Are agencies allowed to disclose information to my relatives or partner?

Agencies can disclose your information when someone’s life or health is at stake, to maintain the law and in a number of other exceptional circumstances. See principle 11 for a full list of the possible exceptions that can apply. 

It may be wise to see a lawyer to arrange an enduring power of attorney to ensure that your partner or your representative can receive information about you and make decisions in situations where you are unable to do so.

In a health context, such as medical records, the Health Information Privacy Code (HIPC) gives healthcare professionals some discretion about when they can share information about patients with their family members and/or caregivers. In matters of life or death, public safety or prevention of serious injury, healthcare professionals can disclose information as they need to.

Here is a case where a bank disclosed the balance (external link)of a woman's account to her husband - and in another case, a bank disclosed a man's bank account details (external link)to his daughter-in-law.

In this case involving health information, a mental health team disclosed (external link)a woman's information to Police.