How Trans Month and Transgender Victoria (TGV) handle your personal information, in plain language.
Last updated: June 2026
We know that handing over your personal information is rarely a neutral act, especially for transgender, gender diverse and non-binary people. When you share something with TGV, whether it is your name, your story, or simply that you came along to a group, we treat it as something you have trusted us with, not something we are entitled to. This policy sets out how we look after that trust: what we collect, why we collect it, who can see it, and the choices that stay yours. If anything here is unclear, you are always welcome to ask.
If you are ever unhappy with how we handle your information, you can tell us, and you can escalate to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Transgender Victoria (TGV) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information with care. This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, store and protect your personal information, and how you can access or correct it.
We follow the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). [Where we handle health information, we also comply with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).] You can read the APPs at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website: oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles.
Personal information is information or an opinion about an individual who is identified, or who could reasonably be identified. The personal information we collect may include your name, contact details such as your email address and phone number, and information about how you take part in our programs.
We collect this information so we can:
We will only use your information for a secondary purpose if it is directly related to the reason we collected it and you would reasonably expect it, or where you have consented, or where the law requires or allows it. Where it is practical, we will tell you why we are collecting your information at the time we collect it.
Some of the information we hold is sensitive information, which the law gives extra protection. Under the Privacy Act this includes information about a person's health, racial or ethnic origin, and religious or political beliefs, among other things. TGV extends this definition to include the status of a person's trans identity, because we understand how significant that information is for our community.
We collect sensitive information only with your consent, or where the law requires or authorises it, and we use it only for the purpose you gave it to us, or for a directly related purpose you would reasonably expect.
Wherever it is reasonable and practical, we collect personal information directly from you, for example through our forms, surveys, events, emails, phone calls and our website. Sometimes we may receive information about you from a third party, for example if another service refers you to us. When that happens, we take reasonable steps to make sure you know we have received it.
Reporting to funders helps us show how their support is used, who we are reaching, and where the gaps are, so we can grow our support for trans and gender diverse people. When we report, we only ever share de-identified, aggregated information. We do not report any figure based on fewer than 5 people, so that no individual can be identified from the numbers. We never give funders your name or any detail that could identify you.
We will never sell your personal information. We will not share information that identifies you, unless:
Some sharing happens only with your consent, for example using a photo or a testimonial you have agreed to share.
We store most of our information in Australia, including information held in our client and contact systems (Keela, Humanitix and Google). Some of the tools we use store information outside Australia:
Where information is held overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure it is handled consistently with this policy and with Australian privacy law.
We store your personal information in ways that aim to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes technical measures, such as access controls, and organisational measures, such as staff training and internal policies. Within TGV, identifying information is only available to staff who need it for their work.
We keep your personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or for as long as the law requires. When it is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to destroy it or permanently de-identify it. Because of our funding and recordkeeping obligations, some information held in client files is kept for a minimum of seven years.
We are careful about how we use AI tools. In line with our internal AI usage standard, we never input any of your information or correspondence into publicly available, third-party AI tools without express permission. We do not use AI to make decisions about you or your engagement with TGV.
Sharing your information with us is your choice. You can take part in our programs without giving us information that is optional.
You can ask us to:
You can also unsubscribe from our mailing lists at any time using the link in our emails, or by contacting us. If anything we hold is out of date, please let us know so we can update it.
If a data breach happens that is likely to cause serious harm, we will act quickly to contain it, and we will notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
When you visit tgv.org.au we may collect limited technical information, for example through cookies and website analytics, to understand how the site is used and to improve it. You can control cookies through your browser settings.
If you have a question or a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us:
We take complaints seriously and will respond as soon as we can. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our website, and we will note the date it was last updated at the top.