A complaint was made that a debt collection agency contacted the complainant at work by telephone and then by facsimile thereby disclosing personal information. The facsimile stated :

"Unpaid Accounts. Please contact us urgently."

The facsimile was in fact sent to the head office of the complainant's employer, rather than the branch location at which she worked.

Following discussions with this Office, the agency agreed to revise its practices in the use of facsimile messages and it agreed to implement a new policy in the following terms

"No facsimiles will be forwarded to debtors at their place of employment unless specifically requested to by that debtor".

The complainant was happy to accept this as settlement of the complaint and I therefore discontinued my investigation.

• Disclosure - Information Privacy Principles 11, Privacy Act 1993-
• Disclosure of personal information - Debt collection agency - Fax message sent to debtor's workplace - Information privacy principle 11-