By: Cameron Abbott, Stephanie Mayhew, and Rob Pulham
The long-awaited privacy reform has finally been introduced into the Australian Parliament today with the introduction of the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. Described as ‘Tranche 1’ of the reforms, the Bill introduces significant uplifts to several aspects of Australia’s privacy laws.
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By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Keely O’Dowd
In December 2019, the Australian Government announced it would conduct a review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
A year has almost passed and finally the Australian Government has publicly released details about the review. On 30 October 2020, the Australian Government released the Terms of Reference of the review. In particular, the review will cover:
By Cameron Abbott and Jessica McIntosh
Over the last two months a string of fake banking apps have hit the Google Play store, leaving many customers wondering whether they have been affected by the scam. A report by security firm ESET found users of three Indian banks were targeted by the apps which all claimed to increase credit card limits, only to convince customers to divulge their personal data, including credit card and internet banking details. The impact of this scam was heightened as the data stolen from unsuspecting customers was then leaked online by way of an exposed server.
By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Simon Ly
On 11 April 2016, the Privacy Commissioner released a guide to deal with issues associated with data breaches. This is aimed at entities regulated by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in order to assist them with complying with the Australian Privacy Principles.
When (and it is likely to be a matter of when and not if) your entity is subject to a data breach, whether it be through your system being hacked or if devices are lost or stolen, it is important that you are equipped to deal with it. It is important to get in front of such problems and have pre-prepared action plans given that it is likely that the first 24 hours will be the most crucial in determining your level of success in dealing with a data breach. Data breaches can be expensive, both in a monetary and reputational sense.
In the guide, the Privacy Commissioner highlighted that a written data breach response plan is an important tool to help deal with such issues. Such a plan should include:
Such a plan needs to be regularly reviewed and updated, with all relevant staff kept up to date so that they know what actions they are expected to take.
The Privacy Commissioner suggests the following four steps to be taken when a data breach is discovered:
For more information, please feel free to contact us. You can find out more information on practical steps you can take here.
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