Australian Government - Department of Defence - Department of Veteran's Affairs

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). 

DVA collects personal information in order to deliverhome loan schemes. Please refer to DVA Privacy for more information. 

DVA Privacy Policy

The DVA Privacy Policy tells you how we manage your personal information. This includes:

  • the kinds of personal information that we collect and hold about you;
  • how we collect your personal information;
  • how we hold your personal information;
  • the purposes for collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information;
  • how you may access your personal information held by us and correct that information where it is incorrect;
  • how you may make a complaint about the way we collect, hold, use or disclose personal information, and how we will deal with privacy related complaints;
  • whether we will (or are likely to) disclose your personal information to overseas recipients and the countries where such recipients may be located.

How to make a complaint

You can make a complaint to us in writing about how we have handled your personal information. For more information on how DVA manages complaints, compliments and feedback, please refer to DVA’s Feedback Management Policy.

Security of your information

DVA seeks to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act in the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information in its possession. The Privacy Act provides for specific rights and remedies of individuals in the event of a breach by the department of its duties under the Act.

DVA provides a secure environment and a reliable system. However, you should be aware that there may be inherent risks associated with the transmission of information via the internet.

DVA Secure Web Services is designed to minimise these risks as much as possible, and provide a secure mechanism when seeking or providing personal information.

If you are seeking or providing information of a personal nature and you are not using DVA Secure Web Services, DVA suggests that you use over-the-counter, postal, fax or telephone services.

Some interactive services on this website may request personal information as part of the provision of the service. DVA encrypts all data transmitted between your computer's web browser and DVA's computers when you make use of any of these services. The encryption process used by DVA is secure socket layer (SSL). For SSL encryption to work, your browser must support SSL. Freely available browsers that support SSL include Netscape (version 3 or higher) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 4 or higher).

Note: External sites that are linked to the DVA site are outside DVA's control and you are advised to review their privacy and security statements when visiting those sites.

Site visit data

DVA makes a record of your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

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

DVA will not make any attempt to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the internet service provider's logs.

Cookies

A cookie is a collection of information, usually including a username and the current date and time, stored on the local computer of a person using the World Wide Web, used chiefly by websites to identify users who have previously registered or visited their site.

Cookies can be '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 returning to the website from which the cookie was issued
  • session-based cookies are short-lived, are used only during a browsing session, and expire when you close your browser.

The DHOAS website uses session cookies during a search query of the website. Our internet service provider has assured us that no cookies are employed on the website except for those associated with the search engine. Website statistics for the DVA website are generated from the web logs as outlined above under 'Site visit data'.

Once you have closed down your browser, the session cookie set by the DVA website is destroyed and DVA does not maintain any personal information that might identify you should you visit our website at a later date.

DVA does not use persistent cookies on its websites, including the DHOAS website.

Use of email

DVA takes all reasonable steps to protect your privacy, and the privacy of others when utilising email as a means of communication.

If you choose to use internet email to request information, please include a postal address, fax number and/or telephone number. A DVA representative can then contact you by your preferred method.

Subscription lists

If you subscribe to a mailing list on any of DVA's websites, your email address and any other personal information that you might provide will be maintained on our mailing list. The mailing list is hosted by an external service provider. It will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and will not be added to another mailing list without your prior consent, which DVA will seek through a request in writing. We will not use your email address for any other purpose and will not disclose it without your consent.

No spam

The publication of electronic addresses on this website is for the information of users. DVA does not authorise the receipt of commercial electronic messages (generally known as spam) at any published electronic address. They are to be used for legitimate correspondence only.

Digital Readiness Bill Privacy Impact Assessment – Executive Summary

 

 


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