Privacy Policy

Townsville City Council is committed to protecting your privacy. This notice describes our privacy policy.

By visiting our website, you are accepting the practices described in this Website Privacy and Security Statement.

View our Information Privacy Policy.

For the purposes of this statement, personal information refers to any information that may enable the identification of an individual visitor to the website.

For more information and to access a range of useful privacy protection resources, visit the Office of the Information Commissioner’s website.

Collection of personal information

As a visitor to our website, you will not be required to disclose personal information to visit or browse our site unless you voluntarily choose to do so, for example by making a payment, emailing us or choosing to complete a survey.

When you visit our website, the following information is recorded for the purpose of gathering statistics, in order to monitor usage of the website and provide the optimum online service to our customers:

  • Your IP address
  • Your operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Mac OS X)
  • Your browser type, including version (e.g. IE8 - 10, Firefox 3.6)
  • The date and time of your visit
  • Pages accessed and files downloaded
  • The time spent on individual pages and the site overall

This information gathered by us as a result of your visit to our website will not be used in any way to identify individual users. The information gathered (outlined above) helps us continually improve your experience while visiting our site.

Any personal information will only be stored in the event that you voluntarily provide it to us, such as making an online payment, the completion of an online survey or form, by submitting an email enquiry or maintenance request. This information will be used for the purpose for which it was provided and will not be disclosed to other persons or organisations without your prior approval or if authorised or required by law.

Pages or applications on the our website that require you to voluntarily disclose personal information are governed by the following collection notice.

Collection notice

Townsville City Council (Council, we, our, us) collects and manages personal information in the course of performing its activities, functions and duties. We respect the privacy of the personal information held by us. The way in which council manages personal information is governed by the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld). We are collecting your personal information in accordance with Local Government Act 2009 so that we can provide the services, functions and business of Townsville City Council. Except in specific circumstances, we will not disclose your personal information outside of Council unless we are required to do so by law, or unless you have given us your consent to such disclosure.

Where we collect your personal information you will be provided with a specific collection notice outlining the relevant legislation and the purpose for which we are collecting your details within the scope of the Information Privacy Act 2009. For further information about how we manage your personal information please see our Information Privacy Policy.

Automatic information (“Cookies”)

To improve your experience on our site, we may use 'cookies'. Cookies are an industry standard and most major web sites use them.

A cookie is a small text file that our site may place on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences. Our website uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.

Social and ad-serving tracking cookies may also be used to track both members and non-members of social networks for additional purposes such as behavioural advertising, analytics, and market research.

Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you can choose whether or not to accept cookies via your browser's settings (often found in your browser's Tools or Preferences menu). You may also delete cookies from your device at any time. However, please be aware that if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to fully experience some of our web sites' features.

External websites

From time to time, our website may direct you to external websites which we believe may enhance your experience or provide additional information. Council may not have control over the content on these sites and advises you to view the relevant privacy and security statements for those sites. Linking to the website does not necessarily mean that council endorses that site or any of its content or affiliates.

What this policy covers

We, Townsville City Council, take our privacy obligations seriously and we’ve created this privacy policy to explain how we treat your personal information collected on this website. Personal information is information we hold which is identifiable as being about you.

Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information is regulated by the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988. You can find more information about your privacy rights at the Privacy Commissioner's web site: http://www.oaic.gov.au.

The software platform this website runs on and associated technology operations are provided by Bang the Table Pty Ltd. Click this link for the Privacy Policy governing their service.

What personal information we collect

Profile Information

We collect information from you when you register to use this site. This includes your email address and additional demographic information as provided by you on the registration form.

Please note that you are able to browse any publicly accessible sections of this website completely anonymously without signing up.

Engagement Information

The content you create as part of your interactions with this website. These can include responses to surveys, comments on discussion forums, or any of the other engagement opportunities available here.

Usage Information

We collect information about your usage of the site, such as pages visited, documents downloaded, etc.

How we use the information we collect

We collect this information in order to:

  • analyse and interpret it to help meet our objectives and obligations;
  • communicate information to you about engagement opportunities, events and other initiatives; and
  • respond to enquiries and otherwise engage with stakeholders.


External links

Our website may contain links to other websites. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of linked websites and we suggest you review the privacy policies of those websites before using them.

Security

While no online service is completely secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take all reasonable measures to do so.

Requesting access or correcting your personal information

Subject to applicable local laws and regulations, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • to access your personal data and to rectify any inaccuracies within that personal data;
  • to request for the erasure of your personal data residing with us;
  • to request your personal data in portable, machine-readable format; and
  • to withdraw your consent to our processing of their personal data.


If you wish to contact us to with a request relating to personal information we hold about you, please contact us using the contact details set out below including your name and contact details. We may need to verify your identity before providing you with your personal information.

In some cases, we may be unable to provide you with access to all your personal information and where this occurs, we will explain why. We will deal with all requests for access to personal information within a reasonable timeframe.

Contact Us

For further information about our privacy policy and related information practices, or to access or correct your personal information, or make a complaint, please contact us on support@engagementhq.com