Privacy

Council protects privacy by complying with its obligations under the: 

This Privacy Statement explains how your personal information will be treated when you use Council’s website. 

What information do we collect? 

Council collects personal information, such as your name or address, via the website only when you volunteer that information to Council. For example, you could volunteer personal information to Council by making a submission on a Council matter.

Personal information you provide to Council that is not voluntary, for example when you submit a development application, is not provided via Council’s website. 

Why does Council collect personal information?  

Council only collects personal information via its website for the purpose of carrying out its functions. This includes considering and then reporting on community submissions on various Council matters. 

It also includes functions like notifying people of Council activities. For example, sometimes, when you provide an email address to Council, Council will add it to the list of addresses it sends information to about Council business. Any Council correspondence you receive via email will include a way for you to easily opt out of receiving future Council correspondence. 

What personal information does Council disclose?

Council will publicly disclose personal information on its website in the following circumstances: 

  1. Where you volunteer personal information via the Council website as part of having your say on a matter.
  2. Where you provide personal information to a Council meeting matter, and the report of that meeting is published on Council’s website.
  3. Where you provide personal information via another website and this personal information needs to be disclosed as part of Council’s functions. For example, personal information you provide to the NSW Planning Portal when you submit a development application will be disclosed on Council’s website via its DA tracker.

Where possible, Council will limit disclosure of your personal information to your name. For example, the reason for including your name in the record of a Council meeting, or in another submission you make, is that there is a general public interest in submissions being identified with the person who made them. This is because submissions attached to a person whose identity is known carry more weight than someone making a submission anonymously.

In a relatively small community like Byron Shire, lots of people know each other, and putting a submitter’s name on the record helps people know of any interests a submitter has that might otherwise go undeclared if they made a submission anonymously. 

However, there will be other occasions, such as when you make a development application, where personal information like your address will be disclosed on Council’s website.

Access and correction

If you think we hold personal information about you that is wrong, contact us to amend the information.

  • In Person at 70 Station Street, Mullumbimby.
  • By mail: PO Box 219 Mullumbimby NSW 2482
  • By email: council@byron.nsw.gov.au

Security

There are risks in transmitting personal information on the internet. While Council tries to protect personal information, it does not warrant the security of information transmitted via Council’s website.

Links to External Websites

This Privacy Statement does not extend beyond this website. When following links to other sites from this website, including online surveys, we recommend that you read the privacy statement of that site to familiarise yourself with its privacy practices.

Google Analytics and Cookies

In addition to the web server logs, we also use Google Analytics to help us better understand our audience and provide visitors with a better user experience. 

Google Analytics uses digital tracking tools known as cookies across our website. They are used to track things such as the:

  • date and time of your visit
  • pages visited
  • documents downloaded 
  • type of browser and operating system used.  

Cookies are pieces of information that a website can transfer to an individual's computer hard drive for record keeping. They identify and recognise the computer, but not the person using the computer, when you visit our website.

The use of cookies and pixels are an industry standard and you will find most major websites use them. Most Internet browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can adjust your internet browser to disable cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used.

We do not and will not marry any data collected by Google Analytics with any personal information. 

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google. Refer to Google's Privacy Policy for more information.  

Council’s Privacy Management Plan

For more information about how we manage privacy and personal information please refer to Council’s Privacy Management Plan(PDF, 546KB)

For general information about your privacy rights under the PPIP Act or HRIP Act,

Data Breach

A data breach occurs when information held by Council is subject to

  • Unauthorised access.
  • Unauthorised disclosure,
  • Is lost.

Our Data Breach Policy sets out how Council responds to a data breach. 

If a data breach is likely to cause an individual serious harm, we will notify them and report the incident to the NSW Information and Privacy Commission. The following table lists all reportable data breach incidents in the past 12 months. 

Data breach table
Breach Date  Description of incident  Duration Remediation actions taken Recommendations to affected individuals Responsible Agency  Complaints Handling 
 27/05/2024 Disclosure of a person's name via an information request by a third-party Information never published to the general public Planned review of redaction process for submissions information requests Pathway provided for independent review of findings Byron Shire Council Colin Baker

Need more information?

For more information about how we manage privacy and personal information please contact us: 

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