1. About us
NBN Co (nbn) was established in 2009. Our purpose is to elevate Australia by connecting people and powering progress.
nbn® operates a wholesale broadband network, which means that your retail broadband service is supplied by your Retail Service Provider rather than by nbn. However, we may collect and handle personal information when carrying out our functions and activities, as described in this Policy.
2. Your privacy is important to us
This privacy policy describes how we handle your personal information.
We understand that your privacy is important to you, and we value your trust. That’s why we protect your personal information and aim to be clear and open about what we do with it.
This Privacy Policy (Policy) describes how we handle your personal information. When we collect, hold, use, or disclose personal information, we comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) which incorporates the Australian Privacy Principles.
We will provide clear, concise, and timely collection notices, and obtain explicit, purpose-specific consent where required by law.
From time to time, we will update this Policy.
3. What personal information do we collect and why?
We may collect your personal information from you when you interact with us. We may also collect your personal information from other people and organisations.
We limit collection to that reasonably necessary to provide and improve our services, manage our business, protect the security, integrity and performance of our network and systems and comply with the law. The kind of personal information we collect depends on how you interact with us and the associated purpose.
Where practicable, you may interact with us anonymously or using a pseudonym unless we are required or authorised by law to identify you.
The examples below describe some of the personal information we collect, either from you directly or from third parties such as your retail provider, and how we use that information.
When you engage with us (including at public events, via telephone, email, our website or on social media): We may collect personal information such as your name and contact details for various purposes, including to verify your identity, respond to your enquiries, requests or complaints, provide information about our network and services, engage in marketing activities, carry out industry research, manage our relationship with you or manage legal matters.
To tell you about the nbn network: We may collect personal information such as your name, address and contact details from our service providers, business partners or government agencies to communicate with you about network availability, planned maintenance, upgrades, connections and other network-related activities that may affect your premises or services.
When you request a connection or fibre upgrade or report a problem: We may collect personal information such as your name, address and contact details or request it from your retail provider. We may use this information to respond to your request, carry out installations, manage the network, resolve problems or deliver and support products and services including those provided through upstream carriers.
When you participate in a trial of our products or services we may collect your name, contact details or other personal information to help facilitate the trial.
If you visit our website: we use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your device, browser, IP address and interactions with our website through cookies and similar technologies. We do this to improve website performance, enhance user experience and to understand how visitors use our website. You can access our cookie notice for more information.
When you attend one of our locations, your image or other personal information may be captured, for example by onsite cameras, for security purposes.
We may collect other personal information as described in specific collection notices.
We may collect sensitive information such as health information where reasonably necessary to provide assistance, support or protections to customers, including those with specific support needs. Where we collect sensitive information, we do so in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
4. Who might we share your personal information with?
General
The examples below describe some of the parties who we may share your personal information with and why we share it.
Retail providers and upstream carriers, to help provide, support and improve services, resolve problems, assist with complaint management, prevent or address misuse of the nbn network and improve customer experience.
Our technicians and service delivery partners, to help carry out installations, fibre upgrades, maintenance activities and fault resolution.
Our survey, research and marketing partners to help them conduct survey and marketing activities on our behalf.
Our service providers and advisers, such as legal and professional advisers, IT support providers and corporate or administrative service providers, where reasonably necessary for them to provide services to us.
Government agencies, courts, regulators and law enforcement authorities, where required or permitted by law
Other parties, where required for a lawful purpose described in a collection notice or as requested or authorised by you.
Sending personal information overseas
Some of our service providers have operations located outside Australia. We may share personal information with them to help them provide their services to us.
Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure that they handle it in accordance with applicable laws, including the Privacy Act.
A list of countries where our overseas suppliers are located is available here.
5. Keeping your personal information safe
Keeping your information safe is a responsibility we take seriously.
We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. The examples below describe some of the approaches we have adopted.
Physical storage: we store the personal information we collect in secure buildings and systems, or with trusted service providers.
Access controls: we maintain appropriate access controls, staff training, security monitoring and contractual safeguards for our employees and service providers who handle personal information.
Digital systems: where our digital systems store personal information, we apply relevant safety guidance and industry best practice to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Supplier management and governance: we take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information held by service providers on our behalf, including requiring them to implement appropriate security measures.
Overseas recipients: where personal information is disclosed overseas, we identify the countries in which recipients are likely to be located and take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws and our own information security requirements.
Destruction and archiving: when we no longer need your personal information for a permitted purpose, we take reasonable steps to destroy it, unless we are required by law to retain it. As a Government Business Enterprise, we are subject to the Archives Act 1983 (Cth) which requires us to retain certain records for specified periods.
Privacy assessments: we take reasonable steps to assess the privacy practices of service providers and other third parties before they are engaged to provide services to us.
Data breach procedures: we assess and respond to actual and suspected data breaches in accordance with applicable privacy laws, including the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme where it applies.
6. Accessing, correcting, and updating your personal information
You may make requests about the personal information that we hold about you.
Before we give access to, correct, or update your personal information, we may need to confirm your identity.
Access
You can ask us for a copy of the personal information that we hold about you.
In some circumstances, the Privacy Act permits us to refuse access or provide access in another form. If we refuse access, we will generally give you written reasons and information about available complaint mechanisms.
Correction and deletion
You can ask us to correct or update any of your personal information that we hold. If we consider personal information to be incorrect, incomplete, or misleading, we will take reasonable steps to correct it.
If we have given your personal information to another party, you can notify them of the correction. We do not charge a fee for this.
If we do not think the personal information needs to be corrected, we will write to let you know why. You can ask us to include a statement that you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or out of date.
You may also ask us to delete personal information that we no longer need or are no longer required to retain. We will consider these requests in accordance with applicable privacy laws and our legal, regulatory and record-keeping obligations. Where we are unable to delete the information, we will explain why.
Is there a fee?
There is no fee to ask for your personal information, except that we may charge an access fee to cover the time we spend finding and putting together the personal information you want. If there is a fee, we will let you know how much it is likely to be, so you can choose if you want to proceed with your inquiry.
How long will it take?
We try to make your personal information available within 30 days after you ask us for it.
7. Using automated technologies when processing your personal information
We may use automated technologies such as Artificial Intelligence in connection with our functions and activities, for example to help with information management or to improve our products, services and customer experience. Where those technologies handle personal information, we will manage it in accordance with this Policy and applicable laws and apply appropriate safeguards.
Where required by law, we will provide additional information about our use of automated decision-making.
8. Making a privacy complaint
If you are concerned about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details below. We will investigate your complaint, keep you informed and respond within a reasonable period.
If you are not satisfied with how we have managed your complaint, you can ask us to review your complaint or submit a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Visit the OAIC website
9. Contact us
To ask us a question about your privacy, to access or correct your personal information, to make a privacy complaint, or to get a copy of this Policy in an alternative form, please contact our Privacy Officer.
The Privacy Officer
nbn
Level 8, 155 Miller Street
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060
Email: privacyofficer@nbnco.com.au
If you would like to make a Freedom of Information application, please visit our FOI page.
The nbn Privacy Officer can only deal with privacy matters. If you need to contact us about something else, including about your nbn™ network connection, there are several other ways you can get in touch:
Phone: 1800 OUR NBN (1800 687 626)
Or complete our online form.
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or have difficulty speaking, you can use the National Relay Service. Please visit the hearing and translation services page.