11Publicly available information

11  Publicly available information

 (1) This section is made for the purposes of subsection 6N(k) and section 20C of the Act.

Note: Certain types of publicly available information are credit information and therefore may be collected, disclosed and used subject to the restrictions in the Act.

 (2) For the avoidance of doubt, publicly available information does not include:

 (a) originating process issued by a Court or Tribunal; or

 (b) any judgment or proceedings where the individual’s rights have been subrogated to an insurer; or

 (c) any judgment or proceedings that is otherwise unrelated to credit;

  because that information does not relate to the individual’s credit worthiness.

 (3) A credit reporting body must only collect publicly available information about an individual where each of the following is satisfied:

 (a) the information is collected from an agency or a state or territory authority;

 (b) the content of the information is generally available to members of the public;

Note: The content of the information is generally available even where:

1.      it is available in a different form from that provided to a credit reporting body, or

(b) a fee must be paid to obtain the information.

 (c) the information relates to activities conducted within Australia or its external Territories; and

 (d) the information relates to the individual’s creditworthiness.