This privacy policy is maintained by Spatial Services, a business unit within the Department of Customer Service. This policy applies to all publicly accessible pages located at www.spatial.nsw.gov.au, Spatial Services Customer Hub and other Spatial Services platforms.
Spatial Services is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third-party sites linked to Spatial Services platforms.
Users of Spatial Services sites can expect that any information collected because of that use, will be treated within the terms of the NSW Government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The NSW Government's privacy practices are regulated by the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.
Spatial Services website
The information Spatial Services collects
On this website, for each page accessed, Spatial Services computers automatically record information that identifies:
- The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed the website
- 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
- 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. Cookies do not personally identify you but do identify your browser and 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.
This site uses session cookies which records your preferences in relation to your use of the site and helps Spatial Services 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 and do not make your computer perform any actions or make your computer send information to any other computer via the internet. Spatial Services makes no attempt to associate cookies with users' names or identities. Spatial Services servers cannot find out your name or email address, or anything about your computer, by using cookies.
To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
How Spatial Services use the information collected
The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports for Spatial Services to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist in improving this site and the services offered on it.
Spatial Services will not disclose or publish information that identifies individual computers, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise, in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.
Exceptions to this rule
Spatial Services will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:
- Unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published on the Spatial Services 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 or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed
- 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 site by other users.
Spatial Services 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, Spatial Services will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may execute a warrant to inspect our logs:
- Types of information that may be collected and processed
- Device-specific data.
The following information may be collected related to a device and browser:
- The IP address
- Operating system
- Browser type
- Geographic location (country only).
Secure storage of information
Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by Spatial Services for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, or there is no legal requirement for it to be retained, it is deleted.
Information provided as feedback
Spatial Services provides 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 Spatial Services. The provision of personal details on feedback is optional. Users provide personal details for the purpose of receiving a reply to their feedback.
Spatial Services may publish aggregated information about feedback on the site, to the extent that it does not identify or cannot be used to identify individual users.
Spatial Services Customer Hub
Spatial Services also collects your personal information through the Customer Hub to:
- Support the creation of user accounts for secure access to the Customer Hub
- Provide insights to improve the safety, accuracy and reliability of our data, products and services
- Support and assist in accessing and using our products and services.
What personal information is collected?
Spatial Services collects the following information from you:
- Full name
- Email address
- Username
- Contact phone number
- Home and/or mailing address
- Details of your organisation
- Any other personal information you enter during your interactions within the Customer Hub.
Are you required by law to provide us with this information?
Providing Spatial Services with the requested information is not required by law. However, if you choose not to provide this information, Spatial Services will not be able to provide you access to the Customer Hub.
How will Spatial Services use and disclose this information?
Spatial Services use the personal information collected to:
- Enable authorised secure access to the Customer Hub
- Distribute communication material, including but not limited to product and service updates and promotional material
- Engage with you to gather feedback to enhance our offerings
- Develop reports and dashboards. To protect your privacy, we will use de-identification techniques to anonymise responses if disclosed outside of Spatial Services
- Investigate any inappropriate use of the Customer Hub or Spatial Services data, or which may breach the laws of New South Wales or the Commonwealth.
Spatial Services will not disclose your personal information to any other party, unless you provide your consent, or is required or authorised to do so by law.
Further information
Spatial Services captures this information on its own computers and through the use of third-party analytical software such as Google Analytics. Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in Spatial Services for the purpose of analysis and to report on the success of the site in meeting communication and access objectives.
If you would like to access information held about you by Spatial Services or if you have any questions about this site, the application of this website-related privacy policy or a request for access to information collected through the website, visit this website or please contact:
Privacy Coordinator
Department of Customer Service
2-24 Rawson Place
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: (02) 9619 8672
You have a legal right to access and update your personal information. To learn more about how you can access or amend your personal information, please reach out to us via our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Updates to this policy
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.