20 June 2002

"Consumers are signalling to businesses that privacy is important and needs to be respected as they have rushed to call my Office's hotline during the first six months of the implementation of changes to the Federal Privacy Act," said Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton.

"Since 21 December 2001, when changes to the Privacy Act began, we have received a three fold increase in calls to the Office and a four fold increase in written complaints to the Office, compared to the six months before changes to the Act began.

"My Office has already received more calls to the hotline during the first six months of the changes to that Act (13,450* calls in total) than for all of 2001 (8,177 calls in total).

"Written complaints to the Office have also risen, with 456* written complaints being lodged so far, compared to 194 written complaints lodged during all of 2001. We have received 1750* emails to the Office so far compared to a total of 884 emails received for all of 2001.

"What we are hearing is that people are concerned about a number of privacy issues including:

• Inappropriate disclosure of their information. People believe that their information is being passed around without their knowledge or consent.
• Gaining access to their information. People want to be able to see what information is being held about them, especially health information.
• Bundled consent forms. People feel that they are being pressured into consenting to many uses of their information in order to receive a good or service from an organisation.
• Direct marketing. People continue to be contacted after they have asked an organisation not to contact them.
• Unnecessary collection of information. Many callers to the Office indicate that they think some organisations collect more personal information than they need to in order to provide a good or service.

"Business awareness and response to the Act has been positive. Many people will have already received a number of privacy statements and policies in the mail and may have listened to privacy statements when dialling into an organisation's call centre. These are some of the more visible steps organisations have taken to implement good privacy practices.

"Many market leaders recognise that good privacy is good business. They have regarded compliance with the changed Act as good business and not just a compliance issue. However, some organisations are still working on getting their practices right in order to fulfil the promises they make in their privacy policies.

"At the same time that interest in privacy issues has risen in the community, a number of false Privacy Act myths have emerged, they include that:

• it's no longer possible to pray for people in public;
• students can stop their parents looking at their school reports;
• sports clubs can't talk about their players' injuries;
• the Act stops people accessing joint accounts that they have with their partner;
• the details of escaped criminals can't be released; and
• organisations need consent for everything they want to do with people's personal information.

"Many of these are simple misunderstandings of the way the Privacy Act works. Others are resolved by taking appropriate steps that most people would expect to be taken anyway.

"My Office is ready and prepared to help organisations find solutions to their privacy problems and to investigate privacy complaints. The Office's hotline number is 1300 363 992," said Mr Crompton.

* Figures are as of close of business, 19/6/2002