CommuniLink Service

Welcome to CommuniLink Web Hosting Service

CommuniLink hosts community web sites and brings you in direct contact with the ethnic communities of New South Wales. CommuniLink informs you of what is happening in the community across the state and gives you an opportunity to participate in discussions of issues that are important to our community. Through CommuniLink, communities and the NSW Government are able to work closer than ever towards strengthening our multicultural society.


Stepan Kerkyasharian AM
Chairperson

 

Disclaimer

Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW - CommuniLink - Disclaimer and Copyright Notice

Site content

The CommuniLink site, and any links from it to third-party sites, have been established as an information source and with a view to promoting tolerance and cultural and other diversity in our society. You should, therefore, bear in mind that some material which appears at the CommuniLink site and any linked sites may possibly cause offence or upset to some people. Community Relations Commission (CRC) regrets, but cannot take responsibility for, any such offence or upset caused.

The aim of the CommuniLink site is to promote a free exchange of opinion and information. CRC does not necessarily endorse or support the views, opinions, standards or information which appear at this site or any linked sites. CRC has no control over the content of linked sites and does not monitor content posted by third parties on the parts of the CommuniLink site set aside for use by third parties including forums and hosted websites. You should also not interpret the absence of a link from the site to any other site as a criticism or comment by CRC on the provider or content of that other site.

E-mail is not a secure form of communication and accessing the Internet can also give rise to security issues. You must make your own assessment of these issues in deciding whether to access and use the CommuniLink site.

CRC cannot warrant and does not represent that the material which appears at the CommuniLink site or any linked sites is complete, current, reliable and/or free from error. CRC also cannot accept any responsibility or liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense (Loss) you might incur in any way as a result of the use of or reliance upon the materials which appear at this or any linked sites even if caused by CRC's negligence. Without limitation, this exclusion includes any Loss caused by the transmission of a virus or similar and consequential loss such as loss of profits and loss of data.

This disclaimer applies to the extent legally permitted. Where a complete exclusion is not permitted by law, CRC's liability is limited to resupply or payment of the cost of resupply in accordance with section 68A of the Trade Practices Act.

You should be aware that the providers of linked sites will often have their own protocols and standards in relation to their sites and the information which appears at them. We urge you to familiarise yourself with any such protocols and standards.

Copyright

Copyright in the material which appears at the CommuniLink site or any other Internet site (including any text, photographs or artwork) vests, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, in the author of the material whether that be the site content provider or some other person or organisation, for example, someone participating in an on-line discussion forum or chat session.

You are welcome to reproduce for personal or non-commercial use any material which CRC creates and displays at the website. If you wish to reproduce, alter, store or transmit the material for any other purpose, you should contact CRC for prior written permission.

CRC cannot and does not grant you any permission or authority in respect of the copyright in the material which is posted to our site by others or which appears at third-party Internet sites. We strongly recommend that you refer to the copyright statements at those sites before making use of the material.

Conclusion

CRC is confident that if users respect and abide by the Principles and Objectives and bear in mind the matters described at this web-page, the site, and the on-line discussion forums and chat sessions which take place at the site, will provide both a fantastic information source as well as an unique opportunity for you to share your views on relevant topics. We trust that you will enjoy using the site.

If you have any questions in relation to the site or would like more information about CommuniLink please feel free to contact the CommuniLink administrator at cl.admin@crc.nsw.gov.au.

Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW - CommuniLink - Privacy Statement

Users of the CommuniLink site are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales government's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The New South Wales government's privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. The Act defines personal information as any information or opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent or can be readily identified from the information or opinion.

The CRC has also developed a Privacy Management Plan which sets out how the CRC deals with personal information and with requests and complaints in relation to privacy issues. A copy of the Plan is available from our Privacy Contact Officer whose details appear at the end of this Statement.

What information do we collect automatically?

When you look at the pages on the CommuniLink site, our computers automatically record information that identifies, for each page accessed:

  • The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed it;
  • Your top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk etc.);
  • The address of your server;
  • The date and time of your visit to the site;
  • The pages accessed and documents downloaded;
  • The previous site visited;
  • The type of browser and operating system you have used.

The CommuniLink site uses cookies to collect some of this information. A cookie is a small file which is placed on your computer's hard drive to enable collection of certain data about your use of the CommuniLink site. You can set your browser to block our cookies but this may adversely affect your use of the site.

How do we use this information?

The information collected during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for CRC to identify patterns of usage of the site. This will assist us in improving the CommuniLink site and the services offered on it.

CRC will not disclose or publish information that identifies individual machines, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

What exceptions are there to this rule?

CRC will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

  • Unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published CommuniLink pages;
  • Unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the CommuniLink site;
  • Unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the CommuniLink site by other sites;
  • Attempts to intercept messages of other users of the CommuniLink site;
  • Communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed;
  • Attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server, breach the laws of the State of New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia, or interfere with the use of the CommuniLink site by other users;
  • Otherwise, where required or permitted by the Privacy and Personal Information Act 1998.

CRC reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the CommuniLink site raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed. In the event of an investigation, CRC will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Is the information stored securely?

Yes. Information collected is stored in an appropriately secure format and held by CRC for archival purposes. When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

What will we do with information provided by you?

CRC provides feedback facilities on the CommuniLink site to allow users to provide input into the future development of the site and to comment on the provision of service by the CRC. The CommuniLink site also allows you to register for newsletters and to participate in forums and websites hosted at the CommuniLink site.

The provision of personal details on feedback is optional unless you would like a reply to your feedback. For other services on the CommuniLink site, you may need to provide personal information to be able to participate. We will only use that personal information to enable you to participate in those services, except as set out in this Statement.

We will not add your email address or name to any mailing list. The only exception to this is that we may provide your email address or name and physical address details to other government departments or bodies who are holding trade, community, technology or other functions or events which we feel may be of interest to you.

CRC may publish aggregated information about feedback on the site, to the extent that it does not identify or cannot be used to identify individual users.

Your e-mail messages will be retained and stored electronically in accordance with the standards and authorities under the State Records Act which fixes variable retention periods depending on the type of transaction. E-mail is not a secure form of communication and we cannot guarantee that your message will not be viewed by someone else when being sent to us. Consider other forms of communication for confidential matters.

Who else has access to information within the CRC?

CRC captures this information on its own computers. Except as set out above, access to the raw data is restricted to a limited number of officers in CRC for the purpose of analysis and to report on the success of the CommuniLink site in meeting communication and access objectives. The officers who can access this data are the members of the CommuniLink team of the CRC.

Will this policy be updated over time?

Due to the developing nature of privacy principles for online communication, this policy may be modified or expanded in light of new developments or issues that may arise from time to time. The amended policy will be posted to this site and will operate from the time it is posted.

Please note that the CRC does not have any responsibility for the privacy policies or practices of third party sites linked to the CommuniLink site.

How can I find out more about personal information collected and my rights?

Under the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act, you may apply to access the records we hold about you, and apply to amend or correct information which is inaccurate, irrelevant, out of date, incomplete or misleading. For more information about how the CRC deals with privacy issues, to enquire about what personal information we hold about you or to make a complaint or comment, please contact our Privacy Contact Officer as follows: privacyofficer@crc.nsw.gov.au For further privacy information you may also call Privacy NSW on (02) 9268 5588 or visit the Privacy NSW website at www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/pc.