This website is maintained by the New South Wales Government's Premier's Department. This Privacy Policy applies to all the publicly accessible pages on the Premier's Department site located at http://www.premiers.nsw.gov.au.

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

Manager, FOI and Privacy Level 32, Governor Macquarie Tower 1 Farrer Place Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9228 4441

Users of the Premier's Department site are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use 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 1998.

What information do we collect?

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

• the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which 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 pages accessed and documents downloaded;
• the previous site visited; and
• the type of browser and operating system you have used.

From June to August 2003 the Premier's Department may use "cookies" to gather statistical information that helps us understand what you find interesting and useful on the Premier's Department site. These cookies are known as your "Unique Visitor Cookie" and identify you only by random number (e.g. #12489).

You can decline our cookies by adjusting the "accept cookies" setting on your browser.

We may also embed a piece of code into some pages of the Premier's Department site. This gives us statistical site usage information about:

• the pages visited;
• duration of page view
• location previous to visiting the Premier's Department site; and
• the navigation habits of the user.

We do not use this code to collect any personally identifiable information.

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 Premier's Department to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving the Premier's Department site and the services offered on it.

The Premier's Department 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?

The Premier's Department will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

• unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published Premier's pages;
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Premier's site;
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Premier's site by other sites;
• attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Premier's site;
• communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed; 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 Premier's site by other users.

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

In the event of an investigation, the Premier's Department 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 the Premier's Department 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 as feedback?

The Premier's Department provides feedback facilities on this site to allow users to provide input into the future development of the site and to comment on the provision of service by the Department.

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. The Premier's Department 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?

Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in the Department of Lands (DoL) and the Premier's Department for the purpose of analysis and to report on the success of the site in meeting the Department's communication and access objectives. If you would like to access information held about you by DoL please contact:

Manager, FOI and Privacy
Level 32, Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9228 4441

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.