Getting personal - When is information, personal information?

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has significantly refined the test for determining whether a piece of information is "personal information". The decision in Telstra Corporation Limited v Privacy Commissioner in December 2015 shows that it's important to look at the purpose of the information when classifying it and confirms a two-step test to determine personal information, which is:

• whether the information is about an individual, and
• if so, whether the relevant individual can be reasonably identified.

Background

The case involved mobile network data, including metadata, relating to Mr Grubb's mobile phone. By the date of the hearing, the information in issue had been narrowed to "call network data retained by Telstra in relation to communications passing through its mobile networks".