New draft guidelines will mean that Australian businesses must seek
consent in order to gather, use and disclose personal information
about consumers, as is already required under the European data
protection regime.
Australia already has a Privacy Act from 1998 on which the
guidelines are based. Significant parts of the Act do not come into
force until 21st December 2001 and the guidelines, when finalised,
will explain how the Privacy Commissioner intends to apply the
Act’s provisions.
Consultations on the draft guidelines end 6th July 2001 and the
final National Privacy Principles Guidelines will be published
early October 2001.
More information can be found at the Australian Privacy
Commissioner’s web site, www.privacy.gov.au
