Confidentiality Policy

Policy brief & purpose 

This policy explains how we expect volunteers and contractors to treat confidential information. Volunteers and contractors may have access to personal information about other volunteers and confidential electorate information. This policy outlines our expectations for how this information is handled. 

Scope 

This policy affects all volunteers, contractors and others who may have access to confidential information. 

Confidential information may include, but is not limited to: 

  • Unpublished financial information 
  • Volunteer data including personal information 
  • Voter intent and other research data 
  • Data entrusted to our campaign by external parties 
  • Policy information and other undisclosed strategic information 
  • Election plans and calendars 
  • Documents and processes explicitly marked as confidential 
  • Unpublished  objectives and strategies 

Contractors and volunteers may have various levels of authorised access to confidential information. 

What contractors and volunteers should do: 

  • Lock or secure confidential information at all times 
  • Shred confidential documents when they’re no longer needed 
  • Make sure they only view confidential information on secure devices 
  • Only disclose information to other contractors and volunteers when it’s necessary and authorised 
  • Keep confidential documents inside the campaign office unless it’s absolutely necessary to move them 

What employees shouldn’t do: 

  • Use confidential information for any personal benefit or profit 
  • Disclose confidential information to anyone outside of the campaign team 
  • Replicate confidential documents and files and store them on insecure devices 

If volunteers or contractors leave the campaign, they’re obliged to return any confidential files and delete them from their personal devices. 

Confidentiality Measures 

We’ll take measures to ensure that confidential information is well protected. We’ll: 

  • Store and lock paper documents where appropriate 
  • Encrypt electronic information and safeguard databases 
  • Ask for authorisation by senior campaign members to allow employees to access certain confidential information 

Exceptions 

Confidential information may occasionally have to be disclosed for legitimate reasons, for example if a regulatory body requests it as part of an investigation or audit. In such cases, contractors/volunteers involved should document their disclosure procedure and collect all needed authorisations. We’re bound to avoid disclosing more information than needed. 

Disciplinary Consequences 

Volunteers/contractors who don’t respect our confidentiality policy will face disciplinary and, possibly, legal action. We’ll investigate every breach of this policy. We’ll terminate any contractor who willfully or regularly breaches our confidentiality guidelines for personal profit. We may also have to punish any unintentional breach of this policy depending on its frequency and seriousness. We’ll terminate contractors who repeatedly disregard this policy, even when they do so unintentionally.