When should an agency or PCO contact the Office ...

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Question: When should an agency or Privacy Contact Officer (PCO) approach the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for advice?

Answer: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner responds, where possible, to agency requests for advice on matters with significant privacy implications. The Office expects to be consulted on notable new policy proposals, cabinet submissions and pieces of draft legislation that have significant privacy implications.

• Proposals for increased levels of identification or authentication of identity potentially involving personal information, measures to combat identity fraud, and initiatives involving the sharing of personal information between Australian or State government agencies or with the private sector;
• Health sector proposals, particularly in relation to electronic health records, other online heath initiatives and proposals relating to unique patient identification numbers;
• Government online activities, and information and communications technologies developments, that may involve the handling of personal information - particular issues here include data security, individual digital signature certificates and web seals;
• Proposals for additional data-matching using the tax file number, or new, large-scale, cross-agency data matching;
• Whole of government approaches to service delivery; and
• Privacy issues related to national security initiatives.

The Privacy Act has been in operation within the Australian and ACT public sectors for a number of years. We expect that agencies are now able to resolve many of their own privacy-related issues in consultation with their PCOs, for more information refer to FAQ 1 As a Australian or ACT government employee, where can I..... This is particularly so when privacy questions relate to the on-going implementation or management of existing programs.

We encourage agencies and their PCOs to make use of the generic advice available in the Guidelines to the Information Privacy Principles, and other information provided on our website. We also encourage PCOs to utilise the Government PCO Network, which serves as an invaluable source of collective experience and learning in relation to Australian public sector privacy.

To assist agencies and their PCOs to consult and engage with the Office in the most efficient and effective manner, we have developed a checklist - Word, PDF of steps that agencies are strongly encouraged to follow before approaching the Office for advice.