Privacy Policy

We treat your privacy seriously and in line with the NSW privacy laws, including the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act).

Privacy principles

We use the following principles to protect your privacy.

Collection

We only collect relevant personal information for lawful purposes directly related to our activities or to provide services you have registered for or requested.

  • We keep basic customer contact information such as your building address, phone number and email address.
  • We may need to collect additional personal information from you, including the personal information or others, for the purposes of this program.
  • When we collect your personal information, we’ll explain how we’ll use it and who we might disclose it to.

Security

We protect personal information from misuse and unauthorised access

  • We limit access to your information to those staff and contractors who need it for their work.
  • We securely dispose of information when it’s no longer required for business purposes.

Use

We only use your personal information in certain circumstances

  • We take reasonable steps to check the accuracy of your personal information before we use it.
  • We don’t give your information to other organisations to market products and services. If we’re asked to give water usage details for a specific community or suburb, we only disclose the information if individual properties can’t be identified.

We only use your information for the purpose it was collected, or for related purposes (e.g. evaluation of this service), and if you have specifically opted in to certain services e.g. to receive information about other Council sustainability programs.

Awareness

We ensure that staff who deal with your information are aware of their obligations to protect privacy

We make sure that our staff and contractors with access to your information abide by this policy.

Our staff are trained in how to collect, record, use and dispose of your information.

Disclosure

We never disclose information that we expect customers, or their representatives, to know

We only discuss your customer account with you or your nominated representative. We’ll establish your identity by asking you to confirm key information, usually the property address and account number.

We’ll only disclose personal information to third parties if:

  • we’re authorised or required to by law.
  • we have your verbal or written authority.
  • we can, in the circumstances, reasonably assume you’ve consented. 
  • there is a danger of injury or loss of life.

Our contractors need the information for essential activities. We use third parties to: undertake onsite assessment of your building

  • Perform associated works
  • run marketing campaigns
  • occasionally conduct research or surveys
  • deliver technology solutions.

Accuracy

You can access the personal information we hold for you at any time and ask us to amend it if it’s incorrect

We attempt to keep your contact information as up-to-date as possible. We’ll confirm the details are correct when you contact us.

You can also request a copy of the information we hold about you and your property at any time.

Privacy enquiries or complaints

If you have any questions or wish to discuss a privacy issue with Sydney Water, please email [email protected], or write to:

The Privacy Coordinator
Sydney Water
PO Box 399
Parramatta NSW 2124

Privacy on our website

The analytics system we use to gather information about visitor activity on our website and mobile app uses cookies.

We don’t use this to identify you, but to aggregate results. This helps us evaluate and improve our services. When you use our website or mobile app, some information is logged automatically, such as:

  • your operating system
  • your device and browser type
  • what city you’re in
  • how long you spent on our site
  • which pages, documents and videos you viewed.

Scams and hoaxes

We’ll never contact you by email and ask for personal information such as your password, username, credit card or bank account details.

If you’re unsure about an email addressed from Sydney Water, call us on 9083 8023 to check.

For more information: