City of Newcastle (CN) is a proud champion of Privacy Awareness Week NSW 2023 and is committed to safeguarding the personal information of its local citizens.
Privacy Awareness Week is a global campaign that highlights the importance of privacy and raises awareness for public agencies, like City of Newcastle, about how to best protect the personal information of its customers.
The collection, storage, use, disclosure and amendment of personal information that is held securely by CN is managed in accordance with its recently revised Privacy Management Plan and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 NSW.
All NSW citizens have a right to have their personal information protected. The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) can also help citizens understand privacy laws in NSW and provides information on how to best protect their personal information.
During Privacy Awareness Week, the IPC has released these basic principles to help citizens to protect their own personal privacy:
Store – store personal documents such as passports, driver's licenses, pay slips, tax returns, bank statements and bills in a safe place.
Destroy – Destroy or shred personal documents you are throwing away such as bills, receipts, credit card statements and other documents that show your name, address or other personal details.
Limit – Keep the number of documents you carry around on you to a minimum. Don't leave personal documents in your vehicle or unattended.
Vary – Always use a different password and PIN for different accounts and take care when using public computers to access personal information.
Accurate – Regularly check your records. Make sure your information is correct and up to date.
Secret – Disable auto-connect to public Wi-Fi and never connect to public Wi-Fi on your work account. Use a VPN, incognito mode and/or ad blocking browser extensions, and clear out your cookie caches and browsing history to prevent your data and activity being collected.
Ask – Get permission before you share photos or videos of someone else, and don't share posts that contain personal information. Never exchange sensitive information over email.
Think – Think before you click links or share posts. Social media platforms have around 20 per cent more methods to scam customers than other websites, including malicious advertisements, share buttons and plug-ins.
Delete – Remove unused apps from your phone, and disable location, camera and microphone access where it's not required.
To learn more, visit the Information and Privacy Commission's Privacy Awareness Week webpage or view City of Newcastle's Privacy Statement.
