Privacy policy
The Taxi Services Commission ("Commission") will protect the information it collects by complying with its obligations under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) and other relevant privacy laws. Protecting your privacy and your personal information is an important aspect of the way we create, organise and implement our activities on-line and off-line.
In this Statement, 'personal information' means information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion (excluding information to which the Health Records Act 2001 applies). Personal information about you therefore includes your name, your telephone number, your email address and your postal address.
Personal information collected by the Commission
The personal information we may collect includes:
- the content of any electronic forms you submit via our website, such as for the lodging of submissions or subscription to email alert services
- any messages or comments you submit to the Commission via our website or to email addresses displayed on our website
- any comments or submissions you make to the Commission by telephone and
- any written comments or submissions you submit to the Commission by conventional mail.
While you can browse our website anonymously, without disclosing your personal information, we may not be able to provide the full range of services through our website if we are not provided with the information outlined above.
We will ask you when we need you to provide further personal information for any reason. Generally, we will only collect further personal information that is necessary for the purposes of the Inquiry.
Use and disclosure of your personal information
Your personal information may be used or disclosed for the purposes of the Inquiry. For example:
- your personal information may be reviewed and considered by the Commission
- your personal information may be used to contact you to obtain further information relevant to the Inquiry
- your personal information may be forwarded to staff members of the Commission, or its agents, contractors or advisers
- any written submissions or other information received by the Commission in response to the Inquiry (including a person's name) may be published in a public forum, such as the Commission's website, unless a request is received from that person to keep the information confidential.
Your personal information may also be used or disclosed in other ways. For example, it may be used:
- for purposes connected with the operation, administration, development or enhancement of our website
- for any other purpose required or authorised by law.
And your personal information may be disclosed:
- to organisations which provide archival, auditing, mail house, delivery, call centre, technology, research, utility or security services
- to a law enforcement agency where the Commission suspects that fraud or unlawful activity has been, is being or may be engaged in
- to third parties acting on your behalf, such as your solicitor or interpreter
- for any other purpose required or authorised by law.
Security
We have implemented technology and security policies, rules and measures to protect the personal information that we have under our control. However, you should be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the Internet. So while we strive to protect such information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us online and individuals do so at their own risk.
Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. If you are concerned about conveying sensitive material to us over the Internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or by conventional mail.
Electronic forms and email
We may preserve the content of any forms you complete or emails or other electronic messages that we receive. Any personal information contained in that message will only be used or disclosed in ways set out in the web pages themselves or in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Links to external websites
When following links to other sites from this website, we recommend that you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy practices.
Cookies
Like many sites, our website may use cookies from time to time. Cookies are small data files that a website is able to place on a user's hard drive to record aspects of that user's experience of the website. For example, we may use cookies to record that a user visited a particular section of the website, that their browsing software was a particular version, or to ensure that online applications and transactions do not require you to re-input information when moving between web pages. In this way, cookies can improve the operation of the website, and make the experience more efficient, more enjoyable or more personalised. Importantly, in depositing information on a user's computer and referring to it later in the same session (sessional) or on a subsequent visit (persistent), cookies do not need to identify the user or record any personal information.
The default settings of internet browsers may allow some or all cookies, but users can easily take steps to erase cookies from their hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. However, some parts of sites may not function fully for users that disallow cookies.
Web statistics data collection
Pages on our website may be coded with Google Analytics code. This is not apparent to the user, as the code makes use of an invisible image at the bottom of the webpage. This software stores a cookie in your browser, which contains a unique identifier, and sends information to Google. This enables Google to track the number of unique visitors to the site. In no way does this unique identifier identify a user personally. We do not and will not marry any data collected by Google with any personal information.
Access and complaints
To request access to or correction of your personal information held by the Commission, or if you have concerns regarding your privacy rights please contact us on 1800 829 444 or by email at tsc@transport.vic.gov.au