Media Release: Merge privacy principles to enhance national consistency, says Privacy Commissioner

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8 March 2007

The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has called for a merging of the two sets of privacy principles in the Privacy Act, to create a new single set of principles and has called for greater national consistency in privacy regulation.

"The existing principles in the Privacy Act are generally operating well and principle-based law remains the best way to regulate information handling, but there appears to be no rationale for the existing situation of a set of privacy principles for Australian and ACT Government agencies and a different set for the private sector," Ms Curtis said. 

"Having two sets of principles can create confusion in situations where public sector agencies undertake commercial activities or private sector organisations are contracted to Australian Government agencies.

"A single set of privacy principles would encourage greater regulatory consistency and simplicity, as well as maximising the protection of Australians' privacy." 

At present, organisations can have privacy obligations under several laws, which can create significant confusion for members of the public and the organisations themselves.

"Increased regulatory consistency will reduce the compliance difficulties for agencies and organisations and empower individuals to understand and exercise their privacy rights with less confusion," Ms Curtis said. 

In her 474-page submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission's Review of Privacy, Ms Curtis identified a wide range of issues to address in areas as diverse as health, technology and telecommunications.

For further information, please see http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/alrc280207.html

For media comment, contact 0407 663 968.

Additional information

The single set of principles would include: 

• Principle 1 - Anonymity
• Principle 2 - Notice and Openness
• Principle 3 - Collection
• Principle 4 - Collection of Sensitive Information
• Principle 5 - Use and Disclosure
• Principle 6 - Quality
• Principle 7 - Security
• Principle 8 - Access and Correction
• Principle 9 - Transborder Data Flows
• Principle 10 - Identifiers