Privacy policy

Who we are

Our website address is: https://www.bundabergnow.com. This website is owned and operated by Bundaberg Regional Council.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor's IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Bundaberg Regional Council (Council, we, our, us) collects and manages personal information in the course of performing its activities, functions and duties. We respect the privacy of the personal information held by us.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Cookies

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after one day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (eg videos, images, articles, etc). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics. All data is collected anonymously. To provide website visitors with more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics, Google have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics. The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on does not prevent information from being sent to the website itself or to other web analytics services.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users who register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us.

You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Legislation

The way in which Council manages personal information is governed by the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) (the Act).

What is ‘personal information'?

For the purposes of this statement, “personal information” is any information or opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database) about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from the information or opinion, whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether or not the information or opinion is recorded in a material form.

Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us. Please note that we will ask you to lodge your complaint in writing. Council will:

  • Within five business days of receiving your complaint: acknowledge receipt of your complaint; and
  • Within 45 business days of receiving your complaint: investigate the circumstances of your complaint and provide you with a response.

Email complaints to complaints@bundaberg.qld.gov.au