Privacy
Privacy Statement
This statement applies to the Victorian Ombudsman. It applies to the handling of information outlined in our Privacy Policy .
If you are directed to another website from this one, we recommend you read their privacy statement.
If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please contact:
Privacy Officer
Victorian Ombudsman Level 2, 570 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Email: legal@ombudsman.vic.gov.au
Tel: 1800 806 314
Our commitment and obligations
The Victorian Ombudsman values your privacy and personal information.
Personal information provided by you will not be disclosed other than when this is consistent with the principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and other applicable legislation.
Your information is only used to perform the functions of the Ombudsman, including enquiring into and/or investigating:
- complaints about actions of state and local organisations
- public interest complaints about the behaviour of publicly funded people in these organisations.
How we collect information
If you choose to provide personal information, it is treated as confidential. Your information could be collected by you making a complaint using our online form or signing up to an event, newsletter or social media account.
Forms
Information submitted through the online complaints form is collected and stored by this office in a database. Personal details from complaints made by email or telephone may also be stored within the same database.
Your complaint and contact details may be forwarded to another person or organisation for action. This would be for the purposes of investigating and considering the complaint.
If you make a complaint and do not want to be identified to a person or organisation at all, you should request this at the time of your complaint. You can also make a complaint without identifying yourself to us. However, if you are anonymous, we will not be able to get in touch for more details or let you know the outcome.
Subscriptions
In subscribing to receive email alerts when we publish new content, you are providing us with personal information.
You are only required to provide your first name, last name and an email address.
This information will be stored in our distribution list database hosted by Microsoft Dynamics 365. We will only use this information to send email updates to you.
We allow you to select what content you'd like to receive from us. You can review those preferences or unsubscribe at any time.
We will not disclose your personal information to any other individual or organisation for any other purpose without your consent.
Email hosting account managed by the Victorian Ombudsman: Microsoft Dynamics 365 .
Survey
The office uses third-party vendor EY Sweeney to manage our Complainant Satisfaction Survey . This is a voluntary survey. Your information will only be used with your permission for the purpose of this survey.
Training registration
If you submit a registration or query about our educational programs, your information may be used for the purposes of responding to you about that program.
Social Media
We use social networking sites to communicate with the public. We may collect, use and disclose any personal information provided on these sites for the purposes of engaging and consulting with the public and for other related or lawful purposes.
We will not respond publicly to comments and posts on the Victorian Ombudsman’s social networking sites that contain confidential or personal details, such as messages in relation to a possible complaint. In those instances, you should direct your complaint or enquiry to the Victorian Ombudsman using a more secure method, such as those described on our website. We discourage the use of direct messaging and aim to prevent electronic spam.
Most of your activity on social media is accessible to anyone using the same channel. We do not have control over these settings. We recommend that you check the privacy settings of your social media accounts to understand what information you are making public.
Social media accounts managed by the Victorian Ombudsman:
Automatic collection of information
We use Google Analytics to understand broadly how people are using our website to inform improvements. We will not use this data to identify you or link it to any of your personal information.
Our web server may automatically record non-personal information for statistical and system administration purposes. This could include:
- your server address
- your top level domain name (for example, .com, .au, .gov)
- the time and date of your visit
- pages you visited or downloaded
- the last site you visited
- what operating system and browser you used.
Cookies
Some websites and services use cookies, which are small data files that are placed on your device to track your activity. Cookies do not store personal information but in some cases could be used to identify you or your device.
Third parties (like Google and Facebook) may use cookies, web beacons and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from visitors to our and other sites. They use this information to provide measurement services and targeted ads across platforms. It does not include any information you provide when making a complaint or other submission via our website.
Most browser settings allow cookies by default, but you can easily remove or block them. You can also tell Google or Facebook you would like to opt out of personalised ads or request it in one click across multiple platforms.
Associated risks
There are risks in transmitting information across the internet, including viruses or other harmful components. We have technology and security policies to protect information handled in this office but cannot fully ensure the security of any information transmitted to us online.
If you are concerned about conveying sensitive material to us over the Internet, you might prefer to contact us by telephone or mail.
Access and management of personal information
Your personal information will be removed where it is no longer required, except where archiving is required and in compliance with the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic).
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is accurate, complete and up to date whenever the Ombudsman collects, discloses or uses it.
You can request to make a correction of your personal information, contained in a document held by the Ombudsman, by submitting a request to our Privacy Officer (see top of this page for details).
In some cases, requests for access or correction will be handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic). More information about this can be found at Freedom of Information | Victorian Ombudsman