Website Privacy Collection Notice

Our Commitment

Western Downs Regional Council is committed to the protection of your right to privacy. As evidence of this commitment, we have developed and implemented this Privacy Policy for our organisation.

When you visit Western Downs Regional Council’s internet site, the computer programs that run the site record the following information about your access to the site:

  • your IP or service’s address
  • the date and time of your access;
  • the pages that you viewed on the site;
  • your operating system (for example Windows 10, Mac OS X);
  • your web browser version and type;
  • the time taken to transmit information to you;
  • the previous internet site you visited before Council’s site.

Western Downs Regional Council uses this information for statistical and website development purposes. Except for the information you specifically tell us via online forms or emails, Council does not collect any other personal information about you when you visit this site. No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except in the event of an investigation whereby the inspection of Council’s web server logs is required by law or by a law enforcement agency.


Data Quality

Western Downs Regional Council takes care to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date, and we ask that you do the same. Therefore, when you provide us with your personal information, please ensure that you spell words correctly and you provide information for all required fields. If your personal information is not accurate, complete and up to date then we may not be able to provide you with our products and services. We also ask that you contact us whenever your personal information changes or if you become aware that our records are incorrect. By contacting us we can take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is correct.


Data Security

Western Downs Regional Council has implemented security measures to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. Although we strive to protect such information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us electronically or any information which we, with your expressed or implied consent, transmit to you electronically. Consequently, such transmissions are carried out at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we take reasonable steps to preserve the security of the information in our own system.


Online Surveys

Western Downs Regional Council will, from time to time, offer residents and community members the option to comment on its plans or direction. Where possible, personal information will not be collected however, where it is, it will only be used for the purpose stated in the survey. Your personal details will not be passed onto a third party without your consent.


Collection of personal information online feedback form

Council provides an online feedback form and email service on this site as a method of receiving enquiries, requests, complaints and compliments. Correspondence sent to email addresses on this site, or information submitted via web forms on this site, will be treated as a public record and be retained as required by the Public Records Act 2002 and other relevant legislation.

Any personal information contained in emails or web forms will only be used for the purpose of allowing Council officers to contact you in regard to your request, enquiry, complaint or compliment. Email messages may be monitored by our information technology staff for system trouble-shooting, security 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.

We do not use cookies to collect personal information or to track your activities.

Council 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 information generated by the cooking 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 includes:

  • The number of visitors to WDRC's website.
  • How visitors arrive at WDRC’s website, for example, did they type the address in directly, follow a link from another web page, or arrive via a search engine?
  • The number of times each page is viewed and for how long.
  • Time and date of visit
  • Geographical location of the visitor
  • Information about what browser was used to view the WDRC’s website and the operating system of the computer.
  • Information about whether the browser supports Java and Flash
  • The speed of the user's internet connection

Searches

Search terms that you enter when using our search engine are collected, but are not associated with any other information that we collect. We use these search terms to ascertain what people are looking for at our site, and to improve the services that we provide.


Links to other sites

This website contains links to other websites. Council is not responsible for the content and privacy practices of other websites and recommends that you read the applicable Privacy Policy of the third-party site.


Contact

If you have any queries about Council’s privacy and security practices or any personal information about you held by Council, please contact Council.