The Australian Privacy Principles
Wednesday 19 February 2014 @ 9.52 a.m. | Legal Research
The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Act) which introduces significant changes to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) is set to commence on 12 March 2014. The Act will introduce the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) which will serve to regulate the handling of personal information by Australian Government agencies and businesses.
The APPs introduced by the Act will replace the current National Privacy Principles for organisations from the 12 March 2014. The APPs will be a single set of privacy principles applying to both Commonwealth agencies and private sector organisations.
The principles will introduce more comprehensive credit reporting with improved privacy protections, while at the same time rewriting credit reporting provisions to achieve greater logical consistency, simplicity and clarity. It will also update the existing provisions to more effectively address the significant developments in the operation of the credit reporting system since the provisions were first enacted in 1990.
There are a total of 13 APPs which deal with the following:
- Open and transparent management of personal information;
- Anonymity and pseudonymity;
- Collection of solicited personal information;
- Dealing with unsolicited personal information;
- Notification of the collection of personal information;
- Use or disclosure of personal information;
- Direct marketing;
- Cross-border disclosure of personal information;
- Adoption, use or disclosure of government related identifiers;
- Quality of personal information;
- Security of personal information;
- Access to personal information; and
- Correction of personal information.
Furthermore, the APPs set out standards, rights and obligations in relation to the handling and maintenance of personal information by APP entities, including dealing with privacy policies and the collection, storage, use, disclosure, quality and security of personal information, and access and correction rights of individuals in relation to their personal information.
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