20 June 2002

"It's clear Australians have made an active decision about their privacy when choosing whether they wanted to be involved in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Centenary of Federation Time Capsule Project," said Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton.

"The Federal Privacy Act is about putting people in control of their personal information. The open way that the privacy aspects of the Time Capsule Project were handled by the ABS have clearly given all Australians the choice to have their details included or withheld from the project.

"Privacy is important to people. They want to be able to manage it for themselves. With some 50 percent of people choosing to withhold their details from the Time Capsule Project, it's clear that many Australians are prepared to exercise their privacy choice.

"Calls to my Office indicate that people want more control over what information is collected about them, how it is used and who accesses it.

"All organisations need to be aware of how important it is to provide people with options about what information will be collected about them and how it will be used.

"Good privacy is good business. Offering people some options when collecting personal information about them goes a long way to building trust between organisations and individuals.

"It has been 6 months since changes to the Privacy Act began and we have noticed a steep rise in the number of calls, emails and written complaints to my Office. The participation rate of people in this latest ABS project clearly shows that Australians value having a choice when it comes to privacy."