This NSW Government website is maintained by Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation, which operates the website using the name HCCDC. HCCDC is concerned about privacy issues and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use and disclose information.
Together with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI)’s Privacy Management Plan, this Privacy Statement describes HCCDC’s practices in connection with information that we collect through the website or mobile application owned and controlled by HCCDC from which you are accessing this Privacy Statement, as well as offline where notice is legally required.
This Privacy Statement applies to all the publicly accessible pages located at site. By providing Personal Information to HCCDC, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Statement.
Users of this site are entitled to expect that any information gathered while using the site 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 New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.
Personal Information collected
HCCDC may need to collect your personal information to assist you with your transactions. We can collect personal information directly from you or someone you authorise on your behalf. We will only ask for personal information from another source in the event of an emergency.
Personal Information is information that identifies you as an individual, such as:
- Name
- Postal address (including billing and shipping addresses)
- Telephone or fax number
- Email address
We may combine Personal Information that we collect about you with Personal Information you provide to HCCDC through other sources, such as inquiries or marketing events. We will use the combined Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Statement for as long as it is combined.
How we use your Personal Information
We may use Personal Information for the below purposes, to:.
- Respond to your inquiries and fulfil your requests, such as to send you email alerts.
- Send you important information regarding the website, changes to HCCDC’s policies and/or other administrative information.
- Send you marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you, including information about events.
- Allow you to participate in sweepstakes, contests and similar promotions and to administer these activities. Some of these activities have additional rules, which could contain additional information about how we use and disclose your Personal Information, so we suggest that you read these rules carefully.
- Permit you to send messages to a friend through the website. By using this functionality, you are telling HCCDC that you are entitled to use and provide HCCDC with your friend’s name and email address.
- Allow you to communicate and interact with others through the website (for example, through a blog, messaging functionality, chat functionality, profile or other social media).
- Permit you to register and participate in events with HCCDC.
- Enable HCCDC business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, enhancing the website, developing marketing events, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of HCCDC’s promotional campaigns.
- As we believe to be necessary or appropriate:
(a) under applicable law;
(b) to comply with legal process;
(c) to respond to requests from public and government;
(d) to enforce HCCDC terms and conditions;
(e) to protect HCCDC operations;
(f) to protect HCCDC rights, privacy, safety or property, you or others; and
(g) to allow HCCDC to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
Your personal information will normally be used for the primary reason that it was collected for or a directly related secondary purpose. It may also be used in an emergency situation to help prevent a serious and imminent threat to life or health, or for law enforcement purposes, or where we are authorised or required to do so by law.
Non-Personal Information we collect
Non-Personal Information is any information that does not reveal your specific identity, such as:
- Browser information;
- Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies;
- Demographic information and other information provided by you;
- Aggregated information.
How we collect Non-personal Information
HCCDC may collect Non-Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:
- Through your browser:
Certain information is collected by most browsers, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system version and Internet browser type and version. - Using cookies:
Cookies allow a web server to transfer data to a computer for recordkeeping and other purposes. We use cookies and other technologies to, among other things, better serve you with more tailored information, to facilitate your ongoing access to and use of the Site, and to provide you with personalized marketing. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the use of cookies. Some features of the website may not work properly if you decline the use of cookies. - Using pixel tags, web beacons, clear GIFs or other similar technologies:
These may be used in connection with some website pages and HTML-formatted email messages to, among other things, track the actions of Site users and email recipients, measure the success of HCCDC marketing campaigns and compile statistics about website usage and response rates. - From you:
Information such as your location, as well as other information, such as your preferred means of communication, is collected when you voluntarily provide this information. Unless combined with Personal Information, this information does not personally identify you or any other user of the website. - By aggregating information:
Aggregated Personal Information does not personally identify you or any other user of the website, (for example, we may use Personal Information to calculate the percentage of HCCDC users who have a particular telephone area code).
How we use and disclose Non-Personal Information
Because Non-Personal Information does not personally identify you, we may use and disclose Non-Personal Information for any purpose. In some instances, we may combine Non-Personal Information with Personal Information (such as combining your name with your geographical location).
If we combine any Non-Personal Information with Personal Information, e.g., when we combine information you provide upon registration with Non-Personal Information to provide you with targeted personalized marketing, the combined information will be treated by HCCDC as Personal Information.
Google Analytics
Our website uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate individual IP addresses with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.
For more information about this, see Google's Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.
The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports so HCCDC can identify patterns of usage of the site. This assists us in improving the site and the services offered on it.
HCCDC 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.
Third Party sites
This Privacy Statement does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site to which the website contains a link. The inclusion of a link on the website does not imply endorsement of the linked site by HCCDC.
Security
HCCDC will take reasonable security measures to protect personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse. We will ensure personal information is stored securely, not kept longer than necessary, and disposed of appropriately. How we collect and handle your personal information is subject to the NSW Privacy Laws: the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.
If you have reason to believe that your interaction with HCCDC is no longer secure, please immediately notify HCCDC of the problem.
Right of access to information
Under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 you have the right to access and change your Personal Information that has been previously provided to HCCDC. If you would like to make a request to access or change the information held by the Corporation please email [email protected]. In your request, please make clear what information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your Personal Information suppressed from a HCCDC database or otherwise let HCCDC know what limitations you would like to put on HCCDC use of your Personal Information. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.
Complaints
If you feel there has been a breach of your privacy under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, you have the right to make a complaint to HCCDC or the NSW Office of Privacy Commissioner (www.privacy.nsw.gov.au).
Retention Period
We will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement unless a longer retention period is required or allowed by law.
Use of site by children
HCCDC is committed to protecting the privacy needs of children and we encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities. HCCDC does not target the website to children less than sixteen (16) years of age or knowingly collect information from children for the purpose of selling products or services.
Updates
Due to the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication, this statement may be modified or expanded in light of new developments or issues that may arise from time to time. The amended statement will be posted to the site and will operate from the time it is posted.