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Principle 11 means that an organisation may generally only disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was originally collected or obtained. Sometimes other reasons for disclosure are allowed, such as disclosure for a directly related purpose, or if the person in question gives their permission for the disclosure.
For instance, an organisation may disclose personal information when:
Further information
Case notes
Court cases
Privacy Act 2020 reference
| Information privacy principle 11 | |||
| Limits on disclosure of personal information | |||
| (1) |
An agency that holds personal information must not disclose the information to any other agency or to any person unless the agency believes, on reasonable grounds,— |
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| (a) |
that the disclosure of the information is one of the purposes in connection with which the information was obtained or is directly related to the purposes in connection with which the information was obtained; or |
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| (b) |
that the disclosure is to the individual concerned; or |
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| (c) |
that the disclosure is authorised by the individual concerned; or |
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| (d) |
that the source of the information is a publicly available publication and that, in the circumstances of the case, it would not be unfair or unreasonable to disclose the information; or |
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| (e) |
that the disclosure of the information is necessary— |
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| (i) |
to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law by any public sector agency, including prejudice to the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, and punishment of offences; or |
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| (ii) |
for the enforcement of a law that imposes a pecuniary penalty; or |
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| (iii) |
for the protection of public revenue; or |
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| (iv) |
for the conduct of proceedings before any court or tribunal (being proceedings that have been commenced or are reasonably in contemplation); or |
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| (f) |
that the disclosure of the information is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to— |
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| (i) |
public health or public safety; or |
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| (ii) |
the life or health of the individual concerned or another individual; or |
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| (g) |
that the disclosure of the information is necessary to enable an intelligence and security agency to perform any of its functions; or |
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| (h) |
that the information— |
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| (i) |
is to be used in a form in which the individual concerned is not identified; or |
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| (ii) |
is to be used for statistical or research purposes and will not be published in a form that could reasonably be expected to identify the individual concerned; or |
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| (i) |
that the disclosure of the information is necessary to facilitate the sale or other disposition of a business as a going concern. |
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| (2) | This IPP is subject to IPP 12. | ||
