Privacy

The Department of Mines and Energy is committed to protecting user privacy. We understand that visitors and users of this website may be concerned about their privacy, and the confidentiality and security of any information that is provided.

To address community concerns about unauthorised use of personal information, the Queensland Government has established a privacy regime based on 11 Information Privacy Principles (contained in Information Standard 42) that regulate how personal information is collected, stored, used and disclosed by the public sector. The aim is to protect both electronic and printed information relating to individuals from being lost, misused or inappropriately modified or disclosed.

Personal information is defined as:

'information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion'.

Information Standard 42 can be accessed via the Office of Government ICT website.

Information collected on this website

When you visit this website our standard web logs record your visit, log certain information for statistical purposes and assists the department to improve the usefulness of the site. The types of information that may be collected are:

• the type of browser you are using
• your traffic patterns through our site such as:
  - the date and time of your visit to the site
  - the pages you accessed and documents downloaded
  - the previous page you visited prior to accessing our site
  - the Internet address of the server accessing our site
  - the pages accessed and documents downloaded.
• No attempt is or will be made to identify your personal details except, in the event of an investigation, when a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect activity logs.

Cookies

Some Queensland Government websites uses cookies to provide customised online payment facilities for government services only. If you wish to use these facilities you will need to accept cookies. If you have configured your browser to reject all cookies, you will still be able to view information-only pages on these sites.

Personal and financial information provided when you purchase an item or renew a license is protected at all stages of the transaction.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a short piece of data which is sent from a web server to a web browser on the user's machine when the browser visits the server's site. The cookie is stored on the user's machine as an historical identifier. It is not however, an executable program and cannot do anything to your machine.

A server cannot find out a name or e-mail address, or anything about a user's computer, by using cookies and cookie information is not stored or collected by the department.

Security of Queensland State Government websites

The Queensland State Government applies a range of security controls to protect its websites from unauthorised access. However, users should be aware that the World Wide Web is an insecure network that gives rise to a potential risk that a user's transactions are being viewed, intercepted or modified by third parties or that files which the user downloads may contain computer viruses, disabling codes, worms or other devices or defects.

The Queensland State Government accepts no liability for any interference with or damage to a user's computer system, software or data occurring in connection with or relating to this website or its use. Users are encouraged to take appropriate and adequate precautions to ensure that whatever is selected from this website or related sites is free of viruses or other contamination that may interfere with or damage the user's computer system, software or data.

Links to external websites

This web site contains links to other sites that are external to the Department of Mines and Energy. The department takes care in linking web sites but has no direct control over the content of the linked web sites, or to the changes that may occur to the content on those sites. It is the responsibility of the user to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external websites.

E-mail and Feedback

E-mail correspondence sent to this site is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1992 and will be treated as a public record and retained as required by the Public Records Act 2002 and other relevant Acts and regulations.

We will not add any details from your e-mail to a mailing list, unless authorised, and we will not disclose these details to third parties without your consent, unless required by law.

Although every effort will be made, the Department of Mines and Energy cannot guarantee to reply to e-mails. Some e-mails received through this website may be forwarded to departmental officers for appropriate action.

E-mail messages may be monitored by the department for system trouble shooting and maintenance purposes.

Surveys

At times you may be asked to complete survey questionnaires that appear on departmental sites. These may include your providing identifiable information. If you agree to participate in these surveys, you will be asked to review and accept certain additional terms and conditions relating to the use of the information you furnish. You will be given the reasons for the collection of such information and the purpose for which it will be used.

Contact

If you have any queries about our privacy and security practices, please contact the Manager, Business Support, on (07) 322 58748.