Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk has welcomed changes to the Privacy Act 1988 that enshrine strict privacy safeguards for COVIDSafe app data in law.The Privacy Amendment (Public Health Contact Information) Bill 2020 makes mishandling of COVIDSafe app data an offence and an interference with privacy.“The new law ...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) today jointly released the Compliance and Enforcement Policy for the Consumer Data Right.The Policy outlines the approach that the ACCC and the OAIC have adopted to encourage compliance with, and address breaches of, the ...

During Information Awareness Month, we have joined with our interstate and international counterparts to emphasise the importance of documenting decisions, preserving records and providing access to information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.COVID-19: The duty to document does not cease in a crisis, it becomes more essentialAustralian and New Zealand Information Access ...

Held around Australia from 4-10 May 2020, this year’s Privacy Awareness Week is an important time to focus on how we protect and handle personal information.“This year’s focus on protecting personal information online is particularly relevant as even more of our activity and interactions move online during the COVID-19 outbreak, ...

The Australian Government today released the COVIDSafe contact tracing app, a public health initiative to help combat the spread of COVID-19.Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said that important safeguards have been put in place to protect personal information collected through the app so it can be used ...

The Federal Court of Australia today granted leave to the Australian Information Commissioner to serve legal documents on US-based Facebook Inc and Facebook Ireland.The Commissioner lodged proceedings against those Facebook entities in the Federal Court last month, alleging the social media platform has committed serious and/or repeated interferences with privacy ...

The OAIC recognises the severe impact of the current COVID-19 outbreak on our community and around the world. The work of government is essential to ensuring public health and safety during this crisis.We acknowledge that delivering government services in the current environment poses many difficulties. It is also critical that ...

Privacy Commissioners and Ombudsmen around the country appreciate that individuals, organisations and government are facing significant challenges to stop the spread of COVID-19. The use of personal information is part of addressing this public health crisis.Privacy laws at the State, Territory and Federal level contain mechanisms to permit the exchange ...