Privacy Statement
The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (‘the Department’) is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (‘the Act’) which requires that it complies with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) set out in the Act. The IPPs set out how Australian Government agencies should collect, use, store and disclose personal information and how individual can access records containing their personal information. General information about the Act and the IPPs can be found on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner .
The www.nbn.gov.au website (‘the NBN website’) follows the Privacy Commissioner’s Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government Websites .
Users are advised that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the internet.
In addition to this Privacy Statement, where more detailed information is needed to explain our privacy practices for specific circumstances in relation to the NBN website, we will publish separate privacy notices to describe how we will handle personal information that we collect for those circumstances. For example, where we ask you to provide personal information in relation to a particular program administered by the Department, we will provide you with a privacy notice which details our practices in relation to that particular program.
Any complaints about the Department’s personal information handling practices can be made to the Department (by using the Contact Us form) or to the Office of Australian Information Commissioner.
Use and disclosure
The Department only uses personal information collected via the NBN website for the purposes for which it was given to us or for directly related purposes.
The Department does not share personal information about individuals with other government agencies, organisations or anyone else unless one of the following applies:
- the individual has consented
- the individual would reasonably expect, or has been told, that information of that kind is usually passed to those individuals, bodies or agencies
- it is required or authorised by law
- it will prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to somebody’s life or health, or
- the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law or of a law imposing a pecuniary penalty, or for the protection of public revenue.
When an individual’s email address is received by the Department because the individual sends us a message when using the NBN website, the email address will only be used or disclosed for the purposes for which the individual has provided it and it will not be added to a mailing list, used or disclosed for any other purpose without the individual’s consent or required by law.
Information logged
We do not collect personal information about you if you only browse the NBN website.
When you browse the NBN website, our server logs the following information which is provided by your browser for statistical purposes only:
- the type of browser and operating system you are using
- your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc.)
- the address of the referring site (for example, the previous site that you visited), and
- your server’s IP address (a number which is unique to the machine through which you are connected to the internet usually one of your service provider’s machines.
In addition, our server logs the following information:
- the date and time of your visit, and
- the address of the pages accessed and the documents downloaded.
All of this information is only used for the purposes of statistical analysis, system administration, monitoring of the NBN website security, customisation of the NBN website to user needs, evaluation, research, and development. No attempt will be made to identify users of their browsing activities, except in the unlikely event of an investigation, such as, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant or subpoena. Information if this nature will only be disclosed to third parties if required or authorised by law.
All data described in this Privacy Statement are stored securely, and archived for a period of at least 12 months and possibly up to seven years.
Google Analytics
In addition to web server logs, the NBN website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Reports obtained from Google Analytics are also used to help improve the efficiency and usability of the NBN website.
Google Analytics uses ‘cookies’ to gather statistics about how the website is accessed. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located outside Australia.
Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf.
By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google’s Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable javascript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.
Cookies
A cookie is an electronic token that is passed to your browser and your browser passes it back to the server whenever a page is sent to you.
Our server generates one cookie which is used to keep track of the pages you have accessed while using our server. The cookie allows you to page back and forward through the NBN website and return to pages you have already visited. The cookie exists only for the time you are accessing our server.
Please note that some browsers can be configured to allow cookies to be accessed by servers other than the originating server. Most browsers can also be configured to notify the user when a cookie is received, allowing you to either accept or reject it. You do not need to have configured your browser to enable the accepting or sending of cookies in order to use the NBN website.
Cookies are not used for any other purposes at the NBN website. We do not use cookies to collect personal information.
Online forms
By submitting any personal information through the NBN website online forms you are consenting, for the purposes of the Act, to your personal information being disclosed to the Department and potentially other appropriate third parties, other Commonwealth Government Agencies (including statutory agencies) for the purposes of responding to your request and also for program administration, regulation and evaluation.
Searches
Search terms that you enter when using the NBN website’s search engine/database are collected, but are not associated with any other information that we collect. We use these search terms to ascertain what people are looking for at the NBN website, and to improve the services that we provide.
Data quality
We maintain and update personal information collected from or published on the NBN website as necessary or when we are advised by individuals that their personal information has changed.
Links
The NBN website contains links to other sites and may also use social media sites, for example, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, to make it easy to share information. These other sites may use web measurement tools, customisation technologies and persistent cookies to inform the service they provide to their users. The Department is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other sites. The NBN Website does not use, maintain or share Personally Identifiable Information made through these other (including social media) sites.
In relation to the above social media websites, please see their respective privacy policies for further information:
Site feedback
To improve the services offered by the NBN website, we seek feedback from our users. If you have any comments on the technical operations or functionality of the NBN website web pages, please use this contact form . Answering questions on this form is voluntary and does in any way affect your access to the NBN website.
