User Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all the publicly accessible pages on the Ministry of Transport website located at www.transport.nsw.gov.au. The Ministry of Transport does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to the the Ministry of Transport website.

Users of the Ministry of Transport website are entitled to expect that any information gathered as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The New South Wales government's privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988.

What information do we collect?

When you look at the pages on the Ministry of Transport website, the computers on which the site is hosted automatically record information that identifies, for each page accessed:

the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed it;
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 or page visited;
the time you spend browsing the site; and
the type of browser and operating system you have used.

"Cookies" are not generally used on the Ministry of Transport site to track information. Nor does the Ministry of Transport generally link information automatically gathered through its website with personal data about specific individuals. (For exceptions see below.)

How do we use the information collected?

The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in statistical reports in order for the Ministry of Transport to identify usage patterns for the site. This will assist us in improving the Ministry of Transport website and the services offered on it.

The Ministry of Transport 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 1988.

What exceptions are there to this rule?

The Ministry may use "cookies" to track registered users of applications such as MyRecords. Such tracking is only conducted within the application and for registered users. Information from this tracking may be collated and held in a secure Ministry database.

The Ministry of Transport will also 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 Ministry of Transport website pages;
unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Ministry of Transport website;
unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Ministry of Transport website by other sites;
attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Ministry of Transport website;
communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed; and
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 Ministry of Transport website by other users.

The Ministry of Transport reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the Ministry of Transport website raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed.

In the event of an investigation, the Ministry of Transport will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Is the information stored securely?

Yes. Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

Who else has access to information within the Ministry?

The information is captured on the computers on which the site is hosted. Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in the Ministry of Transport for the purpose of analysis and to report on the success of the Ministry of Transport website in meeting the Ministry of Transport's communication and access objectives.

The officers who can access the raw data are members of the Information Management and Technology team of the Ministry of Transport.

Statistical reports prepared from the raw data are circulated among selected officers inside the Ministry of Transport.

What happens to the email gathered from the website?

Any email sent to the Ministry of Transport via links from the website is assessed then passed onto the most appropriate officer within the Ministry. Replies to emails, including the original message, are treated as official records and are saved and archived.

Will this policy be updated over time?

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.