Our reference: FOIREQ21/00284
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Freedom of Information Request – Our reference: FOIREQ21/00284
Dear Concerned Citizen
I refer to your request for access to documents made under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (Cth) (the FOI Act) received on 12 November 2021.
Your request was for:
Please provide any advice provided to the Department of Home Affairs, the
Department of Health, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, or the
Digital Transformation Agency about the privacy impacts of contact tracing mobile
phone apps including but not limited to COVIDSafe.
On 10 December 2021 we contacted you to advised that the work involved in processing your
request in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of this
agency from its other operations due to its size and broad scope (s 24AA(1)(a)(i) FOI Act) and
entered into a request consultation period under s 24AB of the FOI Act.
On 13 December 2021 we agreed to process the following revised request:
"Any advice that the OAIC provided that compared the privacy protections of the
centralised model that COVIDSafe adopted with the privacy-preserving approach of the
decentralised model of Google and Apple’s Exposure Notifications"
On 13 December 2021 we advised you that as your request covers documents containing
personal information of third-party individuals, the timeframe for processing your request was
extended until 10 January 2022.
Decision
I am an officer authorised under s 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to FOI
requests.
After undertaking relevant searches, I have identified 7 documents within the scope of your
request.
Access to edited copies with irrelevant matter deleted (s 22)
T +61 2 9284
9749
GPO Box 5218
1300 363 992
F +61 2 9284
Sydney NSW
www.oaic.gov.au
xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
9666
2001
ABN 85 249 230 937
The documents within the scope of your request contain material which is irrelevant to your
request. The irrelevant material relates to information about the COVIDSafe app more
generally that does not fall within the specific scope of your request.
However, I have found it reasonably practicable to prepare an edited copy of the documents
with the irrelevant matter removed.
I have decided to grant you access these documents in full. The documents and schedule of
documents are enclosed.
Please see the following page for information about your review rights and information about
the OAIC’s disclosure log.
Emily Elliott
Senior Lawyer
10 January 2022
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If you disagree with my decision
Internal review
You have the right to apply for an internal review of my decision under Part VI of the FOI Act.
An internal review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by an officer of the OAIC who was
not involved in or consulted in the making of my decision. If you wish to apply for an internal
review, you must do so in writing within 30 days. There is no application fee for internal
review.
If you wish to apply for an internal review, please mark your application for the attention of
the FOI Coordinator and state the grounds on which you consider that my decision should be
reviewed.
Applications for internal reviews can be submitted to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Alternatively, you can submit your application by em
ail to xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on
02 9284 9666.
Further Review
You have the right to seek review of this decision by the Information Commissioner and the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
You may apply to the Information Commissioner for a review of my decision (IC review). If you
wish to apply for IC review, you must do so in writing within 60 days. Your application must
provide an address (which can be an email address or fax number) that we can send notices to,
and include a copy of this letter. A request for IC review can be made in relation to my
decision, or an internal review decision.
It is the Information Commissioner’s view that it will usually not be in the interests of the
administration of the FOI Act to conduct an IC review of a decision, or an internal review
decision, made by the agency that the Information Commissioner heads: the OAIC. For this
reason, if you make an application for IC review of my decision, and the Information
Commissioner is satisfied that in the interests of administration of the Act it is desirable that
my decision be considered by the AAT, the Information Commissioner may decide not to
undertake an IC review.
Section 57A of the FOI Act provides that, before you can apply to the AAT for review of an FOI
decision, you must first have applied for IC review.
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Applications for IC review can be submitted online at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/smartforms/servlet/SmartForm.html?formCode=ICR_10
Alternatively, you can submit your application to:
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Or by email to
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx, or by fax on 02 9284 9666.
Accessing your information
If you would like access to the information that we hold about you, please
contact
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx. More information is available on the
Access our information page
on our website.
Disclosure log
Section 11C of the FOI Act requires agencies to publish online documents released to members
of the public within 10 days of release, except if they contain personal or business information
that would be unreasonable to publish. As the documents released to you do not contain
personal or business information they will be published on the disclosure log within 10 days of
their release.
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