Site visitor data

Have Your Say MidCoast collects information for statistical and system administration purposes. This includes:

• Your server (or IP) address
• Your rough geographic location
• The day and time you visited our site
• The pages that you access within Have Your Say MidCoast including how long you spend on each
• Your path through Have Your Say MidCoast (the arrangement of pages and other content that you visit)
• The operating system you use
• Any documents, images or videos that you download from the service
• The language of your browser

Have Your Say MidCoast will not attempt to identify individuals from the records the server automatically generates unless necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation.

Member registration

If you are a registered user, we may, in addition to the above data and depending on the nature of the consultation, collect the following information:

• Full name, gender, post code, address, email address and age bracket
• Username and password for Have Your Say MidCoast
• Subscription by you to other (optional) electronic communications from us
• Topics about which you have indicated an interest in being informed.

User feedback

We collect information that you provide via the Have Your Say MidCoast feedback tools. This includes comments and votes in forums, stories, surveys, interactive maps, quick polls.

Social media

If you register or log in to Have Your Say MidCoast via Facebook we will verify your details with Facebook but will not store your Facebook account information.

Links

Our privacy statement does not apply to other websites we may link to. We recommend you read the relevant privacy statement when you access another site.

When you sign up for a user account you provide:

1. publicly available information
2. information available to both Have Your Say MidCoast and Social Pinpoint.

Publicly available information

Publicly available information is limited to your username and any comments you leave under that name in the forums or other feedback tools on Have Your Say MidCoast.

Content that you post on the site publicly, will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools.

Information available to both MidCoast Council and Social Pinpoint includes:

• information from the sign-up form
• survey responses, quick poll responses, map pins
• comments, questions, stories, guestbook posts
• general site activity such as document downloads, videos viewed, images viewed etc.
• information on the technology used to access the site.

Hosting

Regardless of whether you are a registered user, we will retain any communications that you send to us in accordance with MidCoast Council’s Records Management System and disposed of in accordance with current legislation. Your personal information can be accessed and corrected at any time by contacting MidCoast Council.

Where data in Google Analytics and HotJar is stored offsite, we ensure this is depersonalised and cannot be used to identify specific individuals. Where data and information are collected via the site’s servers and tools, this is managed through our data security protocols and processes.

Policy updates

We may update the content of this Privacy Policy from time to time for any reason. The updated version of the Privacy Policy will apply to you as soon as it is posted on the website.

We use the personal information about you to:

• administer the site and manage your account
• identify when you sign into your account
• send you newsletters and information, but only when you have agreed to us sending you this information or when the information is necessary to assist with the administration of the site
• respond to queries that you have contacted us about
• attribute content that you post on the site to you
• analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements and enhancements
• inform policy decisions by the MidCoast Council
• for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.

Content that you post on the site publicly, will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools.

Moderation

By monitoring this information that you provide, we are able to protect the integrity of the discussions from individuals and groups who may attempt to excessively effect the outcomes of a consultation process. For example, we check to ensure each user has a single email account. We also review the site to protect it from spam or trolls.

This information is analysed and interpreted by MidCoast Council staff and selected consultants to help inform the construction of improved projects, plans and policies.

Third Parties

We may also reveal personal information to third parties, and you consent to us disclosing your personal information, for the following purposes:

• consultants of MidCoast Council who perform various services for and on behalf of MidCoast Council.
• other local governments and State government departments, in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

Access and correction

Requests for access to and correction of documents containing personal information and held by MidCoast Council can be addressed to the: