Privacy

Application of this Privacy Statement

This privacy statement applies only to the www.vic.gov.au website and not to any websites to which www.vic.gov.au provides a link.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

www.vic.gov.au only requests you to provide personal information for the purposes of responding to your feedback. The purpose for collecting personal information is to provide feedback and answer queries that you have in respect of a particular site or the information you are trying to obtain and www.vic.gov.au will only use and/or disclose the information for these purposes. It is possible to provide feedback without providing your personal information although if you do this, we are unable to respond to you about your feedback or your query.

Personal information that is collected by www.vic.gov.au will be used by and disclosed to Victorian Government employees or contractors whose duties require them to use it. Such employees and contractors are required to protect and handle your personal information in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic).

Access to and Correction of Personal Information

You may request access to any personal information that www.vic.gov.au may have collected about you. Also, you may request correction of your personal information if you can establish that it is not accurate, complete or up-to-date.

The Manager, eServices may be contacted about access to, and correction of, personal information collected by www.vic.gov.au or for any questions or concerns you may have arising out of this privacy statement,

The Privacy Officer for the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation may also be contacted about access to, and correction of, personal information collected by vic.gov.au or for any questions or concerns you may have arising out of this privacy statement:

Collection of Personal Information

It is intended that www.vic.gov.au can be used anonymously.

However, for some functions of www.vic.gov.au the collection of personal information is necessary or unavoidable.

You will know if www.vic.gov.au is collecting personal information from you because you will be requested to provide it. There are two exceptions to this.

The first exception is where someone else provides www.vic.gov.au with your personal information. www.vic.gov.au cannot prevent this. However, you are entitled to access and correct any personal information about you collected by Victoria Online.

The second exception is where www.vic.gov.au collects statistics using software techniques such as web server log file analysis, clickstream data, cookies and web beacons. For an explanation of these techniques, and how they are used on www.vic.gov.au, see Web measurement services used by www.vic.gov.au below. Such statistics may qualify as personal information under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic). However, these statistics are not used to identify individual users of www.vic.gov.au.

Internet Use Risk

You should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. However, www.vic.gov.au takes reasonable steps to protect any personal information from unauthorised access once that personal information comes into its possession.

Linking

This website contains hyperlinks to pages contained on external government and non-government websites (third party websites). Unless otherwise indicated, Victoria Online:

• does not endorse or authorise the content of any third party website;
• is not affiliated or associated with the owner or operator of any third party website; and
• assumes no responsibility or liability for the condition or content of any third party website or for the operation or function of any service or facility offered on any third party website.

Website personalisation features of www.vic.gov.au

Use of Cookies

A cookie is a block of data that is shared between a web server and a user's browser.

www.vic.gov.au uses first party cookies to enable users to personalise their use of the website's weather information. A first party cookie is that which is created by the website you are currently visiting - in this case Victoria Online. If you do not allow cookies to be used within your browser, then you will not be able to take advantage of the weather personalisation features offered by this website.

In using these cookies www.vic.gov.au does not retrieve or record any personal information. For example, we do not use cookies to collect names or email addresses.

Web Server Log Files

www.vic.gov.au uses standard web analytics software packages to analyse its web server log files to track web site usage. This analysis provides general data including number of visits, unique visits, pages viewed, browser type, how the site is navigated, search terms used, the sections of the website visited and other website usage information without identifying individual users.

Web measurement services used by www.vic.gov.au

www.vic.gov.au currently uses one web measurement service providers. This is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is also used by the Info Vic Newsletter.

Google Analytics - Use of Cookies

Google Analytics uses a first-party cookie and JavaScript code to collect information about visitors to Victoria Online. Google Analytics anonymously tracks how our visitors interact with this website, including where they came from, what they did on the site, and whether they completed any transactions on the site such as newsletter registration.

Data Collection

While the anonymous statistical data www.vic.gov.au collects may be aggregated and used in broader statistical analysis by the State of Victoria, at no time can we personally identify you as the source of that data.

Contacts & Services Directory

The Contacts & Services Directory aims to assist citizens to find relevant services, websites or contacts within the Victorian Government.

To ensure privacy is being managed effectively and to report any possible breaches there are several feedback loops in place. On the Contacts & Services directory website there is a link to a feedback form for the general public to alert www.vic.gov.au to errors or omissions in data for resolution or referral. The Victorian Government Contact Centre phone number is displayed to allow for verbal feedback.