Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy. Any personal information submitted to Penrith City Council will be dealt with according to the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act (1998), Government Information Public Access Act (2009) and the Local Government Act (1993). Council will not use personal information for a purpose other than that for which it is collected. See Access to Information.

Online Privacy

Information that in some way identifies you as an online user of Penrith City Council’s services may be gathered when you email us, or when you interact with our website.

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data that a website can send to your browser (which may then store it on your computer) that is designed to save your preferences or keep track of information you have previously selected. A cookie cannot retrieve any data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses or capture your email address.

Cookies can be either ‘persistent’ or ‘session’ based. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer, contain an expiration date, and may be used to track your browsing behaviour upon return to the issuing website. Session cookies are short-lived, are used only during a browsing session, and expire when you quit your browser.

Most browsers are set by default to accept cookies; however you can configure your computer to determine how you would prefer to interact with cookies across the internet. You may wish to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to allow each cookie on to your hard drive, or to block cookies altogether.

If you decide to not accept cookies set by one of Penrith City Council’s websites, some of the web pages may not display properly or you may not be permitted to access certain information.

You may also set your browser so that the cookies set by this website are destroyed when your browser shuts down and no personal information is maintained, which might identify you should you visit our web site at a later date. In this way, the persistent cookies set by this website will effectively function as session cookies.

There are several techniques available for managing cookies in various browsers. Please see the help section of your browser.

Website analytics

Website visit information

The Penrith City Council website, and the websites managed by Council, makes a record of the user's visits and logs anonymous information for statistical purposes, such as the IP address of the user's computer, the top-level domain name of the user (such as .com or .au), the data and time of the user's visit, what pages on the site were accessed, what search terms were used, etc. This information is only collected for statistical and debugging purposes; that is, the information is only used in order to make the website function better.

No attempt will be made to identify the user except in the very unlikely event that an investigation is necessary, where a law enforcement agency alone would have the power to inspect the records of the Internet Service Provider to obtain this information.

Google Analytics

The Penrith City Council website, and the websites managed by Council including Visit Penrith and Real Festival, use Google Analytics, a reporting service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") and its subsidiaries. Google Analytics uses "cookies" to help analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the site (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the site, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

Google may also 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 will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google's Privacy Policy and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google.

In addition, this website has implemented Google Analytics' Demographics and Interest Reporting feature. This allows Penrith City Council to collect data relating to the demographics and interests of visitors to the website. Penrith City Council collect such data to analyse how visitors engage with the website and to make improvements. Penrith City Council will not merge personally identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information collected via Google Analytics tracking code without the individual's consent.

Data collected via the Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting feature is stored on Google’s servers and is accessible by Google. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising in https://adssettings.google.com or use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Web beacons or pixel tags

Penrith City Council, or a third party engaged by Council, may use web beacons on some pages on this website. A web beacon (also known as a web bug, pixel tag or clear GIF) is a graphic image (usually transparent and 1 pixel x 1 pixel in size) placed on a web page which is used to better understand the usage patterns of visitors to the page.

When the HTML code for the web beacon points to a site to retrieve the image, at the same time it can pass along information such as the IP address of the computer that retrieved the image, the time the web beacon was viewed and for how long, the type of browser that retrieved the image and previously set cookie values. Web beacons do not give any extra information away.

Web beacons work in conjunction with cookies and are usually used to assess the effectiveness of campaigns. This enables Penrith City Council to improve future campaigns. Reconfiguring the browser's cookie settings, as discussed above, can prevent web beacons from tracking the user's activity. The web beacon may still record an anonymous visit from your IP address, but unique information will not be recorded.

Penrith City Council also collects non-personally identifiable information through social networking service Facebook Pixel. This allows us to collect data relating to the demographics and interests of visitors to the website. We collect such data to analyse how visitors engage with our website and to make improvements. Penrith City Council will not merge personally identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information collected via Facebook Pixel tracking code without your consent. Data collected via Facebook Pixel is stored on Facebook's servers and is accessible by Facebook.

Social media

Penrith City Council also uses interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. If you choose to "like" or "share" information from this website through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a social media site, the interfaces may allow the social media site to connect your visits to this site with other Personal Information.

How do we use the information collected?

To improve the websites and the services provided by Penrith City Council, we will extract and publish aggregated information about usage patterns from these records.

Penrith City Council will not disclose or publish information that identifies individual machines, or identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

What exceptions are there to this rule?

Penrith City Council will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

• unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published Penrith City Council pages
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on Penrith City Council websites
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of Penrith City Council websites by other websites
• attempts to intercept messages of Penrith City Council websites users
• communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed
• 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 Penrith City Council websites by other users

Penrith City Council reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the Penrith City Council websites raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed.

In the unlikely event of an investigation, Penrith City Council will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Email addresses

Penrith City Council will only record your email address if you supply it in any field when submitting a form, subscribe for a newsletter, register for job notifications or apply for an advertised position. Your email address will only be used or disclosed for the purpose for which you have provided it and it will not be added to subsequent mailing lists or used or disclosed for any other purpose without your consent.

Recruitment and Job Notification email

Your contact details are collected for the purpose of contacting you regarding:

• future positions becoming available 
• to gain feedback on the recruitment process in order to improve the process
• to email you the link to the application form which is only accessible via a computer.

The intended recipients of the information;

Your details are stored securely on a third-party communications platform, PageUp. Your details are only accessible by Penrith City Council Recruitment staff.

Is the supply of the information required by law or is it voluntary?

The supply of your contact details are not required by law and are completely voluntary. 

Are there any consequences for the individual if the information (or any part of it) is not provided?

There are no consequences for not providing any or part of your contact details.

What ways can the individual access and correct the information?

You can update your details by re-submitting the form with your updated details using the same email address used previously.

Security

There are risks associated with the transmission of information over the internet and you should therefore make your own assessment of the risks in the provision of your information to Penrith City Council websites.

Enquiries

If you have any enquiries about our privacy policies, contact us by writing to the following address: 

Privacy Contact Officer
Penrith City Council
601 High Street
Penrith NSW 2750

or by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..