Hello, privacy pros.
It was wonderful to see so many in the online privacy community supporting Safer Internet Day 9 Feb. Australia's Office of the eSafety Commissioner has published a wealth of information to help support online safety and even published a picture book and song to help young children stay safer online.
Gizmodo has highlighted the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman's report demonstrating that various agencies of the Australian federal government continue to violate laws governing their access to citizens' communications and telecommunications data. The report notes noncompliance has gone up year-over-year. Some violations were caused by administrative errors or failures in policy, but the findings showed that many of the same issues persist from the prior year's report.
Elsewhere in the region, Regulation Asia reports Singapore's updated Personal Data Protection Act has come into force. The updated law introduced mandatory breach notification and makes reidentification of anonymized information a criminal act when done so without authorization. It also brings in an EU-style "legitimate interests" exception to the requirement to obtain consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal data.
Privacy lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region who are ready to make their next career move should check out our Career Central Job Board. As a reminder, free postings to the IAPP Job Board are a benefit for organizations who have IAPP Corporate Memberships.
I invite you all to join me at the free CDAO Financial Services Online conference 16 and 17 Feb. On the second day, I will be presenting "Integrated Privacy: The Crossroads of Regulation, Governance, and Engineering." I look forward to discussing how to build and grow privacy programs that can adapt as regulations change, as well as how privacy engineering can not only raise the privacy bar but simplify governance.
For those looking to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of the Australian Privacy Act and the scope of the changes being considered, be sure to check out the new "Privacy in focus" series from the privacy pros at elevenM. I've subscribed and look forward to reading their comprehensive updates over the coming weeks and months.
Finally, for our members in Australia and New Zealand, we will be holding a virtual networking event with some special guests 25 Feb. Registration will be available soon via the IAPP KnowledgeNet page. I hope to see you virtually there.
Until next time!