Email is a great tool for communicating with students, colleagues, and other organisations, but it is important to ensure that privacy risks are managed.

The best way to manage privacy risks is to ensure emails only contain information that is necessary and relevant, and that they are only sent to staff who require the information to perform their duties.

Please take care when populating recipient details.

Staff should only use their ANU email account for conducting ANU business activities. Use of ANU staff email accounts is governed by ANU policy and procedure, and all staff should be familiar with the Email and auxiliary accounts procedure.

Please remember, ANU is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982, and emails sent and received via ANU email accounts are searchable records.

A range of resources are available to staff to support good privacy practice, including:

Online training module
All staff are required to complete the ANU Privacy Awareness Training module in Pulse. This will provide staff with an overview of privacy legislation and how privacy can be implemented into their work. 

Online advisory pages
The ANU Privacy site contains a range of information about privacy including frequently asked questions, event management information, and details about Privacy Impact Assessments including templates and examples of best practice. 

Privacy SharePoint
An ANU Privacy site is available on SharePoint with detailed privacy advice, updates on privacy legislation, and new decisions from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). 

Training on record keeping, FOI and privacy
This session introduces ANU staff to the University’s data governance, principles of good records management, Freedom of Information (FOI), and privacy. Attendees will gain an understanding how these principles are relevant to their work, and be introduced to the Electronic Records Management System (ERMS). ANU staff should enrol via the training catalogue in HORUS.

Tailored privacy workshops
The ANU Privacy Office is available to provide tailored workshops to Schools, Colleges and business units on specific privacy practices or issues. This can be helpful when implementing a new process or system that will handle personal information.

To arrange a tailored workshop, please contact the Senior Privacy Officer at privacy@anu.edu.au.

If there is a topic you would like more information on, please do not hesitate to contact the Privacy Office.

The Attorney-General’s Department has been undertaking a broad review of the Privacy Act 1988. The outcome of this review will lead to changes to the Act that will directly affect the University.

In February 2023, the Privacy Act Review Report 2023 was released. This included a number of proposed changes, including how personal information is handled for research.

Following consultation with key business units and governance committees, ANU submitted a response broadly supporting the recommendations of the report. In particular, ANU made comment on changes to research, implementation of the new act and the complexity of the regulatory environment.