Privacy Statement

The National Institute of Forensic Science has a firm commitment to privacy in accordance with the Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government World Wide Websites issued by the Australian Privacy Commissioner. This statement discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this site. All officers of the National Institute of Forensic Science are subject to the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

If you are submitting personal details or other information over the internet which you wish to remain private, please note that, while all attempts are made to secure information transmitted to this site, there is a possibility that information you submit could be observed by a third party while in transit.

Information logged

When you visit this site, our server logs the following information for statistical purposes only:

your server's IP address (a number which is unique to the machine through which you are connected to the Internet: usually one of your service provider's machines),
the date and time of your visit; and
the address of the pages accessed and the documents downloaded.

All of this information we use only for statistical analysis or systems administration purposes. No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities, except in the unlikely event of an investigation where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant.

Electronic mail addresses

We will only record your e-mail address if you send us a message. It will only be used for the purpose for which you provide it, and will not be added to a mailing list unless you request that this be done. We will not disclose it without your consent.

Subscriptions

Some pages of this internet site provide the facility for users to subscribe to email mailing lists. To subscribe to these services users must provide a valid email address. These email addresses will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and you will not be added to any other mailing lists unless you specifically request that this be done. At all times you are able to unsubscribe from any mailing list to which you have subscribed by simply sending a request using the email address you specified at the time of becoming a member of the mailing list.

Email mailing list addresses can only be accessed by authorised staff. Your email address will not be disclosed without your consent.

Cookies

A cookie is an electronic token that is passed to your browser and your browser passes it back to the server whenever a page is sent to you.

Our server may generate cookies to keep track of the pages you have accessed while using our server and for security purposes. This is to allow you to page back and forwards through the web site and return to pages you have already visited. The cookie exists only for the time you are accessing our server.

You do not need to have configured your browser to enable the accepting or sending of cookies in order to use this site.

Cookies are not used for any other purpose at this site. We do not use cookies to collect personal information.

Searches

Search terms that you enter when using our search engine are collected, but are not associated with any other information that we collect. We use these search terms to ascertain what people are looking for at our site, and to improve the services that we provide.

Links to other sites

This site contains links to other sites. The National Institute of Forensic Science is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.

Tell us what you think

The National Institute of Forensic Science welcomes your questions and comments about privacy. Please send e-mail to ann.gidley@nifs.com.au if you have anything you would like to share.