The Office of the IGEM is subject to the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act) which is designed to protect all forms of personal information from being lost, misused or inappropriately modified or disclosed.
The IP Act was enacted on 1 July 2009. It details the Information Privacy Principles, which govern the collection, storage, maintenance, use and disclosure of personal information by public sector agencies. Personal information is defined as any information that would allow an individual to be identified (for example - name, age or physical characteristics).
Personal information can be an opinion (true or false), or anything from which the individual’s identity could reasonably be ascertained.
Personal information may be stored on a variety of media such as paper, electronic database, photographic and video image, audiotape, digital form, and may also extend to body samples and biometric data.
Further information on the Information Privacy Principles is available from the Office of the Information Commissioner’s website.
