Australia's national privacy regulator,
protecting personal information
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Is ID scanning legal under the Privacy Act?

Not in all cases.

If a business covered by the Privacy Act complies with all its legal requirements, then yes scanning your ID should be legal under the Act.

However, if that business doesn't comply with the Privacy Act, then scanning your ID could be illegal.

Example

  • If a business scans your ID when it doesn't need to collect that information to perform its functions, the scanning will be illegal.
  • If simply sighting your ID would be sufficient, the business should not scan it.

This answer is a summary only. For details on the various Privacy Act requirements (e.g. what a business must do when collecting, using, disclosing and protecting personal information from your ID) see our information sheet.

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