With course applications open from today, it’s important to remember to protect students’ privacy if having multiple students create a VTAC account and course application from a single computer (such as during a careers interview).

Potential issues include:

• students’ information being saved by browser AutoComplete functions and then suggested to a later student filling in the same form;
• if paying with a logged-in PayPal account, the potential for a student to remain logged in and have their account details used to pay for a subsequent course application payment; and/or
• cached versions of application forms being saved in the browser history and accessed by a subsequent student.

To avoid any of these issues, we strongly encourage practitioners to either:

• Clear browser cache, history, and AutoComplete data between students; or
• Commence each application in a new incognito/private browsing window (instructions for Chrome; Firefox). In incognito/private mode, no personal data will be stored by the browser once the window has been closed.