Terms of use and Privacy Statement

1. In these Terms of Use the following meanings apply:

'Council, City, City of Gold Coast, we, us, our' all mean Council of the City of Gold Coast.

'Site' means the investgoldcoast.au website and includes all other websites and sub-sites managed by Council, including but not limited to sites having the domain name www.investgoldcoast.au, www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au or sub-domains for example, www.[ ].goldcoast.qld.gov.au. Note that the www.cityofgoldcoast.com.au domain resolves to www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au.

'Material' means any information, text, symbol, logo, image, video, audio, document, file or other data on the Site.

'You, your' means any person accessing the Site.

2. Access to and use of the Site is subject to the Terms of Use.

3. By accessing the Site, and or using any Material available from or via it, you agree that you have read and understood and are legally bound by the Terms of Use.

4. Council reserves the right, at its absolute and sole discretion, to update and or modify the Terms of Use at any time without further notice to you.

5. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use, you must not access or use the Site.

Your obligations

6. When you access the Site, you agree:

  1. to act in accordance with the Terms of Use and Council's Information Management Policy and Information Privacy Policy and any other terms and conditions on the Site.
  2. to use the Material only for personal or educational information purposes and not for any other purpose.
  3. to include the copyright notice in any copy you make.
  4. to not modify the Material, attribute it as Council material, and then present it as Council material without prior written permission.
  5. to not use including distribute the Material or a derivative of the Material for any commercial purpose.
  6. to not use, post to, or transmit to or via the Site any Material that breach any laws or regulations, infringe upon a third party's privacy or legal rights (including, or are contrary to any relevant standards or codes.
  7. to not use, post to, or transmit to or via the Site any material that interferes with other users or defames, harasses, threatens, menaces, offends or restricts any person, or inhibits any other user from using or enjoying the Site.
  8. to not use the Site to send unsolicited and unwanted email messages to anyone or make any fraudulent or speculative enquiries, bookings, reservations or requests using the Site.
  9. to not use another person's identifying information used to access the Site, including but not limited to, their name, username, password, rate account number or post code without their permission.
  10. to not post, or transmit to or via the Site any obscene, indecent, inflammatory or pornographic material, or material that could give rise to civil or criminal proceedings.
  11. to not tamper with, hinder the operation of, or make unauthorised modifications to this Site.
  12. to not post, or transmit to or via the Site any viruses, malicious code, other forms of interference (such as worms or Trojan horses), other disabling feature or anything else that may cause damage to us or a third party.
  13. if there is a prolonged period of inactivity between your browser and the Site servers, you may be disconnected, or you may need to resubmit your request. Council is not responsible for any information you may lose if a disconnection occurs.
  14. that any use, copying or reproduction of the Site, the Material or any parts of them other than in accordance with these Terms of Use or as permitted by law is strictly prohibited and may result in civil and criminal penalties.
  15. the extent permitted by law, release us from, any direct or indirect loss, damage, claim or expense - irrespective of the manner in which it occurs which may be suffered by you arising from:
    1. your use of the Site;
    2. the inaccessibility of the Site; or
    3. the fact that Material is incorrect, incomplete or not up to date.
  16. us pleading this release as a complete defence to any proceedings connected with these matters.
  17. the extent permitted by law, discharge, indemnify and hold harmless Council and our officers, employees, agents and related bodies from and against all actions, claims, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, costs or expenses arising out of, or in any way connected to, your use of the Site including the use of Online Services. This includes access to or use of the Site by someone using your identifying information to access the Site.

Suspension and termination

7. Council may in its absolute and sole discretion immediately, suspend, terminate or limit your access to the Site for any reason. This includes but is not limited to where:

  1. you are in breach of the Terms of Use;
  2. you attempt to manipulate or bypass any limitations of the Site by any means;
  3. you behave in a vexatious, illegal, inappropriate or unsociable manner;
  4. Council believes on reasonable grounds that there is a real risk of serious loss or damage to council or a third party;
  5. there is an emergency; or
  6. there are technical or other performance issues.

Copyright and intellectual property rights notice

8. © Copyright, Council of the City of Gold Coast (Council) unless stated otherwise.

9. All Material on the Site is protected by the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth). Unless otherwise indicated, we own or license from third parties all rights, title and interest (including copyright, designs, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights) in the Site and in all of the Material made available on the Site.

10. Your use of the Site and use of and access to any Material does not grant or transfer any rights, title or interest to you in relation to the Site or the Material. Except for purposes permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, you must not use, copy, modify, transmit, store, publish or distribute the Site or the Material or any part thereof without written permission of the Chief Executive Officer. To request permission, please address all correspondence to:

Chief Executive Officer
City of Gold Coast
PO Box 5042
GCMC 9726

Disclaimer

11. The Material on the Site is for general reference and is not comprehensive. Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the Material is current and accurate, Council makes no warranty in either respect.

12. Please use caution in using the Material as it:

  1. may not have been produced by Council, but instead provided by third parties;
  2. may not be available, accurate, current or complete;
  3. is subject to change without notice;
  4. is not a substitute for independent professional advice and you should obtain specific professional advice relevant to your particular circumstances;
  5. may include the views or recommendations of third parties, which do not necessarily reflect the views of Council.

13. Your use of the Site and the Material is your responsibility. Your use of the Material is at your own risk. You accept all risks and consequences that might arise from your use of the Site and the Material. This includes:

  1. any risk of your computer, software or data being damaged by any virus, disabling codes, worms or other devices and defects which might be transmitted or activated via the Site or any Third party websites accessed via the Site, or your access to or the downloading of files from the Site or any Third party websites accessed via the Site; and
  2. any risk of connections transmitted to and from the Site being intercepted and modified by third parties.

14. Council shall not be liable, to the extent permitted by law, for any loss or damage whatsoever which is suffered (including but not limited to indirect or consequential loss) or for any personal injury, loss or damage suffered or sustained in connection with any use of or reliance on the Material.

15. Any use of, or reliance on, such information is at the risk of the user who accepts all risk, responsibility and liability for any loss, damage, cost or other consequence arising directly or indirectly from such use or reliance.

16. Council does not give any representation or warranty of any kind (whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise) including in relation to the availability, accuracy, currency, completeness, quality, reliability, merchantability, or suitability for any purpose of the Site and the Material, or that the Material will not infringe any third party intellectual property rights, or that the Site will be free from defects, viruses, third party interception or other security threats or vulnerabilities including those which could cause loss or damage to you; and

17. To the extent that Council's liability for a breach of any statutory condition or warranty cannot be excluded, then to the extent permitted by law, liability is limited to, at Council's discretion, the replacement of the Material from the Site.

Third party websites

18. Information of and links to external organisations which appear from time to time on the Site are provided for convenience and informational purposes only. Council has no direct control over the content of any linked sites, or the changes that may occur to the content on those sites. The provision of such information does not constitute an endorsement or approval by, or any relationship with, Council of any of the products, services or opinions of the organisation or person. Council makes no warranty about and accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, quality, suitability, completeness or legality of such content whether on its or on the external website or for that of subsequent links within such websites or that those sites are safe, secure and free from any virus. Accordingly users should make their own enquiries and decisions about these matters. Any use of, or reliance on, such information is at the risk of the user who accepts all responsibility and liability for any loss, damage, cost or other consequence arising directly or indirectly from such use or reliance.

Information collection

19. Occasionally Council needs to collect your personal information to provide you with services. Where Council collects your personal information, it does so in accordance with the requirements of the Information Privacy Act 2009 and its Privacy Policy. The collection of personal information is necessary to provide you with the services requested. Your information will be handled in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) and may be accessed by Councillors, Council employees and authorised contractors where it is necessary. Unless authorised or required by law, we will not provide your personal information to any other person or agency. Please read our Privacy Statement below. 

Queensland law

20. These Terms of Use are governed by and subject to the laws of the State of Queensland.

Use of resources for education

21. Schools, teachers and students are allowed to use the Material where relevant, only for study, research, criticism, review and projects but must acknowledge the source of the Material.

22. Material provided on investgoldcoast.au and its sub-pages is able to be downloaded, copied or printed for personal or educational purposes, provided users acknowledge the source of the material and do not use the material for any other purpose.

Use of Open Data

23. Open Data is provided by Council to share certain general information with the public. All reasonable measures are taken to ensure the quality and accuracy of this information; however Council makes no warranty in either respect. If you find any information that you believe may be inaccurate, please contact us . Use of information made available via our Open Data sites is permitted under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence and you agree to comply with the terms of that licence, the terms of which are available via the Creative Commons website. This licence allows you to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose.

24. You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. .

25. You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

26. No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Feedback

27. You can send us feedback about the site online.

28. We may, at our discretion, use, reproduce, publish, modify, adapt and transmit your feedback to others free of charge and without restriction. In using the Site you implicitly provide your permission for this to occur.

29. This use of your feedback will be subject to these Terms of Use and Council's Privacy Statement (below).

Personal information

The use of the term personal information in this privacy statement means any information from which your identity is apparent or can be reasonably ascertained.

Council of the City of Gold Coast does collect personal information directly from you in order to conduct business and meet its statutory and regulatory obligations.

You can ask us to correct any errors or make amendments to personal information we have about you, subject to you providing City of Gold Coast with evidence of identity.

We do not collect personal information about you if you are only browsing this website.

The City's Personal Information Holdings statement sets out details of the types of personal information we hold and how we handle this information.

For further information, please read Council's Information Management Policy  and Information Privacy Policy .

Important information

The Queensland Government's Information Privacy Act 2009 was enacted in June 2009, with a compliance date of July 2010 applied to Queensland local government. Council has undertaken to comply with this new legislation where it does not conflict with over-riding Queensland legislation such as the Local Government Act 2009 and the Planning Act 2016.

Contact us

For further information about information privacy, please email us at rtiip@goldcoast.qld.gov.au  or alternatively you may write to:

Privacy Contact Officer
City of Gold Coast
PO Box 5042
GOLD COAST MC QLD 9726

Phone contact

Privacy Contact Officer - Legal Services on 07 5581 6439

Complaints about Information Privacy

You can lodge any privacy related complaints online by visiting the City's Complaints  page or you can contact the Privacy Contact Officer.

Use of this website

We use cookies and other technologies to record visits to this website. Cookies are small pieces of code that identify and recognise the computer, but not the person using the computer, when you visit our website.

The use of cookies is an industry standard and most major websites globally use them. We use first-party cookies and JavaScript code from website analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics, and from social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. The cookie data is used to help us improve the website and each user's experience. This information is also used to offer you relevant content such as ads.

No attempt will be made to identify users individually except in the unlikely event of an investigation, where inspection of the Internet web server logs is required by law (for example, by a law enforcement agency).

Google Analytics and Internet Browser settings

If you prefer not to have cookies monitor your website usage, you can change the privacy setting of your browser to disable cookies or to warn you when cookies are being used. Google Analytics offers opt-out tools  for the web or you can refer to your Internet browser's 'help' information about how to change your cookie preference.

Information is gathered about how visitors use this website. Website usage data may include information such as your device's internet protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram) settings

At any time you can view your Facebook  and Instagram advertisement settings and update your preferences for how Meta uses your website activity data to show you advertising content.

User feedback

We welcome feedback from our website visitors to improve the services provided on this website. Any feedback you provide is voluntary and does not in any way affect your access to the City's website.