The Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner, Angelene Falk has revealed that privacy complaints and freedom of information requests involving the Australian Public Service (APS) increased in the past financial year.
She said this demonstrated that the community was placing greater value on information.
“The trends we are seeing reinforce the importance of our mission: To increase public trust and confidence in the protection of personal information and access to Government-held information,” Ms Falk said.
“Our annual report shows that organisations must act to meet the community’s expectations for information handling and management in a rapidly evolving environment.”
The report reveals privacy complaints rose by 12 per cent in 2018-19, up to 3,306.
Ms Falk said the majority of complaints were driven by privacy practices in six sectors: Finance (13 per cent of complaints), Australian Government (12 per cent), health service providers (10 per cent), telecommunications (seven per cent), retail (five per cent), and online services (five per cent).
The most common issues raised with her office were about use and disclosure, security, access, collection and the quality of personal information.
“Access to personal information features strongly in both privacy complaints and requests for Government-held information under our national freedom of information (FOI) laws,” Ms Falk said.
She said FOI requests grew by 13 per cent in 2018-19 to 38,879, with the majority (83 per cent) for documents containing personal information.
She said the Departments of Home Affairs, Human Services and Veterans’ Affairs received 69 per cent of all FOI requests last year.
The number of applications for Information Commissioner review of FOI decisions increased by 16 per cent in 2018-19, to 928, Ms Falk said.
Over the past four years the number of review applications had climbed by more than 80 per cent overall, she said.
The Commissioner’s 218-page annual report can be accessed at this PS News link.
