Privacy: Marketing to Build Trust

In Australia, our concept of privacy hinges on how we define ‘personal information’. Privacy is regulated by the 1988 Privacy Act and 13 Australian Privacy Principles, called APPs but is a developing area with plans afoot to update Australia’s Privacy Act.

Australia’s Privacy Act

Australia’s APPs

In an age when our smartphones know more about our location, searches and social media use than our family, it’s hardly surprising that privacy as a legal and social concept is in a state of flux.

As of June 2021, the Attorney-General’s department is undergoing a review of Australia’s 1988 Privacy Act which has already flagged 6 broad categories of changes businesses should consider:

• Personal information: defining it and making laws around how it is collected, used and disclosed by platforms and anyone else ‘trading’ in personal information.

• Privacy consent: how will people opt in, be notified and ask for personal information to be deleted when platforms use personal information?

• The flow of Australian data to international platforms: how can local privacy laws not be compromised by conflicting international laws or codes like GDPR and CCPA.

• The right of individuals to enforce privacy obligations: should individuals be able to force companies to comply with privacy laws?

• A so-called ‘privacy tort’: strengthening laws to prohibit appalling privacy breaches.

• The effectiveness of the notifiable data breach scheme

The very notion or privacy - what's public, what's protected and what is not - can be fuzzy and most businesses would be wise to tailor privacy and data handling policies to their unique circumstances. 

When websites, data or marketing services expand beyond Australia to territories which have their own strict privacy regime (like Europe or the US state of California), there can be more onerous laws to comply with.

Privacy and the concept of personal information underpin the digital economy and particularly advertising and marketing services.

Building consumer trust by protecting privacy and developing technology and business practices that create privacy by design is key.

It’s also important to have internal policies in place to handle personal information and any data breaches. In some instances, it can be prudent to undergo privacy impact assessments on the work your business does. ADMA runs privacy compliance training to help businesses deal with the complex landscape around personal information, privacy and data security.

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