Privacy

Find out about your online privacy rights when using our website.

On this page:

• Collecting and using personal information
• When we will disclose and destroy information
• Secure website transmissions
• Privacy Impact Assessments
• Related information

Collecting and using personal information

We are committed to protecting your privacy.

We aim to offer an environment online that makes sure the information you give us is secure.

We follow:

• the Privacy Act 1988
• the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (the APPs) that apply to both business and Australian government agencies.

These laws and guidelines are reflected in our Privacy policy. Download our Privacy policy  for more information.

When you deal with us you have the right be anonymous and the right to use a pseudonym.

Visiting the website

When you visit our website, we record anonymous information about your visit. We log this information to collect and analyse statistics on how our website is used in order to develop better services online for you.

The anonymous information we collect won’t tell us anything about you specifically (such as your personal details).

Information we log includes:

• your server address
• your operating system (eg. Windows, Mac)
• your top level domain name (eg. .com, .gov, .au, .uk)
• the date and time of your visit to our site
• the pages accessed and the documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• the type of browser used (eg. Internet Explorer, Firefox)
• the language selected for translation.

The browser information is tracking using cookies. A cookie is a small text file a server puts on your hard-drive that shows you have come to our website a second time, third time, fourth time and so on.

Cookies are shared between your browser and our server. This lets us see the patterns of how you use our website. Cookies ‘remember’ your browser between page visits and identifies your browser when you return to the site, not you personally.

Subscribing to email alerts and completing online forms

The FWO uses Swift Digital, an online marketing platform service provider to send and manage emails.

When you subscribe to email updates and media updates:

• we record your email address
• we only use your email address for the reasons you gave it
• unless you ask us to, we won’t add your email address to other mailing lists.
• you can use a pseudonym as long as you supply a valid email address.

If you give us other personal information when using an online form or email, we will only:

• collect it by lawful and fair means
• use it for a lawful purpose
• collect it from you personally with your consent
• collect it from someone else if required, with your consent.

All information collected using the Swift Digital service is the property of FWO and is never shared or used by third parties. For further information please read Swift Digital’s Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions .

When you send us information by completing an online form that includes your personal details, we will collect personal details such as name, address and email address. We will delete your personal information when you unsubscribe in accordance with our obligations under the Archives Act 1983.

We won’t identify you or your browsing activities, except if there is an investigation. In this case, a law enforcement agency can exercise a warrant to look at our logs.

Archiving our website information

The National Library of Australia can archive information on our websites in accordance with the Archives Act 1983.

When we will disclose and destroy information

We can provide your information to third parties in Australia or overseas who help us with our statutory functions and activities.

We can provide your personal information to:

• government agencies/departments or anyone we are required or permitted, by law, to provide personal information to, or
• researchers conducting research or survey work for us.

We can transfer your information to these third parties electronically, including via the internet.

When we no longer need this information for authorised purposes, we will take all reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

Using your information for surveys or research

When we provide personal information to third parties for surveys and research, we will limit them to only using or disclosing your personal information for the reasons we engaged them for.

Third parties conducting surveys or research for us have to follow the same legal obligations we follow when it comes to your information.

If you don’t want your personal information to be used by or disclosed to third parties conducting research or surveys for us, or if you want to inspect, amend or remove personal information we have about you, write to us at:

Privacy Officer
Fair Work Ombudsman
GPO Box 9887
In your capital city

Secure website transmissions

While we work to make sure the web environment is secure, there are some risks when providing information online.

To make sure your information is as secure as possible, we encrypt all messages between the browser running on your computer and its online site. The encryption process we use is Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

Privacy Impact Assessments

The Privacy (Australian Government Agencies – Governance) Australian Privacy Principles Code 2017 (Cth) requires all agencies, including the Fair Work Ombudsman, to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for all high privacy risk projects.

The FWO maintains this register of PIAs completed since the Code came into effect on 1 July 2018:

Related information

• Accessing our information
• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner