We wish to thank Phil Rehn who passed on this information from Federal Privacy Commissioner's Office. Please feel free to have a read through it:

SPAM and Your Privacy

Unsolicited commercial emails (UCEs) or spam can be a real problem, obviously, and many people regard it as a serious privacy issue. However, most such emails are not covered by the Privacy Act as it now, stands. The Privacy Act is essentially designed to regulate the use of personal information about particular identifiable individuals, rather than the scattergun approach that spammers use.

One issue is that the Privacy Act regulates the collection, use and disclosure of 'personal information' which the Act defines as information from which the identity of a specific person can be readily determined. As a result, many email addresses do not constitute personal information.

A second issue is that the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) in the Privacy Act, which are the privacy principles that apply in the Australian private sector, do not prevent a business from using personal information for the purpose for which it collected the information. So if a business collects personal information for marketing purposes and uses it for those purposes, this is consistent with the NPPs.

A third issue is that many senders of UCEs are based outside Australia so that they fall outside the jurisdiction of the Australian Federal Privacy Act.

Finally, not all businesses in Australia are covered by the NPPs. There is an exemption for many small businesses. Here is a link to an information sheet issued by the Federal Privacy Commissioner on the coverage of the NPPs:

http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/IS12_01.html .

The net effect is that the Commissioner's Office can take action only in relation to UCEs in a limited number of cases. However, if the sender of the UCE is an Australian organisation subject to the NPPs it will have legal obligations under those principles. For example, NPP 1.2 requires organisations to collect personal information only by lawful and fair means. And NPP 1.5 requires an organisation that has collected personal information about an individual from a third party to take reasonable steps to let the individual know about the collection. NPP 2.1 says that if an organisation collects personal information for one purpose it can only use or disclose it for a new purpose in limited circumstances. In particular, NPP 2.1(a) says that the organisation can use or disclose the information for a new purpose if (i) the new purpose is related to the original purpose and (ii) use for the new purpose is within the 'reasonable expectations' of the individual. If you've done business with an organisation but you ask it not to contact you with marketing offers, the view of the Office is that you have a reasonable expectation that it will not send you any more offers.

For more information here is a further link: http://www.privacy.gov.au/business/index.html#3.2 .

If you received spam from an Australian organisation and you think the organisation may be acting outside the NPPs, you can complain to the organisation and, if you do not get a satisfactory response, complain to the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner. Be careful if you've been spammed by a company you've never heard of, especially if it appears to be based overseas. In that case, it may be best just to ignore it: if you do reply, the spammer knows that yours is a genuine email address and may send you even more spam.

There are other things you can do, though.

There are a number of software tools that can filter out spam. Using one of these should certainly help. Here are some links to anti-spam websites where you can find out more:

http://www.spews.org

http://mail-abuse.org

http://www.orbz.org

http://www.ordb.org

http://www.openrbl.org

http://www.dorkslayers.com

http://www.spamhaus.org

http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso

http://www.caube.org.au

http://combat.uxn.com

http://spamcop.ne

The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner does not endorse these sites, but they are a place to start.

You may also wish to visit the web site of the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) to review the extent of the "spam" problem and the adequacy of current measures to counter it. There is information there about a range of technology issues

Telephone

Telstra and most other telecommunications companies offer the client / subscriber the opportunity to not to have their name / address and telephone number in the phone book. You may have to pay and extra for that service. Telstra charges an extra fee for a range of reductions in a telephone book listing. You may have just your name and address listed, just your name or no listing at all. The fee is charged for the maintenance of the directory. There is a telephone directory of mobile numbers and you may wish to discuss with your provider whether or not they charge a fee to have an unlisted number. It appears that providers such as Virgin do not list client's numbers. This is not an endorsement of Virgin but simply advice as to which providers do what.

Direct Marketing

As well, the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) has mail, telephone, fax and email preference schemes so that people who do not wish to be contacted can have their name and contact details removed from lists used by ADMA members. If you wish to have your details added to the "OFF" list for these preference schemes so that you are no longer contacted by ADMA members you can call ADMA's toll free message bank system on 1800 646 664 or write to them at:

PO Box 464
KINGS CROSS NSW 2011

This should reduce the number of direct marketing approaches you receive but, since not all direct marketers are members of ADMA, it will not stop them all.