Privacy

This Privacy Policy applies to all the publicly accessible pages on the Division of Local Government (DLG) website located at http://www.dlg.nsw.gov.au.

DLG does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to the DLG site. If you have any questions about the DLG site, or the application of this Privacy Policy or a request for access to information held please contact us.

Users of the DLG site are entitled to expect that any information collected as a result of their use of the DLG site will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales Government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The New South Wales Government's privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988.

What information do we collect?

When you look at the pages on the DLG site, our computers automatically record information that identifies, for each page accessed:

• the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine that has accessed it;
• your top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc.);
• the address of your server;
• the date and time of your visit to the site;
• the search engine used to locate the site;
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded; and
• the type of browser and operating system you have used.

How do we use the information collected?

The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for DLG to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving the DLG site and the services offered on it.

DLG will not disclose or publish information that identifies individual machines, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988.

What exceptions are there to this rule?

DLG will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

• unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published DLG pages;
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the DLG site;
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the DLG site by other sites; and
• attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server, breach the laws of the State of New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia, or interfere with the enjoyment of the DLG site by other users.

DLG reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the DLG site raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed.

In the event of an investigation, DLG will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Is the information stored securely?

Yes. Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by DLG for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

What will we do with information provided when you use the website contact us and feedback links? DLG provides feedback facilities on the DLG site to allow users to provide input into the future development of the site and to comment on the online services provided by DLG.

The provision of personal details on feedback is optional.

Users may provide personal details for the purpose of receiving a reply to their feedback. This information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. We will not add your email address or name to any mailing list.

DLG may publish aggregated information about feedback on the site, to the extent that it does not identify or cannot be used to identify individual users.

Who else has access to information within the Department?

DLG captures this information on its own computers. Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in DLG for the purpose of analysis. The officers who can access this data are the members of the Business and Information Services Branch.

Will this policy be updated over time?

Due to the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication, this policy may be modified or expanded in light of new developments or issues that may arise from time to time. The amended policy will be posted to this site and will operate from the time it is posted.