During the 2020 financial year, consumers made over 4,000 complaints about telecommunications providers related to a user's privacy.
The Privacy Act 1988 gives the Australian Information Commissioner the discretion to recognise external dispute resolution (EDR) schemes to handle privacy-related complaints. The guidelines give consumers the ability to make complaints about privacy issues with their telecommunications provider/s directly to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
The TIO, in a submission[1] [PDF] to consultation on the ongoing review of the Privacy Act[2], said during FY2020, it received 4,328 complaints involving privacy issues.
The wide-ranging review is considering the definition of personal information; whether existing exemptions for small businesses, political parties, and the storing of employee records to comply with the Act should remain; whether individuals should gain the power to drag privacy violators to court; and whether a privacy tort should be created.
The review was agreed to as part of the Commonwealth's response[3] to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry[4].
The Attorney-General's Department (AGD) posed a total of 67 questions as part of a discussion paper late October.
Also providing a submission[5] [PDF] was Telstra and its Telstra Health subsidiary, which has previously come under fire[6] for its troubled Australian cervical and bowel cancer screening registers project.
Telstra said it considers much of the Privacy Act to be fit for purpose, noting there is scope for developing or updating guidance in some areas. It said that in over 30 years since, the Privacy Act principles are still accurate and relevant, and that it remains in strong support of a principles-based, technology neutral regime.
"The principles-based approach to the development of the Privacy Act … has resulted in an Act that has