We at Greenhaven Funeral services, and its related subsidiaries, know how important your privacy is to you. As funeral service providers, we have a professional and legal obligation to keep confidential all personal information we receive from you. Our relationship with you is founded on trust and we are committed to maintaining that trust. For these reasons, we have created the following privacy policy. It confirms our dedication to protecting your privacy and maintaining the trust you have placed in us.
Acceptance of Privacy Policy
By submitting personal information to us, clients confirm their acceptance of the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent to the use of their personal information in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.
What is personal information?
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual.
We collect a variety of personal information from clients to enable us to tailor our services to meet their personal needs. This may include contact information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses and credit or debit card information and the card’s expiry date.
We may collect personal information by various means, for example, when clients complete an application, enter into an agreement with us, or contact us by phone or email.
Who We Are?
Our company “Greenhaven Funeral Services” is in the business of providing funeral services to our client families (hereafter known as, “clients”).
We use a number of consultants and agencies that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include part-time funeral director and funeral assistants, clergy, coroners, cemetery personnel, florists, and so forth. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles.
Why do we gather the information and how will we use it?
Primary Use
Like all funeral homes, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. The personal information which we collect is needed to:
- Identify the purchasers and beneficiaries of prearranged/prepaid and at need arrangements;
- Provide our services (e.g., arranging for cemetery plots, burials, services, cremations, transportation, forwarding remains, notices in newspapers, etc.);
- Comply with legislative and regulatory requirements
Other uses:
We also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to, or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:
- Invoicing and Collection
- New advice re changes in legislation.
- Newsletters
- Quality and risk management.
- External Regulations
- Responding to Questions from current and past clients.
Protecting your personal information
We understand the importance of protecting personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:
- Paper information is either under supervision in a restricted area or secured in a restricted area.
- Electronic hardware is either under supervision or secured in restricted areas at all times. In addition, passwords are used to log on to each computer.
- Paper information is transmitted through sealed, addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
- Electronic information is transmitted through a direct line or is anonymized or encrypted.
- Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
- External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.
Management of personal information.
We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you or your family/executors (estate trustees) might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to relevant external regulatory bodies.
Any clients files containing personal information are kept for a minimum of 7 years and are then shredded under the control of our own personnel. Any clients, “Preneed/Prearrangement Files” are kept until the need for services at which time it becomes an, “At need File” which then follows the “At need” instructions.
We do maintain permanent information that includes personal information of the deceased. This is maintained either electronically or in hard copy. This is required to fulfill certain business requests regarding genealogy, cemetery burial locations and additional Proof of Death Certifications. However, at your request, we will remove such contact information promptly. We keep personal information received from individuals, who are not our clients, in response to our general correspondences, newsletters, seminars and other activities for approximately 12 months after the event has occurred.
We destroy paper information containing personal information by shredding and electronic information by deleting it. When the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.
Can you see your information?
You have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. (We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access).
If there are any issues or concerns, we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will tell you within 30 days, if at all possible, and tell you the reason, as best we can, as to why we cannot give you access.
If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation to prove that our files are incorrect. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom this information was sent. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information.
Do you have a question?
Our Information Officer can be reached at:
Greenhaven Funerals
PO BOX 3252
Murrumbeena VIC 3163
Australia
info@greenhavenfunerals.com.au 
