Protection of Privacy

See also information on Viewing Information on the Access Card; No Mega Database; Information Security; and Disclosure of Information in the Register to Law Enforcement Agencies.

The protection of privacy is of paramount importance to the access card program.

The Australian Government is proposing to safeguard card holders’ privacy in two main ways – through legislation and technical systems design. (See the information on Information Security for the latter.)

The protection of card holders’ privacy will be ensured by specific legislative safeguards specifying that:

• the Register of information provided by card holders when they are issued an access card cannot be combined with any other databases including those in Medicare Australia, Centrelink, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Child Support Agency;
• the access card number cannot become an identifier in its own right across government or the private sector, beyond the purposes described in the legislation; and
• the basic information on the Register, such as the card holder’s name, address and date of birth, will be stored separately from other Australian Government databases. No financial information, medical records or Tax File Numbers will be on the card, the chip or the Register. (See information on No Mega Database; and Viewing Information on the Access Card.)

Additionally, the Privacy Act 1988 will also apply to the access card, ensuring that:

• a person has a legally enforceable right to obtain access to their own records, whether on the Register or on the chip;
• a person can apply to have any inaccurate information about themselves corrected; and
• a person knows why personal information is being collected, if the information is required under any law, and to whom it will usually be given. (See information on Disclosure of Information in the Register to Law Enforcement Agencies.)

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