Data breaches revealed by Z Energy and Ticketmaster in the past
few days have provided a salient reminder that they can affect any
of us at any time. Unfortunately, disclosures of privacy breaches
are often belated, depriving individuals of the chance to take any
steps such as password changes to try to reduce harm.
As a result of the increasing number of data breaches over the
past months and years, the Government recently introduced a new
Bill to Parliament to replace the existing Privacy Act with one
more suited to our digital world.
The core elements of the Privacy Bill are the same as the Act it
is designed to replace. It retains the twelve information privacy
principles, which protect people's privacy by governing the
collection, storage, and use of personal information, while also
providing for legitimate use of information by government,
businesses, and other organisations. However these information
privacy principles are updated in the Bill, to better
