Telecommunications
The privacy regime affects all telecommunications providers who collect, handle, retain or disclose personal information about their customers. As
personal information includes any information or opinion which can identify a person, almost all activities involving customer information are affected. But some activities - for example, passing on customer details to other telecommunications providers in some circumstances - are exempt.
So what does this mean in practice? We've put together a checklist to give you some guidance.
Existing codes can become approved privacy codes if they meet certain
criteria.
No ACIF Codes
have been approved for this purpose. This means the relevant sections of the industry
bound by these codes - carriers/carriage service providers - still need to comply
with the NPPs.
In addition to the Privacy Act, privacy in the telecommunications
sector is also regulated by the:
- Telecommunications Act 1997 (Telecommunications Act);
- Telecommunications (Interception) Act 1979; and
- Spam Act 2003.
The review of the private sector provisions of the Privacy Act 1988,
released by the Privacy Commissioner on 18 May 2005 made a number of comments
and recommendations about the telecommunications sector,
in particular the need to clarify the relationship between the Privacy Act
and the Telecommunications Act.
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