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On 1 November 2010 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner was integrated into the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and a new website established at www.oaic.gov.au.

Note 1: Major changes to the Privacy Act 1988 will come into effect in March 2014. Agencies, businesses and not for profits need to start preparing for these changes. For more information go to our privacy law reform page at www.oaic.gov.au
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Topic(s): Corporate information

Victorian agency receives top privacy gong for blog, training, and awareness campaign

12 November 2009

The Victorian Department of Justice was named tonight as the Grand Award winner of the Australian Privacy Awards 2009.

"The Department's range of privacy projects are impressive given their scope, level of creativity, and the impact they have had in promoting privacy awareness," said Karen Curtis, the Australian Privacy Commissioner.

The Award was presented to the Department by Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig, Cabinet Secretary and Special Minister of State, at a gala dinner held in Sydney.

Ms Curtis said the Department's "Taking Responsibility Framework" encompassed a range of privacy-enhancing initiatives, including:

launching a "Whoops Sorry" campaign to educate staff about the dangers of sending an email to the wrong person
the production of an animated "privacy wheel" with tips for protecting personal information
hosting a privacy blog for the Victorian public service to share ideas
developing an interactive privacy e-learning module to enhance privacy knowledge among staff in regional areas
holding events to mark World Computer Security Day, Data Protection Day, and Privacy Awareness Week
facilitating staff privacy games and competitions, such as a challenge where staff entered their name into Google to find the quirkiest fact about their namesakes.

"The Department's initiatives have seen high levels of staff participation and have led to a decrease in privacy incidents," said Ms Curtis

The Australian Privacy Awards aim to reward organisations for good privacy practices. Other winners of the Awards included: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Symantec Government Award), Australian Health Management (Large Business Award), Loyalty Pacific - FlyBuys (Small-Medium Business Award), and the Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (Community and NGO Award). Privacy advocate Dr Roger Clarke was named as the recipient of the Australian Privacy Medal 2009.

The Awards are sponsored by Symantec (Major Sponsor), Clayton Utz (Executive Sponsor), Google (Executive Sponsor), Microsoft (Sponsor), and the Child Support Agency (Sponsor).