Site Changes

On 1 November 2010 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was integrated into the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and a new website established at www.oaic.gov.au.

Note 1: Major changes to the Privacy Act 1988 will come into effect in March 2014. Agencies, businesses and not for profits need to start preparing for these changes. For more information go to our privacy law reform page at www.oaic.gov.au
Note 2: From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date. For new privacy content visit the www.oaic.gov.au website.

Answer 2 (more)

Question 2:

Is your personal information recorded in a document, photograph, database, book, medical record, magazine, email etc?

Answer: Please give me more information

The Privacy Act only protects personal information that was collected for inclusion in a generally available publication or in a record. This means for example, that unrecorded gossip about you is not likely to be protected under the Privacy Act.

A generally available publication is "a magazine, book, newspaper or other publication (however published) that is or will be generally available to members of the public" (Section of the Privacy Act to read: 6) .

A record includes:

a document; or
a database (however kept); or
a photograph or other pictorial representation of a person;

(Section of the Privacy Act to read for complete definition: 6)

For more information on how the Privacy Act applies to a generally available publication please read our Information Sheet 17.

KEY POINT

Your complaint must be about your personal information contained in a document, picture, photograph, database or generally available publication.

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