Introduction

The Queensland Government requires that personal information held by Queensland Government agencies be responsibly and transparently collected and managed in accordance with 11 Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) contained in Information Standard 42 (IS42) Information Privacy and associated guidelines. The primary intent of the Government's privacy policy is to protect the privacy of individuals' personal information in the delivery of government services and the conduct of government business. The Queensland Government has not enacted legislation to achieve this aim, rather the current scheme operates as an administrative policy provided by two Information Standards.

11 IPPs are set out in Information Standard 42 (IS 42) (external link)

Information Standard 42 Guidelines (external link)

Personal Information

"Personal information" for the purposes of IS42 (other than IPPs 6 and 7 which deal with access and amendment) is defined as "information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion." Examples of personal information include a person's name, address, date of birth or telephone number.

The information does not have to clearly identify a person, but needs only to provide sufficient information to lead to the identification of a person. IS 42 covers information held by any means whatsoever, including paper and electronic records, and may extend to body samples or biometric data.

Last reviewed: 17 July, 2009

Last updated: 22 July, 2009

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