Updated: 25 March 2019
Your privacy is important to Hitachi Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 34 075 381 332) ('Hitachi', ‘we’, ‘us’). Hitachi collects, uses, discloses and holds personal information you provide to Hitachi during the course of your dealings with Hitachi in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles as set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and for residents in the European Economic Area (EEA), in accordance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). ‘Personal Information’ is any information about you that identifies you, or by which your identity can reasonably be ascertained and includes any credit related information provided to us
Hitachi also complies with the credit reporting provisions contained in Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code, insofar as they apply to Hitachi in connection with the provision of commercial credit and the management of credit related information.
Hitachi collects personal information from its customers, suppliers and other parties as is reasonably necessary for purposes relating to its business functions and activities.
Hitachi may use and/or disclose personal information for the primary purpose for which it was collected. Such primary purposes include:
In all cases where we disclose personal information to other entities, including related companies, those entities are required to keep such information confidential and restrict their use of it to the permitted purposes.
Hitachi does not disclose your personal information for any secondary purposes unless your consent has been given or as required by law, and will not sell or license any personal information that we collect from you.
Hitachi will collect personal information in a fair and lawful manner, and not in an unreasonably intrusive way.
Whenever possible, we collect your personal information from you or someone authorised by law to act on your behalf. This may take place in a number of ways, such as when you place an order to provide a product or service; when opening a trading account with the company or in other correspondence with the company.
However, we may also collect personal information about you from someone else. For example, if you apply for, commercial credit we may, with your consent, obtain a credit report about you from a credit body for the purposes of assessing your application or obtain trade references. In addition, we may obtain personal information from third parties such as our dealers and distributors, contractors and regulatory authorities.
Our Web site may also offer interactive facilities, such as customer enquiry or comment forms and competition entry forms, where personal information may be collected.
At or before the time Hitachi collects your personal information, or if that is not practicable, as soon as practicable afterwards, Hitachi will give you notice of the purposes for which the information is collected; to whom, or the types of individuals or organisations to which, Hitachi might usually disclose information of the kind collected; any law that requires the particular information to be collected, and the main consequences if all or part of the information is not provided.
The personal information Hitachi may collect about you is dependent upon your relationship with Hitachi. The following are some examples of the types of personal information that Hitachi may collect:
Other information that we consider reasonably necessary for the performance of our business functions and activities.
It is unlikely that Hitachi will collect any sensitive information about an individual. If however, any sensitive information is required, we will first seek your express consent, and such information will be collected and used in accordance with the law.
If Hitachi receives personal information that was not solicited and Hitachi determines that it could not have collected the information, then Hitachi will as soon as practicable, destroy the information or ensure that the information is de-identified. This will be done only if it is lawful and reasonable to do so, and does not relate to information contained in a Commonwealth record.
Hitachi does not collect or use government identifiers (e.g. Medicare number) to identify individuals.
Only where it is practicable, Hitachi may allow individuals the option not to identify themselves when dealing with us.
A primary purpose for which Hitachi collects personal information may be marketing. From time to time, we may use personal information to inform our customers about our products and services including special offers and promotions that we think may be of interest to you. We will give you the opportunity to express a wish not to receive direct marketing communications. You can also let us know at any time if you no longer wish to receive marketing material and we will remove your details from our direct marketing database.
Information that Hitachi collects may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which Hitachi operates to enable the use of the information in accordance with this privacy policy. For example, your personal information may be processed by employees or by other third parties operating outside of Australia including the employees of Hitachi’s parent company in Japan.
You agree to such cross-border transfers of personal information.
Security of personal information is important to us and we take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Some of the ways we protect personal information include:
Generally Hitachi will destroy personal information after a period of seven (7) years following its collection or unless it is required to be kept for a longer period because of the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, or as required by law.
Hitachi will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information if it is no longer needed for the purposes for which Hitachi is authorised to use it.
Hitachi may collect information about individuals’ visits to Hitachi-owned websites by placing “cookies”. We do this in order to monitor traffic patterns and serve individuals more efficiently if they revisit the sites.
We do not use cookies to collect personal information. If you continue to use our website, you will be taken to have been aware of and to have consented to our use of Cookies as described in this Privacy Policy.
In order to determine which parts of our website users are most interested in, and to improve the website, we use various analytics tracking mechanisms. This includes software from various third parties, including Google Analytics and Web Trends Analytics. These third parties may set and access cookies on your computer or other device and may use similar technologies to collect information about your activity on the website. The information regarding your usage of our websites and mobile applications may be transmitted to such third parties and stored on their servers.
Hitachi’s web site may integrate certain third-party plug-ins (such as a Facebook “like” button) and social media features. Even if you do not click on such plug-ins, these third parties may collect information about you, such as your IP address and the pages that you view. They also may set and/or access a cookie. These plugins and features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them.
Hitachi’s web site may contain links to other web sites and those third party web sites may collect personal information about you. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other businesses or the content of web sites that are linked to our web site. Hitachi encourages users to be aware when they leave the site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information.
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you. If you want access to your personal information held by Hitachi, please put your request in writing and clearly identify the personal information you seek access to. All requests for access must be addressed to The Privacy Compliance Officer (see contact details below).
Hitachi will take reasonable steps to ensure that information that is collected on its customers; or used or disclosed having regard to the purpose of its use or disclosure; is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If an individual finds that information we hold about them is incorrect, they should contact us immediately and we will take reasonable steps to correct it. If you seek correction and Hitachi disagrees that the information is incorrect, we will provide you with its reasons for taking that view.
From February 2018, the Privacy Act includes a new Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme which requires us to notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) of certain data breaches and recommend steps you can take to limit the impacts of a breach.
The NDB scheme requires us to notify about a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to affected individuals. There are exceptions where notification is not required. For example, where we have already taken appropriate remedial action that removes the risk of serious harm to any individuals.
If we believe there has been a data breach that impacts your personal information and creates a likely risk of serious harm, we will notify you and the OAIC as soon as practicable and keep in close contact with you about the nature of the breach, the steps we are taking and what you can do to reduce the impacts to your privacy.
If you believe that any personal information we hold about you has been impacted by a data breach, you can contact us using the contact details below.
Hitachi reserves its right to amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any amendments become effective when published on our web site. You should review the Privacy Policy regularly for any such amendments. Copies of the policy can be obtained by contacting the Privacy Compliance Officer, details below.
If you have any queries, complaints or would like more information on how Hitachi handles your personal information you can write to the contact below and we will endeavour to respond to all communications within 30 days.
The Privacy Compliance Officer
