We protect the privacy of your personal information. We endorse fair information handling practices and use of information in compliance with our obligations under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
Personal information will be used only for the intended purpose. Where the intention includes confidentiality, information will be treated as such unless otherwise required by law.
This privacy statement explains how your personal information (being information capable of identifying you as an individual) will be treated as you access and interact with this website. The practices outlined in this privacy statement are subject to any rights we may have to handle personal information in accordance with the privacy legislation.
Collection of your personal information
The personal information we collect via this website may include:
- The content in electronic forms that you submit via this website. For example a request to provide services, information or to take action
- Information submitted by you in an online survey
- Messages or comments, including personal information such as name, email address and telephone number, you submit to us via this website. For example through email addresses displayed on this website.
Email addresses on this site will only be used to respond to specific user queries and will not be added to any mailing lists, nor disclosed to any other party without users' knowledge and consent, unless required by law. Where personal information is collected directly from you on our web pages, a specific privacy notification can be viewed by clicking on the privacy statement tag at the bottom of the online form.
Web statistical data collection
Pages on the site may be coded with Google Analytics software. This is transparent to the user, as the software makes use of JavaScript code in the source HTML of the web page. This JavaScript stores a first-party cookie in your browser, which contains a unique identifier, and sends information to Google Analytics. This enables Google Analytics to track the number of unique visitors to the site. In no way does this unique identifier identify a user personally. We do not and will not marry any data collected by Google Analytics with any personal information.
While you can browse this website anonymously, without disclosing your personal information, we may not be able to provide the full range of services through this website if we are not provided with the information outlined above.
Use and disclosure of your personal information
Where we collect personal information from you via our website, a privacy disclaimer will indicate which third parties we might share your information with (if any). In addition to providing our services to you and carrying out your requests, we may use or disclose personal information that we collect about you for purposes including the following:
- For the purpose that we have collected the information
- Purposes related to our research, planning, product and service development, security and testing
- Purposes connected with the operation, administration, development or enhancement of this website
- Where we suspect that fraud or unlawful activity has been, is being or may be engaged in
- Any other purposes required or authorised by law.
We may share personal information within the department and with third parties. The types of third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information includes our contracted service providers who assist us in providing this website and delivering our services such as our community service partners, organisations who provide archival, auditing, professional advisory, banking, mailhouse, delivery, recruitment, call centre, information technology, research, utility and security services. We may also disclose your personal information to your authorised representatives or third parties acting on your behalf, for example your solicitor or interpreter.
If you have made an online application, your application will be forwarded to the appropriate Department of Health and Human Services divisions or agency and any other third parties to whom your application relates or who can assist in processing your application and delivering the service to you.
Security
We have implemented technology and security policies, rules and measures to protect the personal information that we have under our control. However, you should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. So while we strive to protect such information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us online and individuals do so at their own risk. Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. If you are concerned about conveying sensitive material to us over the Internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or mail. We will remove personal information from our system where it is no longer required (except where archiving is required and in order to fulfil our obligations under the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic)).
We take additional steps to protect the security of your personal information, such as strong 128-bit SSL encryption. Before using these facilities, you should ensure that you are using a web browser that supports 128-bit encryption. In many web browsers, you can confirm that your session is encrypted by the appearance of a locked padlock symbol located in the browser status bar at the foot of the browser.
Feedback, information request form and email
We may preserve the content of any feedback form, information request form, email or other electronic message that we receive. Any personal information contained in that message will only be used or disclosed in ways set out in this Website Privacy Statement. We will not use that information to add you to a mailing list without your consent.
Links to external websites
This privacy statement does not extend beyond this website. When following links to other sites from this website, we recommend that you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy practices.
Clickstream data
This website's web server automatically records non-personal clickstream data. To the extent that any clickstream data could make you identifiable, we will not attempt to identify you from clickstream data unless required by law or to investigate suspected improper activity in relation to the website or to assist in law enforcement.
The following clickstream data are automatically recorded by this website’s web server for statistical and system administration purposes only:
- Your IP address
- Your domain name (e.g. yahoo.com, gmail.com, etc)
- The date and the time of your visit to the site
- The pages you accessed and files downloaded
- The address of the last site you visited
- Your operating system
- The type of browser you are using.
Cookies
Like many sites, this website may use cookies from time to time.
Cookies are small data files that a website is able to place on a user’s hard drive to record aspects of that user’s experience of the website. For example, we may use cookies to record that a user visited a particular section of the website, that their browsing software was a particular version or to ensure that online applications and transactions do not require you to re-input information when moving between web pages. In this way, cookies can improve the operation of the website, and make the experience more efficient, more enjoyable or more personalised. Importantly, in depositing information on a user’s computer and referring to it later in the same session (sessional) or on a subsequent visit (persistent), cookies do not need to identify the user or record any personal information.
The default settings of browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari may allow some or all cookies, but users can easily take steps to erase cookies from their hard-drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. However, some parts of sites may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.
Access and correction
You can request access to or correction of personal and health information held by the department.
For information on making an FOI application, please visit our Freedom of Information page or contact the Freedom of Information Officer:
Freedom of Information Unit Department of Health and Human Services
- Postal address: GPO BOX 4057, MELBOURNE, VIC 3001
- Street address: 50 Lonsdale Street, MELBOURNE, VIC 3000
- Phone: (03) 9096 8449 or 1300 650 172
- Fax: (03) 9096 8848
- Email the Freedom of Information unit.
For information on the department's Privacy policy or on how the department manages privacy, please contact the Privacy manager:
Department of Health and Human Services
- Postal Address: GPO BOX 4057, Melbourne VIC 3001
- Street Address: 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
- Ph: 1300 884 706
- Email: Privacy unit.
Further information on data protection can be found on the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner website.