Our Privacy Statement
Our Privacy Statement explains how we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also incorporates our Credit Reporting Policy which lets you know how we use any credit-related information we might collect.
This Privacy Statement applies to StarX communications and all its Australian businesses (‘we’, ’us’ or ‘our’ in this Privacy Statement) . We have identified where parts of this Privacy Statement also apply when you use specific StarX communications products and services.
These current statements came into effect at 31 March 2021. We may need to update it over time but if we do, we will post the updated version on this page.
What information do we collect?
The types of personal information we collect about you depends on which of our products and services you use, how you use those products and services, and our relationship with you.
Generally, we may collect the following types of information about you:
- Information we need to verify you, provide you with our products and services, and communicate to you about them such as your name, date of birth, contact details (including address, email address, phone number or mobile telephone number), occupation, proof of identity (including your driver’s licence and passport number), StarX communications PIN, username and password and financial information (such as credit card or bank account numbers). We may also collect biometric information like your fingerprints and voice patterns if you consent to this.
- Financial and credit information such as your income details, payment history, credit history and service history. For more details on how we manage credit information, see How do we manage credit information? below.
- Sensitive information like your race, ethnic origin, health, and criminal history. For example, we may need to collect:
- Limited health information (e.g. to determine if you are an eligible Priority Assist telecommunications customer or if you are an energy customer on life support equipment)
- Concession details if you are a concession customer (e.g. we need your Centrelink customer reference number to provide you with a pensioner discount).
We will seek your consent before we collect and use sensitive information about you, unless we are permitted or required to do so by law.
- Information about when and how you use StarX Communications websites
You might also need to provide personal information about other individuals to us, such as your authorised representatives or when someone at your property requires life support equipment or Priority Assist. If so, we rely on you to tell those individuals that you are giving us their personal information and tell them about this Privacy Statement.
Depending on the StarX Communications products and services you use, we may also collect:
- Information about the products and services you have with us including technical information about your devices such as your hardware model, operating system version, the serial number of your devices, the settings on your devices, our network performance and how you use our networks
- Information about how you use our products and services like:
- Your network usage (e.g. the time and duration of your calls and information about the operation of the equipment, services and applications you use on our networks
- How you use our services to access the internet, such as information about the websites you visit
- Your location or the location of your devices when you are using our products and services
- Information about your energy usage
- Information relating to your energy meter and property such as your national metering identifier (NMI) which helps us identify your meter and information about the location of your meter
Our products, services and website may contain links to other websites or platforms operated by third parties. It is important to be aware that those third-party websites are not required to comply with this Privacy Statement.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party platforms or websites and you should check the privacy policy of that service or website to understand how it will handle your information. For example, you may purchase Netflix through Star X communications but be redirected to the Netflix platform to use that service.
How do we collect your information?
There are three ways that we collect your information.
- You give it to us when you or your representative interacts with either us or one of our trusted partners. This might happen when you are setting up an account with us, using one of our products or services or filling out a form or contact us with a problem or query.
- We collect it automatically when you use our networks, products and services, including our call centres and online services. When you visit our website, we may also collect additional information about how you use our website (including via cookies and other technologies).
- We obtain it from other sources like regulators, credit reports, marketing mailing lists, public information (including public posts to social networking sites), and commercially available personal, identity, geographic and demographic information sources. We may also collect information about you from our related entities, business and commercial partners and our service providers (like identity and fraud checking services and credit reporting bodies).
Depending on the StarX Communications products and services you use, we may also collect your personal information from other participants in the telecommunications (such as our wholesale and other customers) and energy sector (such as energy distributors, other retailers and metering service providers). We understand that you might not want to give us particular personal information. If so, that may mean we are not able to provide you with the products or services you need.
How do we store your personal information?
We may store your information in hard copy or electronic format and keep it in storage facilities that we own and operate ourselves or that are owned and operated by our service providers.
We use a combination of technical solutions, security controls and internal processes to help us protect your information and our network from unauthorised access and disclosure.
How do we use your information?
- To provide relevant products and services – We use your personal information to provide relevant products and services to you and to enable us to conduct our business.
- Administration – We use your personal information to help us properly manage the products and services we provide to you, deal with your enquiries and maintain and update our records. For example, we need to be able to verify your identity to detect, prevent and address fraud. We also use your information for charging and billing and to identify breaches of our terms and conditions of service.
- Network, security and fraud protection – As part of our network protection activities, we monitor our Domain Name Servers (DNS) for known malicious domains which can lead to the downloading of malicious software onto devices. Where StarX communications’s DNS services are used to connect to these known malicious domains, we may use your information to determine whether you might be impacted, and if so, notify you so that you can take action to protect yourself.
- Communication – We need to be able to communicate with you to provide you with our products and services. We might do this via phone, email, SMS, social media, search engines and web pages you may visit.
- Improvement – We are constantly working to not only maintain and improve our products, services and processes but to develop new ones. We may use your information in a number of ways to help us do this (e.g. to monitor network use, quality and performance, and to operate, maintain, develop, test and upgrade our systems and infrastructure). We may also combine information we hold about you with information from one of our partners’ services to improve our credit assessment and debt recovery processes.
- Development and analysis – It’s important we understand your information and communication needs. One of the ways we do this is by using analysis and business intelligence techniques. This gives us high level insights into things like usage patterns, network performance, demographic trends and other types of behavioural data. In many cases, this information is aggregated and de-identified when analysed. We may share these anonymised insights with select business and commercial partners. In some cases, we may create insights with your information on an identified basis but would only do so in compliance with privacy laws.
- Direct marketing – We want to make sure that you know about all products, services and special offers of StarX communications and its related entities that are relevant and of interest to you. We may use the information we hold about you to market and promote them directly to you. We may also contact you with information about products, services and offers provided by our trusted partners. In some cases, this marketing activity can continue for up to 13 months after you have stopped using our products or services, unless you opt out. Please be aware that if you unsubscribe from a mailing list, we will continue to send you important messages that are not marketing communications, such as safety or administrative messages.
- You can stop Star X communications (including our Partners ) using your information for direct marketing or update your marketing preferences by following the unsubscribe instructions in any of our marketing communications, or call us on 01300 655 121
- Compliance – We are required or permitted by law to collect or use your personal information in certain circumstances, including those described below.
- As required or permitted by telecommunications laws and industry codes and standards legislation, including the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) (which includes data retention provisions)
- To produce and distribute an alphabetical public number directory (known as the White Pages) in compliance with our Carrier Licence Conditions
- When we need to undertake identity checks for pre-paid public mobile telecommunications services under the Telecommunications (Service Provider-Identity Checks for Prepaid Mobile Carriage Services) Determination 2013
- To provide emergency call service centres and the relevant emergency services organisation(s) information in relation to calls to the emergency call service number (000 and 112) (e.g. the most precise mobile location information we can access about the relevant device when it is used to call the emergency call service number under the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019)
- To prevent or lessen threats to a person’s life or health under the Telecommunications Act 1997 or StarX communications’s Carrier Licence Conditions
- As required or permitted by energy sector legislation (e.g. the National Energy Retail Law and National Energy Retail Rules