Overview (Privacy Statement)
Information given by a client to the Department of Housing will not be disclosed to members of the public. It will be kept confidential.
Information about a client may be passed between employees of the Department where it is required in the normal course of their duties.
The Department of Housing will only provide an individual's personal information to external organisations where there is a lawful reason to do so or, where an exemption has been granted and is documented in the Department of Housing's 'Privacy Code of Practice' or, there is a current signed authority. The Department’s privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.
The Department will disclose income details of household members to the applicant so that the applicant knows if their household's income is affecting their ongoing eligibility for public housing. The Department will disclose income details of household members to the tenant because household income affects the amount of rental subsidy a tenant is entitled to receive.
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What information do we collect?
When you look at the pages on the Department of Housing’s website, our computers 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 visited; and
- the type of browser and operating system you have used.
How do we use the information collected?
The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for the Department to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving our site and the services offered on it.
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What exceptions are there to this rule?
The Department of Housing will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:
- unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published Department of Housing pages;
- unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Department of Housing site;
- unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Department of Housing site by other sites;
- attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Department of Housing site;
- 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 Department of Housing site by other users.
The Department of Housing reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the Department’s site raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed.
In the event of an investigation, the Department will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.
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Is the information stored securely?
Yes. Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by The Department of Housing 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 Department?
The Department of Housing captures this information on its own computers. Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in the Department for the purpose of analysis and to report on the success of the Department in meeting its communication and access objectives.
Staff may disclose an individual's personal information in joint meetings with other agencies where a Service Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding or similar document is in place and the 'Privacy Act' or 'Code' permits the disclosure, or when seeking the professional opinion of another staff member. However, they will withhold personal information that is not relevant to the matter being discussed.
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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.
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