Privacy

Privacy Policy  

Sydney Writers’ Festival Ltd (ABN 17 079 586 057) (the Company, we, our and us) is committed to protecting your privacy. Our Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal information. 

Before providing us with any personal information, you should read this Privacy Policy so that you understand and are comfortable with the ways that we collect, store and use the information that is shared with us by you. 

The Company is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act), as well as other applicable laws protecting privacy. In some circumstances, we may undertake contractual obligations to observe additional privacy obligations. Where appropriate, the Company will handle personal information relying on the employee records exemption and the related bodies corporate exemption in the Privacy Act. 

Please note also that this Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with (and is subject to) any other privacy statement that the Company may provide to you when we collect your personal information or provide a particular program or service. 

Types of Information:  

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” is information that is personally identifiable, such as a person’s first and last name, mailing address, email address, billing information, telephone numbers and/or other online contact information. Personal Information can also include data that is usually non-personally identifiable on its own, such as location data or IP addresses, data about personal attributes or online identifiers, but that taken with other data or information, may identify a natural person either directly or indirectly.  

“Sensitive Information” may include information relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or affiliations, political opinions, philosophical beliefs, health or genetic information, sexual preference, membership of professional or trade associations or unions or criminal record.  

What personal information do we collect and why? 

The Company collects the personal information we need to produce our programs, conduct related activities and operations, involve the community in Company programs and activities and promote and seek support for our Company. 

The following are the main purposes for which personal information is collected by the Company and the main types of personal information collected. 

We may collect the following types of personal information: 

• Contact Details, including name, mailing or street address, email address and telephone number 
• Financial details, including your bank account number and credit or debit card details 
• Identification information, including age or date of birth or gender 
• Details of the products and services you have purchased or that you have enquired about, including any additional information necessary to assist with those purchases and respond to your enquiries 
• Information you provide to us through customer surveys and any information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our website, or to our representatives, or indirectly through your use of our website or through other websites from which you permit us to collect information. 
• Your device ID, device type, geo-location information, computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the websites, ad data, IP address and standard web log information. 
• With your consent, your health or sensitive information, such as access seating requirements. 
• Any other personal information that may be required to facilitate your dealings with us. 

To sell tickets to Festival events 

Tickets can be purchased in a number of ways, including by calling our box office over the phone and through electronic means such as visiting our Website. When you purchase a ticket, your information may be used to facilitate payment, provide you with your ticket, provide you with any applicable discounts, notify you in case of changes in date or time of an event, send out information about upcoming Festival events and also for marketing and other research purposes by the Company. 

With your consent, we may collect your health or other sensitive information such as access seating requirements.  

Where we partner with ticketing organisations, other arts organisations, venues or publishers in relation to an event (known as the Co-Presenter), we may collect ticketing information (including personal information) from, and/or share such ticketing information with, those other organisations, including for marketing and reporting purposes. In these instances customers who consent will receive future communications from both the Co-Presenter or Presenter, the venue and the Company. This Privacy Policy applies to patrons who purchase tickets directly from the Company and to patrons who purchase tickets from Co-Presenters or Venue Presenters. 

In aggregated form (that is, without identifying details) ticketing information may be shared with other arts companies and agencies for research purposes, such as to guide and assist future programming and marketing. 

To communicate with our donors and supporters 

We collect personal information about our current and potential donors and supporters so that we can encourage, record and acknowledge their support and communicate with them about the Company and our programs. 

To operate our website 

When you use the Website, you may choose to provide your name, email address or other personal details in order for us to send you ticketing or other information about the Company or its programs or other related programs or services or to respond to your queries. 

As part of our general operations 

The Company also collects personal information about individuals who are, or are employed by, our partners, our suppliers (including service and content providers), contractors, agents, and other partners. Generally, if appropriate, we will state why we are collecting personal information when we collect it and how we plan to use it, or these things will be obvious when we collect the information. 

Employees and contractors 

When you apply for a job or contract with us we may collect certain information from you, from any recruitment consultant and from your previous employers and others who may be able to provide information to us to assist us in our decision on whether or not to make you an offer of employment or engage you under a contract. This Privacy Policy does not apply to acts and practices in relation to employee records of our current and former employees which are exempt from the Privacy Act. 

Please note that if you provide us with personal information about third parties (for example, if you buy tickets on behalf of another person or if you buy a gift voucher for another person) we ask that you let them know about this Privacy Policy. You should not give us any sensitive information (such as health information) about a third party or ask us to send any information to a third party (including by email) unless you are sure that you have that person's consent to do so. 

How do we use personal information? 

When we collect personal information, we generally use it for the purposes for which it was collected, or as otherwise authorised or required by law. We may sometimes use personal information for marketing or other research or allow information in aggregated form (without identifying individuals) to be shared with other arts companies and agencies to guide and assist future programming and marketing planning. 

If you have purchased tickets from us, or if you have asked to make such a purchase, we may with your consent (whether express or inferred) use your information to send you material (including by email) about the Company or its programs or other related programs or services, unless you tell us not to using the contact details set out below or the opt-out mechanism included in our marketing communication to you. 

If at any time you do not want us to use your personal information to send you any further information, you can always let us know by contacting our Privacy Officer through the contact details given below or by using the opt-out mechanism included in our marketing communication to you. 

From time to time we may send you special offers and promotions from third parties. We will not disclose your personal information to those third parties. If you do not wish to receive offers from third parties please contact our Privacy Officer through the contact details given below or by using the opt-out mechanism included in our marketing communication to you. 

Disclosing personal information 

For the purposes we have described, we may disclose your personal information: 

• to our related bodies corporate; 
• to our suppliers (including service providers such as mail houses and IT companies), contractors, agents, venue partners or promoters and persons who help us to deliver programs and events, such as judges of competitions and other persons who collaborate with us to deliver our programs; 
• where we partner with other organisations for an event, to those other organisations, in relation to those events; 
• to anyone to whom our assets or business (or any part of it) may be transferred; 
• where you have otherwise consented; or 
• as otherwise required or authorised by law. 

We make efforts to maintain storage and usage of information in Australia, however in certain circumstances, some of the persons or organisations to whom we disclose personal information may be situated outside Australia, including in the United States. In addition, some of our promotional material that may include photographs and other personal information about our artists and audiences may be made available to the public, including on the internet and outside Australia.  

In the event that we are required to disclose your Personal Information to overseas third parties, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that such disclosures are subject to reasonable confidentiality terms, that the overseas third party is subject to a law or binding scheme that protects your information in a way that, overall, is at least substantially similar to Australian privacy and data protection laws. However, please note that the privacy and data protection laws in other countries may not provide an equivalent level of protection to Australian privacy law. You acknowledge that by giving consent to the disclosure of your personal information to the overseas recipients, the Company will not have an obligation under Australian privacy law to take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients do not breach Australian privacy law. However, where practicable in the circumstances the Company will take reasonable steps to ensure that any overseas recipients of your personal information only use and disclose such information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. 

Cookies 

A type of anonymous information shared between your browser and our server is a cookie. A cookie is a small text file that a server places on your hard drive to identify that subsequent requests to a site have come from the same user. 

The Company may use cookies to 'remember' your browser between page visits. In this situation, the cookie identifies your browser, not you personally. The Company may use cookies on this website to facilitate online transactions and develop patterns of site usage. 

If for any reason you do not wish to take advantage of cookies, you may configure your browser so it does not accept them. However, this may disable or render unusable some of the features of the Website. 

Secure Transmissions 

While the Company endeavours to provide a secure Internet environment, users should note that there are inherent risks associated with transmission of information via the Internet. 

Third party links 

There are several places throughout the Website that may link to other websites that do not operate under this Website's privacy practices. When you link to other websites, the Company's privacy practices no longer apply. We encourage visitors to review each site's privacy policy before disclosing any personally identifiable information. 

Security and risk management  

We take measures, including the implementation and maintenance of physical, electronic and managerial procedures, in an effort to assure the security, integrity and accuracy of all Personal Information that we collect and to protect your Personal Information from misuse, loss unauthorised access, modification, disclosure or unauthorised access.  

Such measures include but are not limited to the Company: 

• restricting access to personal information to those employees who need access to perform their job functions; 
• only collecting Sensitive Information where required by law or with express user consent and only using and disclosing Sensitive Information for the primary purpose for which it is collected by the Company; 
• taking reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information it holds is accurate, complete and up to date (to the extent that and subject to you providing accurate, complete and up to date information); 
• taking reasonable steps to ensure that third parties collect and use information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and for no purpose other than providing the Company with requested services, however you understand and accept that we cannot guarantee the safe handling of your information by third parties and are not responsible for the conduct of third parties in collecting, storing and using your information. 

If we learn of a security systems breach which affects Personal Information held by us, we will notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps.   

Access and correction and complaints handling 

You have a general right to access, edit and manage the collection, processing and use of your Personal Information. You may opt out of any activity that involves collecting or processing their information for direct marketing purposes. To exercise this right, please refer to the sections below, including the opt out options offered by us and our third party service providers. 

If you would like to access your information or to find out what information we have about you, please contact our Ticketing and Customer Services Manager using the contact details given below. We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period of time. When you request access, we will need to take measures to verify your identity. We will provide you with access to most personal information that we have about you, but sometimes that will not be possible, in which case we will tell you why (except to the extent it would be unreasonable for us to do so). 

If you think that any personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, you may request that we correct that information by contacting our Ticketing and Customer Services Manager using the contact details set out below. We will respond to any such request within a reasonable period of time. Although in most circumstances we will be able to correct the personal information we hold about you, in some circumstances it may not be possible for us to correct some or all of your personal information in the manner in which you have requested. Where this is the case, we will notify you and give you the reasons why (except to the extent it would be unreasonable for us to do so). 

If you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information (including if you think we have breached the Privacy Act), you may do so by contacting our Ticketing and Customer Services Manager using the contact details set out below. If you make a complaint, please include contact details such as your name, address, telephone number and email address and clearly describe your complaint. We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable period and will endeavour to deal with your complaint in an efficient manner. If we are unable to resolve your complaint and you believe that we have breached the Privacy Act, you may wish to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy: 

We review our compliance with this Privacy Policy as part of our usual business practices. This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2025 and may be updated by us, from time to time, at our sole discretion. 

You are bound by any minor or insubstantial changes made to this Privacy Policy. If, however, the Company is going to use your Personal Information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection, you will be notified prior to commencement of such usage. 

We encourage users to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about our collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information. Your continued access or use of our website or services constitutes your agreement to this Policy and any updates. 

More information 

If you have any queries or would like further information about our privacy policies or practices, please contact by calling 02 9256 4200 or emailing [email protected]. 

You may also write to: 

Ticketing and Customer Services Manager 
Sydney Writers’ Festival 
Level 3, 10 Hickson Road 
The Rocks NSW 2000 

Last updated May 2025.