Mahesh Sharma | August 11, 2008
THE Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has recommended a raft of changes to privacy laws that have struggled to keep pace with the rapidly changing nature of technology.
The ALRC published the findings of its two year review in the report, For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice, this morning, recommending 295 changes to privacy laws and practices.Key recommendations include regulating cross border data flows, drafting new regulation for health information, managing electronic health records, and educating children of ownership issues around personal information posted on social networking sites.
It also recommended introducing data breach notifications for government agencies and business organisations.
The Government will review the ALRC’s recommendations in two phases over the next 12 to 18 months, Special Minister of State John Faulkner said, and will legislate on each of these as necessary.
The first phase will address recommendations around unified privacy provisions, the protection of health information and reform of credit reporting, and improving the level of education about the impact of new technologies on privacy.
The second phase will focus on recommendations across the board including exemptions to the Privacy Act and data breach notifications.