Freedom of Information: The Privacy Exemption

Fulvia Donati

1994 (Wol) 3 AAL

The paper explores the difficulties that arise in attempting to maintain an equilibrium between the opposing objectives that both FOI legislation and the Privacy Act 1988 share in the concept of personal information and an individual's ability to control its disclosure. The paper is divided into five parts. Part I discloses the interrelationship between the FOI and Privacy Acts, the consequences of their respective approaches toward information privacy and the future of information privacy protection. This outline serves as a complete summary of the current and proposed positions with respect to information privacy. Parts II and III analyse how the conclusions in Part I were reached. Specifically, they discuss the evolving concepts of personal affairs and personal information in the FOI and Privacy Acts respectively. Part IV discusses the concept of unreasonableness and its relationship with the public interest in disclosure, again with a view to examining the conclusion of Part I. Part V provides a concluding summary.