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Privacy - Summary of Report

NCJ Number
93622
Date Published
1983
Length
57 pages
Annotation
This summary report of the Australian Law Reform Commission examines the adequacy of current Australian law regarding privacy protections and recommends ways to improve such protections.
Abstract
In Australia, more needs to be done to ensure the effective protection of privacy than is possible through reliance upon existing fragmented mechanisms concerned primarily with other aims and policies and only incidentally with privacy. The framework of existing laws, practices, and procedures limiting use, safeguarding security, and encouraging individual participation in the handling of personal information should be supplemented, not only to secure better protection of privacy interests threatened by misuse, inadequate security, and denial of access, but also to secure a suitable threshold level of privacy protection in areas which are presently unregulated. Standards should be adopted which will require recordkeepers to specify the purposes for which their data might be used and to be open about developments, practices, and policies with respect to the personal information which they hold. The recommendation for a basic response to the privacy threat is that a statutory guardian, in the form of an administrative body with the specific function of advocating privacy interests, be established. Additional legislation to protect some aspects of privacy interests presently under threat is also advised.