Who hasn't heard of the Privacy Act?
It's another of those statutory interventions in life as we used to know it. Yet it's not all that it may seem or might be expected to be. Most often we hear it quoted by insurers, banks and a host of councils and public offices, as the reason that they will not answer a simple question.
If I ring a friend at his place of work, to be told he's not there today, and I ask his cell phone number, they may not tell me; but they will give me his email. Really what's the difference? In my business I have money for a client and instructions to repay a finance company, I even have signed authority, but they won't give me the account.
We hear horror stories of parents whose child has a problem at school, and they cannot be told because of privacy; but they'll certainly be told and expected to do something about it if the child is a problem. It's a curious confusion of privacy, political correctness and human rights and what have they in common? All are lame excuses for failure of responsibility and public duty.
So what is the Privacy Act and why? It was a political response to the fears of human rights activists and advocates, as more private information was loaded on public registers and data bases, and as we came to be known rather by numbers than by name. Incidentally we now have to identify ourselves by quoting mother's maiden name and date of birth (and how secure is that?) for access to our own information.
