What is an agency?

The term 'agency' is used in the Privacy Act to mean a person, business, or organisation that collects and holds personal information about other people. An individual acting in their personal or domestic capacity is not an agency.

An agency can be a public sector body, such as a government department or a Minister, or a private sector body, such as a company, law firm, business, club, charity, or other non-profit organisation.

But the Privacy Act does not apply to:

• courts and tribunals (in relation to their judicial functions); 
• news media (in relation to their news gathering and news reporting functions); 
• Members of Parliament (when acting in an official capacity), excluding Ministers of the Crown.

See section 4(external link), section 8(external link), and section 9(external link) of the Privacy Act 2020 for the full definition of agency and a list of exceptions. 

Updated December 2020