Organisations in Australia that are regulated by the Privacy Act
will need to review and update their privacy compliance soon with
the passage of the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection)
Bill 2012 today.
A key change to the Bill as it passed through Parliament is the
extension of the deferred commencement period for most of the new
provisions, which has gone from nine to 15 months after Royal
Assent. This is a recognition by the Government of businesses'
concerns about the complexity of the changes and their need for
more time to prepare.
What sort of activities will be of particular concern?
While the old Information Privacy Principles and National
Privacy Principles have been consolidated in 13 new Australian
Privacy Principles, we are not looking simply at a rebranding of
the current law. There have been some important changes affecting
all information collection, handling and disclosure, but
particularly:
