Privacy

VicRoads collects, uses, stores and discloses a range of personal and health information for the purposes of providing registration and licensing services on behalf of the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Planning in accordance with the Road Safety Act. 

VicRoads also collects, uses, stores and discloses a range of personal and health information on behalf of Safe Transport Victoria (External link) for the purposes of certain functions and activities under the Marine Safety Act, including for vessel registration and marine licensing.

To find out how the Department of Transport and Planning uses and manages personal information, please refer to their Privacy Policy (External link) on their website. 

To find out how Safe Transport Victoria uses and manages personal information, please refer to their Privacy Policy (External link) on their website. 

VicRoads collects personal and health information necessary for its functions and activities which include to:

• fulfil statutory and other legal functions and duties under the Road Safety Act and its regulations e.g. process a driver’s licence or permit application, register a motor vehicle 
• fulfil statutory and other legal functions under the Marine Safety Act e.g. register a vessel, issue a recreational boat licences 
• comply with reporting requirements, including to the Department of Transport and Planning
• assist in the development of policy, legislation, and regulations
• investigate incidents and/or defend any legal claims against VicRoads, its employees or the Department of Transport and Planning or other government agencies 
• plan, fund, implement, monitor, regulate and evaluate its services and functions
• develop new non-statutory digital and online services and products for the Victorian community and improve current products and services  

The Secretary of the Department of Transport and Planning continues to have oversight of all statutory and regulatory functions and activities undertaken by VicRoads on its behalf. The Secretary retains ownership of any data collected and used by VicRoads in connection with the performance of motor vehicle registration and licensing functions and marine functions. This data is subject to the PDP Act (External link), the HR Act (External link) and the security requirements that apply to the Department of Transport and Planning. 

VicRoads collects personal information and other information for registration and licensing functions and activities to:

• ensure that people who drive motor vehicles on highways are competent drivers
• ensure that people who are, or who become, unfit to drive are not permitted to drive on highways
• enable the identification of drivers for the purposes of law enforcement and accident investigation
• ensure that drivers are aware of safe driving practices and road law
• ensure that the design, construction and equipment of motor vehicles and trailers which are used on a highway meet safety and environmental standards
• ensure the use of motor vehicles and trailers on highways to be regulated for reasons of safety, protection of the environment and law enforcement
• provide a method of establishing the identity of each motor vehicle or trailer which is used on a highway and of the person who is responsible for it
• ensure that records are kept as to who has a marine licence in Victoria
• provide a method of establishing the identity of each recreational vessel or personal watercraft and the person who is responsible for it

What personal information we collect

We only collect personal information or health information if it is necessary for us to provide or carry out our functions and activities. 

The type of information VicRoads may collect includes: 

• personal information about you, such as your name, address, photograph, email address, phone number and payment information  
• health information about you, such as any medical conditions which may be relevant to assess your fitness to drive a motor vehicle.

We may also collect other kinds of information relating to your use of our website.  

You can access our website without disclosing your personal information. However, certain functions within our website, such as change of address or providing feedback, may require the disclosure of personal information. Also we do use cookies and web beacons on the website (see Technical information below).

VicRoads does not usually collect sensitive information about members of the public.  However, we may collect it in circumstances where you provide it to us in the course of our dealings with you.  For example, if you are driver licence holder or if you volunteer the information when you communicate with us. 

Otherwise, VicRoads may collect information that has been de-identified and provided to VicRoads for research or statistical purposes.

How we collect your information

VicRoads only collects your personal information by lawful and fair means, and by methods that are not unreasonably intrusive. Where it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we will only collect personal information about you directly from you.

For example. VicRoads will collect your information when:

• you use our Website or online services, such as completing a form electronically, paying fees online, registering or using myVicRoads or the myVicRoads app to access a copy of your Digital Driver Licence.
• you make an application or are required to respond to an enquiry by VicRoads in relation to one of VicRoads functions or services
• you correspond with VicRoads or provide feedback eg. by email
• you register, join or participate on our social media pages and accounts and online forums eg. facebook, twitter, YouTube
• we receive solicited or unsolicited communications from you, including on social media
• we receive submissions, survey responses and other material we receive through our consultation activities
• we receive and investigate complaints, enquiries or information requests.

When VicRoads collects your information, where possible, VicRoads will provide you with a collection notice. This explains:

• why the information is being collected (including the purposes for the collection and any relevant laws requiring the collection)
• who the information may be disclosed to
• the consequences if you do not disclose the information 
• how you may contact us and gain access to the information collected. 

Third parties may collect information on behalf of VicRoads, including the Department of Transport and Planning, other government departments and agencies, law enforcement agencies, road operators, and contractors and consultants who perform work on behalf of VicRoads. 

Where information is collected on behalf of VicRoads, we ensure that the information is collected and handled in accordance with the privacy laws.

Credit card information

We may collect your credit card information to process a payment. Credit card information collected by us will be held in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). The PCI-DSS is a set of requirements for enhancing payment account data security, including requirements for secure network and systems, cardholder data protection, vulnerability management program, access control measures, network monitoring and testing and information security policies.

Health information

VicRoads may collect health information which is necessary for the purposes of its road safety functions and activities, including under the Road Safety Act. The health information VicRoads collects may relate to injuries, complaints, disability information, toxicology information, vaccination information and covid-19 information and it may be collected from the public or third parties.

Employment and recruitment information

If you are employed by VicRoads, or apply to be employed by VicRoads, we may collect and store information about the recruitment process and your application including reference checks, security clearances and criminal history checks undertaken as part of that process. 

The Privacy Act applies in relation to employment and recruitment functions and activities. Certain employment information may be shared with the Department of Transport and Planning in accordance with the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2020 (Vic) or other applicable employment agreements.

Information collected about you will only be used in relation to recruitment and selection processes and will not be disclosed to a third party without your consent, except as provided for in any recruitment privacy statement, this policy or otherwise required by law. As part of the recruitment process, VicRoads may use the services of a third party. Applicants may be required to provide their written consent to pre-employment checks. 

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)

VicRoads Customer Service Centres and VicRoads premises may be equipped with CCTV cameras for security purposes. You may be recorded on footage when attending a Customer Service Centre.

Correspondence and feedback

Your correspondence (including email), complaints addressed to VicRoads or queries made through our Customer Service Centres may include your personal information and may be accessed by our staff or the Department of Transport and Planning to contact you to resolve your query or complaint. 

Copies of correspondence and applicable responses may be retained by VicRoads for certain periods of time, in accordance with the Public Records Act and other applicable legislation.

Market Research and Customer Experience Surveys 

From time to time, VicRoads may conduct market research and customer experience surveys to better understand our customers and to improve our products and services or develop new and improved products or services. We will notify you any time we propose to collect or use your personal information for market research purposes. In some instances, we may engage third parties to conduct research or surveys on our behalf, and disclose your personal information to that party. 

Online services, such as completing a form electronically or paying fees online

Our online services are managed by a service provider. Our service provider may access the personal information entered in these forms in order to process electronic transactions or to resolve a technical problem. 

Services Victoria also provides registration and licensing services for VicRoads customers. Its privacy policy can be found on the Services Victoria website.

myVicRoads

VicRoads provides its customers and partners with the ability to process certain transactions online through myVicRoads. 

Personal information VicRoads collects from you through myVicRoads will be used and may be disclosed for the purpose of the transaction you are conducting, and may also be used or disclosed as authorised or required by the PDP Act, the Road Safety Act, and the Marine Safety Act.

Some personal information you are asked to provide when using myVicRoads may be required by the Road Safety Act or Marine Safety Act. The information required to be provided will depend on the transaction, and may include banking information.

If you provide banking details for payment of a registration or renewal fee, or seek a refund, personal information may be shared or transferred between the relevant parties or systems to enable the transaction to process. 

Further information can be found in the Terms and Conditions for use of myVicRoads.

Some transactions within myVicRoads have their own specific terms, conditions and consents. 

After signing up for a myVicRoads account, account holders receive electronic communications. This includes, for example, periodic newsletters by email updating on new services available in myVicRoads, new schemes available to customers, other general important information. 

To opt out of email updates you can:

• Choose the ‘unsubscribe’ option provided in the newsletter email
• Message us

Digital Driver Licence

VicRoads provides a digital version of a driver licence (Digital Driver Licence). A Digital Driver Licence is a link between a person's licensing record held in the VicRoads licensing registry and their mobile device.

While the physical driver licence provides all of your information, a Digital Driver Licence allows you to control what you share. You can show your full licence details to police, you can provide your identity detials to show you you are, or you can prove that you are over 18. 

Further information on the collection,use and disclose of personal information to the VicRoads Digital Driver Licence see Digital Driver Licence.

Registering with our social media sites

When you join or register with our social media sites we will only use the information to perform our functions or activities. Any personal information collected via social media will be handled appropriately and in line with our privacy policy.

We will not send your details to any third parties unless compelled by law to do so. However, social media sites’ have their own terms of use and privacy conditions and may collect your personal information for their own purposes. 

VicRoads has a presence on the following social media sites, and from time to time may change or include others:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Twitter
• Google reviews

We collect technical information through the use of click stream data for statistical purposes. Cookies are used to understand site usage and usability, and web beacons are used. This helps us to better understand user trends and allows us to improve our website, its contents, and your experience of the website.

We do not use web analytics to identify you by linking it with any other personal information that we collect about you, unless we are required by law to do so, and only in accordance with Privacy Laws.

Click stream data

When you visit our online services, including some of our social networking sites, VicRoads makes a record of your visit. The following information, referred to as ‘click stream data’ in computer language, is logged by our server and may include:

• your server address
• your top level domain name (for example, .com, .gov, .au, .uk, etc)
• the date and time you visited our website or completed the online transaction
• the pages you accessed and documents you download
• the search terms used
• the device type
• the form submission
• the type of browser you are using and version
• the address of the referring site (that is, the previous site you visited).

All of this information is collected for statistical purposes to enable us to assess the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, determine what information is most and least used and help us make our site more useful to visitors.

We do not actively seek to identify you. However, in the unlikely event of an investigation, a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect our server’s logs.

Use of cookies

When you visit our website, our server may generate a cookie. A cookie is a small piece of information (a text file) that a web server can place temporarily on your hard drive or web browser. It is used by your browser to identify the pages that you have visited on our site.

A cookie is uniquely yours and can only be read by the server that gave it to you.

We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and usability of our sites. We do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies, alone, do not reveal your email address or other personal information. You choose to provide this information by, for example, registering at our site. The information you provide may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

Use of web beacons

Our website uses web beacons. Web beacons are also known as Web bugs, pixel tags or clear GIFs.

A web beacon is an often-transparent graphic image that is placed on a site (or in an email) and when used in combination with cookies, can monitor the behaviour of the user visiting the site (or sending the email). The type of information collected might include the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that retrieved the image, the time the web beacon was viewed and for how long, the type of browser that retrieved the image, previously set cookie values and button clicks on a website.

This information is used for targeted marketing and for creation of a similar audience or look-alike audience for the marketing of existing and new products. 

If you do not wish to have such information collected about you, you may disable the tracking settings on your browser or use an anonymous browser.

Embedded videos

We use YouTube as the hosting site for embedded videos.

Security of electronic transmissions

We take reasonable steps to secure the information transmitted to our online services. However, the nature of electronic transmissions is such that there is the possibility that a third party may observe this information whilst it is in transit. You may prefer to provide information by telephone, paper mail or in person at a Customer Service Centre.

External links

When accessing external links provided on our website, it is recommended that you read the site-owner’s privacy statement before disclosing your personal information. We do not accept responsibility for inappropriate use, collection, storage or disclosure of your personal information outside of our site.

Ordinarily, VicRoads will only use or disclose your information for the purposes for which we collected it, and where necessary for our functions and activities. The use or disclosure of this information will be consistent with VicRoads’ obligations under privacy laws and Part 7B of the Road Safety Act and Part 8.8A of the Marine Safety Act.

We may use and disclose your personal and health information for:

• the primary purpose for which it was collected, or
• a secondary purpose related (or directly related) to the primary purpose where the relevant privacy law permits it, such as if you have consented to that use or disclosure.  

Some examples of when we may share or disclose your personal information with third parties include:

• to the manufacturer of number plates or licences to enable the delivery of the number plate or licence to your nominated address 
• in delivering our customer service and fulfilling our functions, including for quality assurance purposes, training and purposes to improve our services
• when it required or authorised by law, including the Road Safety Act, Marine Safety Act, the PDP Act, the Privacy Act and other relevant Acts.
• it will prevent or lessen serious and imminent harm to someone’s life or health or threat to public health and safety
• to law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes
• to contractors, agents and service partners of VicRoads
• toll road operators or toll authorities
• revenue and social security agencies, for law enforcement
• proceedings, prosecutions, investigations and enforcement of judgements or court orders
• it is a necessary part of internal investigation following a complaint
• other road authorities, transport authorities or traffic entities
• municipal councils for law enforcement
• the Transport Accident Commission
• the manufacturer or supplier of vehicles in connection with vehicle safety recalls
• road safety researchers undertaking research or statistical analysis in the public interest
• courts and other organisations or people authorised to collect and use personal information held by VicRoads
• with your consent, to other government entities and agencies for the purpose of managing employment, such as employee reference checks 
• photograph and other driver licence or learner permit information may be used for the purposes of biometric matching through the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution for law enforcement, national security and other purposes

The information collected might be shared within VicRoads to enable efficient and effective delivery of quality services. 

We may also share your information with the Department of Transport and Planning or other entities (government entities, councils, or law enforcement agencies) if authorised to do so under Part 7B of the Road Safety Act, the PDP Act, and other relevant Acts. 

In limited circumstances allowed by law, we may transfer your personal information or health information to another person or organisation, or if you consent to the transfer.

We may also provide your personal information or health information to relevant third parties where an issue, query or complaint is raised by you with us and responding to that issue, query or complaint requires information or response directly to you from that party.

CCTV footage may be shared with Victoria Police or the Department of Transport and Planning to aid any investigation or in order to respond to a request under the FOI Act. 

We will take reasonable steps to preserve your privacy when disclosing your information, including, where appropriate, by de-identifying the information before we disclose it.

Your employment and recruitment information collected by VicRoads is used or disclosed for people management purposes, including employee relations, human resources, payroll, learning and development, workforce planning, emergency management, occupational health and safety and public health, safety and welfare, disputes or litigation.

National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution

Driver licence and permit information from every state and territory is being shared with the Commonwealth as part of the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution. VicRoads has legal authority to share this information for this purpose under Part 7B of the Road Safety Act. Data and images from driver licences and permits, along with associated biographic information, may be used to confirm your identity and to identify unknown persons. Only certain agencies will be able to access the face matching services, which employs facial recognition technology for approved purposes and under strict conditions.

Some uses of the face matching services will occur when a customer needs to verify their identity when requesting a service (e.g. when applying for a Centrelink entitlement). This will be done with the customer’s consent and will provide a quick and easy way for agencies to verify the authenticity of a government-issued credential presented as identification, such as a driver licence. Law enforcement agencies will also be able to access the face matching services for investigation purposes. For example, police may submit an image of a suspect to the face matching services to check if that person holds a government issued credential to assist with identifying that person.

More information about the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution (External link) is available on the Victorian Government website.

National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System

The National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System, owned by AustRoads, exchanges information about vehicles and driver licences across state borders, enabling road authorities to interact across state borders.

The National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information System provides information to public and private sector organisations to facilitate provenance checking on vehicles, matching of biographic details on licences and assists motor insurance underwriting, vehicle safety recalls and police in identifying stolen vehicles. For more information, please visit the NEVDIS website (External link). 

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information and health information we collect is accurate, complete and up to date.

You are entitled to contact the VicRoads Privacy Team and request access to, and correction of, any of your personal information or health information held by us.

We will take all reasonable steps to correct and update any of your personal information or health information that is found to be inaccurate, incomplete or not up to date or provide a written statement if such a request is refused. For example, we may not give you access where in doing so would pose a serious and imminent threat to life or health, would unreasonably impact on the privacy of others or where the information would otherwise be exempt from disclosure by law.

In responding to your request, we may consult with the Department of Transport and Planning in relation to access and correction of information. The Department of Transport and Planning may also contact VicRoads about complaints, access or correction requests it receives and VicRoads will cooperate with these requests. 

Please contact the VicRoads Privacy team if you:

• want to have access to the personal information (if any) that we hold about you
• want to know more about what sort of information we hold, for what purposes and how we deal with that information
• believe that the personal information that we hold about you is not accurate, complete and up to date
• have concerns about your privacy rights.

Contact us

Email: [email protected]

Call: 13 11 71

Post: VicRoads privacy team, PO Box 632, Collins St West VIC 8007

VicRoads is not authorised to receive or process information requests made under the FOI Act (External link). Any Freedom of Information request may be directed to the Manager Privacy and Information Access at Department of Transport and Planning at [email protected]

VicRoads has a Security Management Framework which establishes, articulates, supports and promotes its security governance arrangements across VicRoads. These measures are designed to protect your information from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 

Specifically, VicRoads: 

• implements people, process and technology-based safeguards to protect your information from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure
• uses consistent identification and assessment criteria for information assets across its lifecycle
• manages information security risks through informed business decisions while applying controls to protect information
• ensures adequate tracking of its exposure to information security risks
• has internal policies which authorise and manage the sharing and release of VicRoads information
• ensures that all VicRoads employees, staff and contractors understand the importance of information security and their obligations in protecting VicRoads information through awareness and training
• ensures your information is protected when it is provided to a third party who conducts work on behalf of VicRoads. For example, third party contracts require the contractor to comply with all VicRoads policies and standards, and to be bound to the privacy laws in the same way and to the same extent as VicRoads
• ensures a consistent approach for managing information security incidents, in accordance with internal incident management policies. For example, all security incidents impacting personal or health information must be reported in a timely manner to the VicRoads Privacy team and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner and/or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

VicRoads takes reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information or health information if it is no longer needed for any purpose, or as otherwise required by the Public Records Act and Road Safety Act.

Privacy Impact Assessments

In the case of any proposed new use of personal information, we may prepare a Privacy Impact Assessment to ensure that the proposed new use is consistent with the privacy rights of people affected.

Unique identifiers

VicRoads will only assign unique identifiers to you if it is necessary to do so, including where it enables VicRoads to carry out its functions efficiently. For example, VicRoads assigns unique identifiers to driver's licences and registrations. We take special care when assigning unique identifiers as they attract a higher level of protection under the privacy laws. VicRoads may also assign individual identifiers to help us communicate with you, such as when we need to respond to a complaint, enquiry or other general correspondence.

Anonymity

We respect your choice to remain anonymous, and you may interact with us anonymously where it is lawful and practicable for you to do so. However, sometimes, it may not be possible for us to provide information, deal with a complaint or perform other functions unless we can identify you. Sometimes, the failure to provide the information may result in a transaction not being processed.

Data release

Some data relating to vehicle registration, vehicle safety and driver licensing is publicly accessible. VicRoads and the Department of Transport and Planning are encouraged to make data available to the public as open data when possible. Generally, datasets containing personal information are not suitable for open data releases. Occasionally, datasets containing personal information may be anonymised to enable suitability for data release. VicRoads and the Department of Transport and Planning have processes in place to check that any de-identified data contained in a data release cannot be re-identified.

Information transferred outside Victoria

VicRoads adheres to the requirements of relevant Victorian or Commonwealth legislation when transferring personal information outside Victoria and Australia. In particular, for registration and licensing services, your personal information may only be transferred to another jurisdiction if the purpose of the transfer is allowed under enabling legislation (e.g. under Part 7B of the Road Safety Act for interstate law enforcement), or you consent to the transfer of your personal information, and the recipient jurisdiction offers substantially similar privacy protection to Victoria.

Storage

The personal information that you provide to us is matched with our records and is stored and updated on the VicRoads Vehicle Registration Information System and Driver Licence System. Registration and licensing information is owned by, and accessible to the Department of Transport and Planning.

We keep and maintain our registration and licensing records in accordance with the Public Records Act. 

Information protection

VicRoads has security measures designed to protect your personal information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information if it is no longer needed for any purpose, in line with the Public Records Act. 

We comply with the Victorian Protective Data Security Framework and VPDSS, which provides standards to Victorian public sector agencies or bodies on their data security obligations. 

We take reasonable steps to ensure that any of your personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. 

You may make a complaint about a potential privacy incident by contacting the VicRoads privacy team at [email protected]. We undertake to resolve privacy complaints and breaches in a timely and fair manner. 

We undertake to resolve privacy complaints and breaches in a timely and fair manner.

If you have made a complaint to us, but you are not happy with our response or handling of the matter, you may also complain to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 

If your complaint relates to the PDP Act, you will need to contact Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, or calling 1300 006 842.

If your complaint relates to the Privacy Act, you will need to contact the Office of Australian Information Commissioner, or calling 1300 363 992. 

If your complaint relates to the HR Act, you will need to contact the Health Complaints Commissioner, or calling 1300 582 113. 

Non-compliance with this policy

Suspected breaches of this policy can be reported to the VicRoads Privacy team at [email protected] and will be investigated as required.

Commonly used words in this Privacy Policy:

contractors mean third party individuals or companies who provide goods or services to VicRoads. 

handle means to collect, hold, manage, use, disclose or transfer information. 

health information means identifying personal information about an individual that is defined in section 3 of the HR Act as 'health information'.  

It includes information or an opinion about:

• the physical or mental health, or disability, of an individual
• an individual's expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to him or her, or
• the nature of health services that have been, or are to be, provided to an individual.

It also includes:

• other personal information originally collected in the course of providing a health service to an individual
• personal information collected in connection with the donation of human tissue by an individual, and
• genetic information that is or could be predictive of the health of an individual or their descendants.

Personal information is defined in the PDP Act as information or an opinion that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion, but does not include health information. Examples of personal information are your name, date of birth, residential address, email address, financial details, marital status, education and employment history. Under the Privacy Act, ‘personal information’ means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

In this policy, personal information refers collectively to personal information and sensitive information, unless otherwise specified.

privacy laws means the PDP Act, HR Act and, if applicable, the Privacy Act.

sensitive information is defined in Schedule 1 of the IPPs and means personal information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional trade union or trade association, sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record.  

Website means the https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au website operated by R&L Services Victoria Pty Ltd and includes the subdomains of the Website.