Does the Telecommunications Act provide adequate privacy protection?

71.72 In DP 72, the ALRC considered whether the Telecommunications Act provides adequate and effective protection for the use, disclosure and storage of personal information. The ALRC noted that, while one stakeholder submitted that the Telecommunications Act operates effectively in tandem with the Privacy Act,[82] other stakeholders raised a range of issues related to telecommunications privacy regulation including: confusion about how the two Acts interact; regulatory gaps caused by the small business exemption; the impact of new privacy-invasive technologies; and the role and function of the various bodies with responsibility for telecommunications privacy. These issues are addressed below.

71.73 Stakeholders also noted the lack of clarity around the exceptions to the use and disclosure offences and suggested that there is inadequate protection of personal information held on public number directories. These issues are discussed in Chapter 72.

[82]Telstra, Submission PR 185, 9 February 2007.