Privacy

Please note that this Privacy Notice applies only to The DEAL Project site and not to any other sites that are linked to The DEAL Project site or mentioned on the site.

Personal information collected at the University of New South Wales ("UNSW") through UNSW websites is handled in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW) ("the Act"). This UNSW Websites Privacy Statement describes the ways in which UNSW deals with personal information and other data collected through UNSW websites.

What is Personal Information?

Personal Information is defined in the Act as being information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can reasonably be ascertained from that information or opinion. Personal Information includes, for example, names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and passport numbers.

There are circumstances in which, under the Act, information about an individual is not considered to be Personal Information, including:

• when it relates to a person who has been dead for more than 30 years; and
• when it is contained in a publicly available publication.

Your personal information is important to us.

UNSW recognises that your privacy is very important to you and that we are under a legal obligation to protect the integrity of your personal information.

Why the program collects personal information from you

When you enter The DEAL Project site you will be asked to complete a number of exercises and enter information about yourself and how you are feeling - some of which you may consider to be sensitive. The program asks for this information in order to provide you with tailored and specifically relevant information about depression and alcohol use. The information is stored in the 'my notes' section in The DEAL Project database, along with information about the date and time you complete each exercise. Information about the pages you visit on the site is also collected. This is intended to help The DEAL Project developers understand how visitors use the program.

Note that we do not ask you for identifying information such as your name or address. We do ask for your email address. This is intended so that we can send your registration details for your reference, and so that you may choose to have reminders sent to you by email in the future.

All information gathered through The DEAL Project is stored on a secure server and is subject to all reasonable security measures.

UNSW will not use or disclose any information about you without your consent unless we are required to do so by law. UNSW will never use your personal information to send you unsolicited information or 'spam' and UNSW will never give any of your personal information or your browser details to any advertisers.

Our use of cookies

The DEAL Project site uses transient or session cookies. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer's hard disk when you open The DEAL Project web pages. Cookies by themselves do not identify you or any user but they do identify your browser. Because The DEAL Project uses 'transient' cookies, your computer does not retain the information delivered in the cookie once you leave The DEAL Project site. When you close your browser the transient cookie set up by The DEAL Project is destroyed, and no personal information is retained which could identify you or your browser next time you log on to The DEAL Project.

Most web browsers are set up to accept cookies, and while you can set your browser to not accept cookies, you will not be able to use The DEAL Project if you do this.

It is important to keep your web browser up-to-date with the latest security updates, as these can affect the way your browser handles cookies.

Storage and security of your personal information

UNSW will take all reasonable steps to keep all information about you secure. Your information is held on a secure server. UNSW will not otherwise disclose your personal information without your consent unless otherwise authorised by law. UNSW may disclose personal information to a third party if the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of you or another person.

Personal information collected through UNSW websites which is no longer required by UNSW and which need not be retained by law will be destroyed. In addition, all of the staff on The DEAL Project team, as well as all UNSW employees and contractors who provide services related to our information systems, are obliged by law to respect the confidentiality of any personal information and/or research information held by UNSW.

You can also play an important role in keeping your personal information secure by using a made up username and by keeping your password secure.

Use of information for our research

To make this site as effective as possible we need your help in evaluating it. At various stages of development we will be asking users to help us with the format of information on the site. This means that some of the time different versions of the site will be offered to different users. We will let you know if this is the case. If you are asked to do this, we hope that you will help us!