The guidelines are primarily intended for use by private sector and non-government organisations (and their employees) that provide health services. They will also be useful for contractors of organisations providing health services. For more detail on entities covered by the Privacy Act 1988, see Information Sheet 12 -2001.

The term 'health service' is broadly defined by the Act. (For more information, see section 6 of the Privacy Act 1988. It can include providers of many different services such as hospitals, fitness centres, counselling services and pharmacists. In the guidelines, the term 'health service provider' is used to refer to a provider of such health services. The guidelines are also intended for health service providers working in non-health environments, such as nurses or dentists employed in schools or medical practitioners in prisons and detention centres. For more information about the kinds of health service providers that may find the guidelines useful, see Guidelines on Privacy in the Private Health Sector.

The guidelines are not aimed at health service providers in the Commonwealth, State and Territory public health sectors.