In an increasingly digital society, it is crucial to maintain good privacy practices. This week we celebrate Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) NSW 13 - 19 May. This year’s theme, Privacy in NSW – the next 20 years: Protection, Consent & Digital Government, looks at current and emerging privacy challenges.
While the topic of privacy is a daily discussion at our work, we realise that it’s not the same for everyone. We’re excited because #PAWNSW is a great opportunity for all to get involved in the privacy discussion. It’s also an important time for us to highlight the importance of privacy in creating and maintaining public trust in digital services in NSW.
Privacy will be an important consideration in developing the new digital services designed to remove some of the pain points in citizens’ interactions with government.
Technology moves quickly
The last 20 years have seen the invention of the iPad, camera phones, Google Maps, smart watches and their associated privacy/security issues. The rate of change in technology means that we can only predict what issues will arise with the technology to be invented over the next 20 years.
Are you privacy aware?
In our daily lives we are often asked to disclose personal information such as names, addresses, signatures, banking details, phone numbers and more. You can be asked for these details for several reasons – to access content behind a paywall, to answer security questions, to verify your identity – and it can be easy to give them away without thinking but it pays to be vigilant!
In the interest of keeping you safer online, we’ve put together some tips to help safeguard your privacy:
- Ask why any information is being collected about you (that is your right)
- Never give your personal details to an unknown person or business that does not list a trading address
- Keep passwords, PINs and other access codes confidential and secure
- Enable privacy settings when using social media and networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn
- Securely dispose of mail that contains personal details (e.g. shredding).
Accessing your personal information
Under NSW Privacy law, you can access your own health or personal information held by government agencies. If you want to access your own health or personal information, you should contact the holder of the information first and ask them how you can do this. This is usually the Privacy Contact Officer at the NSW government agency or organisation concerned. Their details should be on the agency or organisation’s website.
The Information and Privacy Commission NSW (IPC) promotes and protects privacy and information access rights in NSW. To learn more about your rights and obligations visit the IPC website. If you have any questions about protecting your privacy, contact info@ipc.nsw.gov.au.