Privacy statement

The Department of Justice and Community Safety values and is committed to protecting your privacy. We handle your personal information in accordance with applicable legislation, including the:

This privacy statement applies to information collected through this website (www.justice.vic.gov.au). It does not apply to any external websites that are linked on this website. The icon we use to let you know when you are leaving this website and visiting an external website is shown below:

This is what a link to an external website looks like

We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of external websites.

We may update this privacy statement from time to time. Any changes to this privacy statement will be published on this website.

How we collect information

When you visit this website, there are 3 main ways that we may collect information from you:

1. Requests to provide personal information

We may collect personal information that you choose to give us, or which may be required to access our services. This includes information collected via online forms, events and training registrations, or when subscribing to receive newsletters.

In most circumstances, you will know if we are collecting personal information from you because you will be asked to provide it. For example, if you submit a form to contact us through this website, we will ask you to provide your name and email address.

The information you provide by completing a form on this website is stored securely in the department’s record management system or another appropriate database.

2. Automatic collection through this website

Some personal information is automatically collected in our web server log files when you visit this website.

3. Automatic collection by third party software vendors

We use first-party cookies and JavaScript code to collect information about your visit to this website. We do this so that we can use web analytics software including:

When you visit this website, your web browser automatically sends information to these software providers. Information that may be shared with these third parties includes:

your network location and IP address
the date and time of your visit to this website
geographic location information (if enabled by user)
information about the device you used to access the website (e.g. hardware model, operating system information, app version, app usage)
the type of web browser you used (e.g. Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari) and operating system (e.g. Windows 10, Mac OS X etc.)
the details of the previous website that you came through to arrive at this website (Referring site details)
pages you visited and the time spent on each page
documents you downloaded and search terms you used
the forms you accessed on this website
a unique device identifier
a unique user identifier.

For more information on how these third party software vendors handle your personal information, please read their privacy policies.

Third party software vendors may alter how they collect and handle personal information at any time.

You can't opt out of automatic collection of web analytics data

But you can choose to disable cookies or delete any individual cookie.

If you don't want to have cookies placed on your computer, you can disable them using the privacy settings in your web browser. You will need to customise each web browser you use to turn off cookie tracking.

If you opt out of using cookies, you will still have access to all the information and resources provided by this website, though some features may not work as expected. You can still access our services by contacting us by telephone, email, or mail.

Use and disclosure of personal information

We will not use or disclose any personal information that we collect through this website unless the use or disclosure is:

for the primary purpose the information was collected
for a related secondary purpose, which you ought to reasonably expect in the circumstances
required or authorised by law
for any other purpose permitted under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) or Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).

Use of web analytics data

We use web analytics data that we collect to measure, analyse and report on how this website is being used. This information helps us to make improvements.

We may also use this information for security audits or for other security purposes.

We don't use this information to identify you or match it with any other personal information that we may collect from you, unless required to do so as part of an internal investigation or for a law enforcement-related purpose, in accordance with the PDP Act.

Your site visit data is collected under the authority of Information Privacy Principle 1.1 of the PDP Act for the purposes stated above.

Disclosure of web analytics data

In addition to the third party tools described in this privacy statement, we sometimes share web analytics data with other third parties. We make sure they keep it safe and secure through contracts and commercial agreements.

We may share this information with third parties for:

making improvements
auditing
reporting
researching
fulfilling legal obligations.

In the event of an investigation into suspected unlawful or improper activity, a law enforcement or government agency may use its legal authority to inspect our web server’s records (for example, in relation to hacking or abusive messages).

Security of personal information

Under the PDP Act, we have a responsibility to protect your personal information.

We take reasonable steps to make sure that your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. Access to systems, applications, and the information that we collect is limited to authorised staff members only.

Any personal information that we collect and use for identifying user trends is anonymised and aggregated when generating reports.

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 via the details below.

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 about the handling of personal information by the department please contact:

Information Privacy Unit
Department of Justice and Community Safety
GPO Box 4356
Melbourne VIC 3001
Tel: 03 8684 0178
Email: privacy@justice.vic.gov.au