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ARTICLE · 03 MAY 2023

Privacy Awareness Week Part I - The State Of Play

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The theme of this year's Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is "back to basics".

AustraliaPrivacy
Cameron Abbott
Cameron Abbott
Rob Pulham
Rob Pulham
Stephanie Mayhew
Stephanie Mayhew

The theme of this year's Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is "back to basics". It's fitting to consider some lessons arising from recent high-profile breaches affecting millions of Australians, and the consistent messages we've been hearing from the Australian Information Commissioner in the midst of those incidents.

Data breaches can happen to anyone. We know cyberattacks can be big business, and sophisticated criminal networks make a good living from these. And if your organisation has taken reasonable steps to avoid or mitigate such breaches, the fact you've encountered one will not, of itself, be held against you.

However after recent prominent incidents, we've noticed the OAIC raising time and again two basic tenets of the APPs:

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