International Pen Friends (IPF) - Privacy Policy
Protecting Your Privacy
IPF's mission has always been to provide members with a high quality pen friend
service. This includes protecting their privacy. Throughout cyberspace and beyond,
we are committed to providing a secure and safe environment for our members'
information.
The purpose of this document is to provide information on how IPF collects,
uses and discloses your personal information.
Background
IPF was founded in 1967 in Dublin, Ireland by Neil O' Donnell and provides
a range of pen friend services to people aged from 8-80+ years worldwide. On
1 February 2001 IPF was relocated to Australia when Neil retired. IPF was taken
over by Julie Delbridge who shares Neil's passion for the pen friend experience, first
joining IPF as a member in 1979 and working in various capacities as an IPF
Agent in Australia since 1982. Julie is now the President of IPF. IPF is privately
owned by Julie Delbridge and is a registered business in Australia. International Pen Friends (IPF) is a registered trademark. All of IPF's logos, drawings and photos are protected by copyright law.
How IPF Collects Your Personal Information
IPF collects your personal information in the following way:
- Directly from you, when you complete the IPF application form, or when you
provide information by phone, or email, or in writing, or when you
submit your personal information to us through our websites.
- IPF has a worldwide network of agents who are responsible for promoting IPF
and recruiting members. Agents forward personal information relating to the
members they recruit to IPF's Head Office in Australia. All applications are
processed through the computer database at IPF's Head Office in Australia. Agents
do not have access to the IPF Head Office database and all agents are instructed
to protect the privacy of the customers and members they are dealing with. Please
contact us if you would like to verify that the agent you are dealing with is
a registered IPF agent. For the safety and security of all our members, IPF's database is not connected to the internet.
How we use Your Personal Information
The information you provide to us is collected by IPF for the purpose of answering
your enquiry, or processing your application to provide you with pen friends,
together with any other services you request. The provision of the information
requested is voluntary. However, if you choose not to provide us with the information
we request from you, we may not be able to provide you with the services you
require.
Our pen friend service operates in two parts:
-
After you join IPF, you are provided with an individual list of between
4-14 IPF members in your age group who we have matched as closely as possible
according to your hobbies and interests. As IPF is a pen friend club, not a matrimonial
or dating agency, the only information we ask you to provide is shown on the
application form. We do not match members according to more in-depth personal
information. We always try to match your country requests, but if there are
requests we cannot meet, then we will provide you with pen friends from other
countries.
The number of names on your list depends on the service you join under. For
example, our school class services provide 4 names, our C5 adult individual
service provides 14 names. We may decide to slightly increase the number of
names on your list to provide you with an opportunity to gain extra pen friends.
-
During the 12 months of your membership, your name is also circulated to
10-14 IPF members worldwide whose names do not appear on your pen friend list.
The number of times your name is circulated to other members depends on the
service you join under. For example, members who join our school class services
have their name circulated 10 times. Members who join our other services have
their name circulated 14 times. We may decide to increase the number
of times your name is circulated to other members to provide you with the opportunity
to gain extra pen friends.
In providing our pen friend service, your information is only disclosed to the
IPF members who receive you on their pen friend list, as mentioned above. The
only information we disclose to those members is your name, address, languages
spoken and if you selected stamp collecting as one of your interests. This is
also the only information you will receive about the IPF members who appear
on your pen friend list. As pen friends, you write to each other and disclose
whatever information you feel appropriate.
Currently, we do not show email addresses on pen friend lists, but we may provide
that information in the future. We encourage members to write to each other
and exchange email addresses. This ensures that members are provided with accurate
and up-to-date email addresses.
All IPF members are instructed not to share, give or sell the names and addresses of the people they have been matched with. Any person found to be doing that will be permanently expelled.
For the purposes of providing or improving our services, we may disclose your
personal information to organisations outside IPF, for example, information
technology installation and maintenance services. IPF would only contract reputable
organisations that have a serious commitment to privacy.
If you are a member of IPF, your personal information may also be used by us
from time to time to keep you informed about our products, services, offers
and upcoming events, or those of other reputable organisations whose products
or services are relevant to the pen friend experience and which we think you might
find interesting. This would always be done with discretion. IPF does not 'spam'
customers or members. If you do not wish us to contact you for marketing purposes,
please inform our Privacy Manager (contact details are shown at the end of this
document).
IPF does not sell or rent its database or any information collected through
the internet to other organisations. If this option was ever to be considered,
IPF would first contact you and give you the opportunity to decline.
Personal Details Data Security
To help protect your personal information against unauthorised access, hacking and data breaches, IPF's membership
database is specifically not connected to the internet.
The only people who can access IPF's membership database are authorised IPF Head
Office personnel. This is a safety and security feature of IPF's service.
Due to the nature of our service, i.e. matching people with other people, there is a responsibility for our members to treat each other with a reasonable level of respect and behave in a decent manner. In terms of how that relates to our privacy policy, we keep a record of whose name is circulated to who and we are legally required to provide that information to authorities if a situation arises where information is formally requested (and the appropriate procedures followed). In addition, for data security, integrity and legal reasons, we do not change the history of the service we provide, i.e. we do not permanently eliminate records and/or personal details from our membership database.
At any time a member can advise us that they would like their membership to be terminated or we can expel a member for unacceptable and/or bad behaviour. In all instances, the member’s name and address won’t be circulated to other members from the time of termination, we won't provide any previous or existing pen friends of the member's address for any reason and we won't contact the member again for marketing purposes. However, the details of the terminated member and who they were matched with will remain on our database for as long as we are legally required to do so. This is in effect a security feature of IPF as it prevents people from joining IPF for inappropriate reasons, subsequently requesting us to eliminate their details from our database and then being unaccountable to legal authorities.
Refunds
For data integrity and security reasons, each individual IPF membership is non-transferable and non-refundable once a pen friend list has been issued. If a pen friend list has not been issued, we reserve the right to deduct from the payment we received any costs associated with providing a refund. Exceptions to this refund policy may apply, please read Personal Details Integrity below.
Personal Details Integrity
To help IPF provide a safe and enjoyable pen friend service to all members, people are expected to provide correct details on their application forms, particularly in relation to their name (first name and last name), address and year of birth.
It is not acceptable to join IPF under an alias, under a fake name, under a false identity or under false pretences.
If someone has a valid reason for not joining IPF under their real identity, they should contact us and discuss the matter before they join IPF. At all times, we reserve the right to not accept or terminate a membership if we believe it is in best interest of our members and the service we provide.
Unless we specifically agree to someone joining IPF under a name and/or identity that is not their own, any person found to have joined IPF under a false identity (including providing false information regarding their year of birth), will have their membership terminated and/or be permanently expelled from IPF.
All memberships are non-transferable and a membership cannot be transferred from a false identity to a membership that is the true identity of a person. The names and addresses of IPF members provided during the membership should also not be shared, sold or given to anyone else.
We reserve the right to ask people to confirm that the details they have provided on their application forms are correct, either before we process an application form or at any time during the membership period. The confirmation that a true identity has been used is legally binding. Please note, we do not ask anyone to provide us with any kind of sensitive and/or confidential information such as account numbers, identity numbers, credit card numbers, etc.
Given the seriousness of the issue, if confirmation that the details on the application form are correct is not given to us in a way that we are satisfied with and/or we have any reason to believe that a correct identity has not been provided to us, we will provide a refund (we reserve the right to deduct any costs associated with the refund) if a pen friend list has not been issued (see paragraph below for an exception to this). If a pen friend list has been issued, we will terminate the membership and a refund will not be provided. In both instances, a membership cannot later be created, reinstated or renewed at any time in the future unless confirmation that the details are correct is provided to us. We may also ask for some form of proof of identity, that does not contain any kind of sensitive and/or confidential information. If a membership has previously been permanently terminated, it will not be renewed at any time.
A refund will not be provided before a pen friend list has been issued if it can be proved that the information provided to us on the application form was false and the person will be requested not to join IPF again at any time in the future.
We reserve the right to report people to the appropriate authorities in relation to false identity issues, should we believe a situation justifies such action.
Help us Ensure we Hold Accurate Information
IPF takes all reasonable precautions to ensure the personal information we
collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the
accuracy of the information we hold depends to a large extent on the information
you provide. That's why we recommend that you:
- let us know if there are any errors in your personal information;
- keep us up-to-date with changes to personal information such as your name
and address; and
- advise us if you have enough pen friends.
You can Access Your Personal Information
You have a right to access your personal information, subject to some exceptions
allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required
to put your request in writing for security reasons. IPF reserves the right
to charge a fee for searching for, and providing access to your information.
Contact
Please send an email or write to us at the address shown below.
Due to the large number of potential members and actual
members we have and the high cost of international telephone calls, we no longer communicate by telephone. All communication to IPF's Head Office should be in the English
language.
International Pen Friends (IPF) - Head Office
Julie Delbridge
President
International Pen Friends (IPF)
PO Box 430
Paynesville VIC 3880
Australia
Email:admin@ipf.net.au |
