Privacy Policy

McPherson Newspapers Pty Ltd ABN: 89004522794

The McPherson Media Group (MMG) and related entities listed in Appendix A are committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act as well as other applicable legislation. The term “Personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act.

You may view this Privacy Policy on any of the websites owned by the company’s listed in Appendix A or you may request a copy by contacting privacy@mmg.com.au or phoning 03 58 312 312. This Privacy Policy is in addition to MMG’s general Terms of Use which governs the use of our websites.

Please note that due to the nature of our media business, this policy does not address issues associated with personal information and its use and collection in the course of journalism. For this, MMG relies on the media exemption under the Privacy Act. For details regarding Australian Press Council Privacy Standards, please refer to www.presscouncil.org.au/privacy-principles. MMG also relies on the employee records exemption in the Privacy Act and this is dealt with separately within MMG Privacy Policy – Employees & Applicants.

What information we collect and how we collect it

Personal information is any information that can be used to personally identify you. The personal information we collect depends upon the reason we are dealing with each other.

When you transact with us, we will collect your personal information which may for example include your phone number, name, address, credit card details, identity and transaction details for the following reasons, among others:

• Registering to receive our services or publications;
• Subscribing to receive our services or publications;
• Placing an advertisement with us;
• Entering a competition;
• Ordering a photograph;
• Completing a survey;
• Becoming a member of our community or social media pages;
• Contributing a letter to the editor or commenting on an item on our digital sites;
• Attending an MMG function;
• Applying for a job at MMG;
• When you access services via coupons published in our newspapers or on our websites.

By using any of the above services ( “MMG Services”) you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy.

You may choose to transact with MMG anonymously, for example by paying cash for an over-the-counter transaction, however if you don’t identify yourself, in some circumstances we may not be able to provide the service or product you are seeking.

Why we collect personal information

We collect your personal information so we can process your transaction with us, to complete an administrative function, to provide you with required products and services, for customer relationship purposes, to promote our services to you, to assist us to develop new products, services, customer offers, and to respond to queries and complaints.

We also collect personal information for recruitment and employment purposes and for engaging contractors in accordance with the ‘Privacy-Employees and Applicants’ policy.

When you provide personal information to MMG, you are consenting to MMG contacting you for the purposes outlined above. You can opt out of being contacted by MMG by contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@mmg.com.au, by calling 03 58 312 312 or by writing to our Privacy Officer at PO Box 204, Shepparton, 3632 to advise us that you no longer wish to receive this contact. For selected online communications, you may use the “unsubscribe” option (excluding emails about legal and billing matters and information concerning a transaction).

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Our employees, related corporate entities, contractors or external service providers solely for the operation of our business, fulfilling requests by you, and otherwise provide products and services to you, including: web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mail houses, newsagents, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators, debt collectors, and professional advisers such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
• Our existing or potential agents, business partners or joint venture entities or partners;
• Our sponsors, or promoters of any competition that we conduct or promote via our services;
• Specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us;
• Regulatory or government bodies in order to comply with laws and regulations;
• Referees whose details have been provided by prospective applicants; and
• Parties as required or permitted by any law (including the Privacy Act).

Prior to disclosing any of your personal information to another person or organisation, we will take all reasonable steps to satisfy ourselves that:

• You have consented to us making that disclosure, and
• The person or organisation has a formal commitment to protecting your personal information at least equal to our commitment.

How we protect personal information

MMG will take all reasonable administrative and technical steps to ensure that personal information required to be held is stored or archived securely to prevent loss, theft or unauthorised use or disclosure.

We will retain your information for a time period sufficient to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer period of retention is required or allowed for by law.

We will securely destroy or de-identify any information that is no longer required.

We request that you do not supply us with any sensitive personal information (for example, ethnic origin, religion or other beliefs, sexual preferences, medical history, criminal background etc). If you do so, you consent to us collecting and handling that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Cookies, tags and pixels

We may collect your personal information through the use of cookies, tags and pixels. A cookie, tag or monitoring pixel is a small file of letters and numbers downloaded as computer code to you when you access a website.

These enable us to recognise your device when you log in and greet you each time you visit any of our websites. This means, in most cases, that you may not need to log-in or register once again. We also use these tools to keep track of products or services you view, so that we can inform you of news about these. These tools also assist MMG to measure traffic patterns so that we can improve our online services to you.

If you do not wish to receive cookies, tags or pixels, you can alter your browser settings so that your device will not accept them.

We log your IP address to analyse trends, traffic and gather anonymised demographic information.

We may collect information which is not considered personal information relating to your activity on our websites or we may collect anonymous information from you in response to surveys. This information assists us to report statistics, administer our services, diagnose concerns and problems and improve our service to you. This information will not identify you or anyone else in any way.

Links

Our websites may contain links to other websites which are operated by third parties. These third party websites are responsible for their own content and for informing you about their privacy policies.

Marketing Information

We may send you marketing communications and other information regarding services or products from MMG or our partners that we believe may interest you, where you have given us permission to do so. We will use your preferred method of communication, if you have selected one, or this information may be delivered using email, mail or SMS. We will not provide your personal information to any other organisation for this purpose unless we have your express permission.

You may opt-out of receiving these communications at any time, using opt-out methods such as “unsubscribe” links on digital pages or by contacting us using the methods listed below. If you opt-out, we will ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

Advertisements

MMG’s products and services are supported by advertising. We place tracking technologies on your device when you use websites and apps. This data is anonymous and may be used to place you into audience segments to allow us to display more relevant advertising for each user.

We also use the tracking technologies to recognise your device each time we display an advertisement on your device. We compile information over time about where you or others who are using your device read or clicked on an ad. We may use this information in conjunction with any subsequent visit, purchase or other activity on a participating advertiser’s own digital site to assess the effectiveness of their advertising.

Our third party service providers may also embed tracking technologies on our products and services. We require advertisers and any related third party service providers to have a privacy policy that outlines their data collection activities and usage. Please refer to such third party privacy policies for more information.

When we display advertising which is focused on your interest or reading behaviours to make it more relevant to you, we take steps to protect your privacy. We store content usage data (for examples, total page views) used for ad targeting separately from your contact information or other data that directly identifies you. Online advertising is provided by ad servers and exchanges or by our other third party service providers. These companies, such as Google, offer you a way to opt- in or opt-out of advertisement targeting based on their own tracking technologies. You can manage certain tracking technologies in your web browser privacy settings. If you opt out of interest-based advertising, anonymous usage data may continue to be collected by us or third party partners for other purposes.

Privacy standards for journalists

MMG operates in the news media industry. The Australian Privacy Principles do not apply to our practices we use in the course of our journalism, where we are committed to other journalistic standards when dealing with privacy. MMG is committed to complying with the standards developed by the Australian Press Council which are available at https://www.presscouncil.org.au/statements-of-principles/

EU and California residents

If you are based in the European Union or California, there are laws and regulations that apply to the collection, processing and storing of your personal information by organisations. Where we are legally required to comply with those regulations in relation to personal information and anonymous usage data that we collect, process, disclose or store, we comply with those regulations. Please note, however, that we do not target our websites or services towards individuals who are situated outside Australia. Our business is focused on individuals who live in Australia, even though you are able to use our services outside Australia. MMG does not knowingly collect personal information about children who are under 16 years of age.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our websites. This privacy policy was last updated in August 2023.

Queries, complaints and access to your information

You are required to keep your information up-to-date on your MMG registration or subscription account page. If you wish to access or formally review your information, or have questions or would like to make a complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Email: privacy@mmg.com.au

Mail: Privacy Officer, MMG, PO Box 204, Shepparton, 3632

Phone: 03 58 312 312

Please set out details of your question or complaint. All complaints will be dealt with fairly and in a timely manner and a response will be provided within 30 days of receipt of such complaint or request. If you are dissatisfied with our response to a complaint, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Appendix A

McPherson Media Group (MMG) and following entities:

• Benalla Newspapers Pty Ltd
• Cobram Newspapers Pty Ltd
• Deniliquin Newspapers Pty Ltd
• Finley Newspapers Pty Ltd
• Kyabram Newspapers Pty Ltd
• McPherson Newspapers Pty Ltd
• Newsprinters Pty Ltd
• Waterwheel Press Pty Ltd
• Riverine Herald Pty Ltd
• Seymour Telegraph Pty Ltd
• Shepparton Newspapers Pty Ltd
• MMG Events Pty Ltd
• The Rochester Irrigator Pty Ltd
• Tatura Guardian
• Yarrawonga Chronicle
• Corowa Free Press
• Campaspe News
• Southern Riverina News
• Country News
• MMG Rural Pty Ltd
• Pulse Media Sales
• Australian Tree Crop Magazine
• Rural Business Magazine
• Farmer Direct
• Small Farms
• Dairy News
• Seymour Alternative Farming Expo
• Wild Deer Hunting and Outdoor Expo