A five-fold increase in complaints about how businesses deal with personal data has left the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner short of cash as it prepares to mount its first enforcement test cases.

"We were funded, roughly, to double our inquiries and complaints load, and we geared up for that," Federal Privacy Commissioner Malcolm Crompton said.

"In fact the number of inquiries has gone from 8000 to 23,000, while complaints have risen from a fairly static level of around 200 a year to 1000 in the first full year the Privacy Act has applied to the private sector.

"There is a backlog and people are waiting six months before we even open the file."

The office had been overwhelmed and forced to "massively redeploy resources", leaving other important work largely on the backburner.

5:18:06 PM      

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