Privacy

Introduction

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is responsible for the Energy Made Easy website. The AER appreciates that privacy is an important issue for many users of the Internet. As such, the AER has formulated the following statement to reassure visitors to the Energy Made Easy website that it understands those concerns. If you have any queries or concerns about this privacy statement and/or its more general privacy policies please contact the web team through the feedback form on the Contact us page.

Relevant legislation

The AER, incorporating the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), is required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) when collecting, using, disclosing and securing ‘personal information’.  The main requirements are set out in the Information Privacy Principles (see section 14 of the Privacy Act). In addition, some consultants work at the AER/ACCC under contracts with terms and conditions by which they agree to comply with the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act relevant to their work.

Personal information

Any information that identifies you or information that could reasonably enable your identification is ‘personal information’ under the Privacy Act. This may include your name, residential address, telephone numbers, date of birth etc.

Information collected

Clickstream data

Clickstream data is collected by the ACCC for statistical purposes. The ACCC does not store data that allows personal identification.

When you browse the website, our web server makes a record of your visit and logs the following unidentified information for statistical purposes:

• the user's server address
• the user's top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
• the date and time of visit to the site
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• the type of browser used.

We record this data to maintain our server and improve our services. Additional generic unidentified traffic data is also collected to establish behavioural trends of visitors to our site.

When you email us

When you email us we will:

• record your email address
• only use your email address for the purpose for which you provided it
• not use your email address for any other purpose
• not disclose it without your consent.

Other information

Other personal information collected by us, for example through the use of an online form or email will only be:

• collected by lawful and fair means
• used for a lawful purpose and
• collected with your consent.

Where you choose to send us a completed electronic form that includes your personal details, we do collect personally identifiable information, such as name and email address.

The information collected by email or electronic forms will be used only for the purpose for which you provided it, and we will not disclose it without your consent, except where authorised or required by law.

The purpose for collection of information will be clear and explicit.

Access to information collected

No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except in the unlikely event of an investigation, a law enforcement agency or other government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect our Internet web server logs.

Secure transmissions

This website does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the Internet. Users should be aware that there are inherent risks in transmitting information across the Internet.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your computer as an anonymous tag that identifies your computer but not you. The Energy Made Easy website uses cookies to better serve you when you return to the website. You can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set your browser to turn off cookies. If you do so, however, some pages in the site may not work properly.

Cookies can be either "persistent" or "session" based. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer, contain an expiration date, and may be used to track your browsing behaviour upon return to the issuing website. Session cookies are short-lived, are used only during a browsing session, and expire when you quit your browser.

Like all modern websites which provide dynamic and personalised information, the Energy Made Easy website, http://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au, uses both kinds of cookies to provide a rich and session based experience. 

Cookies are used to enable the AER to track users' browsing patterns in order to provide statistical information to improve the usability of the website.

Complaints and enquiries

Some areas of the Energy Made Easy website may offer the opportunity for people to contact the AER by email. If you use those facilities we will not obtain personally-identifying information about you unless you choose to provide it.

If you wish to make a complaint or enquiry to one of our offices you can do so by sending an email, by writing, telephoning or faxing us. All of the necessary contact details can be found on this website.

While the risk of anyone intercepting and misusing information transmitted by email is usually very low you should be aware that a determined individual with the right skills may be able to do this. If you prefer, you can contact us using one of the phone numbers or addresses provided in the Contact us page.

Data storage, security, use and disclosure

Under the Privacy Act, Information Privacy Principle 4 regulates the storage and security of personal information. Privacy Principles 9, 10 and 11 regulate the use and disclosure of personal information.

The AER generally does not use information it collects from the Energy Made Easy website for any other purpose than to improve its website services or to respond to complaints, enquiries or feedback.

No data collected from the site will be disclosed to a third party except where it is legally required, such as in the investigation of a criminal offence, and in compliance with a search warrant or subpoena.

Further detail is contained in the ACCC/AER Information Policy.