Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Statement describes how we collect, use, store and disclose personal information when you interact with MHDA Experiences.

When used in this Statement, "personal information" has the meaning given in the Privacy Act. Generally, it means any information or an opinion that could be used to identify you.

Privacy and using this site

MHDA Experiences is owned and operated by Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD), Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol directorate using software licensed from Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd (ACN 164 471 425). The site aims to connect with people who have lived experience of mental health, drug or alcohol issues to gather input and experiences to help improve the Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol services provided by Murrumbidgee Local Health District.

MLHD Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol directorate takes the privacy of those using this site very seriously. We adhere to the privacy standards outlined by NSW Health.

This privacy statement applies to the MHDA Experiences website specifically and provides details on how MLHD Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol directorate collects and protects your personal information as part of your use of this site. This privacy statement does not apply to any other aspects of your interactions with Murrumbidgee Local Health District (e.g. receiving a health service).

The personal information gathered through your interaction with MHDA Experiences is only for the purpose of your participation in this site and the consultations listed. Your information and activities on the site are not recorded in your healthcare record.

For details of how Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd collects, protects, discloses, stores and uses personal information, please refer to their Privacy Policy.

By providing personal information and/or continuing to use MHDA Experiences you consent to your personal information being collected, used and disclosed in accordance with this Privacy Statement and you also agree to MHDA Experiences Terms of Use and Moderation and Community Guidelines.

How is your privacy protected?

An individual's right to privacy as established under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 is respected and protected by Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD).

MLHD does not allow the publication of information that may identify individuals, or might potentially identify them. Any statistical data about the use and management of MLHD facilities, services or projects, and the health of the population are made available on this website in the interest of the public.

Links to external (non-MLHD) sites are sometimes included in information for the convenience of site users, but MLHD does not have any responsibility for the privacy practices of third party sites.

NSW Health Privacy Policies

NSW Health observes the information privacy principles set out in Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act) when collecting and dealing with any personal information and the health privacy principles set out in the Health Records and Information Privacy Act (HRIP) Act 2002 when collecting and dealing with any health information.

NSW Health has a Privacy Management Plan which identifies how all NSW Health agencies comply with the Privacy Act.

NSW Health's policy document on information privacy is the Privacy Manual for Health Information.

What information do we collect?

We collect information about you and your use of MHDA Experiences. The type of information we collect will vary depending on how you interact with the service. We will only collect personal information if it is necessary to carry out the functions of MHDA Experiences. We will always take reasonable steps to collect your personal information directly from you and provide you with options about what information you share.

Site visitor data

MHDA Experiences collects information for statistical and system administration purposes. This includes:

• Your server (or IP) address
• The day and time you visited this site
• The pages that you access within MHDA Experiences including how long you spend on each
• Your route through MHDA Experiences (the sequence of pages and other content that you visit)
• The operating system you are using
• Any documents, images or videos that you download from the service
• Your rough geographic location
• The language of your browser
• Your internet service provider
• The type of browser and version you are using.

MLHD will not attempt to identify individuals from the records the server automatically generates unless necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation.

Cookies

Cookies are used on our site, but they do not collect any personal information. For the most part they are sessional and just contain system-generated values to identify the user's session for statistical and system administration purposes only.

We collect the data and information through a combination of Google Analytics, server logs and tools within the functionality of the site, using data security protocols.

Registration

Users can choose to register for MHDA Experiences to receive updates on projects you have contributed to or are interested in, as well as notifications of other opportunities you may want to take part in. Some consultations require you to be registered in order to take part.

To register you need to provide:

• Username (visible to others when you make comment or post on project pages)
• Password (private to you and not visible to the administration team)
• Email address

Optional registration information includes:

• Demographic information (age, location).
• Information about your experience of Mental Health, Drug or Alcohol services.
• Topics about which you have indicated an interest in being consulted or informed.
• Contact preferences and subscription to other (optional) communications from us.

Email addresses provided to this site will only be used to respond to enquiries or provide updates relating to your participation and specified interest areas and will not be added to mailing lists, or disclosed to any other party without the user's consent, unless required to do so by law.

Participating in a consultation

Consultations on MHDA Experiences are conducted by staff from MLHD Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Services and supported by the MHDA Coordinator Consumer Participation Strategy. They use tools provided by the service (e.g. surveys, comments, polls) to collect feedback and experiences.

We collect information that you provide via the MHDA Experiences feedback tools. This may include:

• comments and votes in forums
• stories
• surveys
• quick polls
• ideas and suggestions
• images

Correspondence

Any feedback or correspondence that you send to us via the MHDA Experiences site, email, text or phone conversation will be stored in a secure area within our message services system in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act).

Moderation

To protect the safety of the community and ensure that the site is a safe space for all participants, comments submitted to the site are moderated by the site administrators from MLHD, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol. Content deemed to be inappropriate or offensive will be removed in line with our Moderation and Community Guidelines.

How will we use your information?

We use the personal information about you to:

• administer the site and manage your account
• identify when you sign into your account
• send you updates and information, but only when you have agreed to us sending you this information or when the information is necessary to assist with the administration of the site
• respond to queries that you have contacted us about
• attribute content that you post on the site to you
• analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements and enhancements
• inform policy decisions, service delivery or project development by the MLHD, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol directorate
• for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.

User feedback

The information you provide through the feedback tools will be collated and provided to the MLHD team overseeing the project for the purposes of decision-making and development of the service or project. You will not be identified as part of this report, unless we advise otherwise when collecting the information (for example, you will be identified if you are applying to be part of a committee or workshop and it is necessary for the team to contact you to discuss your application).

Reports from consultations may also include de-identified quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools.

Each consultation will provide you with the following information:

• The project that you are contributing to.
• Who is leading the project and their contact information.
• How you can take part and provide your input.
• What will happen to the information or feedback you provide.
• Important dates and stages of the project.

What information is publicly available?

Not all of the information that you provide to us can be viewed by other users of MHDA Experiences.

Publicly available information

Publicly available information is limited to your username (selected by you) and any comments you leave under that name in the forums or other feedback tools on MHDA Experiences. To protect your privacy, we require that you select a username which does not identify you and that you do not include personal identifying information (e.g. real name, location) in your comments.

Reports of collated responses and statistics from consultations may be made publicly available or shared with third parties (e.g. contractors assisting with project development or relevant stakeholders). Any comments submitted by you included in the report will be de-identified. Statistics and collated feedback will not include any identifying information.

Information available to both MLHD and Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd includes:

• all information from the sign-up form
• comments, questions, stories, guestbook posts
• survey responses, quick poll responses, map pins
• general site activity such as document downloads, videos viewed, images viewed etc.
• information on the technology used to access the site.

Hidden information

We will not disclose to other users of the service:

• your password for MHDA Experiences (also not visible to the administration team)
• any personal information provided by you in the course of consultations that you do not expressly provide permission to disclose
• correspondence that you send to us using MHDA Experiences contact information
• information that you submit to specific consultations within MHDA Experiences.

Storing and disclosing personal information

Personal information will be kept in safe custody, sufficient to prevent unauthorised access, and will be properly handled to ensure its safety, integrity and confidentiality. Circumstances in which MLHD may be required to disclose this information to a law enforcement agency include:

• Unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on MHDA Experiences;
• Unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published on MHDA Experiences;
• Attempts to intercept messages of other users of MHDA Experiences;
• Communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed;
• Attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server or breach the laws of the State of NSW or the Commonwealth of Australia.

Data security and destruction

Under the PPIP Act, we have a responsibility to protect your personal information. We take reasonable steps to make sure that your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

Further, any personal information that we collect and use for identifying user trends is aggregated and anonymised when generating reports.

To protect your own privacy, your password for MHDA Experiences should be kept confidential, and must not be displayed, shared or written down.

When will we contact you?

We may send you information and announcements from time to time by email. If you give us permission, we may also call you on the phone number provided to discuss your application or feedback.

You can choose to receive communication and other updates from us by email. If you choose this but then change your mind, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the process set out in the emails and newsletters that we send you.

Who do I contact for more information?

If you have any questions about the privacy of your information, you can contact:

• the MHDA Experiences administration team at mlhd-mhda-experiences@health.nsw.gov.au
• the Murrumbidgee LHD Privacy Contact Officer (PCO) on 02 6053 4846.

What if you have a complaint?

If you wish to make a complaint about a breach of this Privacy Statement, please contact the Murrumbidgee LHD Privacy Contact Officer (PCO) at 02 6053 4846.

We will investigate your complaint and conduct an internal review if requested.

Changes to our Privacy Statement

We may update the content of this Privacy Statement from time to time for any reason. The updated version of the Privacy Statement will apply to you as soon as it is posted on the website, so we suggest that you regularly review the Privacy Statement.

This statement was updated on 26th March 2024.