The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) objective in maintaining an active and expanding internet website is to improve communication with the community at large, specifically to:
make it possible to quickly provide information about its activities
encourage feedback from you.
Because privacy is an important issue for many users of the internet the ACCC has formulated the following statement to reassure visitors to its website that it understands those concerns. If you have any queries or concerns about this privacy statement and/or the ACCC’s more general privacy policies please contact the webteam (opens in new window).
Most Commonwealth government agencies and their personnel are governed by legislation of the Australian Parliament such as the Privacy Act 1988 and the Crimes Act 1914. Personnel who are mainly Australian Government public servants work at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. In addition, some private sector consultants work at the ACCC on contracts with terms and conditions by which they agree to comply with the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act in carrying out their work.
The Privacy Act 1988 and the Crimes Act 1914 may provide redress mechanisms and sanctions if users of the SCAMwatch website suffer loss or damage as a result of a breach of those Acts by the ACCC.
This site is operated by the ACCC using both Australian Government and commercial web hosting facilities. When visiting this site, a record of your visit is logged. The following clickstream data is recorded and is used by the ACCC for statistical purposes:
your server address
your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc)
the type of browser you are using
your operating system (for example Windows, Mac etc)
the date and time of the visit to the site
the pages accessed and the documents downloaded
the internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.
When you subscribe to email alerts you must provide an email address to which the system can send your alerts. We will not use your email address to send you unsolicited information or for any other purpose and we will not disclose it without your consent. You may choose to provide us with additional demographic details about yourself. If you choose to send us this information we will use it only to improve the content on our site and in our email alerts.
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
be used for a lawful purpose and
be 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, address 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.
You may choose to subscribe to email alerts on the SCAMwatch site. We need your email address to send you alerts. This information is accessible by the web team that administers the SCAMwatch website.
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.
This website does not provide facilities for the secure transmission of information across the internet. Users should be aware that there are inherent risks transmitting information across the internet.
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 SCAMwatch website does not use cookies.
Many areas of the SCAMwatch website offer the opportunity for people to submit queries or complaints. 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 inquiry to one of our offices you can do so by submitting a form or by writing, telephoning or faxing us. All of the necessary contact details are linked from this website.
In the case of complaints we require information such as your name, organisation and address so that we can contact you to discuss the matter. If you don't wish to give this information by form you should use one of the other means of contacting us. 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 SCAMwatch (ACCC Infocentre) on 1300 795 995 or one of the phone numbers or addresses provided on the ACCC office addresses, faxes & phone numbers (ACCC website).
Under the Privacy Act 1988, Information Privacy Principle (IPP) 4 regulates storage and security of personal information. IPPs 9, 10 and 11 regulate the use and disclosure of personal information.
The ACCC generally does not use information it collects from its website for any other purpose than to improve its website services or to respond to complaints, inquiries 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.