Privacy

We are committed to protecting your privacy and understand you may be concerned about the privacy, confidentiality and security of any information you provide.

The Information Privacy Act

The Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act) regulates how we collect and manage your personal information. We must comply with the 11 Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) in schedule 3 of the IP Act. These IPPs specify how personal information is to be collected, stored, secured, accessed, amended, used and disclosed.

Our privacy plan

Our privacy plan outlines how we collect, manage, use and disclose personal information. It meets the requirements of IPP 5 which says we have to take reasonable steps to ensure that people are aware of the types of personal information collected and held; why that information is held; what it is used for; and who ordinarily has access to it.

Human Rights Act

The rights set out in the Human Rights Act 2019 include the right to privacy. In addition to meet our obligations under the IPPs, we will recognise, and act compatibly with, the right to privacy.

Your information when making a complaint

You can complain to us about the actions of a Queensland government organisation via our online complaint form, making a complaint in writing, in person, or by telephone. We collect your personal information when you do this to assess and respond to the complaint.

When collecting personal information to deal with your complaint, we do so:

• using fair and lawful means
• for a lawful purpose directly related to complaint-handling functions.

Unless you tell us otherwise, we will work on the basis that you consent to providing necessary and relevant information to the organisation you have complained about. We need to do this so that the organisation can respond to your complaint. Your personal information will not otherwise be disclosed unless you consent, or the disclosure is required or authorised by law.

Third party service providers

Information about complainants may be used to conduct surveys at the conclusion of an investigation to help the QO to assess and improve the performance of its functions, and to compile relevant statistics for internal use or publication (in a de-identified form). For more information, see our Privacy Plan.

Email and voicemail

Any email correspondence or voicemail message we receive is treated as a public record and will be retained as required by the Public Records Act 2023 and other relevant regulations. Email messages may be monitored by information technology staff for system troubleshooting, maintenance and security purposes.

Mailing lists

Your name and address details will not be added to a mailing list unless you request it to be.

Public reports

Section 92 of the Ombudsman Act restricts the disclosure of information obtained under the Act, except in certain circumstances including purposes connected with investigating complaints, helping agencies improve their administrative practice, and the publication of reports to agencies, Ministers and Parliament. This Office will not publish private complainant information in a public report without consent.

Cookies

This website uses cookies to collect information for statistical purposes including:

• the time and date of your visit
• the website you visited before ours
• your country and city of location
• the pages and documents accessed
• your internet service provider.

Website analytics

Amending your personal details

You can ask us to amend your personal information if you think it is inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or misleading.

Making a privacy complaint

If you believe we have not handled your personal information properly, you can make a complaint. Please refer to our Privacy complaints and breaches policy and procedure for further details.