30 June 2006

The Privacy Act provides for the Commissioner to undertake audits to assess and improve compliance with the Privacy Act on the part of Australian and ACT government agencies, credit reporting agencies, credit providers and tax file number recipients.

The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has decided to publish the finalised reports of privacy audits in which the information handling practices of certain Australian and ACT government agencies were reviewed since 1 July 2002. The Commissioner holds the view that publication of audit reports will help promote good privacy practice and contributes to the Office's mission of promoting an Australian culture that respects privacy.

The Commissioner will continue to publish audit reports of audits finalised by the Office in the future. However, where an audit report contains classified content, the Office may not be able to publish the report.

Reports for the following privacy audits have been published:

• ACT Residential Tenancies Tribunal: Client and Employee Records -
• Canberra Institute of Technology: Staff and Student Records - PDF
• ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services: Client Records - PDF
• ACT Department of Justice And Community Safety: Register General's Office - PDF
• Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Australian Customs Service: ePassport & SmartGate Trials - PDF

For full information on the audits released by the Commissioner and the Commissioner's audit functions, please refer to our audit webpage at: http://www.privacy.gov.au/law/apply/audit. Also included on this page are details of audits undertaken and finalised since 2002 that have not been published due to classified content.