QubieCare, which we keep to meet our legal obligations and to show that requests like yours were handled.

When something has to stay, we stop using it for anything else, make sure nothing new is added to it, and delete or de-identify it when the period ends. We will tell you what we deleted, what we kept, and why.

Backups. Deleted information can stay in our daily database backups for up to 7 days, until those backups roll over. Uploaded files are not in these backups.

Just want to stop our emails? Use the unsubscribe link in any non-essential email, or tell us. We keep a record of your opt-out so we can keep honouring it.

Asking for someone else

• Parents and guardians can ask about their child. Children’s records are kept by the child’s service, so we will help you reach the service.
• Someone acting for you — a family member, support person, lawyer or union representative — needs your written permission, or legal authority such as a power of attorney or guardianship order.

If you are not happy with our answer

Tell us first: email privacy@qubiecare.com.au with “Privacy complaint” in the subject. We will acknowledge it within 5 business days and answer in writing within 30 days.

If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992. The OAIC can tell you whether it can deal with your complaint and what other options you have.

If your concern is about how a childcare service handled its records, raise it with the service first. If that does not resolve it, you can contact the OAIC or the education and care regulatory authority in your state or territory.

Contact

privacy@qubiecare.com.au · QubieCare · ABN 71 899 787 840 · Townsville QLD, Australia