Website Privacy Statement

Welcome to the Macedon Ranges Shire Council website. We are committed to protecting the privacy of people using this website. We understand that visitors and users of this website are concerned about their privacy, and the confidentiality and security of any information that is provided.

Information collected on this website

Unless you specifically tell us, the Macedon Ranges Shire Council website will never know who you are.

When you visit the Macedon Ranges Shire Council website our internet service provider's web logs record anonymous information for statistical purposes only. This information includes the type of browser you are using and your traffic patterns through our site such as:

  • the date and time of your visit to the site
  • the pages you accessed and documents downloaded
  • the previous page you visited prior to accessing our site
  • the Internet address of the server accessing our site.

Tender downloads and personal data collection

When you select the Tender download link on this website, you will be redirected to another website where you are requires you to fill in your contact details prior to downloading the document file. Only upon completion of the form will you be allowed to download the associated Tender files.

Why are your details required for tender downloads?

Tender addendums need to be sent to people that have downloaded the original tender document files. This is to ensure that they have the correct and most current information upon which to base their decisions.

When tender addendums are published, an email will automatically be sent to all people that have downloaded the original tender advising them of the addendum. The addendum document will be attached to the email. If the email is not received by the intended recipient, it will be returned to the email address contained in email notification for the tender notice. A report of these emails can be produced and is visible only to Macedon Ranges Shire Council website administrators and relevant Council officers.

Circumstances where we will attempt to identify your personal details

  • In the event of an investigation when a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's or Macedon Ranges Shire Council's web logs.
  • If you choose to download information from the Tender section of the Macedon Ranges Shire Council website.
  • If you choose to request information from Macedon Ranges Shire Council on the topics of your choice.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council will not sell, trade or rent any personal information obtained from you (such as your name, credit card details, email address or physical address) to a third party without your consent, unless required to do so by law.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council reserves the right to disclose demographic and summarised information about visitors to the site, provided that this information does not in any way disclose the identity of any individual visitor.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council will only use your personal information to improve its services to you, to provide you with information you have requested, and to inform you about additional services that may be of interest to you. We may also use your personal information to provide you with notices, newsletters and updates.

No attempt is or will be made to identify your personal details except in the circumstances outlined above.

Access, correction and maintenance of personal data collection

When you submit an online form to Macedon Ranges Shire Council, you are required to provide your first name, surname, phone number and email address.

The creation date and time of your submitted form is logged.

We will not disclose your details to third parties without your consent, unless required by law.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council provides reasonable and practical access for you to identify inaccuracies in your personal information. If you provide us with personal information through the Council website, you have the right to access this data.

To request a modification, or deletion of any personal information maintained by Macedon Ranges Shire Council, you can contact us at governance@mrsc.vic.gov.au

We will, upon request, modify or delete your personal information; however, we will not be able to update or delete data that has been archived as part of our normal business operations.

We keep the personal information collected through our website as long as it is required to service your request, or until you request its deletion.

We retain non-personal information collected about your visit to our website (i.e.. browser type, domain name, pages visited) until we have completed our review and analysis of this information.

When would your email address be recorded?

Macedon Ranges Shire Council will only record your email address if you send us a message. Your email address will only be used or disclosed for the purpose for which you have provided it and it will not be added to a mailing list or used or disclosed for any other purpose without your consent.

Email correspondence sent to Macedon Ranges Shire Council will be archived in accordance with council processes and will be retained as required by council policies and other relevant regulations. Once these processes, policies and regulations are satisfied, archived email correspondence will be destroyed.

We will not add any details to a mailing list without your consent, and we will not disclose your details to third parties without your consent, unless required by law. We will disclose your email details to the relevant authorities if necessary to protect the safety of the public or to protect the rights and property of Macedon Ranges Shire Council.

Our internet service provider may monitor email traffic for system trouble-shooting and maintenance purposes only.

Changes to this Website Privacy Statement

We may modify or amend this statement from time-to-time. For substantial changes, we will notify you by placing prominent notice on our homepage.

Changes will not affect our use of previously provided personal information. No personal information provided by you under the terms of this statement (or any prior version of this statement) will be used in a manner that is materially inconsistent with it, without your prior written permission.

Security

Macedon Ranges Shire Council will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep any information we hold about you secure. Macedon Ranges Shire Council employees are also obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held and not disclose such unless required to do so by law. Contracted service providers who undertake duties upon Council's behalf are required to act within the same privacy guidelines as Council staff.

This site does provide facilities for securely transmitting information across the internet. Our credit card authentication process makes use of the same technology used by major banks. When you make a payment, your details are encoded using 128bit encryption before being transmitted to Macedon Ranges Shire Council, then stored on a computer that is not accessible from the internet.

We recognise that there can be risks with transmitting information across the internet and recommend users do not submit data if they feel they do not have a clear understanding about transmitting information procedures on the internet.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council is not liable for events or consequences arising from unauthorised access to your personal information. We ask you to keep your contact details and passwords confidential.

External links

This site contains links to non-Macedon Ranges Shire Council websites. Macedon Ranges Shire Council is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of such websites.

Clickstream data

Clickstream data is a virtual trail that a user leaves behind while surfing the internet. This is beyond the control of Macedon Ranges Shire Council.

A clickstream is a record of a user's activity on the internet, including every web site and every page of every web site that the user visits, how long the user was on a page or site, in what order the pages were visited, any newsgroups that the user participates in and even the email addresses of mail that the user sends and receives. Both internet service providers and individual web sites are capable of tracking a user's clickstream. Clickstream data is becoming increasingly valuable to internet marketers and advertisers. It is also useful for statistical purposes.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council will not attempt to identify you from clickstream data unless required by law or to assist in law enforcement.

Use of web beacons

This website does not use web beacons, which are also known as a web bug, pixel tag or a clear GIF, and can monitor the behaviour of the user visiting the website or sending email.

Web beacons are typically used by a third-party to monitor the activity of a site.

Use of cookies

This website does use cookies.

This website uses session-based cookies which gather information about the website pages that users visit but does not store information about the user. This helps to make navigation of the site quicker and easier and provides our website administrator with non-personal statistical information – such as the pages most frequently visited. This cookie is destroyed when the users internet session is finished.

NOTE: Some third party sites linked from the Macedon Ranges Shire Council website do use persistent cookies. Macedon Ranges Shire Council is not responsible, liable or in any way associated with these cookies.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a piece of information that an internet website sends to your browser when you access information at that site. Each time you use your computer to access that same website, the information that was previously received is sent back to the website by your browser. Most commonly used browsers support the use of cookies but can also allow users to reject a cookie.

How do you avoid Cookies?

Many web surfers object to having files, like cookies, placed onto their hard drive without their permission. There are various things you can do to avoid cookies if you do not trust them, these include:

  • Setting the browser cookie file to be 'read only'. Whether you can do this or not may depend on what sort of operating system or browser you are using. If you can do this, then the cookies will only last for as long as your browser is running.
  • Set up your computer to delete the cookies file whenever you start your browser.
  • Many browsers allow you to set them up so that you are notified when a cookie is to be written to your computer. However there may be instances where there are so many cookies that it becomes annoying to reject them all.
  • Install a software product which will reject or manage cookies for you. These include Cookie Crusher, Cookie Pal and Cookie Cruncher. You can perform an internet search to find them.
  • NOTE: If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of Macedon Ranges Shire Council's website features.

Acceptance

By using www.mrsc.vic.gov.au, you signify your acceptance of this policy, as amended from time-to-time in accordance with changes to Macedon Ranges Shire Council's Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions contained in this policy, do not access this website.