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Topic(s): Corporate information | Data security / breach

FlyBuys' privacy protections recognised in Privacy Awards

12 November 2009

The parent company of the FlyBuys shopping rewards system, Loyalty Pacific, was named tonight as the winner of the Small-Medium Business category of the Australian Privacy Awards 2009.

"Despite having more than 8 million cardholders, Loyalty Pacific's policies and procedures have helped to protect FlyBuys' customers' details from unauthorised use or disclosure," said Karen Curtis, the Australian Privacy Commissioner.

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

Ms Curtis said that, as there was no privacy legislation in Australia covering the private sector at the time of Fly Buys' launch in 1994, the company developed a privacy policy based on the OECD's privacy principles. In 2001, it made sure its policy complied with the new Australian law.

She said that FlyBuys emphasises to members the three key tenets of its policy:

members' details won't be given to third parties
the information will only be used for the purposes for which it was collected, and
members can access the information.

For the past 14 years, Loyalty Pacific has commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to undertake an annual external privacy review of FlyBuys. Loyalty Pacific receives few privacy complaints about the program.

The Australian Privacy Awards aim to reward organisations for good privacy practices. Other finalists in the Small-Medium Business category were: Space-Time Research (awarded a Highly Commended certificate) and Verify.

The other category winners were: Australian Health Management (Large Business Award), the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Symantec Government Award), and the Association of Market and Social Research Organisations (Community and NGO Award). The Victorian Department of Justice won the overall Grand Award, and 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).