Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Privacy Commissioner amends codes of practice
The Privacy Commissioner has issued updated codes of practice to take into account a number of technical changes made by the Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA).
The amendments align the codes of practice with statutory amendments made to related legislation and come after a public submission process.
The recently passed HDCA amended the general principles of the Privacy Act by placing a limitation on the use and disclosure of personal information obtained from publicly available publications (see our media release on the HDCA for more information).
In order to align the codes of practice with the Privacy Act, the amendments reflect equivalent provisions about the use and disclosure of personal information in the Health Information Privacy Code, Telecommunications Information Privacy Code and the Credit Reporting Privacy Code.
A number of other small changes were also made in order to bring the codes up to date across the board - both in terms of amending references to out of date legislation and to bring them into line with current drafting practice in the office.
These amendments come into effect on 15 October 2015. An amendment has also been proposed for the Credit Reporting Privacy Code. The Privacy Commissioner is currently considering submissions on this amendment.
Under the Privacy Act, the Privacy Commissioner has the power to issue codes of practice to regulate certain types of personal information or the use of personal information by specific industries. The Codes modify the general privacy principles contained in the Privacy Act.
The amended codes are:
- Health Information Privacy Code 1994
- Superannuation Schemes Unique Identifier Code 1995
- Justice Sector Unique Identifier Code 1998
- Telecommunication Information Privacy Code 2003.
For more information, contact Charles Mabbett on 021 509 735.
For a copy of this media release, click here.