Make a food safety complaintContact us

Privacy

General

This privacy statement applies to all the publicly accessible content and information systems which form the website based at www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au, maintained by the NSW Food Authority.

The Food Authority’s privacy responsibilities and obligations are regulated by the:

Other information collected and used by the Food Authority is managed according to the Department of Regional NSW Privacy Management Plan, which outlines how the wider department meets these responsibilities and obligations.

If you have any questions about the information below,  or would like to request access to information held, please contact:

NSW Food Authority Helpline
PO Box 6682, Silverwater NSW 1811
Tel: 1300 552 406 (8.30am to 5.30pm AEST on NSW business days)
Fax: +61 (2) 9199 8253
email: food.contact@dpi.nsw.gov.au

Or by post:

Right to Information Coordinator
NSW Food Authority
PO Box 6682
Silverwater NSW 1811

Types of information collected

Information volunteered by visitors

The Food Authority provides forms and submission facilities on its site for users to:

  • lodge food safety enquiries and requests
  • lodge food complaints and reports of NSW food safety incidents
  • apply for licences
  • make various applications and submissions
  • respond to public consultations
  • comment on the provision of service by the Food Authority
  • provide valuable input into the future development of the site.

Information automatically recorded

When you look at content on this site, the Food Authority's computer and network systems may record information that identifies, for each page you view, the:

  • content accessed and downloaded and transactions completed, including search keywords and forms completed
  • date and time of the access
  • amount of time spent accessing pieces of content
  • the website and page visited immediately before the Food Authority’s site, including any search terms used at third-party internet search engines
  • IP (Internet Protocol) address of the device being used, which can sometimes be matched to broad geographic data
  • address, hostname and top-level domain (TLd), for example .com or .au of your server and name of your internet access provider
  • type and version of your browser and operating system used on your access device— that is the computer, laptop, mobile phone or similar
  • bandwidth— that is, the internet connection speed
  • whether your device supports JavaScript or other specific technologies, technology version numbers and whether the technologies are enabled
  • number of screen colours, screen size and resolution displayed on the device.

Cookies are pieces of computer code commonly used to collect and record information about the behaviour of individual website visitors and allow calculation of statistics about the website. To limit who can access information about visitors to its website, the Food Authority:

  • may use first-party cookies - ones issued and retrieved by the Food Authority’s own systems. It has used these in the past in combination with analysis of web server log files.
  • allows first-party cookies by certain service providers. These include ones from: Google Analytics, a reporting service provided by Google Inc. and its subsidiaries, which the Food Authority currently uses to monitor visitor behaviour on its website. Individual visitors are anonymous to Google. Note that the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) may be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States of America or elsewhere. Google undertakes to use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google undertakes to not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. Website visitors who wish to opt out of this process may consider installing the 'Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on'. For more details see Google Analytics' privacy statement and Google's Privacy Centre.
  • uses other service providers for its website which have their own privacy policies and may sometimes use their own first-party cookies or similar tracking technologies, such as the Westpac Banking Corporation / qvalent.com for online payments. The Food Authority avoids using service providers which share such data with other parties unless required by law.

Visitors usually have the option to set their web browsers to accept certain sorts of cookies or not.

Listen

Information including personal information submitted as part of enquiries, food safety complaints and reports of food safety incidents is used to respond, investigate or take compliance action as deemed appropriate. Where issues are within the jurisdiction of another agency the Food Authority may refer details to the other agency. Information and records held by the Food Authority are treated in accordance with the Department’s  Privacy Management Plan. It is the Food Authority's policy to not provide personal details of complainants to food businesses they complain about without prior permission, unless ordered by a court.

Enquiry, transaction, food complaint and incident report information is also aggregated and used in reporting and analysis of patterns of activity associated with the Food Authority’s remit.

Information including personal information submitted as part of applications, submissions or public consultations is used only for the purposes it was submitted.

Information submitted as feedback is also used to assist in understanding the performance of the site and potential improvements.

Site usage information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for the Food Authority to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving the site and the services and information offered on it.

The Food Authority will not disclose outside the agency or publish information that identifies individual machines, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of machine or server addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW), Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and Food Act 2003 (NSW).

Listen

The Food Authority may collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

  • unauthorised attempts to access files which are not publicly available Food Authority pages
  • unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Food Authority's site
  • unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Food Authority's site by other sites
  • attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Food Authority's site
  • communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed, and
  • attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server, breach the laws of the State of New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia, or interfere with the enjoyment of the Food Authority's site by other users.

The Food Authority reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the site raises a suspicion that an offence is being, might be or has been, committed.

In the event of an investigation, the Food Authority will provide access to data to its internal and contracted security consultants and any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs or other information.

Visitors to the site should be aware it is in the nature of the internet that information passing between websites and their visitors may pass via third party computer systems, networks and devices. Some or all of this information may be monitored, collected, stored and/or disclosed beyond the control of the Food Authority. The Food Authority cannot control the privacy policies or practices of third-party sites linked to the NSW Food Authority website.

Listen

Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and is held by the Food Authority for archival purposes.

When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

Access

The Food Authority captures this information on its own computers and those of its contracted service providers.

Access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in the Food Authority and its contracted service providers for the purpose of site analysis and to report on the success of the Food Authority in meeting its communication and access objectives.

Listen

Providing personal details via this website is optional. This information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. In particular:

  • The Food Authority will not disclose the personal details of complainants to businesses about which they may complain, without their express consent unless ordered by a court.
  • The Food Authority may disclose personal details associated with an enquiry, transaction, complaint or incident report to an agency with appropriate jurisdiction, where it believes the issue can be properly dealt with by that agency. Examples include (but are not limited to): 

    - local councils
    - food safety authorities in other states and territories
    - Australian Customs Service
    - Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, and
    - compliance staff working under contract to the Food Authority.

The Food Authority may publish aggregated information about communications via the site or usage of the site, but it will not identify individual users or publish information that can be used to identify them.

Changes to information management  

The Food Authority may update the way it collects and manages information in light of:

  • the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication
  • technologies
  • new developments on the site, or
  • issues that may arise from time to time.

Any changes will be published on this site and will only be effective from the time it is published.