This site is owned and operated by the Mornington Peninsula Shire using software licensed from Harvest Digital Planning (Harvest). For details on how the Shire collects and protects your personal information, refer to its Privacy Policy below. For details of how Harvest may access personal information, please refer to Harvest’s Privacy Policy.

Mornington Peninsula Shire takes the privacy of the participants using this site very seriously.

Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information is regulated by the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. You can find more information about your privacy rights at the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.

This privacy statement applies to Shape Our Future. For information about the broader collection and use of personal information by the Shire, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

What information do we collect?

Site visitor data

Shape Our Future collects information for statistical and system administration purposes. This includes:

• Your server (or IP) address
• The day and time you visited our site
• The pages that you access within Shape Our Future including how long you spend on each
• Your route through Shape Our Future (the sequence of pages and other content that you visit)
• The operating system you are using
• Any documents, images or videos that you download from the service
• Your rough geographic location
• The language of your browser
• Your internet service provider
• The type of browser and version you are using.

To the extent that this data could make you identifiable, the Mornington Peninsula Shire will not attempt to identify individuals from the records the server automatically generates unless necessary to investigate a breach of law or regulation.

Member registration

If you are a registered user, we may, in addition to the above data and depending on the nature of the consultation, collect the following information:

• Full name, gender, post code, address, email address and age bracket
• Username and password for Shape Our Future
• Subscription by you to other (optional) electronic communications from us
• Topics about which you have indicated an interest in being consulted or informed.

User feedback

We collect information that you provide via the Shape Our Future feedback tools. This includes:

• comments and votes in forums
• stories
• surveys
• interactive maps
• quick polls

Cookies

Cookies are used on our site, but they do not collect any personal information. For the most part they are sessional and just contain system-generated values to identify the user's session for statistical and system administration purposes only.

We collect the data and information through a combination of Google Analytics, server logs and tools within the functionality of the site, using data security protocols.

Social media

If you register or log in to Shape Our Future via Facebook we will verify your details with Facebook but will not store your Facebook account information.

Links

Our privacy statement does not apply to other websites we may link to. We recommend you read the relevant privacy statement when you access another site.

How will we use and disclose your information?

We use the personal information about you to:

• administer the site and manage your account
• identify when you sign into your account
• send you newsletters and information, but only when you have agreed to us sending you this information or when the information is necessary to assist with the administration of the site
• respond to queries that you have contacted us about
• attribute content that you post on the site to you
• analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements and enhancements
• inform policy decisions by Mornington Peninsula Shire
• for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.

Content that you post on the site publicly, will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and any publically available reports from consultations, and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools.

Moderation

By monitoring this additional information that you provide, we are able to protect the integrity of the discussions from individuals and groups who may attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of a consultation process. For example, we check to ensure each user has a single email account. We also review the site to protect it from spam or trolls.

This information is analysed and interpreted by Mornington Peninsula Shire staff and selected consultants to help inform the creation of better projects, plans and policies.

Third Parties

We may also disclose personal information to third parties, and you consent to us disclosing your personal information, for the following purposes:

• consultants of the Mornington Peninsula Shire who perform various services for and on behalf of Mornington Peninsula Shire. These contractors have agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. Information provided to these contractors is limited to contact details provided by you whilst contacting us
• other local governments and State government departments, in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

Access and correction

Requests for access to and correction of documents containing personal information and held by the Mornington Peninsula Shire, are handled under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

You can learn more on our Freedom of Information website page.

How do we store and protect your information?

When you sign up for a user account you provide two types of information:

1. publicly available information
2. information available to both Mornington Peninsula Shire and Harvest.

Publicly available information

Publicly available information is limited to your username and any comments you leave under that name in the forums or other feedback tools on Shape Our Future

Content that you post on the site publicly, will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and any publicly available reports from consultations, and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools

Please note that Mornington Peninsula Shire is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic) legislation. The Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives individuals and corporations a general right of access to documents held by Council. This includes documents created by Council, documents held by contracted service providers and documents supplied to Council by external organisations or individuals.

Information available to both Mornington Peninsula Shire and Harvest Digital Planning includes:

• all information from the sign-up form
• comments, questions, stories, guestbook posts
• survey responses, quick poll responses, map pins
• general site activity such as document downloads, videos viewed, images viewed etc.
• information on the technology used to access the site.

Hosting

Regardless of whether you are a registered user, we will retain any communications that you send to us in accordance with the Victorian Public Records Act 1973. The personal information you submit through Participate Melbourne will generally be hosted in Victoria and New South Wales but may be hosted on occasion in New Zealand. Please be aware that New Zealand may not have privacy protections substantially similar to Victoria.

Where data in Google Analytics is stored offsite, we ensure this is depersonalised and cannot be used to identify specific individuals. Where data and information is collected via the site’s servers and tools, this is managed through our data security protocols and processes.

Policy updates

We may update the content of this Privacy Policy from time to time for any reason. The updated version of the Privacy Policy will apply to you as soon as it is posted on the website, so we suggest that each time you return to the consultation website you should review the Privacy Policy (and the Terms of Use).

When will we contact you?

We may send you information and announcements from time to time by email or via social media networks.

You can choose to receive newsletters and other updates from us by email. If you choose this but then change your mind, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the process set out in the emails and newsletters that we send you.

Who do I contact for more information?

You can contact the Shire’s Privacy Officer at privacy@mornpen.vic.gov.au if you have any enquires concerning Council's privacy procedures.

The following Terms and Conditions govern the use of Shape (“the site”). The software platform is owned by Harvest Digital Planning Pty Ltd (Harvest) and operated by us, Mornington Peninsula Council.

By accessing and using this site, you are choosing to accept and comply with the Terms presented throughout this agreement as well as the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy. These Terms apply to all visitors and users of this site. Linked sites, affiliated services or third party content or software have their own Terms that you must comply with. If you disagree with any of the Terms presented in this agreement, you may discontinue using the site immediately.

If you are under 18 years old, please ensure that your parent or guardian understands and accepts these Terms and Conditions (including the Privacy Policy and Moderation Policy).

What are the conditions with a user’s account?

While using the site, you must not violate any applicable laws and regulations. It is our duty to protect the confidentiality of content you provide on our site in accordance with our Privacy Policy. When you create an account with us, you must always provide us with accurate information. Failure to provide accurate information violates the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our service. You are responsible for protecting your own password you use for this site and for any activities done under that password. Unauthorised use of your password or account must be immediately reported to us. In some cases, we or our agents may require access to your user accounts to respond to technical issues.

We are not responsible for the content on the site that has been provided by the users of the site. Any content posted by you is subject to the rules of our Moderation Policy. Your contribution to the site may be edited, removed or not published if we consider it inappropriate (refer to Moderation Policy). Contributors should also be aware that their posts may remain online indefinitely. Where practical, you may choose not to identify yourself, deal with us on an anonymous basis or use a pseudonym.

What do we require from our users?

You must understand and agree that, without limitation:

• all information, data, images and other materials are the sole responsibility of the person from whom the content originated;
• you are prohibited from advertising or offering to sell or buy any goods and services
• you cannot transmit Content that contains software viruses or programs designed to change or destroy the functionality of any computer software or hardware; or
• you cannot collect or store personal data about other users of the site
• you cannot impersonate any person or entity, including without limitation to a Mornington Peninsula Council representative
• you cannot interrupt or interfere with the site or servers or networks connected to the site
• you cannot attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site or other use accounts

Can your account be suspended or terminated?

We may terminate or suspend access to your site and/or account immediately, without prior notice, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. We may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all the related files and information in your account. After your account has been terminated, the content you have posted may also remain indefinitely on the site.

If you want to terminate your own account, please send an email to web.content@mornpen.vic.gov.au

Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed in accordance with the laws of Victoria, Australia, without regards to its conflict of law provisions.

Indemnification

Mornington Peninsula Council its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, licensors and other partners are not responsible for any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising from a breach of this agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above.

What content do we own?

This website contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and other proprietary information (“Intellectual Property”) of Mornington Peninsula Council and its suppliers and licensors. Mornington Peninsula Council owns and retains all proprietary rights in the intellectual property. All intellectual property in the content of this site including without limitation to text, software, source code, pages, documents and online graphics, photographs, sounds, audio, video and other interactive features are owned by or licensed to us.

Any original content that you submit or post on our site may be made available to the public and allows users to share your content (with the end user acknowledging your contribution) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Australian License.

Except for Intellectual Property which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, alter, transmit, sell, distribute any of the Intellectual Property on this site.

We are not responsible for your communications or dealings, including payment and delivery of goods or services, with a third party found via our website. Any loss or damage incurred from those communications or dealings are solely between the user and the third party.

Disclaimer and Warranties

Users must agree that you use of the site is at your own risk. We make no warranty that the site will meet your requirements or be uninterrupted or error-free. Any material that the user downloads through the site is done at their own risk and are responsible for any damages to their computer system or loss of data.

What happens if these Terms change?

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time without notice. The most recent version of the Terms can be seen on this page. By continuing to access or use our site after those revisions become effective, you agree and will comply to the revised terms. If you do not agree to the revised terms, please discontinue using our site.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at web.content@mornpen.vic.gov.au