Privacy and Security

Your Privacy - The CSA IPP 2 statement

At the Child Support Agency (CSA) we place great emphasis on protecting your privacy. This statement is to advise you of the purpose for which we collect, store, use and disclose your personal information*. We are required by law to take reasonable steps to ensure you know why we are authorised to collect personal information and to whom we would usually disclose this information.

The Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) are found in the Privacy Act 1988. They set minimum standards for the treatment of personal information, specifically information collection, storage, security, correction, access, use and disclosure. CSA is bound by the IPPs and the Privacy Act 1988 in the manner in which we manage your personal information.

CSA is also subject to the secrecy provisions of our legislation, the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 and the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988. These secrecy provisions restrict the communication of our customers’ personal information and specify when and to whom we can lawfully release information.

Why we collect your personal information
When we collect your personal information it must be for the purpose of administering child support. The specific powers provided by child support legislation allow us by law to collect your personal information.

In addition to requesting information from you, we may also obtain information about you and your family from other government agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Who do we disclose your information to?
We will not disclose your contact details or personal information unless it is authorised or required by law. From time to time it may be necessary to disclose your personal information if it is relevant to a decision that would affect the other party to your child support case. This type of disclosure is authorised by law.

If authorised or required by law, we may also provide your personal information to other government agencies, such as:
Centrelink
Australian Taxation Office
Social Security Appeals Tribunal
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Department of Human Services
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Attorney-General’s Department
A law enforcement agency
Commonwealth investigation or auditing agencies such as the Ombudsman, the Privacy Commissioner or the Australian National Audit Office

If you are a mutual customer of the Child Support Agency and the Family Assistance Office (FAO)/Centrelink, we may disclose to them the details of determinations about the percentage of care provided to a child. This disclosure will enable them to apply the same care percentage when assessing Family Tax Benefit.

CSA regularly forms partnerships with, or contracts other non-government organisations to deliver services to separated parents. To enable you to access these services CSA may provide your contact details to these organisations. These organisations are also bound by the IPPs and secrecy provisions. When the services provided are not directly related to child support we will seek your consent prior to providing any of your information. You do not have to participate in any of these programs or access any of these services.

If your child support is deducted from your pay, we are required to provide information to your employer. Most employers are also bound by the Privacy Act 1988 and they must respect your privacy. Your employer cannot tell anyone that they deduct child support from your pay.

CSA, Market Research and you
At CSA we are committed to continuous improvement. To find out what you think about a range of child support issues and services we may conduct market research.

We generally contract external companies to conduct this research and where the research is related to child support issues and services, we may provide your contact details to them. If we do provide your contact details, you can be assured the company is required to keep your information secure and to not use it for any other purpose beyond the research for which it was provided.

Results from market research exercises never reveal the identity of any person who takes part and any feedback or comments you provide will not affect the service or treatment you receive from us. A decision not to participate in a market research exercise will also not affect the service you receive from us.

Occasionally we may agree to assist non-government organisations to conduct research that might relate to child support customers, such as research into family law issues. If the research is not directly related to child support issues or services, prior to providing any of your information to these organisations we will seek your consent.

If you do not wish to participate in market research, please call us on 131 272 and we will place you on a ‘Do not contact for market research’ list.

Your Privacy when a decision is appealed to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT)
Section 95(3) and 96 of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 requires CSA to provide information that is relevant to the decision being appealed, to the SSAT and to all parties to the appeal. It is important that you understand that information you may have provided to the CSA prior to the Objection decision and any relevant information provided after the Objection decision may be provided to the other party. In addition, information that CSA has about you on file, which the other party has not seen, may also be provided to the other party, but only where this is relevant to a decision under review. Information about third parties involved in your financial and business arrangements and relevant to the Objection may also be provided to the other party.

SMS and email reminder services
From time to time CSA may send you a SMS alert or an email reminder to, among other things, provide you with information about your child support or remind you of a payment due date.

No SMS or email reminder from CSA will contain your name or contact details, any reference numbers or direct links to any websites. You will not be required to respond via SMS or email to any CSA generated message.

If you do not wish to receive SMS alerts, please call us on 131 272 and ask to opt out of benefiting from this service.

How can I find out more?
You can find out more about your privacy and security in The Guide or on our website www.csa.gov.au or for information about privacy generally, you can go to the Privacy Commissioner’s website www.privacy.gov.au

If you are concerned about how CSA has collected or managed your personal information, please call us on 131 272 and ask to speak to a Privacy Officer.

If you are not satisfied with how the CSA has handled your concerns you can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner directly. The Privacy Commissioner is independent of CSA and has the power to investigate complaints about possible interferences with your privacy.

*The Privacy Act 1988 defines personal information as information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

When visiting this site, a record of your visit is logged and information automatically recorded for statistical purposes to enable us to improve this site and our services. This information does not identify you personally nor do we track information about individuals and their visits. Your browser supplies the following information:

No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except where otherwise required by law. For example in the unlikely event of an investigation, a law enforcement agency may exercise their legal authority to inspect the service provider's logs.

CSA's website does not collect or use clickstream data. It only uses cookies within the Managing your money budgeting tool to save users figures onto their own computer which are protected by a username and password.

Collection of personal information

Personal information collected by us, for example use of an online form, will only:

When you e-mail us:

Security

When you send CSA an email, the content of your email may not be secure as it is transferred across the Internet. Once CSA receives information from you either via e-mail or any other means the information is in a secure environment. Your personal information will not be released unless the law permits it or your permission is granted.

You need to be aware of inherent risks associated with the transmission of information via the Internet.

If you have concerns in this regard, CSA has alternative methods of obtaining and providing information. Normal mail, telephone and fax facilities are available. View CSA's contact details.

Links to other sites

Our website has links to many other websites. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

Protecting Your Privacy

CSA takes protecting your privacy very seriously and has invested considerable resources in ensuring your personal details are protected when you deal with CSA or use our secure online services (CSAonline).

You can help CSA to protect your privacy, by taking the following precautions:

Secure your passwords and access details

CSA will never email you to request your CSAonline username or password or provide a link in an email to a CSAonline login page. If you receive an email from someone claiming to represent CSA requesting you to confirm or supply your online logon details, you should delete the email without clicking on any links, or opening any attachments. Please contact CSA as soon as possible to report this.

Protect your computer against viruses and other security risks

Always make sure that your computer is adequately protected against viruses, Trojans (see What are Trojans?) and other security risks when you are using the Internet. Anti-virus software is readily available and worth the investment if you are a regular Internet user.

There are programs circulated on the Internet that 'without your knowledge' can install themselves on your personal computer and steal details such as your user IDs and passwords. These programs can then forward your personal information 'again without your knowledge' to another computer where it may be used by people for unlawful purposes.

To find out more information about protecting your personal information, type 'Internet Security' into your Internet search engine to find practical advice on measures you can take to protect your privacy when using the Internet.

Check your browser's security settings when you logon

When you are logging on to CSAonline, look for the padlock icon in the bottom corner of your browser. This icon indicates that you are entering a page with more security features built-in to it. You can find more information about the security certificates built into the page by double clicking on this padlock icon.

Confirm who you're speaking to

From time-to-time, you may receive a telephone call from a CSA staff member. If you have any doubt that the person on the telephone might not be from CSA, you should ask the staff member for their name, work stream and location. You should then call CSA back on 131 272 and ask to speak to that person.

What are Trojans?

A Trojan is malicious or harmful computer code hidden within a seemingly innocent computer program or code. When you install or run this on your computer, the hidden or 'Trojan' elements are activated.

Trojans can harm your computer in many ways. They may:

Where does the term 'Trojan' come from?

The term comes from Greek mythology. During the Trojan War, the ancient Greeks presented a massive 'seemingly harmless' wooden horse to the people of Troy. Greek warriors hid inside the wooden horse which was welcomed inside the previously impenetrable city walls. The Greek warriors broke out of the horse and launched a surprise attack when the people of Troy were sleeping. Similarly, on the surface Trojans look harmless but hide harmful code which attacks your computer when you install or run the program.

Why are Trojans a problem for you?

CSA is committed to developing online products to provide an efficient and more flexible service, and relevant up-to-date information to help you manage your child support payments. CSA has already invested significant effort and resources into protecting the security and privacy of your personal information and will continue to update and maintain the integrity of our systems into the future.

It is equally important that you know about potential risks to your privacy on the internet so you can minimise these risks by taking appropriate security precautions. These risks could:

If you manage your Child Support affairs using a computer system, or use the Internet to deal with CSA, you should be aware of potential risks to your computer 'such as Trojans' and take appropriate precautions.

What should you look out for?

You need to install a Trojan on your computer, as opposed to computer viruses that can be installed without your knowledge. Trojans are commonly hidden in popular files that people are tempted to download (such as free games and multimedia files). Some Trojans may appear to be harmless (such as an image file) but are actually computer programs.

One common technique involves deceiving people to believe that the download comes from a legitimate source, such as a known software company or a trusted organisation.

Installing computer programs

You should never install a computer program if you do not completely trust the source or are unsure of what the program does.

What steps can you take to minimise the risk of Trojans?

As with viruses, you should be mindful of the files you send or receive, and of the files you download from the Internet. This is especially true for freeware (freely available software) and shareware ('try before you buy') software.

You may want to consider:

More information

Further information on spam email and details for reporting spam email from Australia or spam email that advertises an Australian product, can be found at www.acma.gov.au.

CSA takes a number of precautions to protect your privacy over the Internet when you use our secure CSAonline service. However if you have any doubts that your computer is fully protected or you have concerns that your privacy may be breached, we suggest that you contact CSA via the telephone and speak to a Customer Service Officer.

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