Privacy Collection Notice for the NSW Customer Survey Panel
This Privacy Collection Notice sets out how we collect, use, and disclose your personal information for the NSW Customer Survey Panel.
About this notice
The NSW Customer Survey Panel is operated by the NSW Department of Customer Service.
In this Privacy Collection Notice, we will refer to:
- the NSW Department of Customer Service as ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘DCS’
- the NSW Customer Survey Panel as ‘the Panel’.
Once you are a member of the Panel, you may be invited to take part in research activities conducted by us or on behalf of other NSW Government departments and agencies. Research activities include but are not limited to online surveys.
We collect and use your personal information so that:
- you can join the Panel and take part in research activities
- we can manage the Panel and respond to your enquiries, feedback and complaints
- we can create de-identified data sets (both non-aggregated and aggregated) for use by DCS and others for research and analysis purposes.
In this Privacy Collection Notice:
- “de-identified data set” means a data set from which any identifying information has been removed, so that the identity of individual Panel members is not apparent or reasonably ascertainable from the data set
- “non-aggregated data set” means individual responses that have been collected from multiple people
- “aggregated data set” means data that is generated by combining individual responses that have been collected from multiple people.
For information about your responsibilities when you participate in the process to join the Panel and when you are Panel member, read the Panel Terms and Conditions.
Collection
1. When you join the Panel, we collect:
- basic information like your name and contact details
- demographic and other information about you.
You will know exactly what information we are collecting from you because it will be set out in the Panel sign-up form. It will likely include the following:
Eligibility details
- your agreement to the Panel Terms and Conditions
- whether you are a NSW resident
- whether you are 18 years of age or older.
Contact details
- first and last name
- email address
- mobile number (for validation purposes).
Demographic details
- suburb / town and postcode
- year of birth
- gender (optional)
- household composition (optional)
- Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander origin (optional)
- language used at home (optional).
Business ownership details
- business owner/operator
- number of employees
- position
NSW Government employee status
- whether you are a current NSW Government employee.
This information is known as your ‘Panel member profile information.’ We also collect your information when you update your Panel member profile information.
If you do not complete the sign-up form, we may collect your partial response.
2. When you choose to take part in a research activity, we may collect:
- details about yourself, including your demographic information, personal views, experiences, opinions, attitudes, behaviours, and preferences. The exact personal information that you may be asked to provide depends on the research activity being conducted
- details about your participation in the research activity, such as how long you took to complete a survey and the date that you participated.
When you take part in a research activity, do not provide additional personal information about yourself (other than what is asked for) or any other person.
If you do not complete a research activity, we may collect your partial response.
3. We may collect other personal information, provided by you, for Panel related purposes such as:
- when you contact us with an enquiry, feedback or complaint, for example through our contact us form, and when we respond to you by email or over the phone
- when you contact us to update your Panel member profile information and we action your request
- when we contact you about your Panel membership, for example, if your membership is inactive, or in relation to suspending or permanently removing you from the Panel
- when you provide feedback on your experience of being a Panel member or contacting us.
Only designated staff in DCS will have access to your Panel member profile information, responses to research activities from which your identity is apparent or could reasonably be ascertained, and any correspondence with you in relation to the Panel.
For each research activity, the designated staff in DCS will remove any information that identifies you, to create a de-identified data set for research and analysis purposes, for use by DCS and others.
Use
We may use the personal information you provide as follows:
Joining the Panel
- Register you as a Panel member. This includes sending you a one-time code during the sign-up process, each to your email address and mobile number, for validation purposes.
- Use your responses from the sign-up form (including partial responses) for learning and improvement purposes.
Taking part in research activities
- Select participants and invite you to take part in research activities (including but not limited to online surveys). We use your Panel member profile information, including your participation history, to help us select participants and invite you, by email, to take part in research activities.
- Use your Panel member profile information to pre-fill responses to a research activity (for example, gender, postcode), if you choose to take part.
- Use your Panel member profile information (e.g., name, email and / or unique identification number) to identify who a response belongs to for Panel administrative purposes.
- Use your responses from a research activity (including partial responses) for learning and improvement purposes.
- Unsubscribe and resubscribe you to specific research activities, as indicated by you.
Research and analysis
- Use your responses from a research activity (including partial responses) to produce:
- de-identified, non-aggregated data sets, and / or
- de-identified, aggregated data sets
We may provide these data sets to other NSW Government departments and agencies for research and analysis purposes. Any other NSW Government department or agency we share this data with will not be able to re-identify individual participants.
We may provide these data sets to other parts of DCS for research and analysis purposes.
- While it is technically possible for DCS to re-identify individual participants (because DCS holds the responses and Panel member profiles), in practice, only designated staff in DCS will have access to your Panel member profile information and any other information relating to the Panel from which your identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained.
- Those other parts of DCS that are provided with data sets for research and analysis purposes will not be provided with any information that would enable your identity to be ascertained.
We may use these data sets to produce research outputs (e.g., insights). The research outputs may be produced by DCS or another NSW Government department or agency.
DCS or another NSW Government department or agency may:
- publish de-identified data sets and / or research outputs, and / or
- share them internally within the NSW Government or externally with other governments or other third parties.
Contacting you
- Contact you:
- About your Panel membership. For example, to confirm your Panel member profile information from time to time, to ask you for additional information about you to add to your Panel member profile, or if you have breached the Panel Terms and Conditions.
- To update you on research activities that you have taken part in. For example, we may send you the outputs of the research activity.
- About Panel general news and updates. This includes updates to the Panel Terms and Conditions.
- About your responses to a research activity.
- Respond to you by email or over the phone to enquiries, feedback or complaints we receive from you, for example through our contact us form.
Feedback related to the Panel
- Invite you, by email, to provide feedback on your experience:
- as a Panel member. For example, asking for your feedback on Panel processes or research activities you have taken part in.
- contacting us.
We use your feedback to understand the collective Panel experience and identify improvement opportunities. If we share or publish this feedback data and / or any feedback outputs within the NSW Government or externally with other governments or other third parties, they will be in a de-identified form.
General Panel management
- Administer our research activities, including assigning you a unique identification number for administrative purposes.
- To unsubscribe and resubscribe you to the Panel as indicated by you.
- Update your Panel member profile information by self-service (where available) or by us (as indicated in your response to a research activity or if you request us to do so).
- Quality check individual responses to research activities, for example, to identify a member if it appears they may have breached the Panel Terms and Conditions or if we have some other legal basis for doing so.
- Identify and address behaviour that may be contrary to the Panel Terms and Conditions, including if your membership is inactive, or in relation to suspending or permanently removing you from the Panel.
- Report on the Panel, including creating de-identified (aggregated and / or non-aggregated) data sets and outputs on:
- the composition of the Panel (such as number of members, demographics)
- the collective participation history of the Panel membership base
- customer enquiries, feedback and complaints (such as ‘contact us’ volumes, types of contact made)
which may be shared and / or published internally within the NSW Government or externally with other governments or other third parties.
- Comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
Disclosure
If you provide information that makes us concerned about your safety or security, we may need to report our concerns, for example to police or other emergency services. We may pass on your contact details for that purpose.
Otherwise, we will not share your personal information with any other person or body unless you consent, or we have some other legal basis for doing so.
We may publish or otherwise share research outputs (e.g., insights) and de-identified data sets from our research activities with others but, in that case, we will remove any information that may be used to identify you.
If in future the function of operating the Panel is transferred to a different NSW Government department or agency, we may share any of the personal information that we hold in relation to your Panel participation with that department or agency, so that you can remain on the Panel without having to provide your details again.
We may provide your personal information to Service NSW if in future we make arrangements with Service NSW that would enable you to join the Panel, sign in or participate in research activities using a MyServiceNSW Account.
Protecting your information
We take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access, modification, disclosure, or other misuse.
We ensure that personal information is not kept longer than necessary, and is disposed of appropriately, in accordance with the law, including our obligations under the State Records Act 1998. These obligations may require us to retain records for a minimum period of time even if you unsubscribe from the Panel, are inactive or are permanently removed.
Providing your information
You are not required to provide us with any of your personal information. However, if you choose not to provide us with information that we have asked for, you will not be able to join the Panel or take part in research activities, and we will not have any way of communicating with you in relation to the Panel.
Accessing or correcting your information
You have a legal right to access your personal information and, if it is wrong, request that it be corrected.
For more information about how you can access or correct your personal information, please contact us.
Web privacy
IP (Internet Protocol) address and geolocation
We may collect your IP address and geolocation data for Panel management purposes, such as for quality checking responses.
Cookies
Cookies are small files placed on your device (computer, tablet, or smartphone).
At least one cookie needs to be placed on your browser when you apply to join the Panel, take part in research activities, or provide feedback on your experience as a Panel member or contacting us.
We always use cookies for the following purposes:
- storing multiple sessions on the same browser
- for security purposes.
We may use cookies for purposes including the following:
- preventing multiple submissions from the same person
- allowing you to start a survey session and finish it later
- allowing us to record a partial response.
If you would like more information about our use of cookies in relation to the Panel:
- please read Qualtrics Browser Compatibility and Cookies and the Qualtrics Cookie Statement, or
- if in future the cookies listed in this Privacy Collection Notice change, we will put a notice on our website, or
- if in future we use a provider other than Qualtrics, read the information about our use of cookies that we will put on our website.
If you would like information about the security of our website and use of cookies generally, please read the NSW Government’s website privacy statement.
Health information
We do not collect any health information when you apply to join the Panel.
When you choose to take part in a research activity, whether we collect any health information from you will depend on the research activity being conducted.
This Privacy Collection Notice applies to health information in the same way that it applies to personal information.
Further information
For any other enquiries about how we handle your information, please contact us.
We are located at 2-24 Rawson Place, Sydney NSW 2000.