We use both Australian Government and commercial web hosting facilities to operate our website. When you visit ato.gov.au, a record of your visit is logged. We use the following information, which is supplied by your browser and recorded for statistical purposes, to help us improve the site:
- user's server address
- user's operating system (for example Windows, Mac)
- user's top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, .uk)
- date and time of the visit to the site
- pages accessed and the documents downloaded
- previous site visited
- type of browser used.
No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the Internet web server logs.
Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information that a website can transfer to an individual's computer hard drive for record keeping. Cookies can make websites easier to use by storing information about your preferences on a particular website. The information remains on your computer after the Internet session finishes. ato.gov.au uses cookies in two very limited ways.
The first time you visit ato.gov.au one cookie will be stored on your computer. On each visit to ato.gov.au the system checks whether there is an ato.gov.au cookie on your computer. If so, it simply notes its presence and records your visit to ato.gov.au as a 'previous user'. If not, it will store one and record your visit as a 'first time visitor'. This cookie will be stored permanently unless you choose to delete it. We use this information to help improve ato.gov.au as it shows us how it is used. There is no attempt made to identify individual users in any way.
On each use a 'session cookie' is temporarily placed on your computer, which is used to maintain navigation information during your site visit. These session cookies are deleted from your computer at the end of each internet session.
The legal database saves cookies to your hard drive so that they are available next time you use it. These cookies record details of search results and viewed documents to make your navigation easier on subsequent visits to the legal database. We do not record this information.
Most internet browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can adjust your internet browser to refuse cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used.
When you visit our website we log a record of your visit. This information is used to help us improve the website. We make no attempt to identify users or their browsing activities unless a law enforcement agency exercises a warrant to inspect our web server logs.