There are new implications for your business with the passing of The Privacy Amendment Notifiable Data Breaches Bill 2016. 

It has been many years in the making and it has finally been passed! So what exactly does the Bill mean?

The Bill has been introduced to protect organisations from the impacts of data breaching, and to ensure there are appropriate processes in place to assist organisations in dealing with any privacy or data breaches that may occur.

The new laws will ensure that the appropriate parties are notified in the event of a potential breach, whereas currently there is no obligation to do so. The introduction of the mandatory notification scheme will better assist organisations in the reporting and handling of breaches.

It is imperative that as an organisation, you have appropriate policies and procedures in place in regards to technical and security measures, to protect your organisation as best possible. While you may already have these policies and procedures in place, now is be a good time to review and update these to better incorporate the new notification laws.

We advise that you check (or write) your policy, and put a scenario of a breach in place. What would that look like? What will you do? Does your policy cover this?

While it is inevitable that this Bill with further evolve over time, it currently comes into effect in February 2018, meaning organisations have less than 12 months to prepare and be across the new laws.

For further information on the Privacy Amendment Notifiable Data Breaches Bill 2016 and what this means for your organisation, visit .