Website privacy statement
We collect personal information from our website. This Website privacy statement explains how your personal information will be treated as you access and interact with NSW Electoral Commission websites.
On this page
What personal information are we required to publish on our websites?
We use our websites to publish information including personal information that we are lawfully authorised or required to publish on an ongoing basis or for a limited period of time, such as the following information or documents relating to:
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Register of Parties for state and local government elections.
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Registers of candidates, associated entities, party agents, third party campaigners, official agents.
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Disclosures of reportable political donations and electoral expenditure.
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Copies of claims for payment of public funding under Part 4 of the Electoral Funding Act 2018 (EF Act).
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Copies of claims for payment of administrative and new party policy development funding under Part 5 of the EF Act.
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Register of determinations that a person is not a prohibited donor.
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Particular legislative notices e.g. notice of nominations for State elections, notice of amendments to the Register of Parties.
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Candidate information sheets for local government elections.
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Names and summary of roles/responsibilities of senior office holders of registered political parties.
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Certificates of registration of electoral material.
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Register of Third-party Lobbyists.
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Lobbyists watchlist.
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Open access information.
The NSW Electoral Commission’s Privacy Management Plan provides further information with respect to the publication of registers, disclosures and claims. If you have concerns about the publication of personal information in a particular public register, you may contact the Privacy Officer by emailing privacy@elections.nsw.gov.au.
What personal information do we collect from our websites?
The personal information we collect via our websites will depend on the type of interaction you have with our websites. The NSW Electoral Commission will collect personal information from:
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the content of forms including registration and application forms submitted via our websites
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any messages or comments including complaints and feedback a person may submit using an online form via our websites
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subscriptions to the election reminder service
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registrations for an event or seminar
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registrations with respect to third-party lobbyists
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expressions of interest with respect to employment opportunities
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entries made through the online enrolment verification service
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online nominations
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online registrations of electoral material
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online electoral funding registrations, disclosures and claims through FD Online
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clickstream data and cookies.
Please refer to our Privacy Management Plan for further information.
Why do we collect your personal information from our websites?
Any personal information you provide to us via our websites will be used and disclosed for our purposes, or a related purpose, unless you consent to another use or disclosure, or as otherwise stated on a form, application, webpage or as required or authorised by law. Generally, we will use your personal information to:
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make decisions with respect to your obligations and entitlements under our governing legislation
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publish information including personal information that we are lawfully authorised or required to publish as detailed in this Website Privacy Statement and our Privacy Management Plan
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verify your identity and or eligibility with respect to a particular application or process
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manage your access to one of our online portals
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send you relevant notifications (including via sms or email)
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invite you to participate in relevant surveys or information seminars
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educate and inform you of your obligations with respect to an election and other related matters
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maintain, secure and improve our websites and to enhance your experience when using them
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optimise and build audiences for our advertising campaigns, and
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undertake our legislative and administrative functions under our governing legislation including our research, electoral, complaint handling, audit, investigative and prosecuting functions.
Electors who provide us with their contact email address and/or mobile number on election related forms may have those details added to the Electoral Information Register as part of the NSW Electoral Commission’s functions to maintain and verify enrolment information.
Please note that additional privacy statements may be found on the pages of our websites where registration occurs or on the forms/applications to be completed.
Our Privacy Management Plan details the circumstances where particular forms/applications made by electoral participants are required to be made available for public inspection or published on our websites.
Who will access your personal information?
With the exception of information that is required to be published or made available for inspection, access to your personal information is generally restricted to a limited number of officers and our contracted service providers for the purposes identified above.
The public will have access to your personal information that we are required to publish on our websites or make available for public inspection at our office. Our Privacy Management Plan provides further details about public registers.
We capture your personal information on our computers and those of our contracted service providers.
We will disclose your personal information to other persons or entities if we are lawfully required and may also do so in other cases where we are lawfully authorised, for example, to other relevant investigative agencies for law enforcement purposes or where the Electoral Commission considers it to be in the public interest to report to the public about the status of compliance action.
Are you required to provide us the personal information we collect?
The NSW Electoral Commission will only collect personal information from our website for a lawful purpose. The information collected is relevant to that purpose and is not excessive,
The processing and approval of your online registration, account or form may be delayed or rejected if you do not supply all of the required information indicated at the time of registration or application.
As mentioned 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. Please visit Facebook Ad Preferences if you wish to alter your settings. You can opt out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting (e.g. aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.eu.
Can you access or amend your personal information?
You can find further information about accessing and amending your personal information in our Privacy Management Plan.
An individual may request access to and alteration of personal information unless exemptions apply e.g. information contained within a record pertaining to the NSW Electoral Commission’s complaint handling and investigative functions.
If you become a silent elector after your details are published in a public register, you are required to notify us immediately so that we can take steps to update our records.
Links to external websites
This site contains links to other sites. Our Website Privacy Statement does not extend beyond our websites. When following links to third party sites, we recommend you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy practices.
The NSW Electoral Commission is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. Please refer to our Disclaimer for additional information.
Security of information
While we take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure there are inherent risks associated with the transmission of information via the internet. Please refer to our Disclaimer for further information.
Our websites are protected by advanced access control mechanisms to prevent unauthorised access. Strong data encryption mechanisms are also used to protect your personal information during data transmission and when your data is stored.
For those who do not wish to use the internet, we provide alternative ways of obtaining and providing information. We will remove personal information from our system where it is no longer required, except where archiving is required and in order to fulfil our obligations under the PPIP Act.
Social networking services
Our websites contain links to social networking services Facebook, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.
Social media communications are in the public domain. We will not ask you for personal information through social media. If we need personal information to answer your question or help you, we will ask you to use a more private channel, such as sending us an enquiry via our feedback/complaints form or by telephoning us.
The NSW Electoral Commission uses social media monitoring platforms to listen to, monitor and, when necessary, respond to conversations regarding elections on social media for the primary purpose of deterring the spread of misinformation in relation to elections.
When you communicate with us using these social networking services, we may collect your personal information to help us communicate with you and the public. We may also use the social networking services to invite you to participate in surveys and to our events or services.
We use and manage information collected from social media services in line with the State Records - Strategies for managing social media records. This includes capturing information and making records of social media activities. This does not mean all social media information is captured and managed as an official record, but it does mean that some high risk and key business value social media information will be managed and kept for appropriate periods of time. This Website Privacy Statement does not extend to social networking sites. These sites have their own privacy policies and we encourage you to read them. Please refer to our Disclaimer for additional information.
Need further information?
If you have any questions about this Website Privacy Statement or privacy concerns, please contact our Privacy Officer on (02) 9290 5999 or by emailing privacy@elections.nsw.gov.au.