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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

I guess I`m comfortable showing my ID, but does it have to be scanned? Can`t it just be looked at?

Even if a business can show that they need to identify you (see Question 4 above), it does not always mean that they need to scan your ID.

It is up to the business to explain why it is scanning, and why just looking at your ID is not enough.

This answer is a summary only.

For more details, see our ID scanning information sheets:

Back to ID Scanning FAQs