Health Care Complaints Commission

Privacy statement

The Commission website is maintained by the New South Wales Government's Health Care Complaint Commission (the Commission). This privacy statement applies to all the publicly accessible pages on the Commission website located at www.hccc.nsw.gov.au

Users of the Commission site are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use will be treated in the terms of the NSW Government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. These practices are regulated by the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

This Act defines personal information as any information or opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can be readily identified from the information or opinion.

Please note, that under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act, the Commission is defined as an investigative agency and is exempted from some provisions of the Act relating to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information when performing its investigative functions.

The Commission does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to the Commission site.

Unsolicited information (automatically derived information)

When you visit our web site to read pages or download information, we automatically collect and store the following non-identifying information:

• Internet Protocol (IP address) from which you access our website
• type of browser and operating system you are using
• date and time of your visit
• pages visited and duration of visit
• last site visited, if it contains a link to our website.

We store data in system logs and use it to monitor demand and to improve access to our website. We do not track or record information about identifiable individuals and their visits. We do not use cookies ie files placed on your computer's hard drive that allow monitoring of your use of a site.

For security purposes we use software programmes to monitor network traffic and identify unauthorised attempts to upload or change information or otherwise cause damage. It is a criminal offence to interfere with computers and data. We may disclose data which provides evidence of such offences to law enforcement agencies.

Solicited information (information provided by the user)

Email messages By requesting copies of our publications or emailing us you have provided us with personal information needed to contact you. This information will be used and disclosed for the purpose of replying to you or filling your order, and is subject to the requirements of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act.

Under these Acts, you may apply to access the records we hold about you, and to apply to amend or correct information which is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date, incomplete or misleading.

Email security

Electronic mail is not a secure form of communication and the Commission cannot guarantee that your message will not be viewed by someone else when being sent to us. We strongly recommend that you write to us if the information you wish to provide is highly confidential.

Steps taken to protect your privacy

The Commission has prepared a Privacy Management Plan (PDF doc-436k) in which it describes the steps taken to protect your privacy to ensure that all Commission activities are in accordance to the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.