Privacy Policy

The Society’s Privacy Policy outlines what kinds of personal information we collect, why we collect this information, and how we handle it.

Commitment statement

Our Privacy Policy recognises our role as responsible custodians of personal information and demonstrates our commitment to protecting the personal information we hold.


Why we collect personal information

The primary function of the Society is to investigate, consider and confer bravery awards.

Nominations and recommendations for bravery awards are generally made by members of the public, volunteer organisations, state emergency agencies and other community organisations. These nominations are received by the Society and considered by the Society’s Council. Bravery awards are presented by the Governor of New South Wales.

The nominations will contain details of the rescue or attempted rescue and may contain personal information about the person nominating, the nominee(s), any witnesses and any person(s) rescued. The Society may also undertake further enquiries and obtain further information, including personal information, as part of its investigation and consideration as to whether a bravery award is warranted.

The Society will not ask for any personal information we do not need. We only collect personal information for purposes that are reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, the functions and activities of the Society. These include information that is reasonably necessary to identify individuals nominated for an award, investigate and consider such nominations to ensure that bravery awards are appropriately determined, and otherwise facilitate the administration of the bravery awards system.


The nature of the personal information collected

In performing our functions, the Society may collect and hold the following kinds of personal information:

  • identity and contact details for individuals (e.g. name, phone, email and postal address)

  • information relating to individuals’ personal circumstances (e.g. age, gender, physical capacity, any relationship with person performing rescue of being rescued, training or other skills)

  • occupation (e.g. training, volunteer or employed position, membership of a particular brigade or station, years of experience)

  • details and circumstances of the rescue or attempted rescue

  • witness and official reports

  • photographs, video recordings and audio recordings of the rescue where available


How does the Society collect personal information?

The Society may collect personal information through:

  • the receipt of nominations for bravery awards

  • comments and information from nominators, and in some cases witnesses and person(s) rescued, by phone or in writing

  • enquiries made of external agencies or organisations such as emergency services organisations that may have been in attendance or may have information that would assist in the evaluation of the nomination

  • other independent research of open-source information including press reports and social media

  • where necessary the Australian Electoral Roll to identify or locate individuals who are nominated

Personal information about nominees for a bravery award, witnesses, or person(s) rescued may be collected without notifying them first.

If a nominee is not recommended for a bravery award, or a witness or person rescued is not approached for comment, or not identified by the conferral of the bravery award, they will not be advised that their information has been collected.

If the nominee is recommended for a bravery award, they may not be advised of all the information that has been collected, such as witness or emergency services reports.

How we use and disclose the information

The Society uses and discloses limited personal information for the purposes of administering the bravery awards system and related activities.

The Society may use information provided to contact the person nominating, any witnesses identified in the nomination or identified by the Society, and other external agencies or organisations such as emergency services organisations that may have been in attendance or may have information that would assist in the evaluation of the nomination, in order to assist in the investigation and consideration of the nomination.

The personal information collected may also be used to contact the nominee to confirm whether they are prepared to accept an award, and to contact the nominee and other persons, including State emergency services organisations, members of the press, and members of the public, in relation to events hosted by the Society in connection with the conferral of bravery awards.

Limited personal information and details of the award may be published and provided to other agencies for announcement, presentation or other purposes, with the consent of the award recipient and any individuals identified by the conferral of the award.

Examples of who the Society may disclose limited personal information to include:

  • members of the Council of the Society, which include representative members of the State emergency services, as appropriate to consider and determine nominations

  • individuals or organisations who are requested by the Society to confirm the circumstances and details of the rescue or attempted rescue

  • the office of the Governor of New South Wales for the purposes of hosting investiture ceremonies and the conferral of bravery awards

  • Federal and State Members of Parliament, Local Councils and other organisations for the purpose of congratulatory messages

  • Media organisations to promote details of the conferral of bravery awards

The Society may use or disclose personal information for another purpose with your consent, where authorised or required by or under law, or where there is an exception under APP6 of the Privacy Act.

What happens if you don't give us your personal information?

If a person nominating someone for an award chooses not to provide the Society with the requested personal information, then the Society may not be able to confer a bravery award.

How we safeguard personal information

The Society takes seriously its obligations to protect the personal information it holds. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information against misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These steps include:

  • Any data submitted through the Royal Humane Society of NSW Portal is securely stored in the Fire and Rescue NSW  data storage system.

  • access to information is restricted to personnel authorised by the Society, utilising authenticated credentials

If personal information that we hold is lost, or subject to unauthorised access or disclosure, we will take reasonable steps to recover the information, implement remedial action to minimise the likelihood that the disclosure will result in harm to any individual, and notify affected individuals if a data breach is likely to result in serious harm.

Accessing and correcting personal information

You may request access to your personal information held by the Society and request that it be corrected if you believe it to be inaccurate. If you have been nominated for an award but do not wish to receive an award, you may request that your personal information held by the Society be deleted. If we refuse a request for access, correction to or deletion of personal information, we will provide you with written reasons for that refusal. We will respond to a request for access, correction or deletion within 30 days after the request is made.

How to make a complaint

If you wish to complain to us about how we have handled your personal information you should contact us in writing.

How to contact us

To make a privacy enquiry or complaint or request for access and/or correction or deletion, you can contact us:

We review this policy regularly and may update it from time to time.

This policy was last updated on: 14 December 2024