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What information do we collect, what do we do with it and how are we making our site as accessible as possible.
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The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) imposes obligations on the Office of the eSafety Commissioner (the Office) in relation to the collection, security, quality, access, use and disclosure of personal information. These obligations are detailed in the Australian Privacy Principles.
The Office may only collect personal information if it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the Office’s functions or activities.
The collection of the personal information in this enquiry is to:
The Office will not use the information for any other purpose, nor will we disclose it, unless we have your consent or we are otherwise permitted to do so under the Privacy Act. The content of your enquiry will be forwarded by email to the list of Certified Online Safety Providers, which may respond to your specific enquiry only.
Further information on the Privacy Act and the Office’s Privacy Policy is available at https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-the-office/privacy-and-legal. The Privacy Policy contains details about how you may access personal information about you that is held by the Office, and seek the correction of such information. It also explains how you may complain about a breach of the Privacy Act and how we will deal with such a complaint.
Should you have any questions in this regard please contact the Office by email at enquiries@esafety.gov.au.
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) imposes obligations on the Office of the eSafety Commissioner (the Office) in relation to the collection, security, quality, access, use and disclosure of personal information. These obligations are detailed in the Australian Privacy Principles.
The Office may only collect personal information if it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the Office’s functions or activities.
The collection of the personal information in this application is to:
The Office will not use the information for any other purpose, nor will we disclose it, unless we have your consent or we are otherwise permitted to do so under the Privacy Act. Relevant information will be made available to the public on the Office’s website, but only where you have provided the information for that purpose. Information may also be provided to parties interested in your services.
Further information on the Privacy Act and the Office’s Privacy Policy is available at https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-the-office/privacy-and-legal. The Privacy Policy contains details about how you may access personal information about you that is held by the Office, and seek the correction of such information. It also explains how you may complain about a breach of the Privacy Act and how we will deal with such a complaint.
Should you have any questions in this regard please contact the Office by email at enquiries@esafety.gov.au.
The Privacy Act includes rules about how the eSafety Commissioner collects, secures, accesses, uses and discloses personal information. You can see these rules at Australian Privacy Principles.
We can only collect your personal information if it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the Office’s functions or activities.
The collection of the personal information in this complaint is to:
In most cases, we won’t use your information for any other reason, and we won’t give it to anyone else unless you say we can or we are allowed to by the Privacy Act. If you say we can in the complaint, we might provide relevant information to the Social Media Service identified in your complaint to get the posts taken down (like your name and username), or to your parents or school if we think it will help to resolve your complaint.
In some cases though, where we think it is important, we might want to provide your information to other government agencies. We will usually check that this is okay with you, but the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act 2015 lets us provide your information to the following authorities without your consent:
We are also required to follow mandatory reporting requirements. We would only share your information in these ways if we thought it was absolutely necessary.
More information on the Privacy Act and our Privacy Policy is available at https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-the-office/privacy-and-legal. The Privacy Policy explains how you can access personal information we have about you, and how to get that corrected if you need to. It also tells you how to complain about us if you think we have broken the Privacy Act.
If you have any questions, please contact the Office by email at enquiries@esafety.gov.au.
The eSafety Commissioner and staff assisting her (‘the Office’) handle your personal information in accordance with our obligations and responsibilities under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
The eSafety Commissioner is collecting your personal information for the purpose of assessing your image-based abuse report. This is consistent with a regulatory function we have under the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 that allows us to collect this information.
This information will help us:
We may not be able to handle your report without this information.
We will only use or disclose your information for another purpose if permitted by the Privacy Act or with your consent. For example, with your consent, we might provide relevant information (like the location of the image) to the content host identified in your report to get the image taken down or use a tool that allows us to search whether your image is available in certain other locations online.
If we need to disclose your information to another person or entity, including an overseas entity, we will usually discuss this with you first. The Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 also lets us provide your information to certain authorities without your consent. We will only do this when we think it is important.
We are also required to follow mandatory reporting requirements.
Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information on:
If you have any questions, please contact us by emailing enquiries@esafety.gov.au or call 1800 800 176.
The eSafety Commissioner and staff assisting her (‘the Office’) handle your personal information in accordance with our obligations and responsibilities under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
The eSafety Commissioner is collecting your personal information for the purpose of responding to your enquiry.
Your enquiry will be directed to the section of the Office that is best placed to assist you. We may contact you if we require additional information about your enquiry.
We will only use or disclose your information for another purpose with your consent or if permitted by the Privacy Act.
You may be asked to make a formal report before any personal information is disclosed to a third party for assistance.
If we need to disclose your information to another person or entity, including an overseas entity, we will usually discuss this with you first. The Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 also lets us provide your information to certain authorities without your consent in certain circumstances.
We are also required to follow mandatory reporting requirements.
Please see our Privacy Policy for more information on:
If you have any questions, please contact us by emailing enquiries@esafety.gov.au or call 1800 800 176.
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This work is based on materials that constitute copyright of the Commonwealth of Australia and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 2.5 Australia Licence.
Disclaimer: The Office has taken reasonable care to ensure the information in this work is correct and accurate at the time of publication. However, the Office makes no warranties regarding the correctness of the information at later dates, and disclaims liability for damages resulting from its use. The Office recommends that users exercise their own independent skill and judgment when using this work and carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material for their purposes.
The Office requests that if you republish this work, you notify the Office by email at: enquiries@esafety.gov.au including a link to the republished work. This is to assist us in tracking the uptake of our works and the innovative uses that our licensees are making of our works.
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Links to other websites are inserted for convenience and do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service.
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) gives individuals a legally enforceable right of access to government documents, subject to specific exemptions. It applies to Australian Government ministers and most agencies.
The eSafety Commissioner is an agency for the purposes of the FOI Act.
Staff of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are made available to assist the eSafety Commissioner perform her functions and exercise her powers.
In certain circumstances, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner has adopted the ACMA’s policies, procedures, systems and guidelines.
As part of our obligations under the FOI Act, we publish a range of information as part of our information publication scheme (IPS).
We also publish an FOI publication plan that outlines how we will implement the IPS requirements.
We publish a freedom of information disclosure log that lists the information we’ve released in response to FOI access requests, subject to exceptions.
How to make a request under the FOI Act
If you want to request access under the FOI Act to one or more of the documents we hold, your request must:
You can lodge your request via:
A third party can also make a request on your behalf, if you provide written authority.
We will notify you of our decision within a 30-day period commencing the day after we receive your request, unless that period is extended or suspended in accordance with the FOI Act.
There is no application fee for an FOI request. The first five hours of decision making time are free for all applicants.
Charges may be imposed to reimburse the Office for the costs incurred in searching, copying, reproducing or sending the information contained in your request.
There are no processing charges for requests for access to documents containing only personal information about you.
The main charges are:
If we do decide to impose a charge, we will notify you beforehand. You can also ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for certain reasons, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. You can find more information on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s FOI charges webpage.
We may refuse your request to access documents, if the document falls within a specific exemption in the FOI Act. This includes that disclosure would, or could reasonably be expected to, prejudice the conduct of an investigation into a possible breach of the law or have a substantial adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of eSafety Commissioner’s operations. We may also refuse access where the information is available to the public for a fee or other charge.
The eSafety Commissioner’s work in relation to offensive or illegal content under Schedule 5 and 7 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 is a specific exemption in the FOI Act.
You can request in writing that we reconsider our decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer in our agency. We will advise you of the outcome of our review within 30 days of receiving your request.
You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Commonwealth Ombudsman who may investigate our actions.
Enquiries
If you have any enquiries about the FOI process, please contact us through enquiries@esafety.gov.au or an option on our contact page.
The eSafety Commissioner is responsible for promoting online safety for all Australians.
This privacy policy summary outlines the key points about how the eSafety Commissioner and staff assisting her (‘the Office’) handles, manages and protects personal information.
The Office collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information to undertake the eSafety Commissioner’s functions and activities under the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015, the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Telecommunications Act 1997.
The Office handles information in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988, the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.
More information is available in the Office of the eSafety Commissioner’s main privacy policy.
The Office usually collects personal information (including sensitive information) from you or your authorised representative in order to undertake a regulatory action, such as assess a complaint or manage a report, or for activities consistent with a regulatory function.
The Office sometimes collects personal information from a publicly available source or third party, if permitted under legislation, if doing so enables us to better assess a complaint or perform another regulatory action.
Personal information may also be collected through the eSafety Commissioner’s website and our use of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The Office uses this information to improve the eSafety Commissioner’s website, receive feedback from the community and increase engagement with you.
The Office only uses or discloses personal information for the purpose for which it was collected or in other permitted circumstances, such as where you consent for it to be used or disclosed for another purpose.
The Office will not disclose sensitive information about you unless you agree or in other limited circumstances, such as when the eSafety Commissioner is required or authorised by law.
The Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 lets us provide your information to specific authorities without your consent in certain circumstances, including an authority of a foreign country responsible for regulating matters relating to the capacity of children to use social media services and electronic services in a safe manner.
You may also choose to engage with us through a social networking service or our website. The companies we use for these purposes may also store information overseas.
You can request access to the personal information the Office holds about you. We will provide you access in most circumstances.
You can request that the Office correct your personal information. We will take reasonable steps to correct the information we hold about you if we consider it inaccurate, out of date, imcomplete, irrelevant or misleading.
You can complain to the Office in writing about how we have handled your personal information. The Office will respond to your complaint within 30 days.
You can contact The Office of the eSafety Commissioner at:
Email: enquiries@esafety.gov.au
Number: 1800 880 176
The eSafety Commissioner is responsible for promoting online safety for all Australians.
This policy describes how the eSafety Commissioner and staff assisting her (‘the Office’) handles, manages and protects personal information.
The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) contains 13 Australian Privacy Principles (the APPs) that regulate how private sector organisations and government agencies collect, use, disclose, hold and de-identify or destroy personal information, and how individuals may request to access and correct their personal information.
The Privacy Act defines personal information as information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. It also defines sensitive information, which is a subset of personal information that is generally afforded a higher level of protection than personal information. This includes health information and information relating to a person’s racial or ethnic origin and sexual orientation or practices.
The eSafety Commissioner is covered by the Privacy Act.
The Office collects personal information if it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of the eSafety Commissioner’s functions or activities.
The main reasons we would collect personal information would be to:
The Office collects personal information by lawful and fair means. The Office usually collects personal information directly from you, for example, when you provide us your details in relation to a complaint or report through an enquiry form.
However, the Office may obtain information about you from third parties in certain circumstances, including where:
The Office collects personal information to enable us to carry out our regulatory functions and activities.
The Office investigates complaints in relation to cyberbullying and in relation to offensive and illegal content. It also manages complaints in relation to image-based abuse.
The kinds of personal information collected in order to investigate these complaints and reports varies between the schemes, but generally includes:
Personal information collected may also relate to the person making the complaint or report or to other parties involved, including the person alleged to have posted the material.
Investigating complaints and managing reports may require the Office to collect sensitive information about you. This will only occur if you have consented or if the collection is otherwise permitted under the Privacy Act or the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 (Online Safety Act).
The Office collects and holds personal information as part of our procurement processes. This includes the names and contact details of tenderers or contracting parties and is done to ensure we comply with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (the PGPA Act) and the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
More information on the PGPA Act and the Commonwealth Procurement Rules is available at the Department of Finance’s PGPA associated instruments and policies page.
The Office engages with the public and our stakeholders through a number of mediums, including consultations, surveys, conferences and forums.
When the Office undertakes formal consultation, the documentation will make clear the purpose of the consultation and the purpose of the collection of personal information. Generally, the Office publishes the submissions we receive, including any personal information, unless otherwise claimed as confidential.
If you wish to make a submission anonymously or through the use of a pseudonym, you should contact the Office to see whether it is practicable to do so. Each confidentiality claim is assessed by the Office on a case-by-case basis.
The Office collects and holds personal information used to register for a service, such as an online safety program or newsletter subscription. This may include details such as name, organisation, contact details and communication preferences. This helps the Office manage user access and provide the service requested.
Information about how your personal information will be handled and other terms and conditions for using a service will be provided before any personal information is collected.
The Office uses a range of tools to collect and view our website traffic information. This includes cookies and analytics. This helps the Office improve our website, customise our information and services, and pursue research and development.
The information collected by these tools may include the IP address of a device, the date and time a page was visited, the pages accessed and how long pages were viewed.
You can set browsers that will notify you before you receive a cookie. This may allow you to refuse to accept it. Users can also turn off or delete cookies.
The Office also uses Google Analytics. You can opt out of this collection by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
The Office does not attempt to identify users or their browsing activities, unless the user has signed up to an online service or a law enforcement agency or other government agency exercises its legal authority to inspect our internet web server logs for an investigation.
The eSafety Commissioner’s website uses both Australian Government and commercial web-hosting facilities.
The Office uses social networking services, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, to engage with the public. The Office may collect your personal information if you engage with us on these services, but we will only use it to help us communicate with you and the public.
These social networking services will also handle your personal information for their own purposes in accordance with their own privacy policies.
The Office communicates with the public through email distribution lists and newsletters. With your consent, the Office will collect your email and, if you provide it, other contact details when you subscribe to an Office mailing list. The Office only uses this to update you on its activities and to administer the lists.
The Office collects personal information in order to fulfil the eSafety Commissioner’s statutory functions and obligations or to undertake activities consistent with a regulatory function.
Before, at the time, or soon after collecting personal information, the Office will provide you a notice outlining certain matters, including the purposes of collection, the consequences if personal information is not collected and whether the the Office Commissioner usually discloses information of this kind to another entity.
The Office will provide you the option of not identifying yourself, or using a pseudonym, unless it would be impractical for the eSafety Commissioner to deal with a person in that way or where a law requires or authorises the eSafety Commissioner to deal with individuals who have identified themselves.
Complaints related to offensive and illegal content can always be made anonymously.
Reports relating to image based abuse do not require a complainant to provide their name.
The Office will use or disclose personal information only for the purpose for which it was collected. The Office will only use or disclose personal information for another purpose in certain permitted circumstances, including when:
For example, with your consent, we might provide relevant information (like the location of the image) to the content host identified in your report to get the image taken down or use a tool that allows us to search whether your image is available in certain other locations online.
Part 9 of the Online Safety Act permits the eSafety Commissioner to disclose information in certain circumstances and with certain conditions, including to an authority of a foreign country responsible for regulating matters relating to online safety for children, provided it is not prohibited by Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
The eSafety Commissioner may also disclose information to an authority if satisfied that the information will enable or assist the authority to perform or exercise any of the authority’s functions or powers, provided the information was obtained as a result of a function or power conferred on the eSafety Commissioner under the Online Safety Act or the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
We generally only disclose personal information overseas in order to help us fulfil a regulatory function. The Online Safety Act lets us provide your information to certain authorities without your consent, including foreign authorities.
You may also choose to engage with us through a social networking service or our website. The companies we use for these purposes may also store information overseas.
The Office takes reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the personal information we collect and disclose is accurate, up-to-date and complete.
The Office have a range of measures in place to protect the personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
All information collected by the Office is secured and managed in accordance with the Australian Government’s Protective Security Policy Framework, Information Security Manual and the Archives Act. You can find further information at the National Archives of Australia’s webpage for Commonwealth Records Management).
The eSafety Commissioner will consider any request you make to access, or seek the correction of, your personal information within 30 days.
The Office will take reasonable steps to correct information we hold about you, if we consider it inaccurate, out of date, imcomplete, irrelevant or misleading. You may need to demonstrate how your personal information is incorrect.
The Office will ask you to verify your identity before it gives you access to your information or corrects it.
You also have the right under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to request access to the documents the eSafety Commissioner holds. If the information the eSafety Commissioner holds about you is incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading, you can ask it that it be changed or annotated.
The Office manages personal information in accordance with its obligations and responsibilities under the APPs.
If you have a complaint about how the Office has handled your personal information, you should outline your complaint in writing and lodge it with eSafety through the details on the Contact us page.
The Office will assess your complaint within 30 days.
If you’re unhappy with how we have handled your complaint, you may be able to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
Contact the Office of the eSafety Commissioner for further information about this privacy policy.