Privacy policy

General policy statement

V/Line Corporation and V/Line Pty Ltd (together, “V/Line”) are committed to protecting the privacy of our customers. V/Line will collect, use, store and disclose “personal information” in accordance with the information privacy principles set out in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and “health information” in accordance with the health privacy principles set out in the Health Records Act 2001.

This policy is designed to assist you understand how your personal information or health information is managed by V/Line. It also provides information to you about how you can obtain information about how your personal information or health information are maintained in accordance with privacy legislation.
This policy applies to all employees of V/Line when dealing with personal information or health information. When V/Line enters into a contract with another person or organisation for the provision of goods or services relevant to the functions and activities of V/Line, those persons and organisations will be required to manage all personal information and health information in accordance with the privacy legislation, but may also have their own relevant privacy policies.

This policy may be varied from time to time. It may also operate in conjunction with internal V/Line privacy policies and specific policies and collection notices developed by business units to explain their particular privacy management systems.


Types of information

Personal information

“Personal information” means information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can be reasonably be ascertained, from that information. Examples of personal information include your name, sex, date of birth, address, financial details, marital status, education and employment history. Some kinds of personal information are referred to in privacy legislation as “sensitive information”. Sensitive information is given extra protection under the law. This type of information includes information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political views, sexual preferences, membership of unions and criminal record.
In this policy, “personal information” refers collectively to personal information and sensitive information, unless otherwise noted.

Health information

“Health information” means information or an opinion that can be linked to an individual, whether living or dead, that is about their physical, mental, psychological or disability status, expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to him or her, a health service that has been provided.

What is not personal information?

Information that is contained in publications or other documents that are generally available is not personal information. Examples include information contained in newspapers, magazines, annual reports, publicly available website content, social media content available to the public or a group.

 
Collecting information

V/Line will only collect personal information or health information from you if it is necessary for the provision of services to you, for recruitment purposes if you are applying for a position with V/Line, or for other purposes associated with the carrying out of its functions, including compliance with regulatory or other obligations and ongoing assessment and improvement of its services.

Those functions include the provision of public transport services, the operation and maintenance of rail infrastructure and rolling stock, and associated infrastructure, developing and delivering projects associated with the regional rail network, and all associated activities.

 Reasons that V/Line may collect personal information or health information from you include if you: •book tickets to travel with V/Line
 
  • travel with V/Line, or attend at V/Line stations or platforms
  • are not travelling with a valid myki, or engage in conduct that breaches public transport laws
  • register with V/Line for the purpose of receiving updates about services or details about special offers
  • wish to make a complaint or comment about V/Line services or its staff
  • apply for a position with V/Line
  • provide services to V/Line
  • make a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
  • inform V/Line of any special assistance you require
  • register lost property.

V/Line will endeavour to collect personal information and health information directly from the person to whom it relates.  However, in some cases, the information will be collected from third parties. These include PTV, for example, when customers wish to make a complaint or provide feedback to V/Line via the call centre, which is managed through PTV.

 V/Line may also collect personal information from social media.

Collection notices


V/Line will take all reasonable steps to provide you with a notice that tells you why your personal or health information is being collected prior to it being collected (or as soon as practicable after), how the information will be used and the consequences, if any, for not providing the information. In certain situations, this will not be practicable, for example, in emergency situations on a train or platform when a person requires medical assistance, or other situations where a person wishes to make a complaint via the call centre or directly to a conductor or station staff.

Whenever it is lawful or practicable, V/Line will provide people with the opportunity of not identifying themselves.
 

Use and disclosure of personal information

V/Line will only use or disclose personal information or health information for the purpose for which it was collected, or reasonably apparent at the time of collection, or where the person has consented to the information being put to another specified use.

From time to time V/Line may be required to disclose personal information when compelled by law to do so, for example, when ordered by a Court, or compelled by the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator or other regulatory body.

V/Line may also disclose personal or health information to third parties in the following circumstances: •To Public Transport Victoria (PTV) or its nominees to use in connection with PTV’s functions related to passenger transport, or in respect of requests under FOI legislation that are better processed by PTV.
 
  • To the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources for use in relation to enforcement of ticketing and other public transport offences, or in respect of requests under FOI legislation that are better processed.
  • To public transport operators and public transport authorities where a person has raised an issue or query that requires information from that operator or authority.
  • To specific contractors associated with performing services for V/Line. Examples include coach services.
  • To investigators that may be retained by V/Line from time to time to investigate complaints about personal injuries or alleged damage to property, for example, lost luggage
  • To confirm the educational qualifications and criminal history of applicants for positions with V/Line
  • To members of Victoria Police who are authorised to seek access to personal information for law enforcement purposes

When V/Line does provide personal information from such third parties, V/line will require those third parties to have appropriate processes in place to protect the personal or health information.

V/Line may also use personal information for the purposes of investigating complaints made about V/Line staff. If a person requests that they remain anonymous, V/Line will take all reasonable steps to avoid providing information in an internal investigation that may identify them.  However, safety is the paramount concern for V/Line, and will be given higher priority if allegations are very serious and there is a real prospect of harm to other members of the public or V/Line staff. It might also not be possible to investigate a complaint if a person does not consent to the use of their personal information.  V/Line will take all reasonable measures to ensure a person is informed of this.

V/Line may also use personal information to make contact with a person to follow up their complaint or comment about V/Line services, or survey them to obtain feedback about improving those services.
 

Data security and destruction

Irrespective of whether your personal information or health information is stored electronically or in hard copy form, V/Line will take reasonable steps to protect it from loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
V/Line will also take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify personal information or health information if it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, unless it is required to be kept in accordance with other legal obligations.
 

Data quality, access and correction

V/Line will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information and health information that it has collected and stored is accurate, complete and up to date.

You are entitled to contact V/Line to request access to your personal information or health information, and to seek correction of that if it is out of date or inaccurate. V/Line will often provide that information without requiring a formal application under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). However, on occasions, V/Line may refuse to provide access to personal information or health information, for example, if your personal information also includes personal information of someone else, or if V/Line considers that health information might cause harm to the person requesting it.  In this case, a person can make a request under the FOI Act.

If you wish to seek access to your personal or health information held by V/Line, or to make a complaint about how V/Line has handled your personal or health information, you should contact V/Line’s Privacy Officer:
V/Line Privacy Officer

GPO Box 5343 Melbourne Vic 3001
Email: privacy@vline.com.au

If you have been refused access to personal or health information and wish to make an application under the FOI Act, you should send the request and application fee to:

V/Line Freedom of Information Officer
GPO Box 5343 Melbourne Vic 3001.
You can also email FOI inquiries to foi@vline.com.au

Personal information and V/Line’s website

Our website records basic information when you visit our website, such as the server address, domain name, what pages have been visited, browser type and version. This information is not used to identify you.

The purpose for collecting this information is to enable statistical analysis of the usage of our site and to enable V/Line to provide a better service to those who use its website.A “cookie” may be placed in the browser files of your computer. These can be used to track use of our site. This does not identify you personally, and we are not able to access any files on your computer.

V/Line’s website contains links to other websites. If you use these links, please note that third parties operate these sites. V/Line is not responsible for the content of any external website. V/Line’s policies and procedures do not apply to third party websites.