Your privacy at Healthdirect Australia: a guide for children and young people

Healthdirect helps people in Australia get health information and advice they can trust. You can talk to a doctor or nurse by phone or online, or use our website to read information and check your symptoms yourself. 

Privacy is about how we collect, use and protect your information. You have a right to privacy. It's the law. We must look after your information.

We use your information to:

• give you health advice and help you find the right care
• call you back if we need to
• keep a record of the help we gave you, in case you need it again
• make sure our website, phone lines and other services are safe and working well 
• make our services better based on what people tell us

That's OK. You don't have to tell us everything. For some services you don't even have to use your real name. You can use a nickname.

But sometimes, if we don't know enough, we might not be able to help you with everything you need. We'll always tell you why we're asking.

We lock your information so other people can't see it. Only our trained staff can look at it, and only when they need to help you.

Only the people helping you can see your information, like a doctor, nurse or other healthcare worker. Sometimes we also share information with other government organisations that help pay for our services. This helps them know our services are working well.

Sometimes we might ask if you'd like to tell us what you thought about the help you got. You can always say no. We never sell your information to anyone. We don't share it with people who don't need it.

Sometimes a parent or carer can ask about your information to help look after you. But if you're old enough to make your own choices about your health, we'll respect that. What you tell us can stay private between you and us.

There are a few times when we might need to share what you tell us — like if you or someone else is being hurt or is in serious danger. Sometimes the law also says we must share information, for example if a court tells us to. We'd only do this to keep you safe or because we have to. We won't share more than we need to.

Yes. We record calls so we can check we gave good advice and help train our staff. You can tell us if you don't want your call recorded. That's OK too.

Sometimes a computer or AI helps us write things down or find information faster. A real person still looks after your care. The computer is there to help. We'll always tell you when this is happening.

Yes. You can ask to see it, fix it or ask us to delete it. Sometimes we have to keep records for a while because the law says so. Just ask us or a trusted adult to help you. If your details change, let us know so we can keep your information up to date.

If something doesn’t feel right, or you’re unhappy about how we used your information, you can tell us. You can contact us or ask a trusted adult to help you. We'll listen and do our best to help you.

• Email: support@healthdirect.org.au
• Write to: Healthdirect Australia, PO Box K411, Haymarket NSW 1240
• Visit: about.healthdirect.gov.au/privacy-policy
• If you need more help, you can also talk to the Privacy Commissioner (someone whose job is to check that organisations look after your information properly). A trusted adult can help you do this. You can find the Commissioner at oaic.gov.au

This information is a child-friendly version of our full Privacy Policy. If you’d like to know more, you can read:

• Our full Privacy Policy, which is written for adults.
• The collection notice for the service you used. A collection notice explains what information we collect and why we need it.

Both are on our website. A trusted adult can help you find them.

You can also call us or ask a trusted adult to help you find more information.