Privacy Commissioner

The Privacy Commissioner has an independent Office and is responsible for the promotion and protection of individual privacy. The Privacy Act contains 12 information privacy principles which deal with how personal information and data is collected, held, used or disclosed to other people. The Privacy Act applies to all people and organisations both government and private. The Privacy Act does not override other laws (for example laws relating to crime or preventing crime).

The Privacy Commissioner checks on the sharing of data (information matching) between government agencies, e.g. sharing of agency data to identify welfare fraud.

The Office provides an extensive education programme to help people understand the Privacy Act. It also manages a complaints process.