This page is to help Privacy Contact Officers understand their responsibilities under the PPIP Act and the HRIP Act. For more information about other laws, see NSW Privacy Laws.

• Privacy Contact Officers - information about and for PCOs
• Privacy laws that regulate government:
  • Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act
  • Health Records and Information Privacy Act
• Implementation
  • Privacy Managment Plans
  • How to prepare for the HRIP Act
  • Assessing privacy impacts of new projects
• Frequently asked questions (for the public sector)
• Privacy Training Program
• Community language privacy notice

• Privacy Management Plans
  A privacy management plan is intended to be a strategic planning document in which each public sector agency describes the measures it proposes to take to ensure that it complies with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act. More>>

• How to prepare for the HRIP Act
  We have developed a guide for government on how to prepare for the HRIP Act.

• Assessing privacy impacts of new projects
  Before government agencies can assess the privacy impacts of new projects or proposed new legislation, they first need to be able to quickly identify whether the proposal is likely to raise any privacy issues. This task can be daunting for staff who are not privacy specialists. The following checklist (PDF format) is designed to be a simple document that all staff can use to see the things that should trigger their consultation with their Privacy Contact Officer (or with Privacy NSW) early in the project or legislation's design stage.

>> Checklist - Identifying privacy issues early

Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a different process. PIA involves a comprehensive analysis of the likely impacts of a project upon the privacy rights of individuals. It is a little but like an environmental impact assessment done for a new development proposal. The assessment can ensure that any problems are identified - and resolved - at the design stage. PIA is not only about ensuring compliance with the relevant information privacy laws (such as the PPIP Act and the HRIP Act), but can also help to minimise the risk of reputational damage by identifying broader privacy concerns (such as bodily or territorial privacy impacts).

Privacy NSW hopes to develop a guide to conducting PIAs in the near future. Similar jurisdictions to NSW have or are currently developing their own guides; if you would like to find out more about these please contact Privacy NSW.