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From 12 March 2013 content is no longer being added to, or amended, on this site, consequently some information may be out of date.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

Types

Topic(s): Other

Announcement: Public prayers and the Privacy Act

10 May 2002

Deputy Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim said" the Privacy Act is about organisations working within people's expectations of what will happen with their personal information."

"Many of the current practices in relation to public prayers or printing of personal information in church newsletters will be within people's reasonable expectations. It is not likely that there will be a breach of the Privacy Act in continuing these practices as long as they are clearly within the reasonable expectations of the individual concerned.

"If there is any doubt about what the individual's reasonable expectations are it is good privacy practice to check with them first, especially where sensitive matters such as health or personal troubles are involved. The Office understands that this is the established practice in many churches.

"A proactive approach to this issue would be for churches to make sure people are aware of church practices when they join the congregation. It is advisable that churches have a clear policy about when the church will check with people before making information about them public."