In Australia, last week was the 2025 Privacy Awareness Week
(PAW), with this year's theme 'Privacy – it's
everyone's business'. Among other things in PAW, the Office
of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) produced a
Privacy Foundations self-assessment tool, which provides a
privacy maturity score on the basis of tenets such as
Accountability, Transparency, Collection and Data breach
management. The tool, and PAW more broadly emphasise that privacy
is not just about compliance, but good business and building trust.
NSW, Vic and QLD state governments have each run parallel PAW
events.
The PAW theme is especially fitting considering recent
Australian privacy strides, including the new tort for serious
invasions of privacy which came into effect on 10 June 2025. Under
this new tort, a claim arises where a person invades an
individual's privacy by intruding on their seclusion or
misusing their information.