The Australian Dental Association Limited ABN 95 174 118 424 (ADA) is a not-for-profit professional membership organisation committed to the improvement of public oral health and the art and science of dentistry more broadly. Our membership is predominantly based in Australia and is comprised of practicing dentists, students of dentistry and retired dentists.
The ADA is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information and maintaining a robust privacy framework. We collect and manage “Personal Information” in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and other relevant regulations. “Personal Information” means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not and whether recorded in material form or not.
This Privacy Policy forms part of our broader Terms & Conditions. It explains how we collect, use, disclose, secure and otherwise deal with the personal information of our members and other individuals who access the ADA – whether in person, at ADA events, via this website or other channels we promote (such as social media pages and feeds).
The ADA collects personal information to deliver services relevant to the dental profession and its members. Our activities are well articulated on our website and include, but are not limited to:
We collect your personal information in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of a particular service and/ or how you’ve chosen to engage with us, including:
The personal information we collect relates directly to the nature of your engagement with us and may include:
Some of the personal information we collect is considered sensitive information under Australian privacy law, including:
In most cases, we collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes we may ask a contracted third party to collect it from you on our behalf (such as when you complete a survey).
There may also be specific lawful, operational or technical requirements to collect your personal information from someone other than you (such as when we verify your educational qualifications during a scholarship application process).
At or before the time of collecting your personal information, or as soon as practicable afterwards, we will provide you with a collection notice explaining what we need it for, how it will be used and to whom we may give it (via a Collection Statement on our hard-copy or web based forms, recorded message, verbally or by other means). Once your personal information has been collected, we do not otherwise use or disclose it except where we are required or authorised by law to do so.
Our ability to provide a service may involve sending personal information to a contracted third party who are bound by written agreements to handle your information in accordance with Australian privacy law and this privacy policy. For instance, if you sign up to receive ADA publications, we will need to supply your mailing and other relevant contact details to the organisation that packages and delivers the publications to you.
From time to time, there may be a new purpose for which we would like to use or disclose the personal information we already have about you (for example, a research project, funding application, public awareness campaign or article featuring you). If this happens, we will seek your express consent before using your information for such new purposes, unless otherwise required or permitted by law.
The ADA supports using your preferred form of communication. If you choose to engage with the ADA using our social media pages or feeds, please be aware that any personal information you supply in that arena may be:
Information shared in these forums may be visible to others and is not controlled by the ADA. We recommend caution when posting personal content in these spaces.
The ADA website may provide links to information, resources and services available on other websites. When you link to other websites, you are leaving the ADA's website and your personal information will be handled in accordance with the privacy policies of those websites. The ADA is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external websites.
We do not share your personal information with other websites and we do not track your external website browsing history.
The ADA website deploys cookies in a limited manner, in accordance with the terms and conditions of use of our website.
We implement robust technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect personal information as required by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Our Information Security (IS) team implements and maintains comprehensive security controls including access restrictions, encryption, monitoring systems and regular security assessments to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure
A data breach occurs when there is unauthorised access to, disclosure, modification, loss or misuse of personal information. Breach events are not confined to online or electronic systems. We comply with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Privacy Act 1988, requiring us to notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) when a data breach is likely to result in serious harm.
If you believe that the ADA has experienced a data breach, please contact us by telephone (02 8815 3333), by email or in writing ADA Privacy Officer, c/o 14-16 Chandos Street ST LEONARDS NSW 2065.
If you engage with the ADA to receive services associated with your professional membership, or where we are required by law to verify your identity (such as for regulatory compliance or financial transactions), we cannot deal with you anonymously or using a pseudonym. This is in accordance with APP 2.
There are, however, times when it appropriate for us to ensure your personal information is de-identified before we use it, such as when we receive survey data about our members from our contracted survey provider(s). Survey data is de-identified before we are able to receive, view, use and/ or publish the results.
There are also times when it may be appropriate for members and other individuals to contact us anonymously. This may include:
We store personal information securely in Australia. Before any overseas transfer of personal information (e.g., to international publishing partners), we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place as required by APP 8.1, including binding contractual arrangements and verification that the overseas recipient will handle the information in accordance with the APP, and we will inform affected individuals about the countries where their data may be transferred, to ensure compliance with privacy legislation.
Under Australian privacy law, you have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you and to request corrections where information is out-of-date, incomplete, incorrect or misleading. We may deny access or correction in certain circumstances as permitted by law under APP 12.3 and APP 13, and we will provide written reasons within 30 days if this occurs.
If you are a member, you can access and amend your personal information (account details) by logging in to the members area of the ADA website or by contacting the Membership Team on 02 8815 3333.
If your request relates to personal information not available to you through the members area, please contact us by telephone (02 8815 3333), by email or in writing ADA Privacy Officer, c/o 14-16 Chandos Street ST LEONARDS NSW 2065.
When you ask the ADA for access to personal information, we may:
We will aim to respond to requests for access and/ or amendment of personal information within 28 days of receiving the request.
If you believe that the ADA has not collected or handled your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, you can complain to us by doing the following:
Contact us by telephone (02 8815 3333), by email or in writing (ADA Privacy Officer, c/o 14-16 Chandos Street ST LEONARDS NSW 2065) in the first instance. We will respond to you within 48 hours and provide a full response within 28 days.
You may then be asked to complete our Privacy Complaint Form and/ or provide additional information in relation to the complaint.
In dealing with your complaint, we will communicate timeframes to you based on the nature and complexity of your concern and will do our utmost to adhere to these.
If you are dissatisfied with our response to your privacy complaint, please contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) for further advice by telephone (1300 363 992) or by visiting their website.
Updates to our Privacy Policy
The ADA will review and update this Privacy Policy as required to ensure that it accurately reflects our privacy practices. Last updated: August 2025
For members and other individuals engaging with us from overseas: We comply with applicable international privacy laws, including the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where applicable. For EU residents, additional rights and protections apply including data portability, right to erasure, and enhanced consent requirements
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