Australians are more concerned about their privacy than ever before, quickly abandoning companies they believe abuse their information, a new report shows.

An overwhelming 97 per cent of respondents believe their personal information is misused when it is collected for one reason and used for another, according to findings published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on Wednesday.

New laws require businesses to update privacy policies.

The Community Attitudes to Privacy study, which has tracked Australians' attitude on privacy since 1990, found nearly half of the respondents agreed social media and online services posed the biggest risk to privacy.

But one of the biggest changes has been how consumers deal with companies they believe are misusing their data, the report showed. More than 60 per cent of respondents said they had stopped engaging with companies over privacy concerns. This was up by 40 per cent since 2007.