Soren's story
Soren contacted our office about Ahpra’s handling of information he provided in response to a public document
Soren contacted our office about Ahpra’s handling of information he provided in response to a public document. Soren believed he was sharing this information confidentially, but Ahpra published the information. Soren contacted Ahpra and requested this information be removed, but it was not fully removed. He contacted Ahpra again and reiterated his wish for this information to be removed completely. Ahpra apologised to Soren and removed the content altogether.
Soren told us he believed Ahpra had breached his privacy and had not taken adequate steps to remove the information when he requested.
What we found
We made preliminary inquiries with Ahpra regarding Soren’s concerns. We found that Ahpra did not breach Soren’s privacy when it originally published the information he provided. The public document had clear wording stating that the information received in relation to it would be published. The document also requested those providing information to inform Ahpra if information should be treated as confidential. We found that Soren had given implied consent to publication when he did not request that it be kept confidential.
We did find, however, that Ahpra breached Soren’s privacy when it did not take adequate steps to ensure the information he provided was removed in its entirety when he requested this. This meant that Soren had withdrawn his consent, and Ahpra could no longer rely on his past implied consent for future disclosure of the information he provided.
Complaint outcome
Ahpra acknowledged that this was an oversight and apologised that Soren’s request had not been actioned when first requested. Ahpra told our office that this was an isolated incident, and Soren’s experience and feedback were brought to the attention of senior management.
Although we found that Ahpra breached Soren’s privacy, we decided not to investigate Soren’s complaint because we were satisfied that Ahpra had adequately dealt with the complaint by removing the information Soren had provided in its entirety and providing him with an apology.
