Privacy Policy

EWON is committed to making sure your personal information is kept safe. We respect your privacy and deal with issues in accordance with the requirements of Australian privacy laws, including the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This summary sets out the key points about how the Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW (EWON) handles personal information. Download our full Privacy Policy (PDF 248KB).

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to carry out our functions or activities as the government approved dispute resolution scheme for New South Wales electricity and natural gas customers, and some water customers.

Collection of your personal information

We usually collect personal information from you or your authorised representative when you contact us in connection with an electricity, gas or water complaint. You have the right to choose not to provide your personal information to EWON, but if you choose not to, we may not be able to help you, unless you are just seeking basic information about energy and water retail and provision in NSW.

We will collect your personal information over the telephone (including voice recording), electronically (including email, fax and other online channels), by post, and in person (such as at an outreach event).

We will also collect information about your complaint from your provider – either the retailer that bills you or the distributor that supplies your property.

To investigate your complaint we may need to obtain additional information from other people (for example, a community worker, or your plumber or electrician). We will discuss this with you before we request information from other people.

If an advocate contacts EWON on your behalf, we will ask the advocate to demonstrate that they have authority to act on your behalf.

We also collect personal information through our website and we use this information to improve user experience and to receive feedback from the community. To assist us in investigating your complaint, we may also collect your personal information if you choose to contact us via social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Disclosure

When investigating your complaint we may need to disclose personal information to help us better investigate your complaint. We do not disclose sensitive information about you unless you agree, or would reasonably expect us to.

We report on our activities to the public, regulators, Government. These reports do not contain any identifiable information about customers or their authorised advocates.

EWON will only use and disclose personal information in circumstances that are permitted by the Privacy Act.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

If you request it, in most cases we must give you access to the personal information that we hold about you, and we will take reasonable steps to correct this information where appropriate.

How to make a complaint

You can complain to us in writing about how we have handled your personal information. We will respond to the complaint within a reasonable timeframe.

How to contact us