Privacy & Confidentiality

When you lodge a complaint, you share personal information and sometimes sensitive details. We take the care of that information seriously. This page explains who sees your complaint, how it's stored, and how long DSA keeps the record.

Who can see your complaint

Complaint information is restricted to people with a genuine need to see it.

The following people may see your complaint:

You. You receive a confirmation email and any subsequent correspondence from the Administrator working on your complaint.
Authorised DSA Administrators. Only DSA Administrators specifically granted the "complaints" permission by the Chief Executive Officer have access to the Complaints Register. Not every Administrator has this access.
The Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors, where the matter requires governance oversight or determination.

Who cannot see your complaint

The following people do not have access:

The general public. Complaints are not published, indexed, or visible on any public-facing page.
Other Members. Members cannot see other Members' complaints — not in the public area, not in the member portal.
Administrators who don't have the complaints permission. Even DSA Administrators with access to other parts of the Control Panel cannot see the Complaints Register unless explicitly authorised.
The person your complaint is about — unless DSA needs to share specific details with them in order to investigate or respond. In that case, only the information necessary for the investigation is shared, and we will tell you we are doing so.

When confidentiality may need to be broken

There are limited circumstances in which DSA may be required to share complaint information beyond the people listed above:

Legal obligation. If we are required by law — for example, by court order or by a regulator's notice — we will comply.
Safety of a child or vulnerable person. If your complaint reveals a risk of harm to a child or vulnerable adult, we may be required to report it to a child-protection authority, Sport Integrity Australia, or police.
Serious criminal matters. Threats of violence, evidence of criminal conduct, or other matters meeting the threshold may be reported to police.
Investigation requirements. Specific details may need to be shared with the person your complaint is about so they have a fair opportunity to respond. We do this proportionately and only with the information necessary.

Outside these circumstances, your complaint stays within DSA.

How your complaint is stored

Complaint records and attached documents are stored on DanceSport Australia's secure server infrastructure. Access to the underlying database and document storage is restricted to system administrators acting on instructions from the Chief Executive Officer.

The Complaints Register is backed up as part of the Company's routine database backup schedule, so that records cannot be lost through hardware failure.

How long your complaint is kept

Complaints are retained for at least 7 years after closure.

Complaints — together with attached documents — are retained in the Complaints Register for a minimum of 7 years from the date of closure. After that period, records are reviewed and may be archived or de-identified in accordance with DSA's data-retention practices and any applicable legal obligations.

If the law requires us to retain a particular record for longer (for example, a record connected to legal proceedings), we will keep it for the required period.

Anonymous complaints

You're encouraged to give your real name and contact details when lodging a complaint — it allows us to follow up, ask questions, and tell you the outcome.

However, DSA does accept complaints lodged without identifying information. Such complaints will still be reviewed, but please understand:

We cannot ask you follow-up questions, so the complaint must be self-contained
We cannot tell you the outcome, because we have no way to reach you
Complaints without identifying information are sometimes harder to investigate, particularly where the matter requires verification of the complainant's account

A middle path: If you'd prefer not to be identified to the person you're complaining about, but are happy to be identified to DSA, lodge the complaint normally and ask in the Complaint Details that your identity be kept confidential within the investigation as far as possible. The Administrator will respect that preference where it can be honoured.

Your rights

You have the right to:

Ask DSA what information is held about you in the Complaints Register
Ask that incorrect information be corrected
Complain to the relevant privacy regulator (the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, OAIC) if you believe DSA has mishandled your personal information

To exercise any of these rights, use the General Enquiry form, quoting "Privacy request" in the subject line.

For full details of DSA's general approach to personal information, see the DanceSport Australia Privacy Policy.

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