Notes from the iappANZ, May 13, 2016

Happy Privacy Awareness Week, and welcome to another edition of the Digest!

With the Australian government now formally in caretaker mode, many of us (mainly on the Australian side of the Ditch) might be thinking, with a sigh of relief, that it’s time to put aside weighty reform topics like mandatory data breach reporting until the new government mobilizes.

No time to relax, though. As you’ll see in this week’s Digest, there is just an enormous amount happening in privacy and technology. Some time to scan the environment is, well, timely. One opportunity not to overlook is the Productivity Commission’s current inquiry. The Commission is looking into the benefits, costs and options for increasing availability of, and improving the use of, both public and private sector data. The thinking behind many of the ideas featuring in this week’s Digest would have been obsessed with use and disclosure issues. Any change in the way use and disclosure are regulated presents both risk and possibility.

The Commission has published an Issues Paper calling for submissions (closing 29 July 2016). This is a golden opportunity to spend some time thinking with your stakeholders about data as an asset and as an enabler for organizational goals.