Privacy Act and historical societies

Vicki Court

Below are edited versions of two recent enquiries about privacy issues affecting family history information held in collections. Case 1. - The society currently has a collection of family histories, mainly local families. The information has been obtained from public records, press cuttings and verbal information supplied by family members. Much of this information dates back to the 1800s and follows through to recent times. There is data on current family members who reside in the district; this has been obtained from the families themselves who were aware it would be included in our archives. The information relates to marriages and issue from these. On occasions it may be accompanied by a press cutting or photograph. Recently a member became concerned about our liability relating to Privacy Laws and suggested that we should not have this information in our possession. Currently we do not have any set rules relating to access to these files. At any given time any of our members could be asked to access a file in response to an enquiry. I personally have never been asked by a member of the public for information relating to any living person, like most history societies, it is most often the departed souls who attract the most interest. Case 2. - An older resident is willing to share her memories of living in the area and has also offered to let the society have a copy of her early family photos. I have been advised that the society would need to get the family's permission as well, before copying these. Little appears to have been written on this topic but the following notes may help clarify some of the issues. The Federal Privacy Act contains 11 principles relating to government agencies and 10 principles which apply specifically to the private sector. The Privacy Act deals primarily with collecting information about members of organisations, subscribers etc and only using that information for the purpose for which it was intended. All societies need to protect the privacy of their members as well as personal contact details of other people collected for a particular purpose such as a booking for an event run by the society. For instance if someone contacts your organisation wanting to contact a member you must not pass on the contact details of that person unless they have given permission for that information to generally be made available eg some societies provide the contact details of office bearers in the newsletter or website. In all other cases the situation can be resolved by asking the person requiring the information if they are prepared to give you their contact details to pass on to the person they want to contact who will then contact them. Major collecting organisations have privacy policies and these can often be found on their websites. Two examples are the privacy policies / statements of the Museum of Victoria and the National Museum- the latter document is possibly the most helpful, especially section 4. The Privacy Act contains an exception for anything kept in a museum for the purposes of reference, study or exhibition. This means that material containing personal information kept by the Museum for reference, study or exhibition will not be subject to the IPPs. [4.1] The policy then lists how the museum collects and uses information. The Privacy Act, therefore, was not intended to impact on the collection of information by collecting institutions such as museums, libraries, archives, galleries and historical societies. As a collecting organisation the society is able to collect material relevant to its mission statement and collections policy. The FAQ section of the website about the Privacy Act states, For genealogists it is important to note that the Privacy Act does not apply to personal information about deceased people. - http://www.privacy.gov.au/FAQs/sbf/q9.html A search on the Internet for the Privacy Act and Genealogy provides little information. One reference states, The Privacy Amendment (Private sector) Act 2000 does not affect persons conducting research into their own families for a non-business purpose. - http://www.ayton.id.au/gary/genealogy/ There is certainly no reason why societies should not collect and keep data on families including current family members in their collection, especially when the family has provided the information or it is from a published source such as an article from a local newspaper etc. How societies use the material is a different issue. Legally there may appear to be few restrictions but commonsense should be applied in the use of material. Privacy issues have made life more difficult for historical societies. One example is the collection of school photographs. If the collection includes recent photographs, taken during the last seven years, they should not be available to the public but stored in a secure location until they can be included in the collection. In some cases, where in the past some schools made school photos available to societies the practice has changed even when there was agreement that recent photographs would be locked away at the society. Occasionally items in a collection may include information that people listed may not wish the information to be made public in their lifetime. An example is a listing of the names of boys who attended a local boys home, a section of which for a time was used to house boys with problems of various sorts. Copying the information provides a useful historical and family history resource. However the material would be embargoed and not immediately made available for research. Not copying the information at the time it was offered could result in the loss of a local history resource. The Australian Society of Archivists developed a Position statement on privacy in 1988 which included a section on access to records. The guidelines of ethical practice published by the Oral History Association of Australia provides advice for collecting oral histories. Making information available online is another issue where care is required. Most of us have attended meetings where it is announced that pictures will be taken, some of which will be used online, and please inform the photographer if you do not want to be included. If names of people are used online in conjunction with current images their permission should be obtained in writing. If the basic principles of collection management are being followed - observance of mission statement and collection policy, collection of information when an item is offered for donation including, for images, copyright and permission to use the item in a variety of formats (including future formats) - there should be few problems. In local history collections, if the information is / was readily available, in the public sphere, there is unlikely to be a problem in allowing public access to the information. Making available information about someone still alive would depend on if the person is a public figure and how the information is being used. If in doubt it is courtesy to double check with the person that they do not mind the information being made available and perhaps get them to sign to that effect or do not use or make the information available. A new publication is currently becoming available online in sections - Collections law: legal issues for Australian archives, galleries, libraries and museums by Shane Simpson. Some chapters can be downloaded as pdfs while the contents of future chapters are listed. There will be sections on reproduction rights and also permissions required for exhibitions which may touch on this topic.

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