27/08/03

"Today marks the launch of Australia's third private sector privacy code, under the federal Privacy Act 1988," said Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton.

"I am pleased to announce that I have approved the Market and Social Research Privacy Code under section18BB of the Privacy Act 1988." he said.

"The Code was submitted to my Office by the Market Research Society of Australia (MRSA) and the Association of Market Research Organisations (AMRO). It will take effect on 1 September 2003, and is intended to cover the market and social research industry.

"The Market and Social Research Privacy Code encourages small market research companies to opt-in to the Privacy Act.

"I congratulate MRSA and AMRO on developing the code," said Mr Crompton.

The new code includes privacy standards that are at least equivalent to the National Privacy Principles (in the Privacy Act) and in some cases are higher. It has higher standards for notifying participants in research about why their information is being collected and how it will be used and disclosed. It also gives individuals the choice of having their information de-identified, destroyed or deleted as an alternative to gaining access to it.

"It is clear that a lot of time, effort and resources have been put into this code by the MRSA and AMRO," said Mr Crompton. "I look forward to watching how this code develops."

The Federal Privacy Commissioner remains the complaint handler for the code while AMRO will be the code administrator.