This website is maintained by the New South Wales Government's Department of Education. This Privacy Policy applies to all the publicly accessible pages on this site located at www.education.nsw.gov.au.

The Department of Education does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to this site. If you have any questions about this site, or the application of this Privacy Policy or a request for access to information held please contact:

Legal Services - Privacy
Department of Education
GPO Box 33
Sydney NSW 2001

Email: legal.privacy@det.nsw.edu.au

Users of the Department of Education site are entitled to expect that any information collected as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales Government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The New South Wales Government's privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

For more information see the department's Privacy standards, which give guidance on obligations and accessing and requesting amendments to personal information.

What information do we collect?

When you look at the pages on the Department of Education site, our computers automatically record information that identifies, for each page accessed:

• the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which 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 pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited and
• the type of browser and operating system you have used.

Cookies

'Cookies' are small pieces of text data that a web server can store on, and later retrieve from, a user's computer. They do not personally identify you, but do identify your browser. 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 shut down your browser.

The Department of Education website uses persistent cookies.

They record your preferences in relation to your use of the site and provide us with other information about your enquiry that allows us to recognise your browser if you return to this website in the future. This allows the Department of Education to present information that may be most relevant to you based on your previous visits. They also help the Department of Education to understand what parts of the site users find the most useful and improve the effectiveness of the website.

The cookies on this site do not read the information on your hard drive. They do not make your computer perform any actions or make your computer send information to any other computer via the internet. The Department of Education makes no attempt to associate cookies with users' names or identities. Our server cannot find out your name or email address, or anything about your computer, by using cookies.

How we use the information collected

The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for Department of Education to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving this site and the services offered on it.

The Department of Education 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 New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

Exemptions to this rule

The Department of Education will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

• unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published Department of Education pages
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Department of Education site
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Department of Education site by other sites
• attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Department of Education site
• communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or 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 New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia, or interfere with the enjoyment of the Department of Education site by other users.

The Department of Education 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.

In the event of an investigation, the Department of Education will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Information is stored securely

Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by the Department of Education for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

What we do with information provided as feedback

The Department of Education may provide feedback facilities on this site to allow users to provide input into the future development of the site and to comment on the provision of service by the department.

Users provide personal details for the purpose of receiving a reply to their feedback. This information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. We will not add your email address or name to any mailing list.

What we do with information you provide to a ‘contact us’ form

Information you provide to the department in one of our contact us forms is used by us only for the purpose of responding to your enquiry.

Facebook Pixel use

The Department of Education uses Facebook remarketing pixels to aid in customised, targeted follow-up advertising. The department may display interest-based ads to you when you are using Facebook through Facebook's Custom Audience Tool. This tool allows us to personalise our ads based on your interests, demographics, location and any previous interactions with us.

Our website (education.nsw.gov.au) uses the Conversion Tracking Facebook Pixel to allow us to follow your actions once you have been redirected to our website via clicking on one of our Facebook ads. This assists us in recording the effectiveness of Facebook ads for reporting and market research purposes.

The data collected through the Facebook Pixel and provided to us is aggregated and remains anonymous, meaning that we cannot see the personal information of the individual user. However, the collected data is also saved and processed by Facebook and used in accordance with Facebook's Data Use Policy.

The department may also share information about your use of our website and your interactions with our Facebook ads with our trusted social media, advertising and web analytics partners, including Google Analytics and SiteImprove (website usage not reported individually).

Facebook Conversion Tracking also allows Facebook and its partners to show you advertisements on and outside Facebook. A cookie will be saved onto your computer for these purposes.

Please visit Facebook Ad Preferences if you wish to revoke your permission.

Newsletter subscriptions

The department is requesting this information from you so that we can provide you with regular updates about Department of Education activities through an email newsletter.

For the same purpose, the department may provide this information about you to a service provider contracted to distribute the email newsletter.

The department will not disclose your personal information to anybody else unless we are required to do so by law - for example if the information is needed in an emergency or for a law enforcement purpose.

Providing us with the requested information is not required by law. However if you choose not to provide us with the requested information we cannot send you the email newsletter.

The email newsletter is offered as an 'opt in' subscription. You can 'opt out' at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter.

You may request access to your information at any time. Please visit Privacy legislation if you wish to access or update your personal information.

Phishing and spam

Spam is unsolicited bulk junk emails which use up valuable space and time.

Phishing emails are potentially harmful exposing our system to viruses and other damaging applications. Department staff are requested to delete these messages.

Here are some suggestions on recognising and managing spam and phishing emails:

• If you don't recognise the sender or the subject looks suspicious, delete the message without opening it.
• Never open attachments links in messages from strangers, or even suspicious-looking messages from people that you know.
• Never reply to spam messages or attempt to contact the sender.
• Be careful who you give your email address to.
• Never confirm details like account numbers or passwords.
• If you believe the email may be genuine, contact the institution by phone and confirm its validity.

If department staff receive suspect emails from a particular address, forward a copy to abuse@det.nsw.edu.au to help improve filtering.

Policy updates over time

Due to the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication, this policy may be modified or expanded in light of new developments or issues that may arise from time to time. The amended policy will be posted to this site and will operate from the time it is posted.