Introduction to privacy

Who should attend

This is for new or recently-appointed privacy contact officers, FOI coordinators and officers of all levels who are responsible for handling personal information in the course of their duties and employees wanting a refresher course on agency obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.

Course outline

The Privacy Act sets out standards for the management of records of personal information in the Commonwealth public sector and some areas of the private sector. We will outline the legal consequences of the Act and privacy policy issues by:

• explaining the social trends and political events that created the Privacy Act and its 2014 reforms
• outlining the functional areas of the Privacy Act and its interrelationship with other Commonwealth legislation, including the FOI Act, and other information law
• an in-depth discussion of the Privacy Act's 'Australian Privacy Principles', which set standards for the handling of personal information by Australian Government agencies, and therefore must be implemented by officers in those agencies
• explaining the role and functions of the Privacy Commissioner, including his investigation and determination-making powers
• briefly examining the consumer credit reporting provisions in the Act as an introduction to key privacy concepts.

Exercises will be distributed for discussion in small groups. The exercises will describe fictitious situations raising issues relevant to the Privacy Act. The groups will be asked to identify the issues and consider how they might be managed.

Objectives

Participants will complete this module with a knowledge of the Privacy Act sufficient for them to be able to judge whether their handling of personal information is consistent with the Privacy Act, and to be aware of the issues that arise in the debate about information privacy and the use and disclosure of personal information.

Presenters

Our presenters are AGS lawyers who have a great depth of knowledge of the government environment and who practise extensively in the areas of information access and administrative law.