Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) the Australian Information Commissioner may issue guidelines regarding acts or practices that may have an impact on the privacy of individuals. Further, it is a responsibility of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to promote understanding and awareness of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
Below you will find the Australian Privacy Principles guidelines (APP guidelines) issued by the Information Commissioner. These APP guidelines may be updated from time to time, including to take account of changes in the Privacy Act or other legislation, determinations made under s 52 of the Privacy Act and relevant tribunal and court decisions.
The APPs and the APP guidelines apply from 12 March 2014 and cover both Australian Government agencies and organisations covered by the Privacy Act. These new principles replace the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) and the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs).
The Territory Privacy Principles in the Information Privacy Act 2014 (ACT) apply to ACT public sector agencies. As these are substantially similar to the APPs, the APP guidelines may be usefully referred to, but should be read with reference to the text of the TPPs.
The APP guidelines outline the mandatory requirements of the APPs, how the OAIC will interpret the APPs, and matters we may take into account when exercising functions and powers under the Privacy Act.
Other information about the changes is available on the Privacy law reform page.
Below is the complete set of APP guidelines (a PDF version), followed by a table of links to archived versions which includes a summary of significant changes between each version, followed by the current versions of each APP guidelines chapter in HTML and PDF versions.
Combined set of APP guidelines (as at 1 March 2014)2.51 MB
