Website privacy policy

The Office of Drug Control is part of the Health Products Regulation Group of the Department of Health and Aged Care.

Privacy

The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 including the thirteen Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in that Act. The APPs replaced the old Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) on 12 March 2014.

APP Privacy Policy

The Department’s APP privacy policy (required by APP 1.3) can be accessed at the Department's APP privacy policy web page. The APP privacy policy explains how the Department deals with personal information generally, including its collection, storage, security, access, use and disclosure.

Australian Information Commissioner

The Australian Information Commissioner is the statutory office-holder responsible for the regulation of privacy laws in Australia in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website. That website contains more information about the Privacy Act 1988 and includes Australian privacy principles guidelines.

Your email address

The Office of Drug Control will only record your email address if you send us a message by email, or if you register requesting notifications by email. If you do not want your email address to be recorded by the ODC, you can send a postal mail or facsimile to the address listed below in the section Queries, concerns and further information. Your email address will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, and will not be added to any mailing lists without your prior consent by way of a specific request in writing. We will not use or disclose your email address for any other purpose, without your prior written consent.

Cookies

The Office of Drug Control uses 'cookies' for maintaining contact with a user through a website session. A cookie is a small file supplied by the ODC, and stored by the web browser software on your computer when you access our site. Cookies allow us to recognise you as an individual web user, as you browse our website.

Two cookie types may be used by this website:

Session cookies

These exist only for the duration of a web browser session with a particular website/host. All cookies will be immediately lost when you end your internet session or shut down your computer. Our copy of your information will be automatically deleted twenty minutes after you last used the system. This information is only used to help you use our website systems more efficiently, not to track your movements through the internet, or to record private information about you.

Persistent cookies

These exist for a defined period of time (usually beyond the termination of the current session) before expiring.

Privacy

No personally identifiable information is stored within cookies used by this website. 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.

Clickstream data

Any system on this website that records information about you, will specifically ask your permission first.

When you visit this site, the Office of Drug Control makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical or systems administration purposes:

• the user's server address
• the user's top level domain name
• the date and time of access to the site
• pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• type of browser used

This information is analysed to show broken links in our website, bottlenecks, and other site problems. We use this information to maintain our site for your efficient use.

No attempt will be made to identify 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.

MailChimp and privacy consent

To provide our news we use MailChimp, which provides online tools that can be used to create, send, and manage emails. MailChimp may collect personal information, such as distribution lists which contain email addresses, and other information relating to those email addresses. For further information about the type of personal information MailChimp collects, refer to the MailChimp Privacy Policy.

The ODC will only use this information to:

• create, send and manage emails relating to the work of the ODC
• measure email campaign performance
• improve the features for specific segments of customers
• evaluate your use of our website
• compile reports on website activity for website operators, and
• provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
• MailChimp may transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on MailChimp’s behalf. MailChimp collects information about when you visit the website, when you use the services, your browser type and version, your operating system, and other similar information.

MailChimp is based in the United States of America (USA) and the information collected about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by MailChimp on servers located outside Australia. We are required to inform you that by subscribing to our eNewsletter:

• You consent to your personal information being collected, used, disclosed and stored as set out in MailChimp’s Privacy Policy and agree to abide by MailChimp’s Terms of Use.
• You understand and acknowledge that this service utilises a MailChimp platform, which is located in the United States of America (USA) and relevant legislation of the USA will apply.
• Australian Privacy Principle 8.1 contained in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act will not apply.
• You understand and acknowledge that MailChimp is not subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and you will not be able to seek redress under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) but will need to seek redress under the laws of the USA.
• You can opt out of our mailing list if you choose the ‘unsubscribe’ service provided by MailChimp in every email, or contact ODC. You can also disable or refuse cookies or disable Flash player; however, you may not be able to use the services provided by MailChimp if cookies are disabled. Contact MailChimp.

MailChimp has the endorsement of TRUSTe's Privacy Seal, which means this privacy policy has been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with their program requirements including transparency, accountability, and choice related to the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe is an independent third party that operates a globally-recognised privacy trustmark.

Links to other websites

This website contains links to other sites. The Australian Government is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties nor are they responsible for the material contained in a website that is linked to this site.

Security

The Office of Drug Control applies a range of security controls to protect its website from unauthorised access. However, users should be aware that the World Wide Web is an insecure public network that gives rise to a potential risk that a user's transactions are being viewed, intercepted or modified by third parties or that files which the user downloads may contain computer viruses, disabling codes, worms or other devices or defects. If you do not wish to email or send an online form to the Office of Drug Control, you can send a postal mail to the address below.

The Commonwealth accepts no liability for any interference with or damage to a user's computer system, software or data occurring in connection with or relating to this web site or its use. Users are encouraged to take appropriate and adequate precautions to ensure that whatever is selected from this site is free of viruses or other contamination that may interfere with or damage the user's computer system, software or data.

Health Business Services portal

We may collect, store, use and disclose your personal information in the course of performing our functions, including to provide business services via the Health Business Services portal (portal).

When you register for a Health Business Services account, the Department will collect personal information, including your name and contact information, for the purpose of setting up your authenticated account and providing you with access to ODC business services via the portal.

When you access ODC business services via the portal, the ODC will collect personal information which is reasonably necessary for the performance of our functions. For example, when you complete a licence application or related form, the ODC will collect and store personal information contained in the form in order to process your application and manage ongoing compliance obligations and related business transactions in accordance with relevant legislation.

When we collect your personal information via the portal, we will only use and disclose it for the purpose for which it was collected, or for a secondary purpose where authorised or required by law. We will not disclose personal information collected through the portal to any overseas recipients.

In most cases, we will collect your personal information directly from you. Where we collect personal information about you from a third party, we will only do so with your consent or as authorised by law.

Queries, concerns and further information

If you have any queries, concerns or require further information (including a copy of our APP privacy policy) relating to privacy and the Department of Health and Aged Care, please email the Department: enquiries@health.gov.au.

If you have concerns about emailing this site, please use our postal addresses and write to the:

Department of Health and Aged Care
MDP 62
GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601