Privacy
We have a strong commitment to ensuring that your personal information is protected and used appropriately.
Yarra Valley Water Corporation (Yarra Valley Water) is a water corporation established under the Water Act 1989 (Vic). We provide clean water to you and take your sewerage away.
We comply with the Information Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014(Vic) (Privacy and Data Protection Act) in the way that we handle personal information about our customers and other individuals. If we collect any health information we are bound by the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) (Health Records Act).
The aim of the privacy legislation is to give you more control over the way organisations such as ours collect, use, secure and disclose your personal information. It also gives you the right to know what information we hold about you.
Why does Yarra Valley Water collect personal information?
To carry out our business activities and functions, including to provide water and sewerage related services and products, the promotion of these services and products, and associated research. We may also collect personal information as required or permitted by law.
What personal information does Yarra Valley Water collect?
Personal information that identifies you as an individual or from which your identity can be reasonably determined.
It may include: your name, address and contact details, email address, date of birth, driver’s licence number, credit history, and pension and concession card number. We may collect some health information if interruption to services would impact your health (ie because you are on dialysis), you work for us and are injured at work or we need to know about your health information as part of your employment, or as required by occupational health and safety laws.
If you are not willing to supply this information, we may be unable to provide you with some services or products.
How does Yarra Valley Water collect personal information?
Where possible we will collect personal information directly from you (this may be over the counter, telephone, fax, email, internet, surveys or digital metering). In some cases, real estate agents, landlords or solicitors/conveyancers may provide personal information to us, particularly where property sales/transfers or tenancy applications are involved.
How will Yarra Valley Water use and disclose your information?
Personal information collected is used and disclosed to carry out our business activities and functions, including providing water and sewerage related services and products, the promotion of our services and products, and associated research. We may need to disclose some personal information to our contractors and to other third parties for these purposes, such as mercantile credit agencies, research agencies, or meter readers.
Yarra Valley Water may also use and disclose your personal information to relevant statutory agencies, including local government, Victorian government and the Commonwealth government. This is to facilitate our compliance with our statutory and legal obligations.
When using our website, you will be considered to have consented to our Internet Service Provider monitoring your use of our website and using your personal information for the purpose of promoting water and sewerage related services and products and market research.
The personal information we collect will not be used or disclosed for any other purpose not set out in this Privacy Policy without your consent, unless permitted under the Privacy and Data Protection Act or Health Records Act.
Does Yarra Valley Water transfer your information outside Victoria?
We do not routinely transfer personal information outside of Victoria, although in some circumstances we may do so where we engage third party contractors outside Victoria or are required to disclose information by law (ie to the ATO).
If we need to transfer personal information about you to someone who is outside Victoria, we will only do so if we reasonably believe that the recipient of the information is subject to a law, binding scheme or contract which effectively upholds principles for fair handling of the information that are substantially similar to the Information Privacy Principles, you consent or as otherwise provided for in privacy legislation.
Does Yarra Valley Water collect clickstream data?
When you use our website, using tools such as cookies and web beacons, we make a record of your visit and log information for statistical purposes. This is known as “clickstream data”. Clickstream data provides useful information about a user’s online experience without identifying individuals. Types of clickstream data we may collect include:
• a visitor’s computer address and relevant domains
• the times and dates of site visits
• the pages accessed and files downloaded
• the browsers and operating systems used by visitors.
We only use visitor logs and clickstream data from our website for statistical purposes, and no attempt will be made to identify you.
This information will only be used to update and improve our website. In using cookies and web beacons, Yarra Valley Water does not record any personal information unless you choose to provide this information to us, for example, by registering on our website. If you choose to provide this information to us, this information may be linked to data stored in the cookie.
You can configure your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, providing you with the opportunity to either accept or reject it. You can also refuse all cookies from your computer if required. This will also prevent web beacons from tracking the user’s activity. The web beacon will still account for an anonymous visit, but the user’s unique information will not be recorded.
How does Yarra Valley Water safeguard my personal information?
We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold from unauthorised use, disclosure, access, modification, loss or misuse.
We have a Privacy Policy and a code of conduct for our employees, contractors and agency staff. We also have confidentiality requirements for our employees, contractors and agency staff.
We have appropriate procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorised access to your personal information, to maintain data security and ensure we use and disclose the information we collect appropriately. This includes ID verification requirements on your account.
Where we hold your personal information in conjunction with others (e.g. where your account is a joint one), we will allow each individual access to their own personal information and to the joint information (e.g. account balance and transaction details) but not to the personal information of other individuals.
Other individuals will not be given account balances, transaction details or other personal information relating to your account, unless you give us express permission to disclose the information to individuals not listed on your account. Please contact us if you wish to arrange for someone else to have access to your account details. Once authorised, account information will be disclosed but they will not have access to your personal information.
Can I gain access to my personal information?
You may request access to your personal information that we hold, by writing to:
The Privacy Officer
Yarra Valley Water
25-35 Lucknow Street
Mitcham VIC 3132
Please provide us with as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek in order to help us retrieve it.
Please note we may charge you the reasonable cost of processing your request.
Should I let Yarra Valley Water know if my personal information needs to be changed?
We take reasonable steps to hold only accurate, complete and current personal information. If your personal information changes, please contact us and we will update and correct our records. This is particularly important if you vacate a property, or if there is any change in tenancy, to ensure we send accounts to the appropriate owner or occupier.
If you believe that any of the information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please write to us or phone us on 1300 304 688.
Can I opt-out of receiving marketing information from Yarra Valley Water?
We are committed to adding value to the services we provide to our customers. From time to time we may contact you with special offers or information we believe may be of interest to you.
If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us, then please write to us quoting your Yarra Valley Water account number:
Yarra Valley Water
Reply Paid 66193
Mitcham Victoria 3132 (no stamp required)
Please note that marketing information does not include amendments to terms and conditions, surveys and other important information concerning our water and sewerage related products and services.
How do I make a privacy complaint?
If you have a privacy complaint, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can act quickly. We will investigate the complaint, answer your questions and do all we can to address your concern.
Please call us on 1800 051 379 or address your complaint to:
Privacy Officer
Yarra Valley Water
25-35 Lucknow Street
Mitcham Victoria 3132
If you are not satisfied with our response you can take the matter further by contacting the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner on 1300 006 842 or by completing the ‘Privacy complaint form’ available on the website.
A privacy complaint can only be made by the individual whose privacy has been breached or someone acting on their behalf. If you act on someone’s behalf, you may be asked to provide documentation to that effect.
Amendments to this Policy
Download our Privacy Policy (Word 130KB)
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time and will notify you by posting an updated version of the Privacy Policy on our website.