Privacy Policy

Gippsland Water is strongly committed to protecting an individual's right to privacy.

Accordingly, we are committed to full compliance with our obligations under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (‘Act’). In particular, we will comply with the Information Privacy Principles contained in the Act.

This Privacy Statement explains some of these principles and how they may apply to you.

Note that the website privacy statement does not apply to linked web sites, however we do not link knowingly to sites that are privacy-invasive. When you follow a link to another site, we recommend you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy policy.

For general information about how we seek to protect your personal information, please see the:

• Gippsland Water Privacy Policy

Anonymous access to our site

You can browse our website anonymously, without disclosing your personal information. By registering your membership for our website you may choose not to provide personal information and this will not affect your access to the majority of the web site. However, areas or services provided through this site that require registration may not be accessible.

Collection and use of personal data

Our Gippsland Water owned websites do not collect or record personal information, other than information you choose to provide through our online forms. Any information submitted will only be retained for such time as necessary to carry out the purposes for which the information is collected or as required by law.

E-mail addresses and any other contact details you provide will not be added to a mailing list without your consent.

Services from third-party websites

We may use the services of third-party software such as email newsletter distribution software (e.g. MailChimp), and/or online survey software (e.g. Survey Monkey) for the collection, aggregation and analysis of some survey data. The information you provide is encrypted both in-transit and at-rest when transferred to and stored by these third-party providers. The information collected by these systems may be transmitted and stored securely in the United States and is accessed by us in accordance with each party's relevant Privacy Policy. By completing such an online transaction (subscribing to an eNewsletter or completing an online survey), you agree to this transfer.

You may decline to provide your personal information. If you do provide personally identifiable information, you consent to the possible storage of this information offshore (outside of Australia). This means that once you have chosen to participate in the online transaction, we will not have an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure that the third-party (e.g. Survey Monkey) does not breach our Privacy Policy or Victorian Privacy Laws in relation to personal information that is given to them.

• View the Survey Monkey Privacy Policy
• View the MailChimp Privacy Policy

Social media

We do interact with the community via social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Your usage of these platforms to interact with us is also subject to our Privacy Policy, as well as the Privacy Policy of the respective platforms.

Due to the public (and potentially viral) nature of social media, you are warned not to share any personal information (such as email addresses, phone numbers and photos) that you do not wish to be publicly displayed. To protect everyone's privacy this warning applies to personal information about yourself, your friends and family as well as individual Gippsland Water staff members.

Your interactions may also be removed or hidden from our social media pages at our discretion if they are found to be in breach of this Privacy Statement or the Terms and Conditions of the respective pages.

Any questions, comments, messages, discussions, images/video or other interactions with us on social media may be captured for the purpose of record-keeping, and will be available to our staff members with a current role requiring them to have such access. Access to this information is removed from staff who are on extended leave or no longer employed by us.

Collection and use of site visit data

A cookie is a block of data that is shared between a web server and a user's browser. If you decide to use any services of our website that require you to create an account, our website may place a cookie on your computer. This cookie is only used to remember your login information on the login form. Although this cookie may identify you as a registered use of our website, your identity will not be used for any other purpose than for which it was provided.

The following non-personal information is automatically recorded by this site's web server for statistical and system administration purposes only:

• your IP address;
• the date and the time of your visit to the site;
• the pages you accessed and downloaded;
• your operating system;
• the type of browser you are using.

To the extent that this data could make you identifiable, we will not attempt to identify individuals from the records the server automatically generates unless that is necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation.

Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager

In addition to web service logs, we use Google Analytics (which may also include the Advertising Features and Google Tag Manager), which are web analysis services provided by Google Inc. ('Google').

All the information we collect using Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager is for internal purposes only. We cannot identify individuals based on the data we collect and we won't publish any of it on our website.

Reports obtained from Google Analytics are used to improve the efficiency and usability of this website. Google Analytics uses cookies to help analyse how users use this site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. The Advertising Features is a function within Google Analytics to get more advanced information about our users, such as user demographics, user interests, and frequency of visits.

Google Tag Manager lets us combine codes on different areas of the website and collect data in ways that we can't do with Google Analytics.

By using this website, you consent to Google processing data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

• View Google’s Privacy Policy
• View Google Analytics Terms of Service
• View Google Tag Manager Terms of Service

To opt out and prevent your data from being collected by Google Analytics, you can download Google's opt out add-o n.

Online Payments

Credit card details you supply to us are not stored on our website or by us. They are transferred securely through a third party service (Westpac PayWay) to the bank. We only retain a transaction number, which cannot be linked to your credit card details, but is linked to your customer record as proof of payment.

Disclosure

We will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent, unless we are 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 hacking or abusive messages).

Security of your personal data

Although every effort is made with regard to security, this web site does not guarantee secure transmission of information over the Internet. You should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. If you are concerned about conveying sensitive material to us over the Internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or mail.

More information

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy provides guidance and advice on the way in which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal and health information of individuals. The policy also details how individuals can request access to their information in addition to outlining the complaint process for any potential breaches of privacy.

Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner

The OVIC website contains information about the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014(Vic) and the standards for the way Gippsland Water and other government organisations must handle your personal information.