GEARED Online Privacy Policy
The GEARED website is operated by the Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales ("RTA").
The RTA is a NSW Government agency committed to the protection of customer’s privacy and personal information. When you use the GEARED website, your privacy is protected under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 or the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002. Personal information may only be disclosed in accordance with the exemptions provided under the Act/s.
The RTA’s compliance with the Act is outlined in the RTA Privacy Management Plan. For more information on privacy management in the RTA, please go to the privacy section of the RTA website.
Website visit information
The website 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 web site 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.
Cookies
‘Cookies’ are small pieces of text data that a web server can store on, and later retrieve from, a user's computer. They do not personally identify you, but do identify your browser. 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 web site. Session cookies are short-lived, are used only during a browsing session, and expire when you shut down your browser.
The GEARED website uses persistent cookies. They record your preferences in relation to your use of the site and provide us with other information about your enquiry that allows us to recognise your browser if you return to the GEARED website in the future. This enables the GEARED website to present information that may be most relevant to you based on your previous visits. They also assist the RTA to understand what parts of the site users find the most useful and improve the effectiveness of the website.
The cookies on the GEARED site do not read the information on your hard drive. They do not make your computer perform any actions or make your computer send information to any other computer via the internet. The RTA makes no attempt to associate cookies with users' names or identities. The GEARED server cannot find out your name or email address, or anything about your computer, by using cookies.
Third party cookies
Some pages on the GEARED website may include cookies provided by a third party who provides advertising services on behalf of the RTA. These services are currently provided by Ad Butler to enable online advertising to operate on the GEARED site.
More information on Ad Butler’s privacy policy is available here.
Managing cookies on your computer
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. However, if you decide to not accept cookies set by this web site, 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 this website at a later date. In this way, the persistent cookies set by this web site 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. More information on cookies and internet privacy can be found on the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s website.
Web beacons or pixel tags
The RTA, or a third party engaged by the RTA, 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 particular promotional campaigns. This enables the RTA to improve future online 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.
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 the GEARED website.
Further information
For further information regarding the GEARED website privacy policy please contact geared@rta.nsw.gov.au.
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