Privacy collection notice - website

The Parliament of Victoria and the parliamentary departments are committed to protecting your privacy. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act) and other relevant legislation.

When we refer to “us” or “we”, we mean each of the parliamentary departments under section 7 of the Parliamentary Administration Act 2005, being the Department of the Legislative Council, the Department of the Legislative Assembly, and the Department of Parliamentary Services.  Together, the parliamentary departments provide support, infrastructure and professional services that enable the work of the Parliament of Victoria.

This privacy collection notice applies to your access and use of websites operated by the Parliament of Victoria (ie web addresses ending in parliament.vic.gov.au) (Websites). It explains what information is collected when you visit our Websites. It may be updated from time to time.

Except as outlined in the relevant Privacy Statement, this privacy collection notice does not apply to e-petitions, submissions to Parliamentary Committees or public interest disclosures. For information about how your personal information is handled when you start or sign an e-petition, see the Privacy Statement - Petitions. For information about the submission process to Parliamentary Committees, please refer to Guidance for making a submission. For more information about how to make a public interest disclosure, see Public Interest Disclosures.

For information about our broader privacy practices and how we handle personal information generally, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

The terms personal information, sensitive information and health information have the same meanings as in our Privacy Policy. In this collection notice, any reference to personal information is also a reference to health information and sensitive information unless otherwise stated.

We collect three types of information when you visit or use our Websites:

1. website statistics using web analytics data;
2. website server logs; and
3. other information provided by users, including personal information.

Website statistics

Website statistics are collected from your use of our Websites. This data may include personal information including your internet protocol (IP) address, the date and time stamp of your visit, data about your interaction with our Websites, as well as data collected from our use of cookies and similar technologies.

We use various website analytical and user survey tools to track your use of our website. For more information about how these tools operate, the information collected and how you may opt-out, please refer to Why we collect your information and Cookies and similar technology.

Web server logs

Whenever you attempt to access a page on our Websites, our server automatically records information relating to your use of the system. This information may include personal information including but not limited to your IP address, the date and time of your visit, pages or documents accessed during the visit and other browser related information such as cookies and type of browser used. This information is automatically and temporarily kept in our server logs for the purpose of website maintenance and security.

Information provided by users of our Websites, including personal information

Information, including personal information, may be collected directly from you from your interaction with us through our Websites, including through our e-petition process, online forms, online newsletter subscriptions, events and training registration and website feedback. This information may include your name, postal address, email address, job title and telephone number.

For further detail about how we handle personal information as part of the e-petition process, see the Privacy Statement - Petitions.

In some cases, we may collect your information indirectly. This may occur if another person includes your information when completing our online forms or where we collect information through social media and external websites.

We do not ordinarily ask you to provide sensitive or health information, but we may collect it if you include it in your feedback on our online forms or through the e-petition process.

You may interact with the Parliament of Victoria and the parliamentary departments anonymously via our Websites where it is lawful and practicable to do so.

Our online forms set out the information we need from you. In some instances our forms will have mandatory fields and you will not be able to submit your form without providing all the relevant information. However, in most instances you will be able to proceed without filling in the entire form. In those circumstances it may not be possible for us to provide you with information, respond to feedback or a complaint, provide services or support, or perform our functions or activities unless we can identify or contact you.

Our Websites include links to other external websites operated by third parties. Where you access links to websites or services that are not part of the parliament.vic.gov.au domain, including individual websites operated by Members of Parliament, you will be leaving our Websites, and going to a web page controlled by a third party.

This privacy collection notice does not apply to those websites. Information collected on those third party websites will be managed in accordance with the third party’s own privacy policies.  

Our Websites also includes embedded videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or JW Player, which may result in these third parties collecting personal information. Whenever you attempt to access a page on our Websites that has embedded video, the third party’s web server receives information that it needs to deliver the video and video player to you. This includes information about your computer, including its IP address.

Website statistics

We use various website analytical and user survey tools to track your use of our website, including Google Analytics, JW Player Analytics and HotJar. These track site usage across our Websites. Our purpose in collecting usage data is to better understand how our visitors use our Websites and to use this information to improve the quality of services we provide.

Website server logs

This information is automatically and temporarily kept in our server logs for the purpose of website maintenance and security. The information collected will only be used for the purpose of operating, maintaining and improving our services to you or as otherwise required by law. If you do not want this information to be collected, you should not access our Websites. You may still access our services by contacting us by phone.

Other information, including personal information

We may also collect other information that we ask you to provide or that you choose to give us when you interact with us on this Website. This may include personal information such as your name, email address or other contact details. We collect your information so that we can:

• deliver our online services to you and improve your user experience
• provide you with email news alerts, updates and news from the Parliament of Victoria
• investigate and respond to enquiries, feedback or complaints
• register you for community engagement activities and other events, tours and training, and
• any other purposes which we notify you of at the time of collection.

If you provide user feedback on our Website, we will collect this information and we may use the information we collect about your visit to help us understand the issues that lead to your feedback. This is done to get the best possible understanding of your user experience in order to improve the services we provide. 

Your personal information and (if collected) health information may be used by and disclosed to employees or contractors of the parliamentary departments who are required to use it in the course of performing their duties, including our communications, community engagement and IT service providers.

We do not share personal information about individual social media users or users of our Websites with any organisation or person outside of the parliamentary departments, except:

• where the information was collected for a service that is delivered by a third party on our behalf. For example, if you sign up for our newsletter, we will share your email address with Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor, and if you sign up to events or training delivered by a third party, we will share your details with whoever is delivering the event or training for us; or
• for the purpose of an investigation into suspected unlawful activity involving our Websites (for example, hacking or online fraud).

Your email address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, and it will not be shared with third parties or added to a mailing list without your consent.

As outlined above, we use various website analytical and user survey tools to track your use of our Websites and to help us improve your user experience, including Google Analytics, JW Player Analytics and HotJar. These service providers may use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to collect or receive information to evaluate your use of our Websites, compile reports on website activity for us and provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

These service providers may also transfer website usage data they collect to third parties where required to do so by law, or where the third parties process the information on their behalf.

Disabling cookies or opting out of tracking

Cookies used by our Websites are enabled by default because of their integration into delivering website functionality.

You can choose to refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser or opt out of being tracked by website analytical tools by enabling tracking prevention in your browser. You will need to customise each web browser you use to turn off cookie tracking. Further information about cookies and tracking is available from the Australian eSafety Commissioner’s website: www.esafety.gov.au.

If you opt out of using cookies and tracking information, you will still have access to all the information and resources on our Websites, but there may be some limited impact to functionality.

You may request access to, or correction of, your personal information which is in our possession in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this privacy collection notice, please contact us by email at PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au.

Contact: PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au

This collection notice was last updated on 4 July 2023.