Prioritising Privacy: Bill proposing Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures)

With a spate of recent very high-profile data breaches across private companies in Australia, the Federal Government has introduced the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2022. The Bill proposes two-fold measures to address the public’s concerns; greater powers for the Australian Information Commissioner and significantly increased penalties for serious or repeated privacy breaches (see our previous articles for more information).

Now is the time to ensure that you know exactly what data your business is collecting, how your business is using that data and how it is holding that data in the medium to long term. In short, it’s time to prioritise your privacy obligations as a business that collect, uses, stores, handles, updates and discloses personal information and data.

To recap, businesses are required to know and comply with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Initially, this means that your business needs to understand what personal data it holds on its customers and how that data is connected to the business’s operations. A business may only hold data that is relevant, reasonably necessary for, or directly related to one or more of the business’s functions or activities. If you cannot legitimately tie your data holdings to your business activities, then the data must be lawfully disposed of.

Secondly, it is imperative to understand what your business may do or not do with its information holdings. Are you certain that your privacy policy and privacy collection notice adequately explain how you will use, store, handle, update and disclose personal data? If not, it’s time for an audit and Lang Legal can assist. Contact us for a no obligation discussion around how we can assist.

As we have seen from the recent data breaches, the ramifications of failing to protect your customer’s data on your business’s reputation and public perception can be catastrophic. Now, with the proposed new Bill, it may also be much more expensive.