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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

When do Alternative Dispute Resolution Schemes have to notify other people (third parties) that they have collected their information?

There are several ways in which Alternative Dispute Resolution Schemes can meet their obligations to notify other people, (third parties), about the collection of their personal information.

The dispute resolution scheme can contact the other person (third party) directly to notify them of NPP 1.3 matters, if it is a reasonable step in the circumstances.
If the individual concerned is a party to a transaction or account relationship under dispute, such as a joint account holder, then the notice given to the individual when the information is first collected by the respondent organisation may be sufficient. That is, if that original NPP 1.3 notice covered disclosure to the relevant dispute resolution scheme it would generally be reasonable not to take any further steps to notify the individual.
If notifying the other person (third party) would result in the dispute resolution scheme breaching its common law duty of confidentiality to the complainant, it would generally be reasonable not to notify the other person (third party).
In some cases it may be reasonable for the dispute resolution scheme to ask the complainant to notify the other person about the collection of their information.