This site is owned and operated by Hobsons Bay City Council using software licensed from Social Pinpoint. For details on how Hobsons Bay City Council collects and protects your personal information, refer to their Privacy Policy below. For details of how Social Pinpoint may access personal information, please refer to Social Pinpoint’s Privacy Policy.

Hobsons Bay City Council is committed to protecting your privacy – click here to read Council’s Privacy Policy.

Council respects the provisions of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records Act 2001 in relation to how we collect, store, use and access the personal information you provide to us.

You have the right to access your personal information and make corrections. If you wish to amend your information please contact a member of Council's Customer Service team on 1300 179 944.

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. You're also agreeing to receive communications and/or updates from Hobsons Bay City Council on consultations in the municipality to your nominated email address. If you would like to stop receiving communications or updates, you can select the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email. Or email communityengagement@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au

What information do we collect?

Basic Identifying Information

Screen Name, Email Address, Demographic Information

User Generated Information

Comments in forums, Votes on other comments in forums, Responses to surveys and quick polls.

User-Behaviour Information

We collect information from you when you register to use this site. This information may vary depending on the specific needs of Hobsons Bay City Council, however, at a minimum is includes your additional demographic information such as your age, identified gender, household income, suburb and interests may also be collected at this time. You can click the ‘My Profile’ link to check your details.

We also collect information about user behaviour on the site including but not limited to documents downloaded from the library, videos viewed, pages views.

Note: You can browse the site anonymously without signing up.

Why do we collect this information?

To collect and collate your feedback to inform better policy
The principle reason for collecting this information is to help inform the creation of better policy. The information is therefore provided to Hobsons Bay City Council for analysis and interpretation at their discretion.

To send you periodic emails
The email address you provide for registering on the site may be used by either Social PinPoint or Hobsons Bay City Council to send you information and updates pertaining to the issues discussed on this site or any other site that we feel may be of interest to you. Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include a simple unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email.

To protect the integrity of the discussion
By monitoring the information you provide we are able to protect the integrity of the discussion from individuals and groups who may attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of the consultation process.

To improve the website & software
The principle use of this information by Social PinPoint is to help us to improve this website and the software that underpins it. We are continually striving to improve the experience of our participants based on your feedback.

Who has access to this information?

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

1. Publicly available information
2. Information available to both Hobsons Bay City Council and The Hive
3. Information available to Social PinPoint only

Publicly available information

Publicly available information is limited to your username and any comments you leave under that name in the forums or other tools on the site.

Individual survey responses, voting patterns and quick poll responses will not immediately be made available publicly on the site, however, feedback (including overall results of polls and surveys, and in some instances, unidentifiable and randomly chosen quotes or comments from surveys) may be published in publicly available reports at the end of the consultation period.

Please also keep in mind, however, that under most local Freedom of Information laws formal submissions uploaded to this site can be made available for public viewing by Hobsons Bay City Council at its own volition or at the request of a member of the public.

Information available to both Hobsons Bay City Council and The Hive includes:

• All information from the Sign Up form.
• Comments
• Survey, Quick Poll, and comment voting responses
• General site activity such as document downloads and page views

Information Available to The Hive only
Information which is available only to Social PinPoint is restricted to your IP address for site security purposes.

Do we disclose any information to third parties other than Hobsons Bay City Council?
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect our or others rights, property or safety.

However, we may from time to time notify you about other sites we are managing when we feel they may of direct relevance and interest to you. Please note that you can easily unsubscribe from these notifications at any time.

Third Party Links
Occasionally Hobsons Bay City Council may include links to third party sites. These third parties have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

Terms of Use

Please also visit our Terms of Use section establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website.

Your consent

By using our website, you consent to this Privacy Policy.

The following Terms and Conditions govern the use of Participate Hobsons Bay (“the site”). The software platform is owned by Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd and operated by us, Hobsons Bay City 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. You're also agreeing to receive communications and/or updates from Hobsons Bay City Council on consultations in the municipality to your nominated email address. If you would like to stop receiving communications or updates, you can select the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email. Or email communityengagement@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au

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 Hobsons Bay City 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 communityengagement@hobsonsbay.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

Hobsons Bay City 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 Hobsons Bay City Council and its suppliers and licensors. Hobsons Bay City 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 communityengagement@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au