Privacy

The Department of Energy and Climate is committed to protecting user privacy. We understand and appreciate that visitors and users of this website are concerned about their privacy and the confidentiality and security of any information that may be provided.

The Department of Energy and Climate is subject to the Information Privacy Act 2009 which requires that it complies with the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) set out in the Act. The IPPs set out how Queensland Government agencies should collect, store, use and disclose personal information and how individuals can access and apply to amend documents containing their personal information.

When you visit a Department of Energy and Climate website, our server makes a record of your visit and logs certain information for statistical purposes only. No attempt is or will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a power to inspect activity logs.

Cookies

Some of the Department of Energy and Climate websites use cookies to provide customised online payment facilities for government services only. If you wish to use these facilities you will need to accept cookies. If you have configured your browser to reject all cookies, you will still be able to view information-only pages on these sites.

Personal and financial information provided when you purchase an item or renew a licence is protected at all stages of the transaction.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a short piece of data which is sent from a web server to a web browser on the user's machine when the browser visits the server's site. The cookie is stored on the user's machine as an historical identifier. It is not however, an executable program and cannot do anything to your machine.

A server cannot find out a name or e-mail address, or anything about a user's computer, by using cookies and cookie information is not stored or collected by the Department.

Third party tracking

We may also use cookies, pixels, web beacons and other storage technologies from third parties (including Facebook), which collect or receive information from our websites and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and targeted advertising. You can choose not to allow companies to track your activities in this way.

Opting out from your browser

Visit the Your Ad Choices website and follow the instructions to opt out from receiving targeted advertising from participating companies.

Opting out from your device

On your iPhone, iPad or Android, you can change your device settings to control whether you see targeted advertising. This is usually under 'Privacy' or 'Advertising' in settings.

Links to external web sites

Some of the Department of Energy and Climate websites contain links to other sites that are external. The Department of Energy and Climate takes care in linking websites but has no direct control over the content of the linked websites, or to the changes that may occur to the content on those sites. It is the responsibility of the user to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information contained in linked external websites.

Emails

This is a Queensland Government website. Email correspondence sent to this site is subject to the Right to Information Act 2009 and will be treated as a public record and retained as required by the Public Records Act 2002 and other relevant Acts and regulations.

Your name and address details will not be added to a mailing list, nor will we disclose these details to third parties without your consent unless required by law. Email messages may be monitored by our website support staff for system trouble shooting and maintenance purposes.

Google Analytics

The Department of Energy and Climate is committed to providing a useful and effective service via its webpage. To that end, the department employs the tools provided by Google Analytics to gather information about how the department's website is accessed. Google Analytics uses 'cookies', which are text files placed on your computer, to help the department analyse how users use the site.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located outside of Australia. No personally identifying information is recorded or provided to Google. If you are logged in to the department's website, information about your user account is NOT linked to data recorded by Google Analytics and is NOT provided to Google.

Information that is gathered using the Google Analytics cookie includes:

the number of visitors to the department's website
how visitors arrive at the department's website, for example did they type the address in directly, follow a link from another webpage, or arrive via a search engine
the number of times each page is viewed and for how long
time and date of visit
geographical location of the visitor
information about what browser was used to view the department's site and the operating system of the computer
information about whether the browser supports Java and Flash
the speed of the user's internet connection.

This information will be used by the Department of Energy and Climate to optimise the department's site to improve access and useability, and to compile statistical data for reporting purposes, for example to include in the Annual Report.

Read more about Google's Privacy Policy.

Social media

We use a third-party social media monitoring service to track and analyse our social media presence. This service may collect publicly available information about our followers and those who engage with our content on our social media pages. This information may include:

Basic user information: Username, profile picture (if publicly available)
Publicly shared content: Posts, comments, and other content you share publicly on our pages
Metadata: Information about your interaction with our content, such as time and location (if included in your public profile).

We do not collect any private information that you haven't chosen to share publicly on the social media platform. The information we collect through our social media monitoring service is used for various purposes, including:

Understanding our audience: We analyse the demographics and interests of our followers to better understand who we are reaching and tailor our content accordingly.
Improving engagement: We track how users interact with our content to identify what resonates best and improve the quality and relevance of our future posts.
Responding to inquiries and comments: We use the information to identify and respond to your questions and comments on our social media pages.

We take the security of your data seriously. The third-party service we use adheres to strict data security standards and only processes publicly available information. We do not share any of the information we collect with any third parties other than the social media monitoring service provider.

Access and amendment of personal information

Individuals are entitled to seek access to their personal information and to amend those records if they are inaccurate, misleading or out of date. Rights of access and amendment exist under the Information Privacy Act 2009. You may apply online to access or amend your personal information or complete the Right to Information application form.

Payments

When you pay an account or purchase something through the Department of Energy and Climate's websites, your personal and financial details are protected at all stages of the transaction. In order to process any payment we need to know your name, address details, email address, and credit card details. Your credit card details are NOT stored on servers at any stage of the transaction. Once the credit card details have been sent to our financial institution they are no longer known to our system.

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Last updated:: 5 March 2024