Introduction

23.1 The privacy principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) regulating the collection of personal information provide that, in certain circumstances, agencies and organisations are required to ensure that an individual whose personal information has been, or is to be, collected, is aware of a number of specific matters. For convenience, the ALRC, at times, refers to these requirements as ones relating to ‘notification’. The relevant principles do not refer expressly to an obligation to notify. One way of ensuring awareness, however, is through notification.

23.2 This chapter considers whether the requirements relating to notification should be set out in a separate privacy principle. It also considers the nature and timing of the obligation to notify, and the circumstances in which such an obligation should arise. Finally, the chapter addresses the specific matters that should be brought to an individual’s attention when his or her personal information is collected.