Your rights
Read about how we settle complaints.
Step one: complain directly to the agency you think breached your privacy
If you haven’t been able to work out your privacy issue with the agency you feel breached your privacy, then you can complain to us.
Step two: gather your documents and fill in our online assessment
To complain to us you need to complete this online self-assessment. It steps you through whether your complaint is one we’re able to investigate and/or if there is any action you need to take first.
If you meet the criteria for complaining, then you will need to provide us with some information. Get that ready before you start the form because you can’t save your application and return to it later.
You will need to provide us with:
- Your signed representative authority form (PDF or Word) if you are using (or are) a representative other than a lawyer.
- A copy of all correspondence (letters, emails) you have already had with the agency about your privacy concern.
- Evidence of the issue you’re complaining about.
- Any evidence of how the agency's actions have affected you.
- What you would like the agency to do to resolve your complaint
Step three: we’ll decide whether we need to investigate
We will use our 30-page decision guide to help work out whether to investigate. You don’t need to read this to have your concerns heard and understood. If we decide to investigate, we may first talk to you and sometimes to the agency you’re complaining about.
Step four: we’ll investigate, or we won’t
We review all the complaints we receive. If we can resolve them quickly, we will.
If your case requires a complicated or comprehensive investigation, the wait time for an investigator is up to six months owing to high volumes. Our investigators are experts in the Privacy Act, and want to help you settle your complaint.
Sometimes there’s reasons we won’t or can’t investigate. In this event you’ll still have you a chance to comment. You will not be ignored.
We’ll help you access our services
We will try to accommodate any accessibility needs you have when contacting us in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1993.
We know that privacy breaches can be stressful but don’t threaten us
We take the safety and wellbeing of our staff seriously. Violence or threats of violence will not be tolerated. We may give you a warning, limit access to our services, report a matter of concern to the Police, or issue a trespass notice.
If we need to report your threats of violence or offensive communications to Police or another complaints body, we might need to disclose your personal information. This will be done as it is necessary for the safety and wellbeing of our staff.
Read our policy for responding to threats to staff safety.
What we can’t do
Our job is to decide if there’s been a breach of the Privacy Act. Then we help both groups come to a decision about how this can be solved. We can't issue fines, make anyone accept a settlement offer, force organisations to pay you money, or force anyone to accept our findings.
One person complaining on behalf of many
The Privacy Act lets one person make a complaint on behalf of many (as a class) when lots of people are affected by the same privacy breach. When this happens, the Privacy Commissioner can begin an investigation themselves.
Other places you can get help
We can only investigate the parts of your complaint that are about privacy. Read our list of other complaint options to find the right people to help you.
