Privacy
8. Breach of Privacy Laws
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 14 Aug 2015
- Australia’s privacy laws now include civil penalties of up to AUD $1.7 million for companies and businesses or up to AUD $340,000 for individuals. These penalties took effect on 12 March 2014.
- A new civil penalty provision covers the situation where an act or practice of any relevant organisation is ‘serious interference’ with a person's privacy or the organisation ‘repeatedly’ does an act that breaches a person’s privacy.
- For a civil penalty to be applied the Information Commissioner must apply to the Federal Court of Australia or the Federal Circuit Court.
- In deciding on an appropriate penalty the courts may consider all relevant matters including any loss or damage resulting from the breaches.
- While the penalty is paid to the Commonwealth government the Information Commissioner may choose to award compensation to the complainant in relation to the same breaches of the law.
- An adverse decision can also mean that an organisation must refrain from doing a particular act or do something to make amends for the suffering caused to the complainant.
- For example an organisation may be disallowed from using specific types of personal information or may be required to change its internal systems. These requirements can impose significant costs on an organisation.
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