A report by the privacy commissioner released today says that insurers, by asking full patient notes, have been risking breaking privacy law.

Investigations held by Marie Shroff have discovered that insurers have been crossing limits in requesting full medical notes going back a number of years, when insuring people or paying out on a claim.

It has recently come to vision that credit companies would be able to gain more access to the financial details of people who are seeking to borrow money under a proposal being investigated by privacy watchdogs.

Under this proposal, the credit companies would be able to find out whether previous credit applications had been approved, what they were for, who lent the money, what the credit limit was, and whether the account was still open.

As of now, they can only scrutinize how many times an individual has applied for credit and any negative details.