Commonwealth – Privacy
Overview
The Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 lays down strict privacy safeguards which Commonwealth (federal) and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government agencies must observe when collecting, storing, using and disclosing personal information. The Act also gives individuals access and correction righ...
Privacy Principles
There are two sets of standards in privacy principles. They are binding on the organisations to which they apply, and individuals can make a complaint if they believe that the principles have been breached. The first is the Information Privacy Principles, which set standards required of Austra...
Protecting Private Information
Investigating Complaints and Preventing Breaches The Australian Privacy Commissioner and the Information Commissioner are one and the same person. Under the OAIC, the Commissioner investigates complaints against agencies or organisations where an individual alleges a breach of the Privacy Act. T...
What does the Privacy Act mean to consumers?
The Act means consumers now have the right to know: why a private sector organisation is collecting their personal information; what information it holds about them; how it will use the information; and who else will get the information. Except for some special circumstances, ind...
Other Privacy Legislation
Wrongful, quashed and spent convictions The Commonwealth Spent Convictions Scheme under Part VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914 allows a person to disregard some criminal convictions after ten years (or five years in the case of juvenile offenders) and provides protection against unauthorised use and d...
Complaints – Privacy
Individuals may complain to the Federal Information Commissioner if they believe that their privacy has been infringed because of a breach of: Information Privacy Principles (Cth government); National Privacy Principles (private sector); credit reporting provisions; Tax File Number ...
Metadata retention
The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015 (Cth) requires telecommunications providers to retain, for two years, a defined set of metadata about the circumstances of the communications made through their services. Metadata consists of information abou...
Page last updated 03/02/2020