Privacy

The Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD), which emcompasses Regional Development Victoria (RDV), values the privacy of individual’s personal information.

DPCD is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information in compliance with the principles set out in the Information Privacy Act 2000.

Protecting your personal information is an important aspect of the way we create, organise and implement our business activities. We will only collect personal information that is necessary to perform these functions. We will only use personal information provided for the purposes for which it was collected. We will ensure that your personal information will not be disclosed to other bodies without your consent, except if required by law.

We have implemented technology and security policies, rules and measures to protect the personal information that we have under our control from unauthorised access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction and accidental loss.

We will remove personal information where it is no longer required (except where archiving is required and in compliance with the Public Records Act 1973). We will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is accurate, complete and up to date whenever DPCD collects, discloses or uses it.

The Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development hosts this website on behalf of Regional Development Victoria.

Collection and use of personal information

This website collects personal information when you:

• submit an email enquiry
• submit some types of forms

RDV staff use personal information collected from forms and email enquiries to respond to individuals and discuss their particular enquiries.  Email addresses and any other contact details you provide will not be added to a mailing list without your consent.

DPCD also collects anonymous data through its web server which includes number, time and date of visits to the site and its pages. This anonymous information is used for statistical purposes and to ensure our web site is providing information relevant to our users.

Disclosure of personal information

We will not disclose your personal information to a third party without your consent, unless we are required or authorised to do so by law or other regulation. In the event of an investigation into suspected unlawful or improper activity, a law enforcement agency or government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect the web server's records (eg. in relation to hacking or abusive messages).

Collection and use of site visit data

Cookies

This site uses 'cookies'. A cookie is a block of data that is shared between a web server and a user's browser. Cookies give the server information about a user's identity and website visiting patterns and preferences.

In using cookies, DIIRD does not record any personal information or collect names or details of commercial transactions. In addition, the Department does not use cookies as the basis for direct marketing.

Clickstream data

The following non-personal information is automatically recorded by this site's web server for statistical and system administration purposes only:

• 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 this data could make you identifiable, DIIRD will not attempt to identify individuals from the records the server automatically generates unless that is necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation.

Web beacons

A web beacon is a small graphic image that is placed on a page or in an email which is used to the behaviour of the user. They are related to both clickstream data and cookies. When the HTML code for the Web beacon points to a site to retrieve the image, at the same time it can pass along information such as the IP address of the computer that retrieved the image, the time the Web beacon was viewed and for how long, the type of browser that retrieved the image and previously set cookie values.

Web beacons are used on this site for statistical purposes only, and no attempt will be made to identify you or your browsing activity.

Web measurement service providers used by the Department

This website currently uses Google Analytics as its web monitoring service provider.

Security of your personal data

The Privacy Officer and all employees of DPCD have a statutory duty to deal with your personal information confidentially (Information Privacy Act, section 67).

This web site uses secure transmission facilities when appropriate. You should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. If you are concerned about conveying sensitive material to Skills Victoria over the Internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or mail.

Privacy Policy

Read the DPCD's Privacy Policy (Word 155 kb)

Read the DPCD's Privacy Complaint Procedure and Form (Word 67 kb)