We
Value Your Privacy
Swinburne
University of Technology (
Swinburne) through the National eTherapy
Centre (
NeTC)
acknowledges and respects the privacy of
individuals. We advise that much of the information that you may have provided,
or may be asked to provide, to the NeTC is 'personal information'.
The
collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information is
regulated in Australia by the Privacy Act 1988 (the “Act) which defines
personal information as:
…information or an opinion, whether
true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an
identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiableExamples of personal information includes your name, address and date of birth.
Why
Do We Collect Your Information?
We collect your personal information to provide Mental Health
Online services. The information we collect may include sensitive
information and where a person is accessing the Therapist Assist
program, health information.
While it is possible for you to
interact with us under a pseudonym, for example to use the self-guided
programs, in certain scenarios it may be necessary for us to collect
certain personal information from you. We will not collect more personal
information than we reasonably need to, to provide services to you.
Where information is collected for the purposes of research and publication, the Policy on the Conduct of Research is strictly adhered to. Please see Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018) for
more information. Personal information used for research and
publication purposes will be deidentified (that is, it will not have
information capable of identifying you).
You may discontinue
your participation in any Mental Health Online programs or research at
any time, however the data provided prior to your withdrawal will be
retained in accordance with the "How do we store your personal
information section" of this document.
How
Do We Collect Your Information?
You provide data to Mental Health Online directly through entering
information into the website and some data is collected indirectly in
order to authenticate and analyse your use of our service.
The
kinds of personal information we collect will depend
on which services you’re accessing at Mental Health Online. The personal
information we may collect from you may include:
your email address, so that we can authenticate you electronically and create your account
your country of residence
your name
your address
your phone number
your date of birth
your gender
Registration
The NeTC requests an email address, password and country of
residence you when you register for a user account on the Mental Health
Online website. The Mental Health Online website is protected by third
party software called reCAPTCHA V3, which is used to authenticate users
during the registration process. During registration for an account,
reCAPTCHA v3 uses an invisible process that collects information on your
device and browser to determine that you are a legitimate user and not a
robot.
If you do not agree to the use of the reCAPTCHA V3
process to authenticate your registration, a Mental Health Online
account can be created upon request by emailing
contactmho@swin.edu.au
Online
Psychological Assessment (e-PASS) System
When you complete the e-PASS, we will ask you to provide further
demographic details and your responses to all questions will be recorded
for assessment and results, service evaluation, as well as for
reference by eTherapists if you choose to engage in the Therapist
Assisted Program.
If you choose to use the e-PASS, the
information you provide may be used to evaluate the services provided on
the Mental Health Online website. Any information collected and
analysed could be used when reporting back on the progress of Mental
Health Online to our funding body and also for research purposes (e.g.,
publications). All your data will be analysed in a de-identifiable form
and any reporting of the results will not be capable of identifying you.
Research
You may be invited to participate in other related research, including
the testing of the reliability, validity and user experience
of the e-PASS. For further details relating to validation of the e-PASS
please refer to the
Policy on the Conduct of Research or
Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
Ongoing
Evaluation
Beyond the research mentioned above,
information is collected for the ongoing evaluation and improvement of the
services provided by Mental Health
Online.
Self Help Program
If you choose to undertake one of the Self-Help Programs, you will be
asked to provide your year of birth to ensure that you are at least 18
years of age when registering for a program. You may also choose to
enter information about your health and experiences as part of the
program participation.
Therapist
Assisted Program
If you choose to participate in the Therapist Assisted Program you will
be required to provide additional details including your full name, home
address, phone number and GP contact details. You will correspond via
email with an eTherapist and have the option of also communicating via
videoconference or live chat. Records of these interactions will be kept
by the NeTC electronically. The disclosure of personal information will
be at your discretion, but the greater disclosure you can provide, the
more assistance the eTherapists can provide to you.
Exit
Survey
If you withdraw during the Self Help or Therapist Assisted Programs, you
will be asked to complete an automated questionnaire about why you
withdrew. Completing this questionnaire is entirely voluntary.
How do we store your personal information?
Any
personal information that the NeTC collects is held with the strictest
confidence. The NeTC uses and implements professional and industry
standards for the security and protection of information collected, this
information is securely stored, and access is restricted to authorised
personnel of the NeTC only, ensuring that your personal information is
protected and safeguarded. Information the NeTC collects is used only
for the purpose stipulated at the time that the information is
collected. The NeTC is required by law not to reveal, disclose, sell,
distribute, rent, license, share or pass on to any third parties, any
personal information that you may have provided to us unless we have
your express consent to do so.
Exceptions to this include where
the NeTC is required to provide information in response to Subpoenas or
Warrants or other legal process.
How and when do we disclose your personal information?
Personal
information may not be released by the NeTC to other organisations
without the individual's consent. Exceptions include release of
information in response to legal requirements such as a subpoena or
concerns about the safety of user/client or others.
How can you access Your Information?
You
have a right of access to, and alteration of personal information
concerning yourself held by the NeTC, in accordance with the National
Privacy Principles (Government Legislation).
How long will we keep Your Information?
We
retain personal information in accordance with health records
standards. All clinical records (which includes your account on the
Mental Health Online website, assessments and entries into the
website) will be retained for a minimum period of 7 years before being
destroyed. User accounts with Mental Health Online will also
be deleted after a period of no use for 7 years.
Data
collected for the purposes of health research will be retained for
a minimum period of 7 years after last usage or service provision, or
five years after any research outcome based on the data, whichever is
longer, before being destroyed.
Our interaction with you via the internet and social media
Mental Health Online uses cookies and other identification
technologies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on browsers
or computers. Mental Health Online and utilised third-party technologies
use cookies to provide, secure and improve our service. Cookies do not
collect any information about you, or how you are using your computer
and only serve to ensure that you have identified yourself with the
correct username and password.
Cookies are an important part
of how our services work and choosing to refuse or remove cookies may
affect the availability and functionality of the service.
Mental Health Online uses the following third-party technologies as part of the service:
Google
Analytics collects unidentifiable location-based data and information
on user type. This allows us to generate reports to help us understand
digital traffic and behaviour.
reCAPTCHA v3 is used to authenticate users during the process of registering for an account.
When using the Mental Health Online website you consent to Google processing your data as set out in their Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You can opt out of your unidentified data being processed by disabling your cookies, disabling JavaScript, or using Google’s opt-out service.
- Qualtrics is used to collect and store survey data (such as the feedback survey or outcome surveys we may ask you to complete). Qualtrics data is stored on Australian based servers and is subject to stringent privacy policies. For more information, please see Qualtrics Privacy and Security Statements.
Privacy
Policy
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Mental Health
Online may change our Privacy Statement from time to time. When we make
material changes to this Statement we will post a link to the revised
Statement on the homepage of our site. You can tell when this Statement
was last updated by looking at the date at the bottom of the Statement.
Any changes to our Statement will become effective upon posting of the
revised Statement on the site. For other changes to this Privacy
Statement, we encourage Users to check our site frequently.
Swinburne
has a Privacy Policy on the Swinburne Policies and Procedures
Database, which outlines the ways in which Swinburne intends to meet its
privacy commitments and details the procedures for making complaints under the
Act.