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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

Case notes

Complaint Case Notes (2002-current)

The Privacy Commissioner publishes case notes of finalised complaints that are considered to be of interest to the general public. Not all complaints are recorded in case notes so the published notes only illustrate the types of cases resolved by the Office rather than giving a comprehensive account of them. To obtain an overview of the number and types of complaints received by the Office please visit our Complaints and Enquiries Statistics page.

Most case cases chosen for inclusion in case notes involve new interpretation of the Act or associated legislation, illustrate systemic issues, or illustrate the application of the law to a particular industry.

The notes do not identify the parties to the complaint. Identities are kept confidential to maintain the privacy of the parties involved. The date of publication does not necessarily coincide with the closure of the complaint.

The Privacy Act makes it a function of the Commissioner to endeavour to resolve complaints by conciliation (s.27(1)(a)). As a result, the outcome in any particular case reflects a number of factors, including the applicable law, the facts of the matter and the approach to the conciliation process taken by both complainant and respondent. They should not be relied on as legal advice.

For further detail on the Office's complaint handling process, please visit How to make a complaint.

Complaint Summaries (published in OPC Annual Reports between 1989 and 2002)

The Office has also published privacy complaint summaries, which have been extracted from the Privacy Commissioner's Annual Reports published between 1989 and 2002. These summaries illustrate how the Privacy Commissioner has previously resolved privacy complaints and should not be relied on as legal advice. These summaries have been added to the website for the convenience of users, as most were not previously available in electronic format.

Conditions of use

To see the conditions of use for these case notes and complaint summaries, see our Copyright notice.