What is an individual's right to privacy?

The right to privacy in Australia is the individual's interest in controlling personal information, communications, and aspects of their private life. Australia does not have a general constitutional right to privacy, but privacy is protected through specific federal and state laws, common law actions for particular kinds of privacy interference, and Australia's international human rights commitments.

The Privacy Act 1988 is the main federal law. It applies to most federal government agencies and to private organisations with annual turnover above 3 million dollars. The 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) require regulated entities to handle personal information openly and transparently, to collect only information that is reasonably necessary, to use information only for the purposes for which it was collected, to keep it secure, to give individuals access to and the ability to correct their own information, and to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner of significant data breaches.

State laws supplement the federal regime. The Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW), the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld), and equivalents in other states regulate state government agencies. Health records have specific protection under the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and equivalent state laws. Surveillance devices and listening devices are regulated by state criminal laws against unauthorised recording.

Several modern issues have stretched the privacy framework. Major data breaches at Optus (2022), Medibank (2022), and Latitude Financial (2023) exposed millions of Australians' personal information and prompted calls for stronger privacy laws. The federal government's Privacy Act Review, completed in 2023, recommended substantial reform including a new statutory right of action for serious privacy invasions, expanded regulation of small businesses, and stronger penalties. Reforms are progressing through Parliament. The Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 regulate law-enforcement and intelligence access to private communications, with judicial warrants required for most intrusive collection.