Personal information collection notice

In order to carry out our services and fulfill our functions, eSafety may collect personal and sensitive information (including health information). The specific type of information collected by eSafety will depend on your relationship and interaction with eSafety. 

eSafety may collect personal information if it is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of eSafety’s functions set out in section 27 of the Online Safety Act 2021 (the Act). In summary, eSafety’s functions include to:

• promote online safety for Australians;
• support, encourage, conduct and evaluate research about online safety for Australians;
• make grants of assistance in relation to online safety for Australians
• administer complaints systems for cyber-bullying material, cyber-abuse material and non-consensual sharing of intimate images;
• administer the online content (including industry codes and standards), basic online safety expectations and social media minimum age schemes;
• advise and assist persons in relation to their obligations under the Act;
• monitor and promote compliance with the Act; and
• coordinate activities of Commonwealth Departments, authorities and agencies relating to online safety for Australians.

Please refer to eSafety’s privacy policy for further information regarding eSafety’s use and disclosure of your personal information.

On this page, eSafety outlines the kinds of personal information collection and handling activities we conduct on a regular basis.

How and why personal information is collected

eSafety collects personal information from you via online submission forms, as well as email and phone correspondence, in order to:

• assess, verify, manage and resolve complaints
• remove harmful content online
• conduct formal investigations
• conduct a review of a decision under our internal review scheme
• respond to an enquiry.

eSafety may also collect information from another person for the above purposes, for example:

• eSafety may collect personal information from another person (such as a family member, friend or service provider) that is acting on your behalf. We will confirm that they are acting with your knowledge and consent.
• Information contained in a complaint about material you have posted.
• eSafety 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. This may include viewing material on social media posted by individuals involved in complaints and through the use of open source intelligence tools.

What personal information is collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address)
• Demographic information
• Relationship and family status
• Details about the enquiry, complaint or situation.
• Material posted on social media or other electronic services.
• Identification documents (where necessary to verify the validity of a complaint)
• IP addresses (which may be collected to verify the validity of a complaint, and may constitute personal information when combined with the above information)

Whether the collection is required or authorised by law

The collection is authorised by the Act, consistent with the functions of eSafety as outlined in the legislation.
If you choose not to provide us with the personal information, we may not be able to fulfil your enquiry or request, or to carry out a regulatory function.

Usual disclosures of this kind of personal information

As part of our above activities, eSafety may disclose personal information to another person or organisation to help with the complaint, review or investigation. For example, in accordance with section 212 of the Act, eSafety may disclose information to other authorities (including law enforcement) where this will enable or assist the other authority in the performance of its functions.

We will disclose personal information with your consent, or where we are legally required or authorised to do so.

How and why personal information is collected

eSafety collects personal information via online submission forms to carry out our educational programs and services including workshops, focus groups, interviews, training sessions, online learning programs and online services. 

The purpose of collection is to assist with organising workshops and scheduling sessions, to validate registration or to allow you to evaluate our work through follow up surveys. 

eSafety also collects personal information to deliver our newsletters, eSafety subscription content and webinar content to you. You can subscribe to our services using an alias or generic email address and unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in our emails.

What personal information is collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address)
• Areas of interest for newsletters (for example, industry or education sector)

Whether the collection is required or authorised by law

The collection is authorised by the Act, consistent with the functions of eSafety as outlined in the Act.

If you choose not to provide us with the personal information, we may not be able to fulfil your enquiry or request.

Usual disclosures of this kind of personal information

By signing up to any of programs or services, you consent to eSafety collecting and collating data, to be used in an aggregated form, which allows us to review and improve our programs and analyse performance. This consent extends to eSafety sharing your details with our service providers, who may have overseas storage practices.

When you subscribe to receive our newsletter and subscription content, you consent to eSafety sharing your details with our service provider, Campaign Monitor, for use in relation to this service. Please see Campaign Monitor’s privacy policy for further details about how they handle personal information.

How and why personal information is collected

eSafety collects personal information for registration and evaluation purposes in relation to our public events, through email and online submission forms. This includes events such as Safer Internet Day and other promotional, education, information, public relations and media engagement activities.

Personal information may also be collected at eSafety events or in public places for promotional purposes. 

What personal information is collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address, school or other organisation)
• eSafety may also use your image or voice where recordings or photos are taken with your consent for use in audio, visual and other publications such as brochures, booklets, videos, reports, press releases, social media posts or other promotional activities.  

Whether the collection is required or authorised by law

The collection is authorised by law, consistent with the functions of eSafety as outlined in the Act.
If you choose not to provide us with personal information for registration purposes, we may not be able to fulfil your enquiry or request.

Usual disclosures of this kind of personal information

By signing up to any of our events, you consent to eSafety collecting and collating data, to be used in an aggregated form, which allows us to review and improve our programs and analyse performance. This consent extends to eSafety sharing your details with our service providers, who may have overseas storage practices.  

About the program

The Trusted eSafety Provider Program helps schools select high quality cyber safety programs for their students. Under this program, eSafety endorses providers of online safety education that demonstrate appropriate expertise and experience and a best-practice approach to online safety.

Personal information collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address, organisation)
• Professional background (qualifications, previous employers etc.)
• Working with Children Check (which may include photograph of individual)

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information is collected for the Trusted eSafety Provider (TEP) Program in order to:

• consider an application for endorsement or to contact applicants should eSafety require additional information about an application
• provide information about a TEP’s program to the public on the eSafety website
• contact endorsed TEPs
• undertake review of a TEP’s program content, endorsement status or other program related matters
• administer any other aspect of the TEP Agreement or TEP Program.

About the program

The Online Safety Grants Program was formed as part of the Australian Government’s commitment to improving the safety of Australian women and their children through the prevention of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

Personal information collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address, organisation)

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information is collected for the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program in order to:

• consider and resolve applications for grants funding
• document and manage any real or apparent conflicts of interest among members of the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program assessment panel in assessing applications and making recommendations for grant funding
• record acknowledgement of obligations by members of the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Assessment Panel and those who apply for or receive grants funding
• consult and engage with providers and participants of programs that receive grants funding
• enable evaluation of programs that receive grants funding and analyse their uptake and performance
• promote programs that receive grants funding through the collection and use of providers’ and participants’ images and voices for use in audio, visual and other
• publications such as brochures, booklets, videos, reports, press releases and social media posts
• contact you should eSafety require additional information in relation to your engagement with the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program.

About the program

eSafety uses the Qualtrics platform to help streamline research processes and improve the quality and relevance of the associated products.

Qualtrics is a survey and customer engagement survey solution. 

Personal information collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Contact details
• Demographic details (which could include):
  • Address, age, gender, education attainment, work status, income category, country of birth, languages spoken, religion, disability, and identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, culturally and linguistically diverse, and LGBTIQ+
• Health information (which could include):
  • Mental health/wellbeing  
  • Exposure to harms/perpetration

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information is collected for surveys conducted using the Qualtrics platform in order to conduct research to support better understanding of key harms experienced by Australians online, the impact of these, and to evaluate, assess and improve eSafety’s initiatives in preventing or mitigating these harms. 

About the program

eSafety’s TFA Support Service provides advice to frontline workers who are supporting clients or someone dealing with technology-facilitated abuse as part of domestic, family and sexual violence.

The service provides a range of advice including information about online safety planning, how to deal with tech-based abuse and how to report online abuse.

Personal information collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Contact details (phone number, email address, organisation)
• Details about the technology-facilitated abuse being experienced

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information collected through the TFA Support Service is used to provide the above services and advice to frontline workers acting on behalf of clients experiencing technology-facilitated abuse. 

About the program

eSafety uses an online reporting portal to enable industry participants subject to industry codes and standards registered under Part 9, Division 7 of the Act to report on relevant matters as required under the applicable codes and/or standards.

Personal information collected

Name of industry participant and name and contact details of representative.

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information collected through the portal is used to contact the industry participant for eSafety’s regulatory and compliance-monitoring activities. 

About the program

Be Connected is an Australian government initiative developed by to increase the confidence, skills and online safety of older Australians. It features hundreds of free short online courses and learning resources on a range of topics including using a digital device such as your smartphone and tablet.

Personal information collected

The types of personal information collected for the above purposes include:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Email address
• If you attend one of our Be Connected interviews, focus groups or events, this may also include photographs or videos in which you appear or audio recordings in which your voice is heard.

Purposes for which the information is used

Personal information collected through the registration form is used for the purpose of registering you with the Be Connected service. Personal information collected through a Be Connected interview is used to improve and promote the Be Connected program.

eSafety does not collect personal information and cannot identify corporate information through the use of the Safety by Design assessment tools. Further information about how non-identifiable data is collected, used and stored is available on the Safety by Design privacy page.

Please refer to eSafety’s privacy policy for more information on:

• the Privacy Act
• requesting access to your personal information
• requesting a correction to your personal information, and
• how we deal with complaints about our handling of personal information.

You can also contact eSafety for more information about how your personal information is collected and used through the general enquiry form on our Contact us webpage or by sending an email to privacy@esafety.gov.au.