This website is managed and maintained by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). This privacy statement refers to the handling of personal information by DEEWR.

DEEWR may review and update this privacy statement. Revised versions will be available on the website.

DEEWR must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and specifically the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) set out in section 14 of that Act. The IPPs describe how Australian Government agencies should collect, use, store and disclose personal information and how individuals can access records containing their personal information. Information on the Privacy Act can be found on the

 Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website.

How DEEWR uses your personal information

DEEWR collects personal information about you so you can take full advantage of JobSearch services and to assist you to find employment. The relevant personal and protected information collected by DEEWR includes, but is not limited to, your name, date of birth, Job Seeker ID, Centrelink reference number, home phone, other phone, mobile phone, fax, email and personal website.

Your personal information is used to:

• determine if you are eligible to take part in services provided by a Job Services Australia provider
• give you employment opportunities
• make sure correct payments are made to Job Services Australia providers for services they provide
• evaluate and monitor outcomes, programs and services delivered by Job Services Australia providers
• assist in resolving complaints made by you or your Job Services Australia provider
• include you in surveys conducted by DEEWR and its contracted providers
• help in the administration of programs
• help DEEWR improve its service to job seekers.

By using JobSearch you consent to your personal information being used for the above purposes.

Who has access to your personal information?

DEEWR may share job seekers’ personal and protected information with third parties to deliver its employment services and assist you to find employment.

By applying for a position advertised on JobSearch you are requesting and authorising that DEEWR pass your personal information to the employer as a part of your application.

Job seekers’ personal information may be disclosed by DEEWR to:

• Department of Human Services
• Department of Family, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
• Centrelink
• employment service providers - to assist them provide employment services
• recruitment organisations (whether contracted to the Commonwealth or not)
• Telstra and Salmat/SalesForce (under contract to DEEWR) – limited information to enable Telstra/Salmat/SalesForce to re-issue passwords and assist job seekers
• employers.

When DEEWR contracts third parties to assist in performing employment services, DEEWR requires that all third parties comply with DEEWR’s privacy policy and with the Information Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act.

DEEWR may disclose job seekers’ personal information to third parties in certain limited circumstances authorised under the Privacy Act. This includes:

• to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of the individual concerned or another person
• when disclosure is required or authorised by law; or for the enforcement of criminal law or of a law imposing a fine
• for the protection of public revenue.

How your information is collected

Personal information

DEEWR collects your personal information directly from you when you register or update your personal information on JobSearch. There are circumstances where personal information comes from a third party, such as Centrelink, if you have agreed or would reasonably expect your personal information to be collected in this way.

When you register your personal information on JobSearch, you will be asked to select what personal information you want to be displayed on your resume.

Anonymous information about visitors

When you visit JobSearch, DEEWR records anonymous information about your visit and logs the following information for statistical purposes:

• your server address
• your top level domain name (for example, .com, .gov, .au etc)
• the date and time of visit to the site
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• the type of browser used.

This information is not specific to you and is used for system administration purposes, as well as statistical analysis. While anonymous information does not tell us anything about you specifically, it tells us about how you use our site. Third party measurement organisations including Neilsen//NetRatings measure and report this information to DEEWR.

Cookies

DEEWR uses cookies and other technologies to enhance job seekers’ online experience and collect data about the use of JobSearch in order to improve the quality of service.

A cookie is a small text file that a server places on your hard drive to identify that subsequent requests to a site have come from the same user. DEEWR uses cookies to ‘remember’ your browser between page visits. The cookie identifies your browser, not you personally. DEEWR uses cookies on JobSearch to develop patterns of site usage. No personal information is stored within JobSearch cookies. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature. For more information on cookies please refer to the help menu within your internet browser.

Browsing activities

DEEWR only identifies users by their browsing activities in cases where a law enforcement agency exercises a warrant to inspect DEEWR's logs, or for the purposes of market research conducted by DEEWR or its contractors.

Personal and Protected Information

The personal and protected information JobSearch collects includes your name, address, gender, Centrelink Reference Number and Job Seeker ID. This information is handled by DEEWR in accordance with privacy and social security law.

Email address

DEEWR will only record your email address if you send us a message or if you are required to enter an email address to enable you to use the services provided by JobSearch. It will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and will not be added to a mailing list.

Protection of personal information

DEEWR takes all reasonable steps to ensure the security of its systems. We allow job seekers to access their personal information to keep it accurate and up to date. Any personal information which DEEWR holds for job seekers is stored on secure servers that are protected in controlled facilities.

JobSearch, DEEWR and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held. However, DEEWR will not be responsible for events arising from unauthorised access of job seekers’ personal information.

You can also play an important role in keeping your personal information secure, by maintaining the confidentiality of any username and password. Please notify us immediately if there is any unauthorised use of your account by any other internet user or any other breach of security.

JobSearch contains links to external sites. DEEWR is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these sites. You should note there are inherent risks associated with transmission of information via the internet. Therefore you should make your own assessment of the potential risks to the security of information when making a decision as to whether or not to use external sites that are linked to or from JobSearch.

Your privacy concerns

If you have concerns about the way your personal information is being managed by DEEWR, by other Australian Government departments or agencies, or DEEWR contracted organisations, you should discuss your concerns with your employment services provider, DEEWR or the department or agency concerned.

How to contact us

If you have enquiries or wish to provide feedback about this policy, please email ajs@deewr.gov.au.