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Principle 1 states that organisations must only collect personal information if it is for a lawful purpose connected with their functions or activities, and the information is necessary for that purpose. This principle is about data minimisation.
When asking people for their personal information, think carefully about why you are collecting it. Don’t collect people’s identifiers such as name, phone number, etc unless it’s necessary for your collection purpose. If the personal information you are asking for isn’t necessary to achieve something closely linked to your organisation’s activities, you shouldn’t collect it.
Further information
Case notes
Court decisions
Privacy Act 2020 reference
| Information privacy principle 1 | |||
| Purpose of collection of personal information | |||
| (1) |
Personal information must not be collected by an agency unless— (a)the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or an activity of the agency; and (b)the collection of the information is necessary for that purpose. |
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| (2) |
If the lawful purpose for which personal information about an individual is collected does not require the collection of an individual’s identifying information, the agency may not require the individual’s identifying information. |
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