Who can access your personal information

Birth, marriage, civil union, name change and death records are a public register — this means that anyone can legally request a certificate or printout of a record, even if it’s someone else’s. Some government agencies can also access your info as part of their regular work.

Some records cannot be accessed. These include:

• birth certificates from before someone was adopted
• birth certificates from before someone changed their registered sex.

Find out who’s accessed your information

You can find out who’s requested your birth, marriage, civil union and name change records since 25 January 2009. This is free.

You’ll find out:

• the name of the person who applied for your information
• the date they applied
• whether or not the application was granted.

You usually will not find out about any government agencies who’ve accessed your information as part of their work.

If you are the personal representative of someone who has died, you can find out who has requested their records. You will need to provide evidence that you are their personal representative (the executor, administrator or trustee of their estate).

Request to search access register BDM 133 (PDF 161 KB)

Request to search access register BDM 133 — accessible alternative (TXT 8.4KB)

Hide your records

If you think that public access to your birth, marriage, civil union or name change records would put you or your family in danger, you can apply for a non-disclosure direction, which would block public access to your records.

If you are the personal representative of someone who has died, you can apply to block public access to their records.

Get a non-disclosure direction

Who to contact for more help

If you need more help or have questions about the information or services on this page, contact the following agency.

• Births, Deaths and Marriages

  Contact and agency details