The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has taken a significant step to limit public access to the residential addresses of company directors, following a request from Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. This move comes as a response to growing concerns about safety and privacy, with ASIC acting swiftly to implement the decision announced on Monday without prior notice or consultation.
ASIC has already removed address information from company extracts available on its website, but it's still accessible through third-party data providers while ASIC consults with them on further restrictions. The regulator aims to ensure that only those with legitimate business and legal needs can access this data.
The decision has sparked debate, as residential addresses are crucial for various professionals. Lawyers rely on them for serving legal documents, journalists use them for verification, and researchers track company ownership. ASIC acknowledges the importance of these uses but emphasizes the need to protect personal information.
Treasurer Chalmers expressed concerns about the availability of directors' personal details on ASIC business registers in a letter to outgoing ASIC chair Joe Longo. He supported ASIC's initiative to remove residential addresses from public company search extracts as soon as possible, addressing long-standing privacy issues.
Despite these changes, the move doesn't entirely remove director address information from public access. The law mandates ASIC to provide most filed documents, including those disclosing addresses, for a fee. However, Treasury is consulting on draft laws to restrict access to residential information and exact dates of birth to specific database users, including regulators, insolvency practitioners, banks, journalists, and lawyers.
The responsibility of managing the fallout from this decision and broader restrictions on director information falls on new chair Sarah Court, who assumes her role on June 1. This development highlights the ongoing debate surrounding data privacy and the challenges of balancing accessibility with security.
