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The Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEEWR)
is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information. This Privacy
Policy embodies this commitment and applies to personal information collected
by DEEWR and its contractors and agents (collectively, DEEWR).
DEEWR adheres to the Information Privacy Principles of the Privacy Act 1988 and
the Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government World Wide Websites issued by the
Federal Privacy Commissioner.
Information we collect and how we use it
DEEWR helps the Australian Government achieve its overall objective of quality
educational, employment and training outcomes for all Australians through:
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efficient national programme management; and
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effective working relationships with other organisations, including state and
territory governments.
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policy advice and other support to the Minister;
Generally, DEEWR collects personal information in order to properly and
efficiently carry out its functions.
In addition to this general Privacy Policy, where more detailed information is
needed to explain our privacy practices, we publish separate privacy notices to
describe how we will handle personal information that we collect. Those privacy
notices are supplied whenever we collect personal information. For example,
when you sign up for a DEEWR-funded programme, we ask you for personal
information (such as name, email address, date of birth etc) to administer the
programme.
Communication - emails and Electronic Forms
DEEWR servers record your email address if you send us a message online. Your
email address will not be added to a mailing list, unless you have provided it
to us in order to subscribe to one of our subscription services, such as
DEEWR’s Site Change Subscription Service or the DEEWR Media Subscription
Service.
Where you choose to send us a completed electronic form that includes your
personal details, we collect personally identifiable information, such as name,
address and email address.
The information collected by email or electronic forms will be used only for
the purpose for which you provided it, and we will not disclose it without your
consent, except where authorised or required by law. For those who do not wish
to use the internet, DEEWR provides alternative ways of providing information.
For example, forms may be printed and lodged by post.
Log information (Browsing)
When you use DEEWR’s online services, our servers automatically record
information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server
logs may include information such as your server address, your top level domain
name (for example, .com, .gov, .au, .uk, etc), the date and time of visit to
the site, the pages accessed and documents viewed, the previous sites visited,
and the browser type, browser language, and one or more cookies that may
uniquely identify your browser.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters to your computer
that uniquely identifies your browser. It is information that your web browser
sends back to our web site server whenever you visit it again. We use cookies
to ‘remember’ your browser between page visits. In this situation, the cookie
identifies your browser, not you personally. No personal information is stored
within DEEWR’s cookies.
Use and disclosure
DEEWR uses/processes your personal information for the purposes of carrying out
its functions. Such purposes include:
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efficient national/regional programme management
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effective working relationships with state and territory governments,
education departments, non-government education, science and training
authorities, Indigenous education service providers, industry, community groups
and other stakeholders;
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auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain protect and improve our
services.
You can find more information about how we process personal information by
referring to the relevant privacy notices for particular services.
Use and disclosure
Access and alteration of records containing personal information
When you provide personal information in relation to DEEWR’s services, we will
allow access to your personal information. This will enable you to find out the
nature of the personal information held by DEEWR, correct your personal data if
it is inaccurate, or to delete such data at your request (subject to
restrictions on such access/alteration of records under the applicable
provisions of any law of the Commonwealth).
Information sharing
We only share personal information with third parties in the following
circumstances:
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Where you are reasonably likely to have been aware, or made aware by way of a
privacy notice, that your personal information is usually passed to the
relevant parties;
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Where you have consented;
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Where we believe on reasonable grounds that the disclosure is necessary to
prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to your life or health or that
of another person.
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Where the disclosure is required or authorised by or under law; or
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Where 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
the public revenue.
Information security
We take all reasonable steps:
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to protect the personal information that we hold against loss, against
unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure and against other misuse;
and
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to ensure that, where we have given personal information to a DEEWR
contractor (that carries out service for DEEWR), that contractor complies with
the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act.
Data integrity
DEEWR processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was
collected and in accordance with this Policy or any applicable
programme-specific privacy notice. We take reasonable steps to make sure that
the personal information we process is accurate, relevant, up-to-date, complete
and not misleading.
Enforcement
DEEWR regularly reviews its compliance with this Policy. If you have any
questions/complaints about privacy, confidentiality or access to your personal
information, please send an email to privacy@dest.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time.
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