Privacy

This website is provided and maintained by the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. This privacy statement sets out the department's practices relating to the privacy of your personal information. The department's privacy practices are regulated by the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIP ACT), the department's Privacy Management Plan (PMP), and the department’s data breach policy.

The department will only collect personal information for a lawful purpose which directly relates to our primary function as a NSW Government agency and for obtaining feedback about our services. The department will not collect any more information than is necessary for it to fulfil these functions.

The department will not disclose your personal information to anyone without your consent, unless legally required to do so.

Anyone engaged to collect, store or use personal information for the department will be required to comply with the PPIP Act and the department’s Privacy Management Plan.

Service NSW provides services to some customers of the department on our behalf.

What is personal information?

Your personal information relates to you personally and includes any information or opinion made about you. Personal information includes your name, address, phone number, email address or any information from which your identity can be reasonably ascertained.

Personal information is information that identifies you, some examples include:

• a written record which may include your name, address, and other details about you
• electronic records, photographs, images, video or audio footage
• biometric information such as fingerprints, blood and records of genetic material.

What is not personal information?

The PPIP Act excludes certain information from the definition of personal information.  The most significant exemptions are:

• information contained in publicly available publications
• information about a person’s suitability for public sector employment
• information about people who have been dead for more than 30 years
• a number of exemptions relating to law enforcement investigations
• matters contained in Cabinet documents.

Storage of your personal information

We will retain the information you have provided for a period that is appropriate for the purpose for which it was provided. Your information will be archived and disposed of in accordance with the department’s policies, legislative requirements and guidelines based on the NSW State Records Act 1998.

The department takes all reasonable steps to protect the security of any personal information held, be it stored in electronic or hard copy format. Physical measures, such as building and equipment security, are used in conjunction with digital technology, such as data encryption and firewalls, to minimise unauthorised access to information.

Disclosure of your personal information

We will not disclose your personal details unless the disclosure is authorised by the PIPP Act and Regulations. Your consent to disclose information for particular purposes may be sought by us or given by yourself for a specific purpose. If appropriate consent is not provided, we may not be able to provide certain products and services to you or your agents.

The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act) confers on the public a right to access information held by a government agency, including electronic information like transactions through the web. If information is sought by a third party under the GIPA Act that affects your research, business, commercial, professional or financial interests or your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to seek your views if you are likely to have concerns about the disclosure of the information before making any decision about releasing the information.

Right of access to your personal information

Under the PPIP Act you have the right to access your personal information held by the department without excessive delay or expense. You also have the right to have your personal information corrected in certain circumstances (e.g. if it is incorrect), Should you wish to access or correct your personal information contact the department’s designated privacy officer at:

Information Access and Privacy Unit 
4 Parramatta Square, Locked Bag 5022, Parramatta NSW 2124 
Phone: 02 9860 1440 
Email: [email protected]

Website data

To help the department improve its website and provide better services to its users, the agency makes a record of your visit and logs the following information:

• the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine that 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 search engine used to locate the site;
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded; and
• the type of browser and operating system you have used.

The 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 PPIP Act.

Cookies and tracking pixels

Some of the department’s sites use cookies and tracking pixels to collect your data, while others do not.

For information on what cookies are, how they work and how to delete them from your computer, you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

When website data may be disclosed

The 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 in the department’s pages;
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the site;
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the site by other sites;
• attempts to intercept messages of other users of the site;
• communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups 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 NSW or Australia, or interfere with the enjoyment of the site by other users.

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

We will take reasonable steps to ensure personal information that we keep is accurate, up-to-date, and relevant to the purposes for which it is to be used.

However, you should note that there are situations where we are required by legislation to disclose your personal information, or may be compelled to provide personal information about you to law enforcement agencies, emergency service agencies and other organisations engaged in the planning and provision of services to the community.

The department may publish aggregated information about feedback, to the extent that it does not identify or cannot be used to identify individual users.

When you submit a form on this website (such as via Feedback or Contact us), or provide information as part of using an online service, we collect information from this activity. This information may include personal and organisational details such as your full name, phone number, business name and ACN details, email address and street address. This information allows us to properly look into an issue you raise, or to respond to your feedback.

Clicking on the 'submit' button on the form acts as your consent for the department to collect the information you have provided. Before you submit this information we will take reasonable steps to inform you of:

• where applicable, any law that requires the particular information to be collected
• which fields are mandatory and which are optional.

The department understands the security concerns surrounding online financial transactions and has developed a safe and secure environment to address these concerns.

The department does not store credit card details from the listed websites in its computer systems.

The department uses encryption software to protect credit card information and to provide transaction security. This means that all personal information, including name, address and credit card number, cannot be read as a transaction travels across the internet from your computer to the department's computers, or from the department's computers to a bank.

If you email the department, we will only retain and use your e-mail address for the purpose for which you have provided it. It will not be added to a mailing list without your consent. These email addresses are stored electronically in accordance with standards and authorities under the State Records Act 1998.

If you subscribe to an electronic mailing list, we will only send you information relevant to the purpose or project for which you have provided it. If you have recently completed a submission we reserve the right to provide you with updates about the project, plan and policy et al for which the submission is for.

If you have subscribed to one of the department's online mailing lists or RSS service, you can easily remove your email details from the list by unsubscribing.

We operate in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (the Act) and will not send unsolicited electronic messages unless they are permitted by the Act. Under the Act, a government department may send unsolicited emails if they contain only factual information or if they relate to goods or services provided by the department. For more information about the Act go to Industry ACMA website.

When you make a submission to the department we collect your personal information, including:

• name (including title)
• address
• email (if provided)
• internet protocol (IP) address (if the submission is made online)
• any other personal information contained in a political donations disclosure statement (if provided); and
• any other personal information contained on your submission.

Making a submission is entirely voluntary and you are under no obligation to provide the department with any of your personal information, except as otherwise required by law.

How will your personal information be used when you make a submission?

We may publish some of your personal information online, including:

• your submission
• your name (unless you state that you want your name withheld)
• your suburb
• any political donations disclosure statement

We may publish any personal information you have included in your submission on a proposal. Do not include any personal information in your submission that you do not want published.

We will use your contact details to send you notifications. For example, where there is a statutory requirement to notify submitters that an application has been determined.

Your submission may be published in reports, or other documents that are produced following the exhibition period.

We may forward your submission and personal information to the Planning Assessment Commission if the proposal has been referred to them. The commission will use your contact details to notify you of any public meetings scheduled for the proposal. The commission may publish your submission on their website, or in a report in accordance with the commission’s privacy statement.

We may forward your submission to third parties including other public authorities, government agencies, local government, or to an applicant. There are statutory requirements to forward submissions on some applications to these third parties as part of the assessment process.

If you feel there has been a breach of your privacy under the PPIP Act, you have the right to make a complaint to the Department. For more information about your privacy rights, you can visit the Information and Privacy Commission.