New changes to the Privacy Act 1988 have now come in to force and will affect government agencies, businesses with an annual turnover of more than $3 million, or business and entities in certain industries.
The changes introduce a new set of harmonised privacy principles that all privacy policies of individual business and other relevant entities must comply with. The principles outline matters such as:
- access to privacy policies
- how an individual can access their personal information stored by an entity
- what types of information are collected and held by the entity
- why information is collected by the entity
- how complaints in relation to privacy matters are to be resolved
- disclosure matters
The Office of the Australian Information has produced several fact sheets in relation to the recent changes. These can be accessed on their website.