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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

Do I have to give my ID?

No. You cannot be forced to hand over your ID for scanning, but sometimes you may have to show your ID to a business.

The Privacy Act (NPP 8) gives you the right to do business anonymously, as long as this is 'lawful and practicable' in the circumstances.

Choices

You always have the choice to walk away if you are not comfortable with the way a company does business.

However, sometimes you may not be able to or want to walk away from a particular business.

Example: the service may be something you really need, or you just don't want to go somewhere else.

It is up to the business to explain why it needs to identify you. It may have a good reason, such as:

it is fundamental to the transaction (for example, you want to join their online shopping service)
there is some law that requires it to identify you (for example, some licensing laws).

If the business does not have a good reason, you should be allowed to do business with them without showing your ID or having it scanned.

This answer is a summary only.

For more details, see our ID scanning information sheets:

Back to ID Scanning FAQs