News

Companies in a tight grip between consumers and OAIC with APP compliance

David Wilson - Jun 16, 2015

A recent examination of over 1,000 major Australian companies has shown that more than half are not fully compliant in regards to the Australian Privacy Principles.

While many Australian companies have taken important first steps towards privacy compliance, many are not practicing what they preach in their privacy policies. A common example is not providing clear a clear contact for privacy complaints, or not having a business process in place to handle requests to access or modify personal data. In other words, businesses need to act in according with their new privacy policies. Unsurprisingly, privacy-related complaints have increased by over 43% in the last 12 months, which is a true sign that consumers are well educated on privacy matters and are forcing companies to catch up.

A simple way to understand what you need to do as a business is to start by running through all the personal information you are collecting from visitors. Then, examine the type of data being collected and/or stored against the APP guidelines. If your data collection and storage processes satisfy all APPs, then you are on your way towards compliancy. If not, then you will need to pinpoint the processes that don’t, consider disabling them from your website, and reintroduce them at a point where they satisfy the APPs to avoid potential fines and/or user backlash.

With Timothy Pilgrim on one end, and countless consumers on the other – Australian businesses are learning that close enough is not good enough.

Click here to view the OAIC’s checklist for APP entities.


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