Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

PRIVACY ACT 1988 - SECT 13

                   For the purposes of this Act, an act or practice is an interference with the privacy of an individual if the act or practice:

                     (a)  in the case of an act or practice engaged in by an agency (whether or not the agency is also a file number recipient, credit reporting agency or credit provider)--breaches an Information Privacy Principle in relation to personal information that relates to the individual; or

                     (b)  in the case of an act or practice engaged in by a file number recipient (whether or not the file number recipient is also an agency, organisation, credit reporting agency or credit provider)--breaches a guideline under section 17 in relation to tax file number information that relates to the individual; or

                   (ba)  constitutes a breach of Part 2 of the Data-matching Program (Assistance and Tax) Act 1990 or the guidelines in force under that Act; or

                   (bb)  constitutes a breach of the guidelines in force under section 135AA of the National Health Act 1953 ; or

                     (c)  involves an unauthorised requirement or request for disclosure of the tax file number of the individual; or

                     (d)  in the case of an act or practice engaged in by a credit reporting agency or credit provider (whether or not the credit reporting agency or credit provider is also an agency, organisation or file number recipient)--constitutes a credit reporting infringement in relation to personal information that relates to the individual.

Note 1:       A contravention of the Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010 , or of regulations made under that Act, is an interference with the privacy of an individual and is covered by this section (see subsection 29(1) of that Act).

Note 2:       A breach of a requirement of Division 5A of Part 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 by a credit reporting agency is an interference with the privacy of an individual and is covered by this section (see section 35L of that Act).

Note:          For the purposes of this section, each of the following is an interference with the privacy of an individual:

(a)    a contravention of the requirement to ensure that notice is given in accordance with section 157 of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (see subsection 157(4) of that Act);

(b)    a search of the Personal Property Securities Register that is unauthorised under subsection 173(3) or (4) of that Act (see subsection 173(2) of that Act).