The Association for Data-Driven Marketing (ADMA) has again come out in protest against what they call 'ill-considered' pending data privacy laws.
If passed, the Privacy Amendment (Privacy Alerts) Bill 2013 will come into affect on 14th March 2014.
ADMA chief executive Jodie Sangster said the tightening of data restrictions is coming "at a time when businesses large and small are already grappling with the most extensive changes to privacy legislation seen in the last 10 years."
The new Privacy Amendment (Privacy Alerts) Bill 2013 requires organisations to notify affected individuals if the organisation believes 'on reasonable grounds' that there has been a 'serious data breach' by the organisation in relation to personal information.
The ADMA suggests that 'serious harm' is not clearly defined within the new laws, and with enormous fines for breaches, companies will over-report.
A “serious data breach” is defined in the potential new bill as 'unauthorised access or disclosure of personal information (including as a result of lost personal information) which will result in a “real risk of serious harm” to the affected individual'. The term “harm” is defined to include harm to reputation, economic harm and financial harm, and “real risk” as a risk that is not a remote risk.
The ADMA says that in a recent speech, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus cited a report from McAfee claiming 21% of Australian businesses had suffered data breaches. On these figures, Jodie Sangster noted: “In 2012 there were 2,141,280 businesses trading in Australia.
"That means the Privacy Commissioner can expect to be investigating 449,669 potential data privacy breaches once mandatory positive reporting takes effect. This is unworkable for everyone – business, consumers and the regulator."
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on the ABC's 7:30 all Australians would be concerned at the potential for their privacy to be invaded by other countries accessing their internet data. Privacy of individuals' data is a hot topic at the moment on the heels of revelations earlier this month US agencies had accessed Australians' personal data.
Dreyfus says no Australian intelligence agencies have illegally accessed the internet data of Australians. Jodie Sangster too says “There is already a clear and comprehensive guideline on data notification breaches that is working well and companies have been responsive in reporting breaches. There is no evidence of systemic failure to justify this kind of proactive reporting regime."
Dreyfus added "There is a clear, firm safeguards regime here in Australia and no Australian agency has used, other than in accordance with the existing legal regime in Australia, no Australian agency has had access to information on Australians."
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