Website Privacy Statement
Opt out of web analytics data collection
The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) is committed to protecting your privacy. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act) and other applicable legislation.
This privacy statement explains what information is collected when you visit our website and when you interact with us on social media.
For information about how we handle personal information more generally, please refer to our privacy policy.
Information we collect when you use the OVIC website
Web analytics data
We use Matomo Analytics to track your use of our website. When you visit our website, your web browser sends information about your device and how you use our website to our Matomo Analytics server. This server is hosted by OVIC.
We use first party cookies and device fingerprinting to recognise your device between visits. We use the information we collect to understand how our website is used, and to allow us to improve it and the resources we publish.
We use IP Anonymisation to recognise your device. This means we only collect the partial IP address of your device, not the full IP address.
We collect the city and region location of the device you use to visit our website. We do not collect your exact location.
We use Site Search to track how you use the internal search engine on our website. We collect your search keywords, the search results, and the pages you visited immediately after a search.
For more information about the sort of information we track, please refer to Matomo’s website. You can contact us if you would like to know more.
You can choose to opt out of being tracked by Matomo Analytics by switching off Analytics using the left control panel on our website or by enabling ‘Do Not Track’ in your browser. If you choose to disable tracking, you will still be able to access our website.
Web server logs
Whenever you attempt to access a page on OVIC’s website, our web server receives information that it needs to deliver the page to you. This includes information about your computer, including its internet protocol (IP) address. This information is temporarily kept in our server logs for the purpose of website maintenance and security.
If you do not want this information to be collected, you should not access OVIC’s website. You may still access our services by contacting us.
Online services
We also collect information you choose to send to us via our website. This includes personal information collected via online forms and learning modules, events and training registration, blog comments or when subscribing to receive newsletters. We collect this information for the purpose of delivering our online services to you.
When we ask you to provide personal information for an online service, we will usually provide you with a notice specific to that collection.
If you choose not to provide us with the information we need to deliver these services to you, you may not be able to access them. If you contact us we will assist you to access our services another way wherever possible.
Links to third party web pages and services
Our website includes links to pages and services provided by third parties. Where you access links to web pages or services that are not at the ovic.vic.gov.au domain, you will be leaving OVIC’s website, and going to a web page controlled by a third party. Information collected on those third party web pages will be managed in accordance with the third party’s own privacy policies.
OVIC’s online learning portal is a Learning Management System (LMS) provided by a third party, eCreators. eCreators is owned by Open LMS, which is a company within the Learning Technologies Group plc. The LMS website is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). The information you provide to register an account on the LMS, your use of the LMS, and information about your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address when you visit the LMS is stored by AWS in Sydney and can be accessed by eCreators and OVIC. Further information is available in eCreators’ privacy policy and AWS’s privacy policy.
Our website also includes embedded videos hosted on Vimeo, which may result in Vimeo collecting personal information.
Whenever you attempt to access a page on OVIC’s website that has embedded video, Vimeo’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 internet protocol (IP) address. Full details are available in Vimeo’s privacy policy.
Information we collect on social media
We use social media including Twitter and LinkedIn to communicate with the public and with the organisations we regulate. We may collect information posted on social media for the purpose of engaging with and understanding the views of the community. If you prefer not to communicate with us on social media, please contact us in another way.
Disclosure of information
We do not share information about individual website or social media users with any organisation or person outside OVIC, 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 if you sign up to privacy or FOI training, we will share your details with whoever is delivering the training for us.
- for the purpose of an investigation into suspected unlawful activity involving our website (for example, hacking or online fraud).
Access and correction
You may request access to, or correction of, documents that contain your personal information which are in our possession. For information on how to make a request for access or correction, please contact us.
In some cases, requests for access or correction will be handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic).
Contact us
For more information, you can contact us on 1300 006 842 (1300 00 OVIC) or by email at enquiries@ovic.vic.gov.au.
Privacy impact assessment
OVIC has undertaken privacy impact assessments of this website and our online learning portal.