20 March 2003

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner today published the latest of its advisory Information Sheets to assist business in its implementation of the Privacy Act - Information Sheet 17- 2003 Privacy and Personal Information that is Publicly Available.

"Information Sheet 17 gives helpful and practical advice to organisations about how the Privacy Act applies when handling personal information that is publicly available", advised the Commissioner Mr Crompton. "The Office developed the Information Sheet after extensive consultation with industry and the community about circumstances where peoples' personal information is collected by businesses from publicly available sources". "The Information Sheet includes best practice tips to help businesses deliver on privacy in a way that the community expects", he said.

"The Privacy Act makes the collection of personal information from publicly available sources more transparent to the community. For example, if asked, organisations will need to tell people how they collect personal information and how it is used", said the Commissioner.

"The Privacy Act does not stop organisations from doing business, or fundraisers from using the white pages to contact potential donors. Rather, it puts in place some commonsense and common courtesy rules to protect how peoples' information is handled", said the Commissioner.

Information Sheet 17