Rural Health Path provides general career and workforce information for healthcare professionals exploring rural Australia. It does not ask for clinical health records or My Health Record information.
1. About this policy
This policy explains how the Rural Health Path website handles personal information when you browse the site, complete the pathway quiz, or enter an email address to open your tailored dashboard. It is written for an Australian audience and should be read with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles that apply to the site owner.
The site is a navigation and education service. It is not a health service and is not intended to collect information about a patient, diagnosis, treatment, medication, or clinical event.
2. Information we collect
Depending on how you use the site, we may handle:
- Email address: collected when you ask to see the full pathway dashboard.
- Quiz choices: your profession, career stage, and location preference.
- Initial qualification country: when the conditional question is shown for Medicine or International Clinicians, the country where you completed your initial professional qualification. This is not your nationality or current residence.
- Technical information: information that may be available through ordinary web requests, such as browser type, device type, operating system, approximate time of access, and security logs.
- Essential browser information: limited browser storage or similar technologies needed for normal operation, routing, security, or remembering a necessary preference.
Please do not enter clinical records, My Health Record information, patient details, or other sensitive health information into this site. The quiz does not require those details.
3. How information is collected
Quiz choices are selected in the browser and kept in page memory while you complete the flow. For Medicine and International Clinicians, the flow also asks where you completed your initial professional qualification. After the final answer, the site asks for an email address before it reveals the full dashboard. That email and the selected pathway details are sent to the site’s contact-management service, or CRM, so the request can be recorded. You can browse the rest of the site without completing the quiz.
4. How we use information
- to use your profession, career stage, location preference, and, when asked, initial qualification country to show a relevant pathway dashboard;
- to record that a pathway request was made and support the operation of the quiz;
- to maintain, protect, troubleshoot, and improve the website and its content;
- to understand broad use of the service where technical information is available, without asking for clinical information; and
- to respond to a privacy request, security matter, or other message sent to the completed owner contact details.
The quiz email form is not a newsletter sign-up. We do not treat submitting an email to unlock the result as consent to receive marketing messages.
5. Disclosures and service providers
Information may be disclosed to service providers that help operate the website, host content, store contact submissions, provide security, or maintain technical systems. Those providers should receive only information needed for their service and should handle it under appropriate contractual or legal protections. We do not sell quiz answers or email addresses.
If the site owner changes a provider or begins a new use that materially affects privacy, this policy should be updated before that change is put into practice.
6. Overseas handling
Some hosting, storage, security, or contact-management providers may process information outside Australia. The current provider names, countries, and cross-border arrangements have not been completed in this draft. The site owner should confirm and add those details, then assess the obligations under Australian Privacy Principle 8 before publication.
7. Security and retention
The site owner should take reasonable steps to protect information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. No online service can promise absolute security.
The owner should complete the retention schedule for quiz emails, pathway selections, technical logs, and privacy correspondence. Information should be kept only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose collected, or as required by law, and then securely deleted or de-identified where appropriate.
8. Access and correction
You may ask for access to personal information held about you or ask for inaccurate information to be corrected. Use the privacy contact listed in the owner-completion callout. The owner should verify an identity request, respond within a reasonable period, and explain any lawful reason for refusing a request.
9. Questions and complaints
Please contact the site owner first using the completed privacy email or postal address. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The OAIC explains its privacy complaint process on its website.
10. Data breaches
If the site owner becomes aware of a suspected data breach, it should contain and assess the incident promptly. Where the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme applies and an eligible data breach is likely to cause serious harm, the owner should notify affected people and the OAIC as required. This policy does not remove any separate legal obligation.
Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, OAIC (opens in a new tab)11. Direct marketing
Entering an email address to open a pathway result does not subscribe you to marketing. If the owner later sends commercial electronic messages, it should obtain the consent required by law, identify the sender, and provide a working unsubscribe method. The Spam Act 2003 and ACMA guidance are the relevant starting points.
12. Children
Rural Health Path is written for healthcare professionals and people considering healthcare careers. It is not directed to children. If a parent or guardian believes a child has provided personal information, they can contact the owner using the completed details so the owner can review and delete it where appropriate.
13. Changes and contact
This policy may be updated when the service, providers, technology, or privacy obligations change. The latest version should show its update date. Questions, access requests, corrections, and complaints should be sent to the site owner using the privacy contact details that remain to be completed.
