You can delete a lot of personal data in Australia by starting with the accounts you control, using the tools that already exist, and stopping the phone and laptop from creating the next copy. Australia does not yet have a general right to force every organisation to erase your information. A narrower right aimed at large social media and search platforms was proposed on 31 August 2026 and remains draft only as of 1 November 2026.
The Privacy Act 1988 lets you ask covered organisations for access and correction. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) oversees it. Covered organisations must also take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify information they no longer need (APP 11.2). These rights are useful. They are not a “delete me everywhere” button. Most everyday apps, banking, SMS and calls still work once you reduce what the device sends.
Quick answer:
You can usually delete an account you control, ask Google to hide a phone number or address in Search, cancel My Health Record, opt out of most telemarketing and commercial email, correct a credit-file error, challenge a wrong tenancy listing, and ask a covered organisation to destroy information it no longer needs.
You generally cannot force a news site to unpublish a lawful article, delete a page just because Google hid it, wipe the file in your GP’s own software, stop every charity or political call, hide an ASIC director listing, erase a court judgment, or leave the electoral roll if you are eligible to be on it. You can apply to be a silent elector so your address is not on the public roll.
The OAIC’s 2026 community survey found 93% of Australians support a legal deletion right. Treat the draft right as a future extra door, not the plan. What that draft would and would not do is in Australia’s Privacy Law Changes.
Do these first. They are free. Paths move, so search the setting name if a label has shifted.
Google. Open myaccount.google.com, then Data and privacy. Download with Takeout, then delete a service or the whole account. Separately open Results about you and ask for removal of Search results that show your phone, address, email or an identity number. That tool has been available in Australia since 2024. Approval is not automatic. News, government and court pages are usually left up. Hiding a result is not deleting the page. If you are keeping the account, turn off Web and App Activity, Location History and ad personalisation.
Apple. On appleid.apple.com, open Data and privacy. Download a copy. Turn off iCloud backups and photo sync you do not need. Deleting the Apple ID is the hard stop. Plan the move first, or you can lock yourself out of a device.
Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). In Accounts Centre, open Your information. Download, then delete. Deactivation is reversible. Deletion has a waiting period. A WhatsApp backup in Google Drive or iCloud is a separate copy. Delete that too. A photo someone else posted does not vanish when you delete your account.
Microsoft. On account.microsoft.com, open Privacy. Export, then close the account if you are leaving Outlook or OneDrive.
TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Snapchat and Reddit. Each have a download-then-delete path in settings. LinkedIn stays visible until the account is closed, not paused. SEEK and Indeed résumés are their own copies. Close those separately.
For a new sign-up, use an email alias so the shop never gets your real inbox. Proton and Apple’s Hide My Email both do this.
Google Search is a catalogue, not the warehouse.
Use Results about you, or Remove this result on the three-dot menu beside a result. Use Google’s personal information removal form for a tax file number, bank details, a medical record, a home address bundled with your name, or doxxing. Intimate images and court-ordered removals have their own forms.
Email the site that hosts the page and ask them to take it down. Then ask Google to refresh the result.
Search your own name in quote marks, plus your city, plus “phone”. Then search the old mobile number on its own. Check:
Paid “we’ll wipe the brokers” services are a helper, not a substitute. Listings often return.
Three different rules. Use all three.
Phone. Register at donotcall.gov.au or 1300 792 958. It is free for a personal home or mobile number. It takes up to 30 days and stays until you remove it. It does not block the phone. It tells commercial marketers to wash their lists. Charities, political parties and some researchers can still call. You can tell those callers to stop, and they must honour that.
Email and SMS. The Spam Act says a commercial message must have a working unsubscribe. They have five business days to action it. Reply STOP to a marketing text. If unsubscribe is broken, report it to the ACMA.
Other marketing. Write: “Stop using and disclosing my personal information for direct marketing, including marketing by others. Tell me the source of my information”. A covered organisation must stop within a reasonable time, for free. Send that line to loyalty programs, old real-estate alerts, and quote lists you no longer want.
Cancel My Health Record in myGov, under Profile and settings, or call 1800 723 471. Official guidance is that the record, including backups, is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Healthcare providers will not see it, including in an emergency. If you are the authorised representative for a child, some identifying information about you is kept so you can still open their record. A new registration later starts empty.
Cancelling is a privacy choice and a clinical choice. A record access code is the middle path if you want the file for an emergency but not for every provider.
Your GP, specialist, dentist and pathology lab keep their own files. Cancelling My Health Record does not delete those. You can ask for access and correction. A clinic will often refuse to destroy a current clinical record, because it has a duty to keep it. You can still ask it to limit who it shares with.
You cannot meaningfully delete myGov if you use Centrelink, Medicare or the ATO. You can remove unused linked services and sign out old devices
IDLock is a planned myGov tool to block and monitor use of a licence or passport in online checks. A trial is expected later in 2026, with wider rollout planned for 2027. It’s a lock, not a deletion service.
You cannot delete a tax file number. Report suspected tax-identity theft to the ATO. If you are eligible, you generally must stay on the electoral roll. You can apply to be a silent elector so your address is not on the public roll. ASIC director records are public by design. Freedom of information is a way to see a government document, not a delete button.
You cannot delete a legitimate credit history. You can get a free report, ask for an error to be corrected, and place a free 21-day ban if you are at risk of fraud. Extend the ban before day 21 ends.
From 1 April 2026, illion’s consumer credit file sits inside Experian. MoneySmart lists two bodies. Cover both. Equifax on 13 8332. Experian on 1300 783 684. If you placed a ban with illion before April 2026, place a new one with Experian.
Tenancy database listings, including TICA, generally come off after three years. A wrong or dated listing can be challenged. Write to the agent, then the operator, then your state tribunal. Keep copies
For a retailer, club, old employer list or private college covered by the APPs, one email is enough.
“Provide a copy of the personal information you hold about me. Correct anything that is wrong. You no longer need this for the purpose you collected it. Destroy it or de-identify it, and confirm in writing. Stop using it for direct marketing, including marketing by others. Tell me the source”.
Give them 30 days. Then complain to the OAIC if they ignore you. This will not wipe a bank’s legally required records. It will wipe a surprising number of marketing spreadsheets. If you gave a bank permission to share data under the Consumer Data Right, withdraw that permission in the app as well.
The under-16 social media rule is already in force. The Children’s Online Privacy Code must be registered by 10 December 2026. The draft code includes a way for a child to ask for their information to be deleted on many services.
Until then, delete the account as the parent, remove the child from family sharing you don’t want, and don’t build a new Google or Apple identity for a child unless you accept it lasts for years. A Privacy Phone can give a child their own profile that you control. See Privacy Phones for kids and teenagers.
Public court lists, news archives, ASIC roles, property titles, the fact of a legitimate credit history, and clinical records a provider is required to keep will remain. Deleting your copy of a chat or photo does not untrain an AI model that has already learnt from it. A future platform erasure right will not reach every shop, broker or data file already shared.
The steps above reduce what is already out there. They do not stop a stock phone or laptop from creating the next copy. We consider deletion as archaeology, with prevention much cheaper:
Australia will not give you a delete-everything switch in 2026. It already gives you enough doors to empty the inboxes, the directories, the marketing lists, the national health file, and the search results that print your mobile number. Walk through those doors. Then stop leaving the same files on the table.
-> See Privacy Phones
-> See Privacy Laptops
-> Discover free Privacy Tools
[Last updated: 1 November 2026. Educational only – not legal advice].
