Introduction
The Australian Political Exchange Council* (the Council) is required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988. In doing so, the Council also seeks to adhere to the Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government World Wide Websites. This statement applies to personal information collected by the Council. 'Personal information' is information in any form about an identifiable, living individual.
The following explains the type of personal information that is collected by the Council, how such information is stored and used, and under what circumstances and to whom it may be disclosed. If you have any privacy concerns, you should email auspol.exchange@finance.gov.au or write to:
Executive Officer
Australian Political Exchange Council Secretariat
PO Box 4860
KINGSTON ACT 2604
Under the Privacy Act, agencies must comply with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs), which govern the way agencies collect, use, keep, secure and disclose personal information.
The following information is relevant to participants in the Council's activities.
Why does the Council collect personal information?
The Council collects personal information to enable it to conduct political exchange programs between Australia and participating countries, sponsor delegations and individual study tours, develop networks of young political leaders, engage with Council alumni, and report on its activities, including to Parliament.
What personal information is collected?
The Council collects information that may include: name, addresses, date of birth, occupation, gender, political affiliation and positions, interests, name and contact details of next of kin, curriculum vitae, medical information, airline membership, bank and passport details. Photographs of participants in Council activities are also collected.
How personal information is collected?
The Council collects personal information by, through or from:
- forms provided by participants, for example, nomination and alumni updates forms;
- telephone, postal, email and facsimile communications;
- other organisations, such as counterpart organisations and political party secretariats; and
- information obtained through media and other publicly available records.
Storage of personal information
Information is kept on files and/or in an alumni database. All records are kept in secure storage and access is on a need-to-know basis – that is, the records are only able to be accessed by persons with responsibilities for the functions for which the personal information is collected.
Use and disclosure personal information
The Council uses and discloses personal information for purposes related to conducting its political exchange programs between Australia and participating countries, sponsoring delegations and individual study tours, developing and maintaining networks of young political leaders, engaging with Council alumni, and reporting on its activities, including to the Parliament. The Council may disclose personal information in certain circumstances
that include:
- where you have consented to the personal information being disclosed;
- where you would expect personal information to be disclosed, or we have told you your personal information will be disclosed – for example, to exchange counterpart organisations, through the publication of visit reports and photographs, and by disclosing information to external service providers to assist in the provision of services; and
- where the disclosure is required or authorised by law.
Visiting our Website
Clickstream data
When you visit this website, our Internet servers make a record of your visit and log the following information for statistical purposes:
- the user's server address;
- the user's top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc);
- the date and time of the visit to the site;
- the pages accessed and documents downloaded;
- the previous site visited; and
- the type of browser used.
No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's logs.
Google Analytics
In addition to web server logs, this website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. ("Google"). Reports obtained from Google Analytics are used to help improve the efficiency and usability of
this website.
Google Analytics uses 'cookies' to gather statistics about how the website is accessed. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located outside Australia.
Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.
By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google's Privacy Policy [ ] and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable javascript, or use the opt-out service [ ] provided by Google.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file sent by the Council’s web server onto the user's web browser software when the user accesses this website. An explanation of cookies generally can be found at the site of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner [ ].
Some parts of this website may use a cookie to maintain contact through a session. The cookie allows the Australian Political Exchange Council to recognise you as an individual as you move from one page of this website to another. This cookie will expire on the close of your browser session or on the closing down of your computer. Our copy of your information will be automatically deleted within 24 hours after you last access the website. This information is analysed to show broken links in our website, bottlenecks, and other site problems. We use this information to redesign for efficiency of use. No attempt will be made to identify anonymous users or their browsing activities unless legally compelled to do so, such as in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet Service Provider's log files.
Protecting your Privacy On-line
The Internet is an insecure medium and users should be aware that there are inherent risks transmitting information across the Internet. Information submitted unencrypted via email or web forms may be at risk of being intercepted, read or modified. If you do not wish to email or send an online form to the Council, you can post mail to the
address above.
Other sites
This site contains links to other sites. The Australian Political Exchange Council is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.
Glossary
Domain name - The code for the country or type of internet connection a user comes from, such as '.com' '.gov'
'.au' '.uk'
Information Privacy Principles - 11 principles established under section 14 of the Privacy Act 1988. Commonwealth and ACT government agencies must comply with these principles in their handling of personal information in their possession. The principles can be accessed at COMLAW [ ], the legal information retrieval system owned by the Attorney General's Department [ ].
Internet Service Provider - A company or organisation that provides access to the internet for users.
Law enforcement agency - An agency of the Commonwealth or a State or Territory such as the Australian Federal Police, which exercises powers such as executing a warrant to seize documentation or goods or to search
premises etc.
*References to the Australian Political Exchange Council also refer to the Department of Finance which hosts the Council’s website.