s 36(4) requests
Dear Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
Under s 17 of the FOI Act I request the OAIC to compile from its FOI & Privacy information system, entitled RESOLVE, the following information for the 2018 calendar year to date:
a) the number of explicit s 36(4) requests (given the OAIC requires applications to be explicit) for assistance made to the OAIC, for assistance in formulating privacy complaints;
b) the number of times the OAIC refused to provide assistance under s 36(4);
c) the number of times the OAIC has told s 36(4) requesters that they would have to lodge a privacy complaint before assistance would be provided;
d) if no explicit refusal, the number of times the applicant indicated to the OAIC that it had satisfactorily resolved the s 36(4) request;
e) the number of times the OAIC had advised s 36(4) requesters it would respond by a certain date, but then subsequently failed to do so; and
f) if the s 36(4) requester clearly requested the assistance to be provided by via email or telephone, how many times the OAIC did not provide that assistance via the communication channel requested.
To assist the OAIC, s 36(4) of the Privacy Act is reproduced below:
s 36(4) It is the duty of:
(a) members of the staff of the Commissioner; and
(b) members of the staff of the Ombudsman who have had powers of theCommissioner delegated to them under section 99;
to provide appropriate assistance to a person who wishes to make a complaint and requires assistance to formulate the complaint.
The Privacy Act does not separately define ‘formulate’ therefore it common meaning is to be taken as part of the legislation. The Macquarie Dictionary defines ‘formulate’ as:
“to express in precise form; state definitely or systematically”
The common meaning of the phrase ‘requires assistance to formulate’ predicates that the assistance is to be provided prior to the privacy complaint being lodged with the Commission, not during or after.
I seek this information to better understand why, despite seeking s 36(4) assistance on two seperate occasions from the OAIC, on both occasions the OAIC has either refused to provide assistance until a privacy complaint is lodged, or has else repeatedly ignored deadlines it set itself for response and continued to require a person with a hearing disability to communicate via the phone (despite being in a significantly different time zone).
I would like to identify if this is a systemic practice by the OAIC or just a targeted abuse by the OAIC, in breach of s 36(4).
Yours faithfully,
Mr Knowles
Our Reference: MR18/00135
Dear Mr Knowles,
I refer to your application made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (the FOI Act) received by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) on 19 September 2018.
Freedom of Information request - Scope of your request
In your FOI application you request the OAIC, under s 17 of the FOI Act,
to compile a document with the following information for the 2018 calendar
year to date:
a) the number of explicit s 36(4) requests (given the OAIC requires
applications to be explicit) for assistance made to the OAIC, for
assistance in formulating privacy complaints;
b) the number of times the OAIC refused to provide assistance under s
36(4);
c) the number of times the OAIC has told s 36(4) requesters that they
would have to lodge a privacy complaint before assistance would be
provided;
d) if no explicit refusal, the number of times the applicant indicated to
the OAIC that it had satisfactorily resolved the s 36(4) request;
e) the number of times the OAIC had advised s 36(4) requesters it would
respond by a certain date, but then subsequently failed to do so; and
f) if the s 36(4) requester clearly requested the assistance to be
provided by via email or telephone, how many times the OAIC did not
provide that assistance via the communication channel requested.
All documents in relation to you and your matters with the OAIC dated from
16 May 2018 onwards.
Timeframes for dealing with your FOI request
Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.
As we received your request on 19 September 2018, we must process your
request by 19 October 2018. However, if we are required to consult with
third parties, we must finalise your request by 19 November 2018. Of
course, we will endeavour to provide you with our decision as soon as
possible.
If you would like to discuss this matter please contact me on my contact
details set out below.
Regards
[1]O A I C logo Amanda Nowland | Senior
Lawyer
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9646 |
[2][email address]
[6]Subscribe [7]Subscribe to
[3]Facebook | [4]LinkedIn | [5]Twitter | icon OAICnet
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References
Visible links
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2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
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7. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...
Attn Amanda Nowland,
In your acknowledgement of 27 September, you included this paragraph:
All documents in relation to you and your matters with the OAIC dated from
16 May 2018 onwards.
That paragraph did not come from the FOI scope or my Right to Know FOI application, but is on the face of it, an opinion made by you, purporting to be about my personal information.
As I gave no implied nor explicit consent for the disclosure of my personal information, whether fact or an opinion about it, nor could I reasonably be said to have consented to any such collection for the purposes of publishing on a public website, irrelevant to a statistical collection FOI, it appears you have interfered with my privacy under APP 6, publishing to the world at large, opinions about my personal information that are explicitly prohibited on Right to Know (“You cannot make requests for personal information using this site. If you do you will be posting your information publicly on the internet for anyone to see” as it states on Right to Know).
Does the OAIC know rountinely breach privacy law itself now, in such a high handed and malicious manner as you have done here?
I will follow this matter up, as it falls into the same sort of abuse as the Freelancer Determination covered.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Knowles
Our reference: FOIREQ18/00135
Dear Mr Knowles
I refer to your application made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) (FOI Act) received by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC) on 19 September 2018.
Freedom of Information request - Scope of your request
In your FOI application you seek the following:
Under s 17 of the FOI Act I request the OAIC to compile from its FOI &
Privacy information system, entitled RESOLVE, the following information
for the 2018 calendar year to date:
a) the number of explicit s 36(4) requests (given the OAIC requires
applications to be explicit) for assistance made to the OAIC, for
assistance in formulating privacy complaints;
b) the number of times the OAIC refused to provide assistance under s
36(4);
c) the number of times the OAIC has told s 36(4) requesters that they
would have to lodge a privacy complaint before assistance would be
provided;
d) if no explicit refusal, the number of times the applicant indicated to
the OAIC that it had satisfactorily resolved the s 36(4) request;
e) the number of times the OAIC had advised s 36(4) requesters it would
respond by a certain date, but then subsequently failed to do so; and
f) if the s 36(4) requester clearly requested the assistance to be
provided by via email or telephone, how many times the OAIC did not
provide that assistance via the communication channel requested.
Timeframes for dealing with your FOI request
Section 15 of the FOI Act requires this office to process your request no
later than 30 days after the day we receive it. However, section 15(6) of
the FOI Act allows us a further 30 days in situations where we need to
consult with third parties about certain information, such as business
documents or documents affecting their personal privacy.
As we received your request on 19 September 2018, we must process your
request by 19 October 2018. However, if we are required to consult with
third parties, we must finalise your request by 19 November 2018. Of
course, we will endeavour to provide you with our decision as soon as
possible.
If you would like to discuss this matter please contact me on my contact
details set out below.
Regards
[1]O A I C logo Cate Cloudsdale | Senior Lawyer
Legal Services
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 | oaic.gov.au
+61 2 8231 4249 | [2][email address]
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WARNING: The information contained in this email may be confidential.
If you are not the intended recipient, any use or copying of any part
of this information is unauthorised. If you have received this email in
error, we apologise for any inconvenience and request that you notify
the sender immediately and delete all copies of this email, together
with any attachments.
***********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Knowles,
Please see attached the decision for your Freedom of Information request.
Regards,
Amanda
[1]O A I C logo Amanda Nowland | Senior
Lawyer
Legal Services
Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 |
oaic.gov.au
+61 2 9284 9646 |
[2][email address]
[6]Subscribe [7]Subscribe to
[3]Facebook | [4]LinkedIn | [5]Twitter | icon OAICnet
newsletter
***********************************************************************
WARNING: The information contained in this email may be confidential.
If you are not the intended recipient, any use or copying of any part
of this information is unauthorised. If you have received this email in
error, we apologise for any inconvenience and request that you notify
the sender immediately and delete all copies of this email, together
with any attachments.
***********************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. https://www.oaic.gov.au/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.facebook.com/OAICgov
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-...
5. https://twitter.com/OAICgov
7. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speech...
Mr Knowles (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
Unsurprisingly, the OAIC was totally opaque and unaccountable.