Privacy policy

1. Who we are

In this policy, “Victoria Memorials”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to VICTORIA MEMORIALS PTY LTD (ABN 20 699 586 466), a memorial and headstone business based in Melbourne, Victoria, serving families across Melbourne and regional Victoria.

2. Scope of this policy

This policy explains how we handle personal information that we collect through this website, through enquiries and correspondence, and in the course of designing, arranging and installing memorials. It covers information about the people who contact us, and the information they share with us about others — such as the person being remembered and members of their family.

Our website may link to other websites, such as cemetery trusts or government agencies. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, and we encourage you to read their policies.

3. The Australian Privacy Principles

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out how many organisations must handle personal information. Whether they apply to a particular business can depend on its circumstances — for example, some small businesses are exempt.

Regardless of whether the Act applies to us, we choose to handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles as a matter of good practice and respect for the families we work with.

4. What we collect

We only collect the information we reasonably need to respond to you and provide our services. Depending on how you deal with us, this may include:

• Your details: your name and contact details, such as your phone number, email address and postal or suburb information.
• Cemetery and grave details: the cemetery, section and grave location, right of interment details, and information needed for a cemetery application.
• Details about the person being remembered and their family: names, dates of birth and death, relationships, and other information you choose to share to help us design the memorial.
• Inscription wording: epitaphs, verses and text in English or other languages.
• Photographs and documents you send us: such as portraits for a photo plaque, photos of an existing memorial, certificates or cemetery paperwork.
• Correspondence: records of emails, messages, phone calls and meetings.
• Payment-related records: if you become a customer, such as quotations, invoices and records of payments.
• Website technical data: basic information that web servers commonly record, such as your IP address, browser type, the pages visited and the date and time of the visit.

Some of the information you give us will be about people who have died. Privacy law generally protects information about living individuals, but we treat information about the person being remembered with the same care and discretion.

If you give us information about other people — for example, relatives to be named on a memorial — please make sure they are comfortable with you sharing it.

5. Sensitive information

Some information that families share with us may be sensitive information under privacy law — for example, information about religious beliefs or affiliations, or racial or ethnic origin, which may be reflected in the choice of symbols, wording, language or cemetery section.

We only collect sensitive information with your consent and where it is needed to provide the service you have asked for, such as designing a memorial that reflects your family’s faith or culture. We do not use it for any other purpose.

6. How we collect information

We collect personal information directly from you wherever possible, including when you:

• complete an enquiry, consultation or quotation form on this website
• email us, phone us or send us messages
• meet with us in person, or by phone or video
• send us photographs, documents or inscription wording

Sometimes we may receive information from others involved in arranging a memorial — for example, a cemetery trust confirming grave details, or another family member — where this is reasonably needed to provide the service.

The Find Your Memorial tool

Our Find Your Memorial tool asks a few optional questions to suggest memorial styles. Your answers are stored only in your own web browser for that session, so the page can show your suggestions. They are not sent to us unless you choose to send an enquiry that includes them.

7. Form and service providers

When you submit a form on this website, your submission may be processed by a third-party form service on our behalf and then delivered to us. Like many online services, such a provider may store data on servers located outside Australia.

The details of our form-processing provider, and where it may store information, are to be confirmed once the provider is chosen. We will update this section with that information. We also use everyday business tools, such as email, which may store information with their own service providers.

Where we use service providers, we take reasonable steps to choose reputable providers and to ensure they handle personal information appropriately.

8. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry and answer your questions
• design your memorial, prepare proofs and confirm inscription wording with you
• prepare quotations, invoices and records of the work
• prepare and lodge cemetery applications and arrange installation
• keep you updated on the progress of your memorial
• meet our legal, tax and record-keeping obligations

We will not use your information for marketing, and we will not add you to a mailing list, unless you have asked us to.

9. When we share information

We only share personal information where it is needed to provide our services, where you have agreed, or where the law requires or allows it. This may include sharing relevant details with:

• cemetery trusts and cemetery managers, for memorial applications, approvals and installation
• suppliers, stonemasons, engravers and installers who help make or install your memorial, limited to what they need
• translators or language checkers, only with your consent, where help with wording in another language is needed
• our service providers, such as form, email and IT providers, and professional advisers such as accountants

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.

10. Cookies and analytics

This website does not currently use advertising cookies or analytics cookies. If we decide to add analytics or similar tools in future, we will first implement a way for you to give or refuse consent, and we will update this policy.

The site may store small amounts of information in your browser’s session storage — for example, your answers in the Find Your Memorial tool — so that pages work as you would expect. This stays on your device and is cleared when your browser session ends.

11. Storage and security

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, change or disclosure. These steps include limiting access to people who need it, using password-protected accounts and devices, and storing paper records securely.

No method of sending or storing information online is completely secure. If you would prefer not to send something through a website form or by email, please let us know and we can discuss another way.

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will act promptly to contain it and, where required by law, notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

12. How long we keep information

We keep personal information for as long as it is needed for the purposes described in this policy — including to answer later questions about a memorial, help with future additions such as another name, and meet our legal and tax record-keeping obligations. When information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to destroy it securely or de-identify it.

13. Access and correction

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. We will respond within a reasonable time. In limited circumstances the law may allow us to decline access; if so, we will explain why.

Correct details matter greatly in our work — if anything we hold, including inscription wording, needs correcting, please tell us as soon as possible.

14. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first using the details in section 16. We will take your concern seriously, look into it and respond to you within a reasonable time.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may be able to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au.

15. Dealing with us anonymously

You are welcome to ask general questions without giving your name, or by using a pseudonym. However, to design, quote for and arrange a memorial — and to deal with a cemetery on your behalf — we will need your real name and contact details.

16. Contact for privacy matters

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if our services, the tools we use or the law change. The current version will always be available on this page, with the date it was last updated.

Last updated: [date to be confirmed on publication]