The Privacy Amendment (Privacy Alerts) Bill 2014
("Bill") was reintroduced into the Australian Parliament's
upper house on March 20, 2014. The Bill was previously
introduced on May 29, 2013, but lapsed in the run-up to the 2013
federal election. In its current form, the Bill requires
organizations to notify the Information Commissioner of serious
data breaches in relation to personal, credit reporting, credit
eligibility, or tax file number information. Significant fines and
other penalties may be imposed on individuals and corporations by
the Information Commissioner under new enforcement powers upon any
failure to comply with the data breach notification requirements.
The Bill has passed through the lower house of Parliament and is
currently in the upper house waiting its assent, which cannot occur
until after the next Senate Committee meeting in July 2014.
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