Publication date: 18 September 2017
View the De-identification Decision-Making Framework
In September 2017, the OAIC and CSIRO’s Data61 released the De-identification Decision-Making Framework to assist organisations to de-identify their data effectively.
The De-identification Decision-Making Framework is a practical and accessible guide for Australian organisations that handle personal information and are considering sharing or releasing it to meet their ethical responsibilities and legal obligations, such as those under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
The guide is an adaptation of the UK's Anonymisation Decision-Making Framework and is consistent with the OAIC’s Guide to Data Analytics and the Australian Privacy Principles, which should be read together with this resource.
As the guide was produced in 2017, certain information it contains may now be out of date.
More recently, on 1 August 2025, a collaboration of privacy and data protection authorities from Australia, Hong Kong, Macao, Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Singapore jointly published the Guide to Getting started with Anonymisation.
The guide was approved at the 63rd Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) Forum, and reflects members’ regional commitment to data privacy and the creation of international data sharing standards.
The Anonymisation Guide provides organisations with a standards-aligned framework to implement anonymisation strategies for data. It offers a practical five-step approach for organisations to tailor to their circumstances.
Both of these resources may provide useful guidance for regulated entities to better understand de-identification and anonymisation concepts and processes.
