ASIC draws the line at directors’ front doors

In a significant move for corporate transparency and data protection, from 2 February 2026, company extracts purchased through the ASIC website will no longer contain the residential addresses of directors and company secretaries. Details of the change can be found here.

This shift aligns with long‑standing Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) advocacy to remove directors’ residential addresses and other high‑risk personal identifiers from broad public access, while using Director IDs to preserve regulatory traceability. The reform responds to rising privacy, cybersecurity and personal safety concerns in an era of heightened cybercrime and misuse of publicly accessible data.

Privacy vs Public Access

For decades, Australia’s corporate registry operated on a model of broad public access, enabling anyone to purchase extracts containing directors’ personal information, including their home addresses. This open‑access model increasingly sits at odds with modern expectations around privacy protection under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and limiting disclosure to what is necessary and proportionate.

In particular, the AICD has long advocated for the removal of personal identifiers such as date of birth, place of birth and residential address from public registers, noting that such information is routinely used in identity theft and fraud schemes. 

The key drivers underpinning ASIC’s reform include:

• Privacy and cybersecurity risks: Residential addresses are a key piece of personal information that, when combined with other publicly available data, significantly increases vulnerability to identity theft and fraud. The Australian Government estimates that identity crime costs approximately $3.1B each year – to individuals, businesses and government agencies.
• Personal safety concerns:  Directors in high‑profile industries (e.g, mining, gambling, contentious resource sectors) have expressed concern that publication of residential addresses exposes them and their families to harassment or intimidation at their home.
• Alignment with international privacy standards: Australia’s public display of director information has historically been more intrusive than comparable jurisdictions. For example, the UK ceased publishing full dates of birth in 2015 and does not publicly disclose residential addresses, and New Zealand is moving toward allowing directors to provide a service address instead of their home address. The AICD has noted that Australian directors have been “far more exposed than their international counterparts” under previous settings.
  Regulatory modernisation: ASIC’s broader registry modernisation agenda anticipates increased reliance on Director Identification Numbers (Director IDs). Once fully integrated, Director IDs reduce the need to publicly disclose other personal identifiers to track individuals across entities.

Practical Limits of the Reform

While ASIC’s changes introduce meaningful privacy protections by default, the reform does not entirely eliminate personal information-related exposure. If a director’s home address is used as a company’s registered office or principal place of business, that address remains publicly visible, as contact details must continue to be available for serving legal documents.  As such, directors seeking additional privacy may consider using professional registered office services or external adviser addresses.

This limited‑access model aligns with practices in comparable jurisdictions, where regulators may disclose such details to law enforcement, tax authorities or credit reference agencies under controlled mechanisms.

Key Takeaways for Directors

• Review your company extracts to understand how your information now appears under the new rules.
• Consider alternative service addresses if your home address currently appears as a registered office.
• If you have safety concerns, ASIC’s address‑suppression processes (e.g. Form 379) remain available, subject to statutory criteria.

This article was written by Ariel Bastian Senior Associate and  Anna Kosterich Restricted Practitioner  Corporate Commercial.