The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has released case notes 8
to 18 regarding personal information handled by credit providers,
insurance providers, employment agencies, a telecommunications service
provider, an internet service provider and federal government agencies.

The cases include:

OPC v Banking Institution [2005] PrivCmrA 11
: the Office conducted an own motion investigation (OMI) into the
automated disclosure, by a banking institution, of personal information
following the use of an incorrect facsimile number.

Following
the Office’s OMI, the banking institution stopped using a
facsimile-based service to receive customers’ personal information, and
introduced a secure on-line service and permanently decommissioned the
fax number. The other organisation involved also confirmed that it
blocked all faxes other than those from designated numbers.

Q v Credit Provider B [2005] PrivCmrA 16:
it was alleged that credit provider B had re-listed an overdue account
on an individual’s consumer credit information file after it had been
purged from their record.

Following the Commissioner’s
investigation credit provider B acknowledged that it had made an error
and that the listing should be removed. Credit provider B contacted the
credit reporting agency and instructed the credit reporting agency to
remove the listing immediately.

S v Credit Provider [2005] PrivCmrA 18:the complainant alleged that a commercial credit default was listed on
their consumer credit information file and an enquiry was listed
without a loan application.

Following an investigation by the
Office, both the enquiry and the payment default were removed from the
complainant’s credit file. The Commissioner sought from the credit
provider written evidence that its staff were provided with Privacy Act
training. The credit provider also provided a written apology to the
complainant.