The Australian corporate framework operates on a foundational principle of public transparency. When you incorporate a proprietary limited company (Pty Ltd), you receive the legal benefits of limited liability. In exchange, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) requires you to publish specific operational and personal details on a central, publicly accessible database.
Any member of the public, commercial competitor, investigative journalist, or unsecured creditor can search the ASIC registers. While basic company status information is available for free, anyone willing to pay a small statutory fee can download a comprehensive company extract. Understanding exactly what information appears on this document is a mandatory step for founders seeking to manage their personal privacy and corporate footprint.
What an ASIC Company Extract Is
An ASIC company extract is the official document containing the registry data for a specific Australian company. It serves as the primary verification tool across the Australian economy. Commercial landlords require it before signing a lease. Banks require it during account opening to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. Trade suppliers rely on it to assess risk before extending credit lines.
As at September 2026, ASIC offers two primary types of extracts to the public:
- Current Company Extract: This document provides a snapshot of the company’s details exactly as they stand on the day the search is conducted. It costs about $9 to download.
- Current and Historical Company Extract: This document shows the current details alongside every previous address, former director, and past structural change recorded since the company's date of incorporation. It costs approximately $20 to download.
Because historical extracts display previous data permanently, any information you lodge with ASIC leaves a permanent administrative footprint. If you register a company using your residential home address and update it to a commercial address six months later, your home address remains fully visible on the historical extract indefinitely.
The February 2026 Address Privacy Update
Historically, ASIC published the full residential street addresses of all company directors and secretaries on every company extract. This policy exposed corporate officeholders to significant privacy breaches, identity theft, and physical security risks.
On 2 February 2026, ASIC implemented a major system update designed to modernise these privacy settings. The regulator programmed its database to automatically suppress the residential addresses of company officeholders on all current and historical company extracts purchased through the public ASIC website.
When an individual downloads an extract today, the director’s residential address field displays text indicating the address is no longer available in standard extracts. ASIC retained the underlying data internally for law enforcement, regulatory compliance, and authorised government agencies, but removed it from the default public view.
While this reform was heavily publicised as a definitive privacy shield for business owners, it contained structural limitations. The update only applied to specific fields on the register, leaving major avenues of data exposure entirely untouched.
The Shareholder Loophole
The most significant limitation of the February 2026 update involves the legal distinction between an officeholder and a member.
Under the Corporations Act 2001, a director (officeholder) manages the company, while a shareholder (member) owns the company. In the vast majority of small Australian startups and sole-director companies, the founder acts as both the sole director and the sole shareholder.
The February 2026 privacy update specifically suppressed residential addresses tied to the officeholder records. It did not suppress residential addresses tied to the member records. If a director is also listed as a shareholder, their full residential street address often continues to appear in the member section on the exact same company extract. The privacy barrier applied to page one of the document, while the identical personal data remained fully visible on page two.
The Registered Office Exposure
The second major limitation of the 2026 privacy update is its interaction with statutory address requirements. Section 142 of the Corporations Act 2001 dictates that every company must maintain a registered office in Australia. The registered office is the legal contact point for the service of court documents, statutory demands, and official regulatory correspondence.
The registered office address remains 100% public on all ASIC extracts and free register searches. It was completely unaffected by the February 2026 privacy reforms.
If a founder registers a new company and lists their residential home address as the registered office, that home address is broadcast to the public. The fact that the director’s personal address field was suppressed is rendered meaningless because the exact same location is published under the registered office heading. The only structural method to prevent a home address from appearing on an ASIC extract is to utilise a separate commercial location for the registered office from the day of incorporation.
The Principal Place of Business Exposure
Alongside the registered office, ASIC requires companies to declare a principal place of business. This address represents the physical location where the company carries out its primary trading activities or administrative operations.
Like the registered office, the principal place of business field remains entirely public and unaffected by recent privacy updates. A founder operating a remote consultancy from their living room who lists their home as the principal place of business will see that address published on every downloaded extract.
What Remains Fully Visible on the Public Register
To summarise the current regulatory environment as at September 2026, here is a complete breakdown of what a public ASIC company extract displays:
Data Field |
Visibility Status on Public Extracts |
Governing Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Company Name & ACN | Fully Public | Standard incorporation record |
| Director / Secretary Name | Fully Public | Essential for corporate accountability |
| Director Date of Birth | Fully Public | Used to differentiate individuals with identical names |
| Director Place of Birth | Fully Public | Used for identity verification |
| Director Residential Address | Suppressed | Removed via the February 2026 privacy update |
| Shareholder (Member) Address | Fully Public | Maintained under statutory member register rules |
| Registered Office Address | Fully Public | Mandatory contact point under section 142 |
| Principal Place of Business | Fully Public | Mandatory operational indicator |
The Full Suppression Option (Form 379)
ASIC does provide a mechanism for complete residential address suppression, but it is strictly reserved for individuals facing a genuine physical security risk. It is not a general privacy tool for founders who simply prefer anonymity.
To remove an address completely from all public registers, including historical documents and shareholder records, an individual must lodge Form 379 (Application for suppression of residential address). ASIC generally only approves this application if the applicant is registered as a silent elector on the Australian Electoral Roll (AEC) due to personal safety concerns.
If the application is approved, the individual must still provide ASIC with an alternative physical address in Australia where they can receive legal documents. This alternative address is published on the register in place of the suppressed residential address.
How to Control Your Public Corporate Profile
For the overwhelming majority of business owners who do not qualify for silent elector status, the only legal way to maintain residential privacy is to stop supplying a residential address to ASIC entirely.
This requires securing a commercial virtual address before registering the company. A compliant virtual address fulfills the statutory requirements of the registered office and the principal place of business. When the founder lists the virtual address in these public fields, and uses it as the contact address for their shareholder registration, their actual residential home address never enters the ASIC database.
If a company is already registered with a home address, the directors must execute an administrative update. The company must secure a commercial address and log into the ASIC Connect digital portal to lodge Form 484 (Change to Company Details).
Form 484 allows the company to update the registered office, the principal place of business, and the address of the officeholders. This lodgement must be completed within 28 days of the address changing to avoid ASIC late fees. While lodging Form 484 removes the residential address from current extracts, it will remain visible on historical extracts purchased by third parties.
AUSTRAC Compliance for Address Providers
When securing a commercial address to sanitise a public corporate profile, founders must ensure the provider operates within federal law. Following the Tranche 2 Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) reforms enacted on 1 July 2026, the provision of a registered office became a designated service.
Address providers are legally required to verify the identity of company directors before granting access to a commercial address. As at September 2026, any business offering virtual addresses must be actively enrolled on the AUSTRAC Reporting Entity Roll.
Utilising an address from a provider that is not enrolled on the AUSTRAC Reporting Entity Roll places your corporate registration at extreme risk. If regulatory bodies identify the provider as non-compliant and force them to cease operations, your company will instantly lose its registered office. This triggers compliance breaches under section 142 of the Corporations Act 2001 and forces a rapid, costly administrative migration to a new address.
You can check any provider’s status using the steps in our AUSTRAC and virtual addresses guide. The platform operates automated identity verification protocols that satisfy federal AML/CTF obligations. By securing a virtual address through Space Penguin, founders receive a compliant commercial street location for their ASIC registered office, keeping their personal residential data off the public extract entirely. Plans start at $20 a month plus GST, providing premium privacy protection and digital mail scanning without the overhead of a physical commercial lease.
Frequently asked questions
Who can purchase an ASIC company extract?
Any person or organisation can purchase a company extract from the ASIC website. There are no restrictions on who can search the database, and the purchaser does not need to declare their reason for downloading the document.
Does a virtual address hide my identity as a director?
No. A virtual address protects your physical residential location, but your full legal name, date of birth, and place of birth remain completely visible on the public register to ensure corporate accountability.
Are my company financial statements visible on a public extract?
Generally, no. Standard small proprietary limited companies are not required to lodge annual financial reports with ASIC. Therefore, revenue figures, profit margins, and tax details do not appear on standard public company extracts.
What happens if I refuse to provide ASIC with an address?
The ASIC digital registration portal will block the incorporation of the company. A company cannot legally exist in Australia without a nominated physical registered office address and a principal place of business.
Can I use a PO Box to hide my address on the ASIC register?
No. ASIC strictly prohibits the use of Post Office boxes and parcel lockers for the registered office and principal place of business fields. The system automatically flags and rejects these formats during the registration process.
Related reading
- Can You Use a Virtual Address as Your Registered Office in Australia? ASIC Rules Explained
- AUSTRAC and Virtual Addresses: 2026 Rules Explained
- PO Box vs Virtual Address vs Registered Office: What ASIC Actually Accepts
- Registered Office vs Principal Place of Business Explained
- Virtual Office vs Coworking vs Mail Forwarding: Which Do You Need?
About the author: Alisha Aneja is a co-founder of Space Penguin and leads technology and product. She writes about company setup, registration and compliance for Australian founders.