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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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.

Question 2

Question 2:

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

Answer:

For example:

An example of a complaint involving information in a document or record could be where a credit card provider emailed credit card statements to the wrong family member, so revealing the amount of a credit card debt to that person.

An example of a privacy concern that may not involve a document or record could be where your next door neighbour tells people at his workplace, say a local petrol station, that your house had been broken into. If the break-in had nothing to do with the petrol station and it had no record of the discussion, the Privacy Act would probably not apply.

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