Do photographs and video images constitute “personal information”?
5.46 In SW v Forests NSW, the ADT held that digital photographs of SW that had been copied onto a compact disc comprised personal information about SW.54 The Tribunal relied on a statement in Vice-Chancellor, Macquarie University v FM that the ordinary meaning of the words “possession or control” “connotes some form of physical object upon which or within which an information or opinion is recorded”.55 However, the Crown Solicitor has raised a concern that, “while visual images could, depending on whether an individual’s identity is apparent or can reasonably be identified from the image”, fall within the definition of “personal information”, it is conceptually difficult to apply a number of the IPPs to images, in particular the collection IPPs 2 and 3 (PPIPA s 9 and 10).56 5.47 Arguably, Parliament may not have intended that the definition of “personal information” would cover visual images in photographs or videos. While the wording of s 4 may appear wide enough on its face to encomp
