ADT decision: no privacy breach when acting on third party information

An ADT decision (OA v Department of Housing(No.2) (2006) NSWADT 94 addresses several issues not previously determined in a case decided last year. The issues concern the handling of information from third parties which led to an investigation about whether a tenant of the Department had been dishonest and attempted to defraud.

The Tribunal confirmed that unsolicited information from a third party is not subject to the collection principles; and that in the circumstances of this case it was appropriate that the matters raised were brought to the attention of the person complained about. The Tribunal rejected arguments that the data quality principle in Section 16 of the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act required the Department to ensure the information was accurate before it was used in this way.