4 September 2002

"The Privacy Act does not prevent organisations from using the white pages or other public sources of information, rather it is intended to make the collection more transparent to the community at large", said Timothy Pilgrim, Deputy Privacy Commissioner in response to a press release put out by the Fundraising Institute Australia.

"There appears to be some misunderstanding of how the Privacy Act applies in these circumstances. The Privacy Act already requires organisations to collect personal information fairly and to tell people how their information is being used and how to contact the organisations that hold their information", said Mr Pilgrim.

"The Privacy Commissioner has issued a consultation paper to seek views from industry and the community about what is fair and reasonable in circumstances where information is collected from publicly available sources."

"There is a high level of public concern about how sources such as the Australian Electoral Roll and the White Pages are used by organisations. For example, our research shows that 70% of respondents feel that the electoral roll should not be accessed for marketing purposes", said Mr Pilgrim.

"Fundraisers and marketers are currently making extensive use of these information sources. It is not clear, however, that people fully understand that sometimes, when they provide their personal information for inclusion in a public list for a specific purpose, it could be used for other purposes. There may well be a range of uses that are within public and business expectations, but public debate is needed in order to strike the appropriate balance", said Mr Pilgrim.

The Privacy Commissioner issued a discussion paper at the end of June 2002 to aid discussion and suggest approaches to achieve the right balance.

The paper is available at the Public Consultation section of this website. Responses can be made to the Office until 13 September 2002 by email to privacy@privacy.gov.au or mail to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042, marked 'PAPI consultation'.