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On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading (OTTEP) is committed to maintaining confidentiality and protecting the privacy of all our clients including writers, NDIS participants and other individuals, businesses, companies and organisations.

Upon request, prior to providing you with a quote or doing any work, OTTEP can provide you with a signed Guarantee of Confidentiality.

OTTEP is Australian owned and operated. The proprietor, Sally-Anne Watson Kane, lives in Gippsland, Australia. All our editors, writing coaches, book designers, typists and scribes live in various regions in states and territories around Australia. OTTEP’s team members are all subcontractors who have signed strict Confidentiality Agreements with OTTEP, and all live in Australia.

Sally-Anne and her team are bound by the Australian Privacy Act (1988).  OTTEP’s confidentiality agreements enable us to share information with our team members (contractors) on a need-to-know basis only.

OTTEP has one exception to maintaining absolute confidentiality:

• When working with a writer who is an NDIS participant we usually ask the client to give us a signed “consent to receive and exchange information” with their support coordinator and/or the client’s nominated support worker or carer.
• We then share that information – progress reports, for example – for the purpose of facilitating quality care, service continuity, and effective plan implementation.
• This exchange of information is conducted in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, the NDIS Code of Conduct, and On Time Typing, Proofreading and Editing privacy and confidentiality policies.

When you send us material (recordings or documents), the proprietor either completes the work herself or delegates the task to an OTTEP contractor. Your material will be seen only by Sally-Anne and the OTTEP contractor completing the task.

OTTEP does not use voice-to-test software or ChatGPT to do any of our administration, work or output; this means your content and private information is kept private. Only humans provide the typing, audio transcription, writing, editing, design and project management work that is our business. The only exceptions are: we use (a) Word’s various automated tools such as ‘find and replace’, spellcheck, PDF conversion; (b) PerfectIt, a consistency-checking tool; and (c) Adobe InDesign, which streamlines many tasks when designing a book.

OTTEP keeps a record of your name and contact details for our own reference. We do not share that information with anyone else.

When you need to send OTTEP large files, we ask you to send them via a specific forwarding website. Once we have downloaded your files, we delete them from the website and ensure only OTTEP has access to those files. We change passwords regularly to ensure secure log in to the site.

Within approximately six months of completion of your booking, we delete all your information from our computers and our contractors do the same. Upon request all information is deleted immediately upon payment of the invoice. Any hardcopy information in relation to your booking is destroyed (shredded) within approximately 12 months. The only documents that are not destroyed within that time are our administrative documents such as booking sheets, quotes and invoices which we keep in a secure location.

In 2015, owner/operator Sally-Anne Watson Kane voluntarily ‘opted in’ to be covered by the relevant sections of the Privacy Act (1988) (Australia). The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) confirmed that On Time Typing “…  has chosen to be treated as an organisation in accordance with s 6EA(2) of the Act, and [OAIC] will be including your details in the Opt-In Register under s 6EA(3) of the Act. … The OAIC appreciates your commitment to protecting individuals’ privacy…” Email from OAIC to On Time Typing: 27/1/16. 

If you have further questions about how OTTEP keeps your information secure and confidential, feel free to contact us via telephone or email.

Image: Creative Commons licence – thanks to WOCInTechChat