Vice-Chancellor Macquarie University v FM

[2005] NSWCA 192

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Privacy Law
2. › Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW)
3. › Information Protection Principles
4. › Scope of 'personal information'
5. › Whether information held in mind of employee of public sector agency is 'personal information' to which Act applies
6. › Whether agency 'holds' such information
7. › Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW), ss 4, 12-19
1. Statutory Interpretation
2. › Interpretation of definitions in statute
3. › Contextual construction
4. › Meaning of defined terms informed by legislative scheme as a whole
5. › Whether provisions using same phrase bear same meaning throughout Act
6. › Relevance of definitions of same words in unrelated Acts
1. Words and Phrases
2. › 'personal information'
3. › 'held'
4. › 'collected'
5. › 'possession or control'
6. › Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW), s 4

Quick Take

Information held only in the minds of employees of a public sector agency is not 'personal information' that is 'held' by the agency for the purposes of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (NSW). The non-disclosure obligations in s 18 do not apply to oral communications of unrecorded observations or recollections by employees. The words 'possession or control' in s 4(4) connote some form of physical object upon or within which information is recorded and do not extend to the contents of a person's mind.