Your privacy

At or before the time that you provide to, or make available on, the Office of the Public Advocate’s website any personal information about another person the Office of the Public Advocate relies upon you to take reasonable steps to ensure that the person is aware:

• that such information will or has been provided to the Office of the Public Advocate
• how the person can access his or her information
• the purposes for which the information was provided to the Office of the Public Advocate
• to whom the Office of the Public Advocate usually discloses information of that kind
• any law that requires the information to be provided to the Office of the Public Advocate
• the main consequences (if any) for the person if all or part of the information is not provided to the Office of the Public Advocate

You are not required to make a person aware of the above matters where doing so would pose a serious threat to the life or health of any person or would involve the disclosure of information given in confidence.

The Office of the Public Advocate may disclose personal information collected through its website in order to perform its duties under the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019.

The Office of the Public Advocate complies with the Health Records Act 2001 and Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. Accordingly, the Office of the Public Advocate will not use or disclose any personal information that it collects through its website unless the use or disclosure is:

• for the primary purpose for which the information was collected
• for a secondary purpose related or directly related to the primary purpose for which the information was collected and which the person would reasonably expect
• 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).

The Office of the Public Advocate will not use any of your personal information that it collects through its website to add you to a mailing list without your consent.

The Office of Public Advocate has implemented technology and security policies to protect the personal information which it collects through its website. When accessing or using any of the Office of Public Advocate’s website you should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. While the Office of Public Advocate strives to protect such information, it cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted over the Internet and you do so at your own risk. If you are concerned about providing sensitive information to the Office of Public Advocate over the Internet, you might prefer to contact the Office of Public Advocate by telephone or mail. The Office of Public Advocate uses SSL encryption where necessary to protect personal information which is provided to its website.

The Office of Public Advocate takes reasonable steps to protect personal information collected through its website from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. The Office of Public Advocate will also take reasonable steps to remove personal information from its system where it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected or any other purpose (including archiving) which is permitted in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).

The Office of the Public Advocate uses web analytics software to collect usage statistics for its website. This information is not used by the Office of the Public Advocate to identify you or match your identity with any of your personal information.

Clickstream data

The following non-personal information may be automatically recorded by the web server of the Office of the Public Advocate’s website for statistical and system administration purposes:

• your server address
• your top-level domain name (e.g. .com, .au, .gov)
• the date and the time of your visit to the site
• the pages you accessed and downloaded
• the address of the last site you visited
• your operating system
• the type of browser you are using.

To the extent that any clickstream data could make you identifiable, the Office of the Public Advocate will not attempt to identify you from such clickstream data unless necessary for the investigation of unlawful activity or otherwise permitted under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic).

Cookies

The Office of the Public Advocate website may use cookies from time to time. Cookies are small data files that a website places on a user's hard drive to record aspects of that user's experience of the website. Cookies are not used to identify you or record any of your personal information. The default settings of your browser may allow some or all cookies, but you can easily take steps to erase cookies from your hard-drive, block all cookies or receive a warning before a cookie is stored on your hard-drive. However, a website may not function fully if you disallow cookies.

Web beacons

The Office of the Public Advocate may use web beacons to record usage statistics for its website. Web beacons are not used by the Office of the Public Advocate to identify you or record any of your personal information.

The Office of the Public Advocate
Level 1, 204 Lygon Street
Carlton Victoria 3053
Phone: 1300 309 337
Fax: 1300 787 510