Respecting your privacy and the law

The privacy of your personal information has always been important to us at Metlink Victoria Pty Ltd ("Metlink"). We are committed to respecting your right to privacy and protecting your personal information. We are bound by the National Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Information Privacy Principles in the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic), as well as other applicable laws and codes affecting your personal information. Our employees are trained to respect your privacy in accordance with our standards, policies and procedures.

About this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy outlines how we manage your personal information. It also describes generally the sorts of personal information held and for what purposes, and how that information is collected, held, used and disclosed.

This Privacy Policy applies to all your dealings with us whether using the Metlink Website ("Website"), in writing, in person or through our Call Centre. We encourage you to check our Website regularly for any updates to our Privacy Policy.

Collecting your personal information

(a) Website

It is intended that our Website can be used anonymously. However, for some functions of our Website the collection of personal information is necessary or unavoidable. You will know if we are collecting personal information from you because you will be requested to provide it. The only exception to this is where someone else provides us with your personal information. We cannot prevent a third party from providing us with your personal information without authority.. When you visit our Website, we may collect general information that will not personally identify you, such as your:

• Internet browser;
• operating system;
• date of visit;
• time of visit; and
• path taken through the site.

This information alone does not identify an individual and we will not combine it with information that does identify you as an individual. It provides data so that we can produce statistics that we use to analyse and improve our Website. Through this statistical data, we are able to gain insights and a greater understanding of how people use our Website.

Our Website will use "cookies" to gather statistical information that helps us understand what you find interesting and useful on our Website. These cookies are known as your "Unique Visitor Cookie" and identify you only by random number (e.g. #12489). You can decline our cookies by adjusting the "accept cookies" setting on your browser, however this may affect the functionality of our Website on your browser.

Our Website contains embedded code. This gives us statistical site usage information about the pages visited, duration of page view, location previous to accessing our Website, the navigational habits of users, and browser and operating system. We do not use this code to collect any personally identifiable information.

We will only request you to provide personal information for the purposes of responding to your feedback, completing surveys to ensure that our feedback systems are effective, answering queries that you may have in respect of a particular site or the information you are trying to obtain, or to provide you with a subscription to "My Way".

(b) Concessions and Travel Passes

Certain categories of people may be eligible for discounted or special travel passes for public transport. If you are eligible for any of these types of travel passes, it will be necessary for you to provide us with your personal information to enable us to issue a travel pass to you. The terms of these specific privacy requirements and obligations are set out in the "Travel Pass Privacy Policy" which is available from our Website and office.

(c) Call Centre

When you phone our Call Centre, our operators may request that you provide your name, address, contact details or other personal information in order to identify you and to attend to your query or enquiry effectively. You do not have to provide us with this information, however failure to do so may mean that we are unable to assist you or respond to you in relation to your enquiry or complaint. Furthermore, your information may be used for survey purposes in order to maintain the effectiveness of mechanisms for feedback.

Use of your personal information

We will only use your personal information for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or the Travel Pass Privacy Policy (if applicable to you). We may also provide your personal information to Public Transport Authorities (PTAs)*, solely for the purposes of issuing or renewing special travel passes and later a myki card, providing feedback and answering your queries, or to provide you with future updates about public transport information. If you indicate that you do not wish to receive these updates we will not send them to you.

It is our intention that this Privacy Policy will protect your personal information from being dealt with in any way that is inconsistent with applicable privacy laws in Australia.

We reserve the right to use or disclose any information as necessary to comply with any law, regulation or legal request, to protect the integrity of our Website or our services, to fulfill your requests or to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation or an investigation on a matter of public safety.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties to complete a transaction on your behalf or provide you with a service that you requested.  For example, payments on our Website are processed by a third party contractor.

[*PTAs means: Transport Ticketing Authority; Secretary to the Department of Transport (DOT); Director of Public Transport: an Officer of the Public Transport Division in the DOT who has duties relating to Public Transport Ticketing; any agent, contractor or delegate of any of the above including Metlink or a Public Transport Operator (train, tram, bus) including the Central Pass Office]

Access to and correction of information

We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep secure any information which we hold about you, and to keep this information accurate and up to date.

You may request access to your personal information held by us by contacting us. At your request we will provide you with the details of all of your personal information which we hold.

If, at any time, you discover that information held about you is incorrect, you may contact us to have the information corrected.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us.

Links to other sites

You will be able to access external websites by clicking on links we have provided. Those external websites are not subject to our privacy standards, policies and procedures. You will need to contact or review those external websites directly to ascertain their respective privacy standards, policies and procedures.

We are not responsible for the content, policies, practices, security or the privacy obligations of any external websites, including our Website to which you will be directed if you make a payment to us online.

Your sensitive information

We will not collect information about you that reveals your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, details of health, disability, sexual orientation, or criminal record.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

To fully protect your privacy, we reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will post the amended terms on our Website as they occur and encourage you to check for updates. This Privacy Policy was last amended in January 2011.

Changes to this Privacy Policy will not have any retrospective effect, and will not alter how we handle your previously collected personal information.

No contract or liability

Nothing contained in this Privacy Policy is intended to create a contract or agreement between us and any user providing identifiable information in any form..

We will take all necessary steps to comply with this Privacy Policy, however, to the extent permitted by law, nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to hold us liable for any failure to comply with this Privacy Policy.

Further, because we do not control the privacy practices of our subcontractors, external website providers, the Victorian State Government's Department of Transport, Transport Ticketing Authority or other Victorian State Operators, we advise that you read and fully understand their respective privacy policies.

Contact Metlink about this Privacy Policy

If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please use the Metlink Feedback Form.

Or mail your requests to:

Metlink Privacy Officer
Metlink Melbourne
PO Box 4693
Melbourne VIC 3001