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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

Can my real estate agent* give information about me to a residential tenancy database operator?

Real estate agents covered by the Privacy Act can only give information about you to a residential tenancy database operator if they have given you notice that they will do this.

A residential tenancy database operator keeps a database which records information about people's tenancy history. Agents can subscribe to these databases to check whether any information about you has been listed by another agent.

Even if your agent is not covered by the Privacy Act, all residential tenancy database operators are covered by the Privacy Act. They must comply with the National Privacy Principles when they handle your personal information.

Some of the major residential tenancy database operators in Australia are:

TICA (Tenancy Industry database) http://www.tica.com.au/

National Tenancy Database http://www.ntd.net.au/

EAC Multilist http://www.eac.com.au

Trading Reference Australia https://tradingreference.com/

RP Data http://www.rpdata.com/

* Including property managers