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ARTICLE · 11 FEBRUARY 2016

It's all about me! AAT emphasises classification approach to personal information decisions

Clayton Utz
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Metadata is not personal information, and information is not about an individual just because his identity is revealed.

AustraliaPrivacy
Cain Sibley
Cain Sibley
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Key Points:

Metadata is not personal information - and information is not necessarily about an individual simply because a person's identity can be ascertained from it.

"Mobile network data" retained by Telstra was not "personal information" for the purposes of the Privacy Act, according to a decision by Deputy President Forgie in Telstra Corporation Limited and Privacy Commissioner [2015] AATA 991 which overturns a previous determination by the Privacy Commissioner in Ben Grubb and Telstra Corporation Limited [2015] AICmr 35.

The decision emphasises that information will need to be about an individual before it can be classified as "personal information".

Background to the Grubb metadata decision

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