Privacy Policy

For consumer enquiries regarding promotions, competitions or to unsubscribe, please contact our Consumer Care department in your local office:

Australia/New Zealand – Email your contact details to consumercare@cohort.com.au

About Cohort

Cohort Australia Pty Ltd (ABN: 54600161386) provides permission-based marketing services to major consumer and online brands. We provide a service designed to deliver sales leads from consumers who have consented to be contacted.

Cohort has a wealth of lifestyle and demographic data that we collect directly and openly from consumers. We do this by publishing a variety of online consumer surveys and conducting a range of permission-based direct mail and telemarketing activities on a range of different websites. Cohort allows consumers to engage with specific brands or categories of products and services they have indicated they wish to hear from. Cohort provides a range of other services to companies using our database.

One of Cohort’s key business objectives is the commitment to open and transparent information practices – informing individuals about how we collect and use personal information and protect the information privacy of those individuals. Personal information is information about an identified individual or one who is reasonably identifiable.

Cohort complies with the AU Privacy Act 1988 including the AU Privacy Principles and other AU regulations such as the AU Do Not Call Register Act 2006, the AU Spam Act 2003, UK Data Protection Act 1998, General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) and the (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 which govern how it must handle personal information (Privacy Act). Our Privacy Policy explains how we do this.

Cohort may change the Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and privacy regulation. Any changes will come into effect when an updated Privacy Policy is posted to our website.

How and what Personal Information we collect, and why

Direct Collection

Cohort collects personal information from individuals when they respond to one of our surveys or competitions or when they request further information from an advertiser. We collect personal information about you, your contact details, your interests, lifestyle preferences, subjects about and persons from whom you may like to receive communications and information, your interactions and communications with us including your participation in competitions and surveys.

Indirect Collection

We may also collect information via technology including cookies about you from our websites when you visit which is added to your details if we have collected them and which is used in conjunction with the other information about you, including for enhancing your experience.

A cookie is a small piece of computer code which remains on your computer and contains information which helps us identify your browser and previous information viewed in relation to our service. When you visit our websites the cookie records certain details including the date, time and advertising content of that site. The information we collect in this way may include your Internet service provider’s address, date and time of your visit, Pages accessed and type of browser used.

If you do not want us to use cookies then you can easily stop them, or be notified when they are being used, by adopting the appropriate settings on your browser. If you do not allow cookies to be used, some or all of our website might not be accessible to you.

We may collect information about you from someone else but we will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of the information collected and the circumstances of collection.

Anonymous Third Party Cookies

When you visit our websites and you register or sign up we may set an anonymous third party cookie on your browser. When this cookie is set, all information that would make it personally identifiable is removed. The anonymous third-party cookies allow advertisers to target or customise their online advertisements.

Why we collect Personal Information and what is it used for?

  1. Cohort use the personal information we collect for various purposes, including:
  2. to send you information, offers and promotions about products and services based on your preferences and any prize notifications (Offers) by mail, phone/SMS/MMS or email;
  3. in information products and information management services provided to clients and to assist clients to manage consumer information and strengthen communications between consumers, businesses and service providers;
  4. to administer our database of personal information including improving and personalising Offers, verifying and assessing your identity, maintaining and updating records, developing new products and services;
  5. to enable brands and advertisers you select to communicate with you;
  6. to provide information to third parties to enable them to give you Offers and additional information;
  7. to improve the quality and quantity of information on our websites; and
  8. for statistical and marketing analysis and analytics.

How do I unsubscribe?

You may opt-out of receiving any Offers and information from Cohort at any time simply by submitting a request in writing or under the relevant Offer or communication to consumercare@cohort.com.au. You can opt out of receiving any Offers and information from a third party to whom we provide your information under the relevant Offer or communication, from that third party.

To whom do we disclose the Personal Information?

We disclose personal information to our clients and advertisers, third party agents, service providers and contractors only for purposes consistent with the reasons for collecting the information set out in this Privacy Policy.

Some of the recipients of the personal information, including some of our service providers, are based overseas, in a wide variety of countries (including NZ, US, EU, Philippines, India and South Africa). Before we disclose personal information to local or overseas recipients we take reasonable steps to ensure they have privacy practices that are at least as protective as the AU Privacy Principles. You consent to the disclosure of your personal information on that basis.

We may disclose personal information to any person or authority where we are required to by law.

Other than set out in our Privacy Policy, we will not disclose your personal information without your prior consent.

We may share your contact information with our partner WINR Data Pty Ltd. (WINR) and their global partners for the purpose of:

ID Protection - preventing others from misusing your details. This may include ID validation for anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, preventing crime, asset recovery, debt collection and reuniting people with unclaimed assets.

Advertising - providing offers that are relevant to you. This may involve data analysis, matching, profiling and predicting behaviours so you may receive advertising that is more relevant to you.

WINR and their partners will retain your information for as long as necessary to perform these functions. You can opt-out of all WINR activity by contacting their Privacy Officer https://www.winrdata.com/privacy-policy

Our security and retention policies

Cohort is committed to ensuring the security of personal information it holds. We implement a range of measures to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Cohort holds personal information electronically and in hard copy form and with the assistance of our service providers including the use of secure enterprise grade servers to store personal information.

If Cohort no longer needs your personal information we will take steps to destroy or de-identify it – although we may need to retain certain records to meet our legal requirements.

Cohort notes that it does not have control over information while in transit over the Internet and it cannot guarantee the security of personal information during transmission over the Internet. As well, our web site may include web links to other websites. We are not responsible for and do not endorse the content of those other websites or their privacy practices. We recommend you review the privacy policies of those websites.

How to access, correct or delete your Personal Information

Cohort works to ensure that all personal information about you that we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Primarily, we do this by collecting information directly from you.

If you:

We are required to provide our reasons if we refuse your request and, if you disagree, you are entitled to ask us to make a note of the request with your information. We may charge a reasonable fee to cover our costs of responding to your information requests.

How to contact us

If you wish to make a complaint, request access to or correction of personal information that Cohort holds please contact our Consumer Care Department on:

Australian Office

We will respond to you to discuss any concerns within 2 working days of receipt of your e-mail , call or correspondence.

Cohort Australia Pty Ltd

Level 2, 410 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Policy Created: 27th August 2015

Policy Updated: 21st May 2018

Policy Updated: 13/10/2023