Vertical Development Institute
Privacy & Cookie Policy
Vertical Development Institute (“VDI”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is an Australian-owned and operated leadership development consultancy. We know that our participants, clients and coaches trust us with sensitive personal and developmental information, and we take that trust seriously. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and protect it, and the choices and rights you have.
This policy applies to everyone who interacts with VDI, including program participants, coaching clients, sponsoring organisations, newsletter subscribers, and visitors to our website.
We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), as updated by the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024. A copy of the APPs is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.
1. What Personal Information We Collect
Depending on how you engage with us, we may collect:
● Identity and contact details – such as your name, email address, phone number and organisation
● Program and coaching information – such as developmental assessment results, coaching notes, session records, learning reflections and progress data
● Professional context – such as your job title and role, where relevant to your program
● Website and communication data – such as newsletter subscriptions and general enquiries
We only collect sensitive information (such as health information) where it is directly relevant to a specific research project or program, and always with your separate, explicit consent.Simply browsing our website does not require you to provide any personal information.
2. How We Collect Your Information
We collect personal information directly from you – for example, when you enrol in a program, subscribe to our newsletter, take part in coaching or an assessment, or contact us. Occasionally we may receive information about you from a sponsoring organisation or another participant (for example, as part of program feedback); where this happens, we take reasonable steps to make sure you're aware of it.
3. Why We Collect and Use Your Information
We collect and use personal information to:
● Deliver coaching, assessment and leadership development programs
● Communicate with you about your program, engagement or enquiry
● Report on program outcomes to sponsoring organisations, generally in de-identified or aggregate form
● Improve our programs and conduct research (using de-identified data wherever possible)
● Send you newsletters or marketing communications, where you've agreed to receive them
● Meet our legal, regulatory and professional obligations
We rely on your consent, the contract we have with you or your sponsoring organisation, or a legitimate business interest (such as improving our programs) as the basis for this handling, consistent with the APPs. You can unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time by contacting us.
4. Confidentiality of Coaching and Assessment Information
We understand that coaching and developmental work is deeply personal. The following information stays strictly confidential between you and your VDI coach or facilitator, and is not shared with your sponsoring organisation:
● The content of your individual coaching sessions
● Your individual assessment results, unless you choose to share them
● Your personal reflections and development goals
Where we report to a sponsoring organisation, this is generally limited to program participation and completion, aggregate satisfaction data, and de-identified group-level themes – never your individual coaching content. Our coaches are also bound by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) Code of Ethics, which provides an additional, independent standard of confidentiality.
5. Artificial Intelligence and Your Information
Your information will not be used to train AI models. VDI does not use participant, client or coaching data – including any personal or developmental information you share with us – for artificial intelligence model training or for any other unauthorised secondary purpose.
Where we use AI tools internally to support our own work (for example, brainstorming, research or drafting), we only use professional or enterprise-grade AI services that contractually do not use our data to train their models, and we do not enter identifiable participant information, coaching content or confidential client data into any AI tool. Any AI-assisted work is reviewed by a qualified member of our team before it is used or relied upon.
6. How We Store and Protect Your Information
VDI operates on a cloud-first basis, using reputable, professionally certified platforms (such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2) to store and process personal information, rather than on our own servers. Access to your information is restricted to VDI personnel and contractors who need it to deliver your program, and is protected using industry-standard security measures including encryption, multi-factor authentication and access controls. All personnel and contractors are bound by confidentiality obligations before they can access any personal information.
We maintain an internal Information Security Manual, setting out how these protections are implemented and reviewed. For security reasons, we don't publish the operational detail of our security controls, but we're happy to answer general questions – see “Contact Us” below.
7. Who We Share Your Information With
We don't sell your personal information. We may share it with:
● Your sponsoring organisation, generally limited to aggregate or de-identified information as described in Section 4
● Trusted service providers who help us deliver our services (for example, secure hosting, scheduling or learning-platform providers), under confidentiality and data protection obligations
● Regulators or authorities, where required or authorised by law
If we receive a request for your information from a law enforcement or government body, we will notify you unless we are legally prohibited from doing so. VDI is wholly Australian-owned and operated, and does not share data with foreign entities or government bodies outside the ordinary use of our certified international service providers described above.
We require any new supplier that would handle personal information to meet appropriate security and privacy standards before we engage them, and we give clients at least 30 days' notice of any material change to the providers who handle their data.
8. How Long We Keep Your Information
As a general rule, we keep personal information unless you ask us to delete it or we're required by law to delete it sooner. For corporate and organisational programs, retention and deletion conditions are established on a project-by-project basis and set out in the specific agreement with the sponsoring organisation.
You're welcome to contact us at any time for more details on how long we hold a particular type of information, or to ask us to delete your information, subject to any legal or professional obligation we may have to retain it.
9. Your Rights
You have the right to:
● Access the personal information we hold about you
● Correct any information that is inaccurate or out of date
● Ask us to delete your information, subject to legal or professional record-keeping requirements
● Complain to us, or to the OAIC, if you have concerns about how we've handled your information
We won't charge a fee for a reasonable access request, though we may need to verify your identity first. See “Contact Us” below to make a request.
10. If Something Goes Wrong
VDI has processes in place to identify, contain and respond to any security incident. If a data breach involving your personal information is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify both you and the OAIC in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and take steps to reduce any impact on you.
11. Cookies and Website Analytics
Our website uses functional cookies needed for the site to work, and analytics cookies (including Google Analytics) that help us understand how visitors use the site. Analytics cookies don't collect information that identifies you personally. You can set your browser to decline or delete cookies at any time; this may affect some website functionality. By using our website, you consent to this use of cookies.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The current version will always be available on our website, with the date it was last updated shown at the top of this page.
13. Contact Us
If you have a question, complaint or request relating to this policy or your personal information, please contact us at team@verticaldevelopmentinstitute.com.
If you're not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Policy Updated: July 2026
