This site is owned and operated by the City of Whittlesea using software licensed from Social Pinpoint. The Privacy statement below refers to the City of Whittlesea only, for details of how Social Pinpoint may access personal information, please refer separately to Social Pinpoint’s Privacy Policy.
Privacy statement
We are committed to the responsible collection and handling of personal information, consistent with the principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records Act 2001.
What is personal information
Personal information is recorded information or opinion, whether true or not, about an identifiable individual.
Personal information typically includes, but is not limited to the following:
- name
- address (postal and email)
- telephone (home, work and mobile)
- date of birth
- Medicare number
- credit card and bank account numbers
- motor vehicle registration
Under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, Council is required to set out clearly expressed policies on its management of personal information: you can access Council’s Privacy and Data Protection Policy here.
Member registration
To become a registered user on this Council community engagement site, you will be asked to provide the following personal information:
- Full name, gender, post code, email address and age bracket
- Username and password for Engage City of Whittlesea
- Subscription by you to other (optional) electronic communications from us
- Topics about which you have indicated an interest in being consulted or informed
User feedback
We will also collect information that you provide via the Engage City of Whittlesea feedback tools. This includes:
- comments and votes in forums
- stories
- surveys
- interactive maps
- quick polls
How we will handle your personal information (general)
We will only use the personal information you provide for the purposes for which it was collected and any other reasonable secondary purpose. The information we collect may also be used for our own planning and research purposes to improve our services to the community. We will not disclose your personal information to third parties unless disclosure is required by law.
We will also protect the quality and integrity of your personal information and will use appropriate technologies and security methods to securely store the information collected to prevent unauthorised access and improper use of the information.
We will only collect personal information from you with your prior knowledge and consent. You can access and browse our website without disclosing personal information.
When you visit this website, our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:
- the user's server address
- the user's top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk)
- the date and time of the visit
- the pages accessed and documents downloaded
We will make no attempts to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect our Internet Service Provider's logs.
We will only record your email address if you send us a message. It will only be used for Council purposes and will not be disclosed to any third parties without your consent.
How we will handle your personal information (members)
When you sign up for a user account you provide two types of information:
- publicly available information
- information available to both City of Whittlesea and Social Pinpoint.
Publicly available information
Publicly available information is limited to your username and any comments you leave under that name in the forums or other feedback tools on Engage City of Whittlesea.
Content that you post on the site publicly, will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and any publicly available reports from consultations, and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools
Please note that the City of Whittlesea is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) legislation. The Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives individuals and corporations a general right of access to documents held by Council. This includes documents created by Council, documents held by Council from contracted service providers and documents supplied to Council by external organisations or individuals.
Information available to both City of Whittlesea and Social Pinpoint includes:
- all information from the sign-up form
- comments, questions, stories, guestbook posts
- survey responses, quick poll responses, map pins
- general site activity such as document downloads, videos viewed, images viewed etc.
- information on the technology used to access the site.
Policy updates
We may update the content of this Privacy Policy from time to time for any reason. The updated version of the Privacy Policy will apply to you as soon as it is posted on the website, so we suggest that each time you return to the consultation website you should review the Privacy Policy (and the Terms of Use).
You can request to access your personal information
You can request to access your personal information Council will provide access to information held by Council about an individual to that individual on request, except in specific circumstances as outlined within the PDP Act. Requests for access to and correction of documents containing personal information are generally managed under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 1982. FOI requests must be made in writing and are accompanied by an application fee. Please see Council’s website for more information regarding how to make an application or contact a Freedom of Information Officer on 9217 2294. Some requests for personal information may be dealt with informally (outside of the FOI Act). Please contact Council’s Privacy Officer on 9217 2223 to discuss your requirements. Where Council holds personal information about an individual and the individual believes that information is incorrect, Council will take reasonable steps to correct the information as soon as practicable and within 30 days of the request. If Council denies access or correction, Council will provide reasons. If Council and an individual disagree about the accuracy of personal information held by Council, Council will take reasonable steps to record a statement relating to the disputed information if requested by the individual. If you are not satisfied with Council’s resolution of an information privacy matter you may make a complaint to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) Post: PO Box 24274, Melbourne Vic 3001 or Email: enquiries@ovic.vic.gov.au.
Privacy complaints
If you believe we have handled your personal information inappropriately, please contact the Information Privacy Officer on 03 9217 2223 or email privacy@whittlesea.vic.gov.au.
Cookies and third-party products
Cookies are sent by a website and stored in a user's computer and can contain data such as the parts of a website the user has visited. This website uses a cookie that may contain data about your current online session, but it is deleted once you close your browser window.
We record website visitor’s activities for statistical purposes using a third-party product, Google Analytics.
Links to other websites
These privacy statements only apply to our website and do not apply to any websites we link to.
We provide links to other relevant websites in good faith, as a community service. When you click through to one of the linked websites, we recommend that you read the privacy statement of that website to familiarise yourself with its privacy policy and practices.
