WEBSITE PRIVACY AND COLLECTION STATEMENT
This privacy statement applies to the Visit Loddon Valley website.
The website (www.visitloddonvalley.com.au) is administered by Loddon Shire Council.
Council is committed to protecting individuals’ right to privacy and to the responsible and fair handling of personal and/or health information, consistent with Privacy and Data Protection Act and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
The consideration of privacy matters has two distinct components:
• the use of personal information by Council
• application to the website (which follows).
For information about the broader collection and use of personal information by Council, please refer to our Privacy webpage and Privacy Policy.
What do we do?
Loddon Shire Council governs the municipality of Loddon. Our elected Council consists of five councillors. The administration is made up of a Chief Executive Officer, three directors and more than 150 staff.
Tourism services are one function of Loddon Shire Council.
What is personal information?
Personal information or opinion held about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
What information do we collect?
Council will collect personal information lawfully and fairly that is necessary for carrying out its functions and activities.
You provide personal information to us in a number of ways, such as when you when you make or request assistance with a booking or make an enquiry.
Information regarding your social networking services (SNS)
If you use your Facebook, Twitter, or other SNS account information to log in and/or authenticate with a Council website, Council will collect and store a unique user ID provided by your SNS.
As a Council website user, you can choose to log in and/or authenticate with a SNS, such as Facebook. To do so, you must use your account credentials (typically username and password) for your SNS. Your SNS will provide Council with a unique user ID which Council can use to identify you on Council websites. Council will retain this user ID, keep it private and use it to identify you and enable your access to features on Council websites.
Our use of SNS sometimes involves monitoring social trends and issues that relate to Council services and events. We use various tools to view public social media and website commentary in which Council’s accounts may not necessarily be tagged – and engage directly with you to provide information or a better level of customer service. In doing so, we may temporarily collect and store your personal information.
To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, we suggest that personal information including phone numbers and email addresses are not shared on SNS.
Please note that each SNS will also handle your personal information for its own purposes. We encourage you to read the privacy policies and other statements of the SNS you use.
How will we use the information?
Council staff use personal information provided in service requests, emails, surveys and feedback requests only to respond to individuals and discuss their particular enquiries.
As part of our commitment to customer service, we may periodically invite you to provide feedback about your experience via a survey. Any survey is voluntary and you do not have to participate.
Where possible, you have the option of not identifying yourself when entering into a transaction with Council. However, there may be instances where this is not feasible. For example, there is no requirement for an individual to identify themselves if they want to provide feedback. However, if an individual contacts Council because they want to make a booking, we are unable to make a booking without knowing the person’s name, address, and credit card details.
Council staff use personal information collected from social media sites, email and survey sources to respond to individuals and discuss their particular enquiries. Feedback and survey results may also be shared with actioning areas within the organisation to evaluate and improve the customer service experience.
Email addresses and any other contact details you provide will not be added to mailing lists without your consent.
How and when will information be disclosed?
Council will take all necessary measures to prevent unauthorised access to, or disclosure of, your personal information.
External organisations to which personal information is disclosed include Council’s contracted service providers who perform various services for an on behalf of Council. These contractors have agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic). Information provided to these contractors is limited to contact details provided by you whilst contacting us.
Council will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent, unless Council is required or authorised to do so by law or other regulation. In the event of an investigation into suspected unlawful or improper activity, a law enforcement agency or government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect the web server's records (e.g. in relation to illegal intrusion, hacking or abusive messages).
Agencies and business that we may need to forward your contact details to include but are not limited to:
• Accommodation suppliers
• Tour providers
• Bendigo Regional Tourism
How is personal information stored and protected?
Prior to the use and disclosure of personal information, reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that the information is relevant and to the extent necessary, accurate, complete and up-to-date for the purpose for which it is to be used.
Council will endeavour to maintain a secure system for storing personal information and will utilise appropriate technologies, security methods, operational policies and procedures to protect the information from:
• unauthorised access
• improper use
• alteration
• unlawful or accidental destruction
• accidental loss
All personal and/or health information will be removed from Council systems if it is no longer needed, except where it needs to be retained in accordance with the HRA and the Public Records Act 1973.
How can I request access to or correction of my personal information?
Requests for access to documents containing personal information and held by Council are handled under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. For further details, refer to our Freedom of Information page.
If the Freedom of Information Act is not applicable, Council will examine whether access can be given under IPP6, the access principle under the Information Privacy Act 2000.
Can I use the site anonymously?
You can access the Council home page and browse Council's web site anonymously, without disclosing your personal information.
Can I be identified uniquely?
Cookies are used on our site, but they do not collect any personal information. For the most part they are sessional and just contain system-generated values to identify the user’s session for statistical and system administration purposes only.
You can find more information about cookies on sites such as Cookie Central.
Clickstream data refers to visitor logs and statistics that provide useful information about users’ online experience without identifying individuals. The following non-personal information (i.e. clickstream data) is automatically recorded by this site's web server for statistical and system administration purposes only:
• your server (or IP) address
• your top level domain name (e.g. .com, .au, .gov)
• the date and the time of your visit to the site
• the pages you accessed and downloaded
• the address of the last page you visited
• your operating system you are using
• broad geographic location (town)
• internet service provider (e.g. Telstra)
• the type of browser you are using.
To the extent that this data could make you identifiable, Council will not attempt to identify individuals from the clickstream data unless that is necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation or improper activity in relation to this website.
Security of your personal data
This web site uses secure transmission facilities when appropriate (e.g. financial transactions).
You should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the internet. Council does not guarantee secure transmission of information over the internet from this site.
Links
Note that the website privacy statement does not apply to linked web sites however, Council does not link knowingly to sites that are privacy-invasive. When you link to another site, Council recommends you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy policy.
Concerns
If you are concerned about conveying personal or sensitive material to Council over the internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or mail.
Contact us
Loddon Shire Council
PO Box 21, Wedderburn Vic 3518
(03) 5494 1200
[email protected]