Privacy statement
• What happens to your personal information
Website privacy and security statement
Sunshine Coast Health Institute (SCHI) is committed to protecting the privacy of our website users. We understand and appreciate that visitors to, and users of, this website, are concerned about their privacy and the confidentiality and security of information they provide to us.
As a general rule, we do not collect information that can directly identify you when you visit our site. When you visit our site to read or download information, our web measurement tool and Internet Service Providers record the following information only for statistical purposes:
• your server and IP address
• the name of the top level domain (for
example, .gov, .com, .edu, .au)
• the type of browser used
• the date and time you accessed the site
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site you visited.
These statistics provide information to assist us to make improvements to the content and structure of our website.
We collect personal information via online forms or by email communications for the purposes of, for example, registration for community advisory groups.
Email correspondence
Your email address details will not be added to a mailing list nor will we disclose these details to third parties without your consent, unless required by law. Email messages may be monitored by our information technology staff for system trouble-shooting and maintenance purposes.
Cookies
Cookies are text files that a website can transfer to your computer when you access information on that site. Cookies allow websites to recognise you as you browse their website.
SCHI uses Google Analytics to gather statistics about how the website is accessed. Google Analytics uses cookies to gather information for the purpose of providing statistical reporting. The cookies do not collect information that can directly identify you.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located outside of Australia. No personally identifying information is recorded or provided to Google.
Information gathered using the Google Analytics cookie is used for the purpose of determining:
• the number of visitors to the SCHI website
• how visitors arrive at the SCHI website, for example, did they
type the address in directly, follow a link from another webpage,
or arrive via a search engine?
• the number of times each page is viewed and for how long
• time and date of visits
• geographical location of visitors
• information about what browsers are used to view the SCHI’s
website and the operating system of the computers or devices
• whether these browsers supports Java and Flash
• the speed of the user’s internet connection.
This information is used to refine and improve the SCHI’s online service delivery and in turn the community’s online experience.
View a Google Analytics example report (PDF, 106 KB)
Public records
Email correspondence, blog comments and information provided via webforms can constitute public records and can be retained as required by the Public Records Act 2002 and other relevant legislation.
Use and disclosure
We will only use personal information collected via our website for the purposes for which it was given to us and/or for related, internal management purposes.
We do not disclose your personal information to other government agencies, organisations or anyone else unless one of the following applies:
• you consented to the disclosure
• you would have a reasonable expectation that your personal information would be disclosed
• it is required or authorised by law
• it will prevent or lessen a serious threat to somebody’s life or health; and
• the disclosure is reasonably necessary for a law enforcement activity.
Security
We take strong precautions to protect the personal information we hold concerning you from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, and against other misuse. However, please be aware we do not provide a mechanism for securing the transmission of information across the Internet.
Links to other sites
This website contains links to other websites. SCHI is not responsible for the content and privacy practices of other websites.
Legislation
Queensland legislation which provides privacy and confidentiality protections for personal information include:
• Information Privacy Act 2009 (PDF, 850 KB)
• Information Privacy Regulation 2009 (PDF, 262 KB)