Privacy Statement
- Website Privacy Statement
- What Information do we collect?
- How do we use the information collected?
- What expectations are there to this rule?
- Is the information stored securely?
- What will we do with information provided in Feedback?
- Will this policy be updated over time?
- Privacy of Patient Information
Website Privacy Statement
The Sydney West Area Health Service website is maintained by Sydney West Area Health Service. This Privacy Policy applies to all publicly accessible pages on the Sydney West Area Health Service site located at http://www.swahs.health.nsw.gov.au. The Sydney West Area Health Service does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to the Sydney West Area Health Service site. If you have any questions about the Sydney West Area Health Service site, or the application of this Privacy Website Policy, please contact:
Manager
Web Development
Sydney West Area Health Service
PO Box 63
PENRITH NSW 2751
Phone: (02) 4734 2120
Fax: (02) 4734 3737
Users of the Sydney West Area Health Service site are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales government’s privacy responsibilities and obligations. The New South Wales government’s privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.
What Information do we collect about your site visit?
When you look at the pages on the Sydney West Area Health Service site, our computers automatically record information that identifies for each page accessed:
- the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed it;
- your top-level domain name (for example, .com, .gov, .edu, .au, .uk etc);
- the address of your server;
- the date and time of your visit to the site;
- the pages accessed and documents downloaded;
- the previous site visited; and
- the type of browser and operating system you have used
Only sessional cookies are used from the Sydney West Area Health Service site to collect information. This information is unable to be retained once the user session has ceased.
How do we use the Information collected?
The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for the Sydney West Area Health Service to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving the Sydney West Area Health Service site and the services it offers.
Sydney West Area Health Service will not disclose or publish information that identifies individual machines, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.
What exceptions are there to this rule?
The Sydney West Area Health Service will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:
- unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published on the Sydney West Area Health Service pages;
- unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Sydney West Area Health Service site;
- unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Sydney West Area Health Service site by other sites;
- attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Sydney West Area Health Service site;
- communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to suspicion that an offence is being committed; and
- attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server, breach laws of the State of New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia, or interfere with the enjoyment of the Sydney West Area Health Service site by other users
Sydney West Area Health Service reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the Sydney West Area Health Service raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed. In the event of an investigation, the Sydney West Area Health Service will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.
Is the information stored securely?
Yes. Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by Sydney West Area Health Service for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it is collected, it is deleted.
What will we do with the information provided in feedback?
Sydney West Area Health Service provides a feedback facility on the Sydney West Area Health Service site to allow users to provide input into the future development of the site and to comment on the provision of service by the Sydney West Area Health Service.
The provision of personal details on feedback is optional. Users may provide personal details for the purpose of receiving a reply to their feedback. This information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. We will not add your email address or name to any mailing list. Sydney West Area Health Service may publish aggregated information about feedback on the site, to the extent that it does not identify or cannot be used to identify individual users.
Will this policy be updated over time?
Due to the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication, this policy may be modified or expanded in light of new developments or issues that may arise from time to time. The amended policy will be posted to this site and will operate from the time it is posted.
Privacy of patient information
Sydney West Area Health Service is committed to safeguarding the privacy of patient information, and has implemented measures to comply with its obligations under the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002.
SWAHS also has an Information Privacy webpage that explains the policies and practices of Sydney West Area Health Service, in respect of information privacy.
If you have a privacy enquiry or complaint regarding a health service, please contact the Privacy Contact Officer for Sydney West Area Health Service.
Privacy Contact Officer
Information Management Unit
Sydney West Area Health Service
PO Box 63
PENRITH NSW 2751
Phone: (02) 4734 3361 or (02) 4734 4184
Access to Information
For information on access to information held by Sydney West Area Health Service, both personal and non-personal, please click here.
