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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

Who should our agency appoint as PCO?

Make sure you appoint someone of sufficient seniority to be PCO. Generally, an officer below the executive level would have difficulty fulfilling the role. This is because the PCO needs to be involved in many aspects of the agency's operations, including the decision-making processes of the agency.

Generally, the role of the PCO will include:

participating in the development of new initiatives that have a potential privacy impact
providing advice on the general application of the Privacy Act to new agency initiatives or to the agency's general operations
handling, or supervising the handling, of privacy complaints and enquiries
training staff in aspects of the Privacy Act that apply to their day-to-day activities
being the primary privacy contact for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.