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City of Wollongong

Privacy

Wollongong City Council is committed to protecting your personal privacy information collected by Council in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act) and Council’s Privacy Management Plan PDF, 374.46 KB (PMP). The PPIP and PMP outline how we manage personal and health information in accordance with NSW Privacy Laws.

Personal information is information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

You may make application for access or amendment to information held by Council. You may also make a request that Council suppress your personal information from a public register. Council will consider any such application in accordance with relevant legislation.

Council will store your personal information in an appropriately secure format and will hold it for archival purposes in accordance with relevant legislation.  If the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected, it will be deleted.

Council engages a number of service providers who provide software, website, internet services and computer systems through which Council may collect, store or process your personal information. On occasion our providers may have access to your personal information to facilitate services on behalf of Council. Council ensures that our providers adhere to the same legislative requirements in relation to Privacy as well as our Privacy Management Plan PDF, 374.46 KB.

Under the PPIP Act you have the right to access or amend your personal information held by Council.

You can also make a request that Council suppress your personal information from a public register. Council will consider any such application in accordance with relevant legislation.

The PPIP Act does not allow disclosure of information about other people. If you are looking for access to information that relates to someone else, the application must be made under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009. See our Access to Information page for details about that process.

Application forms

If you believe Council has not handled your personal information appropriately, you can lodge an application for a review. There are two options as follows.

Please note, you must lodge an internal review with Council before you are entitled to apply for an external review.

Internal review

Council will advise and consult with the NSW Privacy Commissioner and you will be informed in writing of the result of Council’s review.

Use the form below and return it to Council to as for an internal review.

Privacy Complaint: Internal Review Application Form

If you are unhappy with the result of the internal review, you can apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) for a review of the conduct or decision.

External review

Use the forms below to make a complaint or request a review through the Information Commissioner.

1. Application for External Review by the Information Commissioner
Use this form if you are applying for an external review by the Information Commissioner of a reviewable decision under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act).

2. Complaint to the Information Commissioner
Use this form if your complaint concerns the conduct (action or inaction) of an agency in exercising its function under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA Act).

Visit the Information and Privacy Commission website for more information about privacy complaints.

In accordance with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, any submission you make to Council, including any personal information such as your name and address, will be made available for public inspection and may be exhibited on Council’s website.

You can request that Council suppress the personal information in your submission from public inspection, if you consider that the personal safety of any person would be affected if the information was not suppressed. Please see the 'How to access, amend and review personal information' section of this page for details.

You can also make an anonymous submission, however if you choose to do so Council will be unable to contact you about the outcome of your submission. It should also be noted that the lack of information about your place of living may affect Council's consideration of the potential impact of the subject proposal.

Note: If Council receives a submission from any person who is legally required to provide a disclosure of any reportable political donation and / or gift under section 10.4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, Council is legally required to publicly disclose all relevant details of the reportable political donation or gift onto Council's website. This will include the name and residential address of the person who provided the political donation or gift onto Council's website for full viewing by the general public.

If you are 16 years old or under, you need to get your parent or guardian’s permission before you provide personal information to this website.

When you interact with Council’s website, Council will collect the following information using its information technology systems:

Computer information:

  • IP and server addresses of the computer you use to access Council’s website
  • browser type and operating system you use
  • date, time and duration of your visit to the site
  • pages visited
  • documents downloaded.

Subscriptions and service requests:

  • email address you provide for email newsletters
  • other personal information provided in order to provide services online.

User feedback:

  • Provision of feedback is always voluntary and does not affect access to the website.

The personal information collected on this site will only be used by Council and its service provider for lawful purposes directly related to the process or service you are interacting with, and also for the purposes of improving its website and services.  Council will not use your personal information for any other purpose without first seeking your permission.

No personal information will be disclosed or published without your consent in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, unless otherwise required by law.

Links to other websites

Council’s website contains links to other sites. Council has no control over third party websites and is not responsible for their contents or privacy policies.

Before disclosing your personal information on any other website, you should make yourself familiar with the privacy policy of that website.

Cookies

Council uses 'cookie' technology to collect additional website usage data and to improve its services.

A cookie is a small piece of text sent to your browser by Council’s website. This helps your website to remember your preferences and it makes your next visit easier and the site more useful to you.

Council uses cookies for the following purposes:

  • to better understand how you interact with our services
  • to monitor aggregate usage by our users and web traffic routing on our services
  • to improve our services.

Most internet browsers automatically accept cookies. You can restrict that by editing your browser’s options to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit.

Website analytics

Council uses Google Analytics to collect information about your session, web traffic data, page data and reports for Council’s website.

The data collected by Google Analytics will not personally identify you.

By viewing Council’s website, you consent to web traffic data being collected.

You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse cookies, disable JavaScript, or use the Google opt-out service.

Data Breach Response Policy

Our Data Breach Response Policy PDF, 170.39 KB outlines Council’s approach to complying with the Mandatory Notification of Data Breach (MNDB) Scheme, the roles and responsibilities for reporting data breaches and strategies for containing, assessing, and managing eligible data breaches.

Data Breach Public Notification Register

Details details of the public notification for any eligible data breach within the past 12 months under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) (PPIP Act) will be listed below.

A public notification is provided when it is not reasonably practicable to notify any or all of the individuals affected by the breach directly.

There are no public notifications at this time.

If you have any enquiries concerning privacy and how your personal information is handled by Council, please call us on (02) 4227 7111.