In this article, we review the importance of Privacy Assessments in relation to data privacy in Australia.
The Importance of Privacy Assessments & Privacy Management
Data protection impact assessments and privacy impact assessments, also known as privacy risk assessments, are necessary to estimate and manage the risk to your consumers and to support your organisation’s compliance with international data protection laws.
Today, data privacy is a hotly contested issue among business executives, technology firms, governments, and citizens. The adoption of stringent data protection laws around the globe has made it necessary for businesses to preserve the privacy of the data they process or risk severe repercussions. Following the implementation of the GDPR in the European Union, legislation governing postmodern data protection and privacy has been passed and future amendments proposed across Australia and New Zealand.
What does a privacy risk assessment involve ?
Typically, there are three key goals when designing a privacy risk assessment:
- Identify and assess the risks of privacy breaches or other occurrences and effects
- Determine proper privacy measures to limit unacceptable risks
- Ensure compliance with regulatory, applicable legal and policy standards for privacy
- Add an audit of website vulnerabilities
Why do I need to examine my privacy risks ?
Every organisation depends on its data to function. However, if your company gathers sensitive and private customer information—for example, to create marketing campaigns, enhance customer experience, or process payments—how you handle, store, and secure that information will be crucial to preserving your regulatory compliance. But doing so also means preserving the data subjects’ privacy and safeguarding your company from data breaches and cyber attacks.
Personal information must always be kept safe since flaws in the data flow put customers’ personally identifiable information in danger of being compromised (PI). Usernames, location information, cookies, IP addresses, and passwords are examples of the data in question.
Contrary to what people think, you do not even have to be the target of a cyber attack or a ransomware attack to suffer harm because, according to the legislation, a breach includes the unintentional or accidental destruction, loss, or disclosure of personal data.
Any company that must abide by Federal, State or International privacy rules must review its privacy risks regularly. The company will have to guarantee data confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience, as well as to restore data in the event of an incident quickly. In case of a breach or leak, you will also need to show that you have taken the essential safety measures to safeguard the information in your possession.
Benefits of privacy management and risk assessments
Privacy risk assessments have several advantages for your company:
- It gives the means to discover privacy risks and put safeguards in place and resolve privacy issues as soon as possible
- Shows that a company has undertaken proper governance measures to prevent privacy risks (reduce liability, negative publicity, damage to reputation)
- Improves making well-informed decisions
- Aids your organisation to win the confidence and trust of the public
- Demonstrates to workers, subcontractors, customers, and members of the public that your company takes privacy seriously
- Numerous advantages centre on how privacy risk assessments can help avoid a data breach’s expensive and reputational damages
If you would like to discuss your Privacy Assessment requirements with DataBench, please go to www.databench.com.au and click on ‘Get In Touch’.
