Submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission's Review of Privacy - Discussion Paper 72
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21 December 2007
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has strongly endorsed
making privacy laws in Australia consistent so that business, government and
individuals can easily understand their rights and responsibilities.
"It is time to address the complexity of privacy regulation in Australia," Ms
Curtis said.
"The current situation of different principles for government and business at
the national level, and different State and national laws, creates unnecessary
confusion for individuals and additional compliance costs on business.
"One set of privacy principles across the country and complementary State
public sector legislation would go a long way to making the regulation of the
handling of personal information within Australia more effective."
Ms Curtis’s endorsement for national consistency was made in a 786-page
submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in response to its
Discussion Paper 72: “Review of Australian Privacy Law”.
The submission also supports:
- Maintaining a principles-based and technology neutral approach – to provide
flexibility and responsiveness to change.
- Creating codes where specific privacy concerns emerge - to apply in addition
to the uniform principles.
- Minimising exemptions – exemptions from the Privacy Act should be minimised.
- Data breach notification – notification should be proportional to the
severity of the breach. This would provide organisations with a strong market
incentive to adequately secure their databases.
- Health sector – the Privacy Act should "cover the field" for the regulation
of private sector health service providers.
- Credit reporting – further independent research on comprehensive (or
positive) credit reporting is required before it is clear whether its
introduction will be beneficial.
- Audits – a qualified audit power would allow the Office to conduct privacy
performance assessments of private sector organisations for compliance in
certain circumstances.
Complete Submission (Volumes 1 and 2) - PDF, Word
- Volume 1 only - PDF
- Volume 2 only - PDF
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