Privacy is Everyone’s Business

Senator Catryna Bilyk
Labor Senator for Tasmania
Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety
MEDIA RELEASE

Privacy is Everyone’s Business

The Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety, Senator Catryna Bilyk echoed calls by the Australian Privacy Commissioner for businesses to ensure that their privacy practices are current and that customers’ personal information is stored and used securely to avoid privacy breaches.

“Privacy is something that concerns all businesses,” said Senator Bilyk “staff should be made aware of privacy practices to ensure they understand their obligations”.

“Breaches of privacy can have serious ramifications for businesses, with the resultant loss in consumer confidence leading to lower sales and jeopardising business viability” said Senator Bilyk.

“Businesses need to actively work to inform customers of privacy breaches to ensure that they minimise loss of data and/or financial losses”.

Businesses can minimise the risks of privacy breaches by providing refresher courses in privacy to their staff, auditing and mitigating against privacy risks, and by ensuring the organisation’s privacy policy is current.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published information for businesses and government agencies to advise what to do in the event of a privacy breach.

The ‘Guide to handling personal information security breaches’ is available from www.privacy.gov.au.

Information for small businesses about protecting their customer’s personal and financial information is available from http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au.

More Information for small businesses about privacy, including brochures, advice summaries, information sheets, and policies are also available from www.privacy.gov.au.

Senator Catryna Bilyk