iTnews
  • Home
  • News
  • Technology
  • Security

Why you should oppose a data breach notification law

By Roger Clarke on Oct 19, 2012 7:10AM
Why you should oppose a data breach notification law

Opinion: Data breach notification was a good idea - a decade ago.

Dear Attorney-General, please get on with it, and submit a Bill to create a privacy right of action.

Added to that, we need criminal offences on the statute books for serious and/or repeated failures to implement security safeguards commensurate with the sensitivity of the data.

But all that mandatory data breach notification – raised in your Discussion Paper this week – does is expose the fact that organisations are culpably cavalier with sensitive data, and fail to implement well-understood security safeguards.

And, um, we know that already.

Privacy advocates and security specialists alike are opposed to mandatory data breach reporting. The reason is that it's being used as an excuse to hold off what is now clearly necessary.

Consider what it took for mandatory data breach notification to get to where it is today.

In 2003, California passed a Security Breach Notification Law, requiring that Californian consumers be notified when sensitive personal data about them is illegitimately obtained from a server or database.

A total of 34 states adopted similar laws by 2006, prompting Australia's Privacy Commissioner at the time to recommend such a law be passed in Australia.

By 2012, the Australian Law Reform Commission had studied the question for 2 years, the government had cogitated for 4 years, and, just this week, the Attorney-General took "decisive action" by releasing a Discussion Paper.

So it looks like we can expect a draft bill by 2014, assuming the Government is re-elected and the initiative doesn't get lost somewhere.

The bill will likely pass in 2015 and come in to force in 2016. But it won't be until 2019, perhaps, that the Privacy Commissioner is embarrassed into dropping its established practice of warning miscreants to actually impose sanctions.

Data breach notification was a good idea – a decade ago.

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, a Visiting Professor in at UNSW and ANU, Chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation and a Director of the Internet Society of Australia.

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
Tags:
apfdatabreachprivacysecurity

Partner Content

Security "mindset shift" needed to protect organisations
Promoted Content Security "mindset shift" needed to protect organisations
The Great Resignation has intensified insider security threats
Promoted Content The Great Resignation has intensified insider security threats
Why Genworth Australia embraced low-code software development
Promoted Content Why Genworth Australia embraced low-code software development
"We're seeing some good policy put in place, but that's the exception"
Partner Content "We're seeing some good policy put in place, but that's the exception"

Sponsored Whitepapers

Extracting the value of data using Unified Observability
Extracting the value of data using Unified Observability
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership

Events

  • Micro Focus Information Management & Governance (IM&G) Forum 2022
  • CRN Channel Meets: CyberSecurity Live Event
  • IoT Insights: Secure By Design for manufacturing
  • Cyber Security for Government Summit
By Roger Clarke
Oct 19 2012
7:10AM
0 Comments

Related Articles

  • The Good Guys pauses facial recognition trial
  • Qld gov proposes mandatory data breach reporting for agencies
  • Adelaide council rules out facial recognition on city CCTV network
  • icare still waiting on leaked workers' comp data to be deleted
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Email A Friend

Most Read Articles

Qantas calls time on IBM, Fujitsu in tech modernisation

Qantas calls time on IBM, Fujitsu in tech modernisation

Service NSW hits digital services goal two years early

Service NSW hits digital services goal two years early

NBN Co taking orders for 'non-premises' connections

NBN Co taking orders for 'non-premises' connections

Australian scientists build world's first quantum computer IC

Australian scientists build world's first quantum computer IC

Digital Nation

The security threat of quantum computing
The security threat of quantum computing
Integrity, ethics and board decisions in the digital age
Integrity, ethics and board decisions in the digital age
Crypto experts optimistic about future of Bitcoin: Block
Crypto experts optimistic about future of Bitcoin: Block
COVER STORY: Operationalising net zero through the power of IoT
COVER STORY: Operationalising net zero through the power of IoT
IBM global chief data officer on the rise of the number crunchers
IBM global chief data officer on the rise of the number crunchers
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorisation.
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of nextmedia's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.