Terms and conditions

Telstra Health Pty Ltd (Telstra Health) has been engaged by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services to provide support services to people who are or have been experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence, including workplace sexual harassment, via the 1800RESPECT service.

The service can support people looking for information or trying to help someone else dealing with violence or abuse.

The service includes:

• the 1800RESPECT telephone support service (1800 737 732);
• the 1800RESPECT text messaging service (text (SMS): 0458 737 732);
• the 1800RESPECT webchat service accessible via the 1800RESPECT website;
• the 1800RESPECT video call service accessible via the 1800RESPECT website and other means;
• applications made available by Telstra Health in connection with the 1800RESPECT service (including the “Daisy” and “Sunny” apps); and
• the 1800RESPECT website, (collectively, the “Services").

The use of the Services by a person ("you") is subject to these terms of service. These terms of service contain important information, including warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability. Your use of the Services constitutes acceptance of these terms of service.

The material on this website and provided during your interaction(s) with the Services is for general information purposes only and should not be regarded as advice, including legal or medical advice.

Subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT do not give any express or implied warranties and make no representations in relation to the Services including availability, quality, completeness, accuracy, suitability, acceptability or fitness for purpose (including, in relation to the website, the content, all links to or from the website and the goods and services advertised or accessible on the website).

Information obtained from the Services should not be used without validating that the information is from appropriate sources and obtaining professional advice where it is prudent to do so. You should make and rely upon your own assessments and enquiries to verify the accuracy of the information provided.

In addition, subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health does not warrant that the Services are free from any computer viruses or other defects or that your access to any Service will be continuous or uninterrupted.

Subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT exclude all liability for any loss, damage, claim, cost or expense whatsoever arising out of or in connection with these terms, the Services, all links to or from the Services and the goods and services advertised or accessible on the Services.

This website may contain links to other websites. Telstra Health provides those links as a ready reference for searching for third party goods and services on the internet and not as an endorsement of those websites, their operators, the goods, services or content that they describe.

Websites which are linked to this website are not covered by these terms of service and may have their own terms and conditions and privacy policy. If you choose to access these linked sites, you do so at your own risk. Telstra Health is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of the content or operation of those websites or any of the goods, services or content that they describe. Telstra Health is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of any incorrect link to an external website.

Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT do not warrant that you will have continuous access to the Services. Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT will not be liable in the event that the Services are unavailable to you due to computer downtime attributable to malfunctions, upgrades, preventative or remedial maintenance activities or interruption in telecommunications supply.

If online Services are unavailable, you may access support services by calling 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

Telstra Health does not guarantee the delivery of communications over the internet or telecommunications networks, as such communications rely on third party service providers. Electronic communication (including electronic mail) is vulnerable to interception by third parties and Telstra Health does not guarantee the security or confidentiality of these communications or the security of the Services. Information transmitted via internet or telecommunications services including text (SMS) may also travel overseas via third party carriers or network service providers.

Telstra Health does not provide, and has no control over, communication, networks or services, the internet or other technology used or required to access the Services and accepts no responsibility for any direct or indirect loss in any form associated

with them, whether due to congestion, technical malfunction, viruses or otherwise. Whilst 1800RESPECT offers a toll-free service for calls from certain phone numbers, you may incur charges from your telecommunications provider as a result of accessing the Services (including charges associated with text (SMS) or internet access, or for calls from some phone numbers) and Telstra Health is not responsible for such charges.

Any personal information submitted to the Service will be handled in accordance with 1800RESPECT’s Privacy Statement.

The Privacy Statement forms part of these terms of service and is set out here.

All intellectual property rights, including copyright and patents, in the Services, Telstra Health's goods and services, and all components of them are owned by Telstra Health or any of its related entities, or licensed from the Department of Social Services or other third parties to Telstra Health. You must not copy, modify or transmit any part of the Services without Telstra Health's written consent.

This website contains trademarks, logos, service names, trade names of Telstra Health or third parties which may be registered or otherwise protected by law. You are not permitted to use any trademarks, logos, service names or trade names appearing on this website without our consent.

Telstra Health grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to use the information on this website for your own personal use subject to the restrictions specified in clause 9. You may not download (other than page caching) or modify this website or any portion of this website.

In using the Services you must not:

• engage in any commercial activity including marketing, advertising or commercial promotion of goods or services, data mine or use robots or other data collection methods;
• impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation;
• defame, abuse, stalk, harass, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights of others, including without limitation, rights relating to privacy and publicity;
• post, link to, publish, distribute, email, transmit or otherwise communicate or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful material or information, or otherwise use the Services in a manner which is unlawful or would infringe the rights of another person including any intellectual property rights;
• post, link to, publish, distribute, email, transmit or otherwise disseminate any information, material or item which contains a virus, trojan horse, worm or other harmful or disruptive component;
• use any automated scripting tools or software;
• send unsolicited emails or spam; or
• breach any laws or regulations which are applicable to your use of the Services in your jurisdiction.

Telstra Health may at any time immediately terminate your access (including restricting access) to the Services or any feature of the Services for any reason (including due to your breach or alleged breach of these terms of service) in its sole discretion and without prior notice. Any limitations of our liability survive such termination.

These terms of service are governed by and must be construed in accordance with the laws of the Australian Capital Territory. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State and the Commonwealth of Australia in respect of all matters arising out of or relating to these terms of service, their performance and subject matter.

Each provision of these terms of service is severable from the others and severance of a provision will not affect any other provision.

The Services are subject to change at any time without notice and may contain errors.

Telstra Health may from time-to-time review and update these terms of service to at any time in its discretion, including for example, to take account of new laws, regulations, products or technology or to reflect revisions to the Services. Your use of the Services will be governed by the most recent terms of service posted on this website. By continuing to use the Services, you agree to be bound by the most recent terms of service. It is your responsibility to check this website regularly for updated versions of these terms of service.

Counselling services may be provided by Telstra Health and other not-for-profit subcontractors.

In accessing the counselling services:

• you acknowledge and agree that the personal information that you have provided to us may be shared with the counsellor and their organisation to allow the counsellor to provide the counselling services;
• the personal information provided prior to commencing counselling services to receive the 1800RESPECT counselling services and while communicating with the initial contact person through the 1800RESPECT Service (i.e. prior to be being transferred to a counsellor) will be held by both Telstra Health (pursuant to section 5 above) and any other relevant subcontractor (pursuant to this section 6);
• any personal information that is provided to a relevant subcontractor by Telstra Health (e.g. when transferring you to a counsellor who is engaged by another organisation), or that you subsequently provide to a relevant subcontractor during the support service, will be handled, retained and stored in accordance with that subcontractor’s privacy policy.

If your web browser is set up to accept cookies, a cookie may be stored on your system when you visit the Services. Cookies allow Telstra Health to distinguish unique visitors and control the flow of pages within the site. Your activity on this site will be logged, which will include the IP address of your system (a unique number assigned to your computer system or location when you connect via an Internet Service Provider). If you would rather not have this information stored on your computer, you can configure your browser so it does not accept cookies. However, if you disable cookies, you may not be able to properly use the online support services.

If you have questions about the Services, these terms of service or the 1800RESPECT Privacy Statement, please contact us at 1800respectenquiries@health.telstra.com 

Telstra Health (which may be referred to as "we" or "our" in this collection statement) complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to ensure that your personal information is protected. Our contact details are available at www.1800respect.org.au/contact-us 

We will only collect and use your personal information to:

• enable us to provide the Services;
• communicate with you by telephone, online chat, text (SMS) or video call;
• identify usage trends;
• provide tailored and personalised Services;
• help us to manage our Service standards; and
• assist us to comply with our legal obligations.

Wherever possible, we will try to collect personal information from you directly, rather than from another person or source, unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so.

There may be occasions when we gather personal information about you from a third party, for example, from our IT or telecommunications provider, or from a person you have authorised to deal with us on your behalf.

Generally, personal information that is collected in connection with the Service may be shared between Telstra Health, the Department of Social Services and with contractors and service providers engaged to provide the Service.

We only disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:

• where you have consented;
• where you would reasonably expect us to do so, and where related to the primary purpose of collection, or, in the case of sensitive information, directly related to the primary purpose;
• where required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court/tribunal order, such as to comply with mandatory reporting requirements in relation to suspected cases of child abuse and neglect, or in connection with a subpoena. If we are issued with a subpoena requiring disclosure of personal information, we take reasonable steps to ascertain whether disclosure might result in further harm or distress to those experiencing violence and abuse and, if so, we use all reasonable endeavours to object to the disclosure on any legal grounds available to us; or
• where a permitted situation exists under the Privacy Act, such as lessening or preventing a serious threat to the life, health or safety of an individual, or to public health or safety, or locating a person reported as missing.

You will have the option of using the Services without disclosing your personal information if you wish. However, if you do not provide the personal information requested of you to us, we may not be able to provide you with all of the advice, support and referrals that we would otherwise be able to.

We will otherwise collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the 1800RESPECT privacy statement, available at www.1800RESPECT.org.au/privacy, which sets out how you may access and correct the personal information that we hold about you and how to lodge a complaint relating to our treatment of your personal information.