The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) today launched Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) 2026. The campaign calls on government agencies and Australian Privacy Principle (APP) entities to lift the standard of how they handle privacy complaints and disputes.
Running from 4-10 May 2026, this year's theme is 'Trust is built here – In every privacy complaint. In every resolution.' It puts dispute resolution at the centre of good privacy practice and organisational accountability.
Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind launched the campaign this morning at an event hosted by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) at Macquarie Group in Sydney.
"A privacy complaint is more than a compliance task – it's a critical trust-building moment," Commissioner Kind said.
"Trust isn't built in privacy policies or polished statements. It's built when someone raises a concern, and an organisation responds with clarity, fairness, accessibility and accountability."
Preliminary findings from the soon-to-be-released 2026 Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey (ACAPS) Report, highlight why better complaint handling matters now:
- 93% of Australians say protecting their personal information is important to them, and 87% are more concerned about privacy than they were 5 years ago.
- 64% had concerns about how an organisation handled their information in the past year – but 52% did not raise them, believing it wouldn't make a difference (56%), that it would be too hard (51%), or not knowing how to complain (40%).
- Among those who did complain, only 9% said the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
"Australians care deeply about their privacy, but most have given up on the idea that raising a concern will lead anywhere," Commissioner Kind said.
"That is a failure of process, not of public interest – and it's entirely within the power of organisations to fix."
Commissioner Kind said the PAW theme aligns with the OAIC's more enforcement-focused regulatory posture announced earlier this year.
"As we sharpen our focus on systemic harms, organisations themselves become the first and most important place where privacy concerns should be resolved," she said.
"Effective complaint handling builds customer loyalty, improves services, and for government, earns public trust."
PAW 2026 encourages organisations to adopt a 3-stage approach to dispute resolution:
- Lay the foundations – Know your APP obligations, conduct regular Privacy Impact Assessments, and ensure complaint channels are visible and accessible.
- Handle with care – Respond professionally, respectfully and transparently, with clear reasoning and documented decisions.
- Evaluate and refine – Use complaints as insight to strengthen governance, train staff, and commit to continuous improvement.
"Organisations that treat complaints as signals – not nuisances – are the ones that will survive this new era of privacy accountability," Commissioner Kind said.
Throughout the week, the OAIC will host and participate in events with partners across the public, private and legal sectors. New resources, including a dispute resolution checklist, are available on the OAIC's PAW 2026 hub .
Organisations are also encouraged to register as PAW 2026 Supporters – joining a growing community across health, finance, government, technology, legal and education sectors committed to better privacy practice.
"Trust is built here – In every privacy complaint. In every resolution," Commissioner Kind said.
"I encourage every organisation that handles personal information to take a hard look at their complaint-handling practices and ask whether they are genuinely meeting the expectations of the people they serve."
