Excellence in Education

GOLD COAST EDUCATION AND TRAINING NETWORK PRIVACY POLICY

From December 21, 2001 the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) took effect. They relate to personal information (including information or an opinion whether true or not, whether recorded in a material form or not) about an individual whose identity is apparent or can be reasonably ascertained, from the information or opinion. It includes all personal information regardless of the source.

Under the NPPs we must commit to only collect information that is essential to provide our customers with the services they require. We must collect this information by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way.
When collecting information, we must advise the individual/entity of:

• Who we are
• Why we require the information
• How the information will be used
• How the individual can gain access to the information (at no cost) and when it will be provided
• The organisations (if any) to which we will disclose the information
• The main consequences for the individual in not providing us with this information.

An individual will always have the opportunity not to provide information to us.
However, if the withholding of information impacts upon our ability to
provide the required services to the individual, we may say so.

You are also entitled to opt out after we have provided services to you.
However, we are entitled to make reasonable use of the information
you have provided to the company for that particular period.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. Are there any times that you may disclose information without my knowledge?
A. Generally no, but if we believe that there is serious or imminent threat to an individual's life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or public safety then disclosure may be necessary.

Q. Can I get access to my information?
A. Yes, on request you can get information we hold about you except if:

• The request is frivolous or vexatious;
• The information would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals
• Providing access would be unlawful

Q. What are the 10 NPPs?
A. There are 10 NPPs which are outlined below. The following explains our response to each of the NPPs.

NATIONAL PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

NPP1 Collection of information
This relates to the information that we collect about you. It means that we will only collect information that is necessary for the company to hold to comply with relevant government bodies and to provide you with the services you require. Additionally, all information that we hold will be collected in a fair and lawful way. You will be informed of the information that we collect, why we are collecting it, who else will receive it and also the basis of our obligation to collect it.
We will also inform you of the consequences of not providing this information. We will not collect information from third parties unless you are aware that we are collecting it.

NPP2 Use and disclosure of information
We will only use the information that we collect from you for the purpose for which we collected it. Information may only be used for some other purpose if you consent (this is known as "secondary use"), though there is an exemption to this rule with regard to initial contact for direct marketing.

Your information can be used for direct marketing where obtaining your consent to use your personal information was not practicable. However, in general you will be given the opportunity to opt out with little effort or cost to you.
Where there is a serious threat to life, health or safety, using or disclosing personal information is allowed. As an organisation we will be from time to time required by law to disclose your personal information. This is allowed. Additionally, related corporations may share information.

NPP3 Data quality
This relates to collecting, using or disclosing inaccurate, incomplete or out of date personal information. Therefore we will confirm that the information we have collected from you is accurate at that point in time, however, it is not required that we check this information at other times.

NPP4 Data Security
As an organisation we will take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. Once information is no longer required for any purpose we will destroy or de-identify personal information by secure means including shredding where documents are held in paper format.

NPP5 Openness
This Privacy Policy outlines how you can access any files we hold containing your personal information.

NPP6 Access and Correction
Individuals have the right to access personal information that is held about them on request, with some exceptions. Access will not be made by phone or electronic means. The request must be in writing to the Chief Executive Officer and we will acknowledge your request within 14 days.

Generally we will be able to give you access to your information within 30 days. We would deny access to your information where it may impact on the privacy of others. If there is an existing or anticipated legal dispute or access to your information would prejudice negotiations we can also not release your information to you.

Commercially sensitive decision making processes will not be released. In any event where you have been denied access to your personal information we will as an organisation provide you with reasons for refusing access.

Where you believe that the information we hold about you is incorrect you can request for the company to update that information and we will take reasonable steps to rectify the situation. However if the information is inaccessible and never likely to be used, we are not obliged to correct it.

NPP7 Identifiers
We will not collect your Tax file Number (TFN) or use a Commonwealth Government identifier such as a Medicare number in your dealings with the company.

NPP8 Anonymity
Our work requires that all people that we deal with must be identified by name and therefore we cannot offer you the option to be anonymous.

NPP9 Transborder Data Flows
This organisation does not send information it collects about you overseas.

NPP10 Sensitive information
If you provide the company sensitive information we will require that you sign to indicate your consent to such information being collected. Sensitive information includes information about your health, political beliefs, religious beliefs and sexual preference.

COMPLAINTS HANDLING
Should you have a complaint in relation to our practices with your personal information we would like to resolve this with you directly. Please send a description of your complaint to StudyGoldCoast.

INTERNET PRIVACY STATEMENT

Information Collected

When you look at this website, our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

• your current ISP assigned IP address
• your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
• the date and time of your visit to the site
• the pages you accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site you have visited
• the type of browser you are using.

Access to Information Collected
We will not make an attempt to identify users or their browsing activities. However, in the unlikely event of an investigation, a law enforcement agency or other government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect our Internet Service Provider's logs.

Use of Information Collected
We will only record your e-mail address if you send us a message. Your e-mail address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and it will not be added to a mailing list or used for any other purpose without your consent.

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

Cookies
This web site only uses session cookies and only during a search query and our ordering system of the web site. Our Internet Service Provider has assured us that no cookies are employed on this web site except for those associated with the search engine. The web site statistics for this site are generated from the web logs as outlined above.

Upon closing your browser the session cookie set by this web site is destroyed after 1 hour and no personal information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our web site at a later date.

Cookies can be either "persistent" or "session" based. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer, contain an expiration date, and may be used to track your browsing behaviour upon return to the issuing web site. Session cookies are short-lived, are used only during a browsing session, and expire when you quit your browser.