Privacy
The Parliamentary Education Office website may use some data that indirectly identifies users. We take great care with practices that affect personal privacy, and as a general rule we do not collect or record data that directly identifies users.
Data collection
Data that indirectly identifies the user is gathered during interactions with the Parliamentary Education Office website in the following circumstances:
Computer information
It is a necessary part of visiting any website, including the Parliamentary Education Office website, that your web browser provides your machine's network address to the web server, so that the server can address its replies to the correct machine. In addition, the browser-type and operating system information may be recorded. A network address does not in any way directly identify a user.
Navigation and click-stream data
Browsing any website, including the Parliamentary Education Office website, generates a trail of the pages visited, the amount of data transferred and the time of access. This information is recorded against the network address (mentioned above) supplied by your web browser.
Electronic mail
If you send us an email through this website, you will be indirectly identified through the address you are sending the mail from. It is a necessary part of electronic mail that a sender and receiver address is supplied. These are recorded as well as a message identifier, amount of data and the time. The address you supply as sender is only a pseudonym and may possibly bear no relation to your real name; so is not considered as direct identification.
Data storage, use and disclosure, and retention
The data referred to above is generated by the systems you are accessing, and stored in system logs. These logs are stored securely and archived for a period of at least 12 months and possibly up to 7 years.
This data is used by PEO staff involved in the Parliamentary Education Office website operation only for:
- website and system administration, including monitoring to prevent security breaches;
- customisation of the website to the user's needs; and
- evaluation, research and development.
Identified data may be disclosed to a third party only in circumstances in which it is legally authorised, such as in the investigation of a criminal offence, and in compliance with a search warrant or subpoena.
Accountability
Staff members operating the Parliamentary Education Office website are subject to the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.
Cookies
A cookie is a very small text file placed onto your computer when you visit a website. A cookie can be 'persistent' (meaning that it is written to a permanent file on your hard disk) or 'session-only' (in which case the cookie is deleted at the end of your browsing session).
Cookies are not generally used on the Parliamentary Education Office website. The exception to this is the search facility which has been built to use only temporary 'session ID' cookies. One cookie is created at the beginning of the user's search session and discarded at its conclusion. The cookie is not used to collect or store any information about the user, only to allocate a temporary identifier to the search session.
Without such a session ID, the user would lose the entire search context each time a new web page is visited during a search session e.g. by viewing a document retrieved by a search. If cookies are disabled, the search program could not provide more than a very basic functionality - far less than is expected by our users.
Feedback
The Parliamentary Education Office welcomes feedback from their users in relation to the Parliamentary Education Office Website content and to this privacy statement. Questions and feedback should be addressed to:
The Publishing Manager
Parliamentary Education Office
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
ACT 2600
Or by email to: webmaster@peo.gov.au