Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has begun a privacy sweep of Australia’s 50 most popular apps “to see why they collect personal information and what is done with the data,” TechWorld reports. The apps were chosen because of the privacy implications they have for consumers, Pilgrim explained, noting many apps collect a “great deal” of consumers’ personal information. Since May of last year, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner received nearly 3,000 privacy complaints, the report states, and during Privacy Awareness Week last week, New South Wales Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Coombs, “urged Australians to check the privacy policy of mobile apps before they download the app and discover their personal information is being ‘skimmed off’ by third parties.” Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has announced it will be participating in the second Global Privacy Enforcement Network mobile sweep, “surveying commonly used New Zealand apps, as well as overseas apps.”
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