Privacy

Scope

This Privacy Statement applies to your interactions with the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) YourHealth website. This statement discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices which are set out in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.

The yourHealth website is managed by DoHA and all personal information collected and used is subject to the Privacy Act 1988. This Act requires that we comply with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) which set out how Australian Government agencies collect, use, store and disclose personal information.

Any personal information you provide as part of any submission to this website will be used for the purposes for which you provided it (as noted on the YourHealth website). It will be seen by staff of the Department of Health and Ageing and will not otherwise be used or disclosed except in accordance with the IPPs.

Privacy Statement

The Department of Health and Ageing is committed to the protection of your privacy in accordance with the Federal Privacy Commissioner's Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government World Wide Websites. These guidelines outline the requirements for transparent collection, appropriate and ethical use and secure storage of personal information. Our aim is to provide an online environment which will ensure the information you provide to us is handled in a secure, efficient and confidential manner.

Statement prior to entering information

Before you decide to subscribe to the Your Health subscription service please take time to carefully read the Conditions of Subscription and review the DoHA website privacy statement.

Conditions of lodging information on Your Health website

• By lodging information on this website you agree that your first name and the content of your post and/or any information you provide may be used on this website or for other health communication ( ie reports, brochures, presentations, videos etc).
• You acknowledge that the use of your first name, together with any part, or all, of the content of your post and/or any information you provide, may be sufficient to identify you.
• If your post and/or any information you provide is used on this website or for other health communication (as described above), it may be used in whole or in part, and therefore may be edited for:
  • Brevity
  • To ensure compliance with relevant laws (e.g. defamation) and community standards (e.g. foul language)
  • To provide an example or illustration of a particular topic within a posting (i.e. you may write about a number of topics and only one point is used)
  • To protect the privacy of other individuals (i.e. if you identify others in your post and/or any information you provide).
• Please note that individual responses will not be provided.
• The information you lodge on this website, other then your email address, will inform the Government, be compiled and analysed into themes for further communication (including to any body or agency to which it is the usual practice of DoHA to provide such health-related information) and consideration.

Conditions of Subscription

• Information provided by persons who wish to subscribe to the Your Health subscription service is collected and recorded by DoHA for the purpose of maintaining the subscription service and so that DoHA can provide individual subscribers with the information which is most relevant and useful to them.
• Information provided by persons who wish to subscribe to the Your Health subscription service will not be used for any purpose other than that specified above. This information may be provided by DoHA to any body or agency to which it is the usual practice of DoHA to provide such health-related information. Contact information provided by persons who wish to subscribe to the Your Health subscription service will not be passed on to any other organisation. For further information about DoHA and your privacy, please read the DoHA website privacy statement.
• Subscribers are entitled to cancel their subscription at any time. If you wish to cancel your subscription please use the “cancel” link provided in your subscription emails.
• DoHA intends that subscription updates will be e-mailed to subscribers as information is published. However, DoHA reserves the right to change the frequency with which updates are forwarded to subscribers.
• No fee is payable by subscribers for subscription to the Your Health subscription service run by DoHA.
• DoHA reserves the right to delete any subscription from its records if an update cannot be delivered to the e-mail address provided by the subscriber.
• DoHA reserves the right to cancel the subscription service at any time and without notice to subscribers.

Information Logged

When visiting this site, a record of your visit is logged. This "clickstream data" is recorded for statistical purposes only and is used to help improve this website. The following information is supplied by your browser (eg: Internet Explorer):

• the user's server address
• the user's operating system (for example Windows, MAC etc)
• the user's top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
• the date and time of the visit to the site
• the pages accessed and the documents downloaded
• the previous site visited, and
• the type of browser used.

This information is used for statistical purposes only. No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency (or other government agency) exercises a legal authority to inspect Internet Service Provider (ISP) logs (eg. by warrant, subpoena or notice to produce).

Cookies

The Department of Health and Ageing uses 'cookies' for maintaining contact with a user through a website session. A cookie is a small file supplied by the Department, and stored by the web browser software on your computer when you access our site. (An explanation of cookies can be found at the site of the Privacy Commissioner at: http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/internet_privacy/#2.1). Cookies allow us to recognise you as an individual, as you move from one of our web pages to another and ensures that web visitors only vote once in each poll and automatically view the results of any current poll they’ve previously voted in and collects information that allows us to analyze how users use this site (see further below).

This information is only used to help you use our website systems more efficiently, not to track your movement through the internet or to record private information about you.

All cookies will be immediately lost when you end your internet session or shut down your computer. Our copy of your information will be automatically deleted twenty minutes after you last used the system. This information is only used to help you use our website systems more efficiently, not to track your movements through the internet, or to record private information about you. Most browsers are initial set up to accept cookies. If you would prefer, you can set your browser to reject cookies.

No attempt will be made to identify anonymous users or their browsing activities unless legally compelled to do so, such as in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's log files.

Collection of Email Addresses

When you e-mail us, or otherwise provide your email address as part of your sign in for the yourHealth blog or submission of content to this website:

• we will record your e-mail address
• we will only use your e-mail address for the purpose for which you provided it (as noted on the YourHealth website).
• it will not be added to a mailing list, unless provided by you specifically for that purpose
• we will not use your e-mail address for any other purpose unless we ask your permission first
• we will not disclose your email address without your consent
• you agree that your first name and the content of your post/comments/suggestions and/or any information you provide may be used on this website or for other health communication ( ie reports, brochures, presentations, videos etc).

Security

This site does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the Internet. Users should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the Internet.

Links to other Sites

This site contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices of other web sites and we encourage you to examine each website's privacy policy.

Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics to collect information about visitors. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies and JavaScript code to help analyze how users use the site. It anonymously tracks how our visitors interact with this website, including where they came from, what they did on the site including such things as newsletter registration. 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. Google will use this information for the purpose of compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.

Feedback

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us via the Feedback page.