You can access the Digital Assistant on the Australian Passport Office (APO) website. It appears as an icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. This assistant uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to answer questions about Australian passports, including the application process.
By using the assistant, you agree to these Terms of Use, including the Privacy section.
About our Digital Assistant
Our Digital Assistant is an AI-powered chatbot, not a real person.
It uses a type of AI program called a Large Language Model that can understand your questions and provide relevant and accurate answers.
It is intended to give general guidance only, based on publicly available information already on the APO website. Its responses do not represent official advice. Nor can it provide you with information about the status of your passport application.
Answers may not always be accurate, complete, or up to date. You should always verify details through official APO channels (like our contact centre), particularly in emergency situations requiring urgent support.
If you notice incorrect information, please let us know through the assistant's feedback option so we can address it.
If the assistant cannot answer your query, it will provide you with a clear explanation of its limitations and direct you to alternative resources or to contact us.
For more information on how the assistant works and its capabilities and limitations, please refer to our AI Transparency Statement(Opens in a new tab/window).
Using the Digital Assistant
No account or login is required to use the assistant. It can be accessed on the APO website via any modern web browser.
While the assistant understands complex questions, we recommend keeping your questions short and using keywords for the best results.
Whenever you get an answer from the assistant, you will have the option of providing feedback. You will be able to rate your interaction with the assistant with a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down', and to provide further comments to flag if its response is incorrect or incomplete. You will also have the option of escalating your issue to human support via our contact centre.
Please do not include personal information (e.g. name, address, passport number, date of birth) in your queries or when providing feedback.
Privacy
The assistant is designed not to collect, process or store personal information.
All interactions with the assistant are anonymous by default. You should not provide personal information to the assistant.
If personal information is provided, the assistant has been programmed to take steps to attempt to automatically delete this data. While efforts are taken to ensure the deletion of personal information, this cannot be guaranteed.
We keep logs of the assistant’s conversations to help improve the answers it provides. These are stored using unique session IDs, with further steps taken to remove personally identifiable information.
Providing comments and suggestions via the assistant’s feedback options is voluntary and will be processed in the same way as submitting a question to the assistant. This feedback will not be used to identify or contact individuals.
See Handling and storing data for more information on how we handle the conversation logs and other information collected by us from the assistant, including any personal information not able to be removed.
For more information on how the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) handles personal information you can also see our Privacy Policy(Opens in a new tab/window).
Handling and storing data
While the assistant is designed to operate without requiring personal information, your conversation contains a unique ID each time you use the assistant, which stores cookies on your device. This allows you to return to the assistant in the same browser to continue your conversation. If you open a new browser, or clear your cookies or cache, this will start a new conversation with a new unique ID.
Please note that most browsers will allow you to choose whether to accept cookies or not. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your computer, please set your browser preferences to reject all cookies before accessing our website.
Once you have completed your conversation with the assistant, and provided feedback, we process and store your conversation log (and feedback) in our Australian-based Amazon Web Services (AWS) database. This will contain:
- conversation content: your questions and the assistant’s responses
- unique ID: to continue your conversation
- timestamp: when your conversation occurred.
If the assistant is unable to avoid collecting personal information that has been provided by a user, that personal information will also be processed by the AI and stored in our AWS database as part of the conversation history.
In addition to being used to respond to your queries, the information in the conversation log may be used to measure the assistant’s use and improve your experience of our website and communications. For example, we use this information to:
- find out when our systems aren't working as expected
- analyse the assistant’s usage and effectiveness
- understand common user queries and improve responses
- enhance response accuracy through targeted improvements
- implement improved AI capabilities as they become available
- improve our ability to assist you when you contact us for help.
The creation, maintenance, retention and disposal of conversation logs, feedback comments and any other Commonwealth records relevant to the assistant, including any personal information the system may not have removed, are managed in strict accordance with the Archives Act 1983(Opens in a new tab/window) and DFAT’s Records Management Policy(Opens in a new tab/window).
Security
All information collected by the assistant is stored securely in Australia, and in line with the Australian government’s Protective Security Policy Framework(Opens in a new tab/window) and Information Security Manual(Opens in a new tab/window). We do not share any information overseas.
Access to the assistant’s system logs is strictly controlled and limited to authorised personnel only.
Accuracy and limitations
While the assistant aims to provide accurate and current information, we cannot guarantee the completeness or correctness of its responses.
Information provided is general in nature and may not reflect your specific circumstances.
Liability
Users of the assistant bear sole responsibility for their interactions and reliance on the information provided.
DFAT does not guarantee, and accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material provided by the assistant.
DFAT recommends users exercise their own skill and care with respect to their use of this assistant, and that they carefully evaluate the accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material it provides. DFAT assumes no legal liability for any actions taken or not taken that are reliant upon the material provided by the assistant.
DFAT expressly disclaims liability for any direct or indirect damage or loss arising from the use of the assistant or reliance on its responses, or the content provided on this platform.
Changes to terms
These terms may be updated periodically.
Continued use of the assistant constitutes acceptance of any changes.
Need help?
- For more information or advice, please contact us.
- For privacy-related queries, please email us at privacy@dfat.gov.au or call us on 61 2 6261 1111.