Privacy
NSW Department of State and Regional Development Privacy Policy Statement
General policy
The NSW Department of State and Regional Development is committed to maintaining your privacy in accordance with the principles of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) (“the Acts”).
Within the Department’s privacy policy, a reference to information is a reference to personal information and/or health information, any reference to these types of information will be dealt with in accordance with the principles covered by the Acts.
“Personal information” is information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion. Personal information does not include information about an individual that is contained in a publicly available publication. Personal information, once it is contained in a publicly available publication, ceases to be covered by the Acts.
“Health information” is a specific type of personal information. Health information includes personal information that is information or an opinion about the physical or mental health or a disability of an individual.
The Department will only collect personal information for a lawful purpose which directly relates to our primary function as a business development agency and for obtaining feedback about the effectiveness of our services.
The Department will not collect any more information than is necessary for it to fulfil these functions, nor will the Department disclose your personal information to anyone without your consent unless legally required to do so.
Anyone engaged to collect, store or use personal information for the Department will be required to comply with the Information Protection Principles/ Health Privacy Principles of the Acts as part of their terms of engagement.
Normally we collect information voluntarily from the people concerned and they are under no obligation to provide it. However, without certain information we may be unable to provide the services you are requesting or to contact you to discuss the development of your business.
The Department takes all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal information held, be it stored in electronic or hard copy format.
Except in the circumstances set out in the Acts, you may request access to your personal information held by the Department. Access can be arranged by contacting:
The Privacy Contact Officer
Department of State and Regional Development
Level 49, MLC Centre
19 Martin Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
T: + 61 2 9338 6727
Fax: + 61 2 9338 6820
Email: privacyofficer@business.nsw.gov.au
Accuracy of information is important to us and changes or corrections to information held will be welcomed at any time.
Websites
The Department collects personal information through its websites for various purposes that relate to its role as a business development agency. The provision of your personal information is voluntary. However, if you choose not to provide your information we may not be able to forward the material that you are requesting or to contact you to discuss the development of your business.
Our websites contain numerous links to other organisations’ websites. The Department is not responsible for the information handling practices or privacy policies of those other organisations.
The Department provides you with an alternative means of contacting us other than emailing your information. Each web page on our websites contains a ‘Contact Us’ link to the phone numbers of the appropriate contact point within the Department. We strongly recommend that you write to us if information you wish to provide is highly confidential, and mark the envelope accordingly.
Information we collect
When you visit our websites, the following information will be recorded by our Internet Service Provider (ISP) for statistical purposes:
• your server address
• your top level domain name (e.g., .com, .gov, .au, etc)
• the date and time of your visit to the site
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• the type of browser used.
No attempt will be made to identify you or your browsing activities from these records except in the unlikely event of an investigation by the ISP, or where a law enforcement agency exercises a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's logs.
Your email address
We will only record your email address if you have given consent (expressed or inferred) to be included on our mailing list/s, or if you have registered to receive our range of marketing material, or accessed specific sections of our websites. Your email address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, or for a purpose directly related to the original purpose, unless you agree otherwise and, unless legally required to do so, we will not disclose it without your consent.
We only send our email newsletters to people who have given consent (expressed or inferred) to receive them. Once you are on one of our mailing databases, you can easily unsubscribe. Each enewsletter provides clear instructions on how to unsubscribe. Please also advise the Department if you wish to unsubscribe from more then one enewsletter or publication.
If you change email addresses please let us know so we can redirect your email to your new address.
Cookies
Our sites may initiate cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is created on your computer’s hard drive by a host website. They record your preferences in relation to your use of a site and provide us with other information about your enquiry that allows us to recognise you in the future. The cookies on our sites do not read the information on your hard drive. They do not make your computer perform any actions or make your computer send information to any other computer via the Internet.
Our cookies can make your next visit to our website simpler and easier. You may wish to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to allow it on to your hard drive. However, if you decide to not accept our cookies, some of our web pages may not display properly or you may not be permitted to access certain information.
Spam
As part of the Department’s commitment to maintaining your privacy, it does not condone or encourage spam.
Spam is ‘unsolicited commercial electronic messaging’. People who purchase or subscribe to goods or services over the Internet or by email may attract an unsolicited electronic message or advertisement.
In accordance with the Spam Act 2003, the Department will only send commercial electronic messages with the addressee’s expressed or inferred consent to receive it. All commercial messages will have clear and accurate information about the Department as the sender and will have a functional unsubscribe facility. All requests to unsubscribe will be dealt with promptly.
Coverage
This Privacy Policy only covers the websites of the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and does not extend to websites linked to/from this site.
Security and online transactions using credit cards
The Department understands your security concerns and has developed a safe and secure environment for you to transact on-line. We use industry standard secure certificate encryption to protect your credit card information and to provide transaction security. This means that all of your personal information, including name and address and credit card number, can’t be read as it travels across the Internet from your computer to the Department’s computer or from our computer to a bank. Your credit card details are not stored in our computer system.
The Department’s computers are located in a safe and secure environment.
Complaints concerning our privacy practice
All complaints will be dealt with promptly and confidentially. Complaints concerning our privacy practices and how your personal information is used may be forwarded in writing at any time to the Privacy Contact Officer.
The Privacy Contact Officer
Department of State and Regional Development
Level 49, MLC Centre
19 Martin Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000
T: + 61 2 9338 6727
F: + 61 2 9338 6820
E: privacyofficer@business.nsw.gov.au
More information on Department's approach to privacy management is available in the Department's Privacy Management Plan. | 
