The Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) and the Australian Government Department of Education (the department) jointly administer this website and are subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) including the requirements of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) set out in that Act with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
The department's complete privacy policy can be found here and the UAC’s complete privacy policy can be found here.
1. Collection and use of personal information
Generally, UAC collects personal information to properly and efficiently carry out research activities, and only uses personal information for the purpose for which it was collected or for a directly related purpose (unless otherwise required by or authorised under law).
In addition to this general privacy statement, where more detailed information is needed to explain UAC's privacy practices, UAC publishes separate statements to describe how it will handle personal information that it collects. For example, where UAC asks website visitors to provide personal information in relation to a particular program, it will provide a privacy notice which details its practices in relation to that particular program.
The department is responsible for the administration of the website, including responding to correspondence sent to departmental mailboxes about the website. The department collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information to perform the role of administering the website and managing correspondence with the public.
The department only collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information for a lawful purpose that is reasonably necessary or directly related to one or more of our functions or activities or where otherwise required or authorised by law. The department uses and discloses personal information for the primary purposes for which it is collected and will only use personal information for secondary purposes where it is authorised under the Privacy Act.
2. Communication - emails and electronic forms
UAC’s servers may record a website viewer’s email address if a message is sent online. Email addresses will not be added to mailing lists unless users have provided it to UAC in order to subscribe to a mailing list.
Where users choose to send UAC a completed electronic form that includes personal details, UAC will collect personally identifiable information such as names, addresses and email addresses.
The information collected by email or electronic forms will be used only for the purpose for which users provide it and UAC will not disclose it unless one of the circumstances described below under the heading ‘Information Sharing’ has been satisfied. Where users send UAC a message online, UAC will use the information provided to process enquiries and may provide that information to third parties including the department, higher education institutions and other related entities for the purpose of responding to enquiries.
3. Log information (browsing)
When UAC’s online services are used, UAC’s servers automatically record information that each user’s browser sends whenever a website is visited. These server logs may include information such as server addresses, top level domain names (for example, .com, .gov, .au etc.), dates and times of website visits, pages accessed and documents viewed, previous sites visited, browser type and language, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify a particular browser.
4. Cookies
A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that uniquely identifies a particular browser. It is information that web browsers send back to UAC’s website server whenever the website is visited more than once. UAC uses cookies to ‘remember’ browsers between page visits. In this situation, the cookie identifies a particular browser, not personal information about the website viewer.
5. Google Analytics
UAC uses Google Analytics to collect information about visitors to this website. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies and JavaScript code to help analyse how users use the site. No third-party cookies are used on the website. It anonymously tracks how visitors interact with this website, including how they have accessed the site (for example from a search engine, a link, an advertisement) and what they did on the site. 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 in the United States. Google will use this information for the purposes of compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google Analytics Demographic and Interest Reporting is enabled on this website. Demographic and interest reports may be generated including identifiers such as your age, gender, affinity categories (for example educational and training interests), in-market segments and other categories based on acquisition, behaviour, and conversion metrics.
You can prevent your information from being collected by Google Analytics by refusing the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser or by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
6. Access and alteration of records containing personal information
When personal information is provided, UAC and the department will correct personal information if it is inaccurate (subject to restrictions on such access/alteration of records under the applicable provisions of any law of the Commonwealth). The Privacy Act 1988 also provides website visitors with an opportunity to request access to documents in possession by the department.
7. Information sharing
The department and UAC only disclose personal information to third parties in the following circumstances:
- where users are reasonably likely to have been aware, or made aware by way of a privacy notice, that personal information is usually passed to the relevant party
- where users have consented;
- where the department or UAC believes on reasonable grounds that the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to a user’s life or health or that of another person;
- where the disclosure is required or authorised by or under law; or
- where the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law or of a law imposing a pecuniary penalty, or for the protection of the public revenue.
8. Information security
The department and UAC take all reasonable steps:
- to protect the personal information that it holds against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure and other misuse; and
- to ensure that, where the department or UAC has given personal information to a contractor, that contractor complies with the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988.
9. Data integrity
The department and UAC take all reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information it collects and stores is accurate, relevant, up-to-date, complete and not misleading.
10. Enforcement
The department and UAC regularly review its compliance with this privacy policy. If you have any questions/complaints about privacy or confidentiality or if you wish to access and amend your personal information, please contact UAC.