On 12 March 2014, the Privacy (Enhancing Privacy Protections) Act 2012 (Cth) (the Amendments) came into effect and brought about significant change to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act).
The Act regulates the collection, storage, use, and disclosure
of personal information. The Act will apply to independent schools
with an annual turnover of more than $3 million.
Schools need to be aware of the changes to the Act and ensure they
comply with the new requirements. Specifically, schools need to be
proactive in ensuring that they have and implement practices,
policies and procedures that comply with the Australian Privacy
Principles (APPs).
The key change brought about by the Amendments is that the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) are replaced by the APPs.
Other changes included:
- the Australian Information Commission (AIC) was given greater power to enforce privacy laws (including penalty orders of up to $1.7 million for corporations);
- amendments to credit reporting provisions;
- amendments to definitions; and
- allowing for new privacy and credit reporting codes to bind organisations.
A summary of the APPs is below.
APP 1: Open and Transparent Management of Personal Information |
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APP 2: Anonymity and Pseudonymity |
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APP 3: Collection of Solicited Personal Information |
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APP 4: Dealing with Unsolicited Personal Information |
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APP 5: Notification of the Collection of Personal Information |
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APP 6: Use or Disclosure of Personal Information |
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APP 7: Direct Marketing |
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APP 8: Cross-Border Disclosure of Personal Information |
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APP 9: Adoption, Use or Disclosure of Government Related Identifiers |
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APP 10: Quality of Personal Information |
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APP 11: Security of Personal Information |
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APP 12: Access to Personal Information |
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APP 13: Correction of Personal Information |
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Given these changes schools should, at an absolute minimum, ensure that:
- its policies comply with APP 1; and
- its practices and procedures that govern collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information comply with the Amendments.
Privacy is a difficult area of law to navigate. It is important that your school take steps to ensure compliance as failure to do so can have expensive consequences.
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