Peter A Clarke

The law may dither but the technology does not.  Privacy regulators across the globe vary in their powers and enthusiasm for taking enforcement action.  In Australia the new enforcement powers available to the Privacy Commissioner since March 2014 has not resulted in any high or any profile actions. That is not to say work is not being done. It is just not visible as yet. And with any form of regulation a certain profile is necessary to send the right message to the market.

On line security is a fundamental part of confidence of the public using a particular site or another. Google has take some steps on its own initiative in rewarding those websites who on site encryption according to the itnews article Google to reward secure websites with better search ranking.  Placing a website that uses site encryption further up the search ranking is both a sensible incentive but also good for Google in that it reduces its exposure to criticism in ranking a suspect site.

Encryption must be part of an organisation’s security framework in the future.  The Privacy Commissioner’s guidelines are vague on specific requirements in establishing security.  But with the development of easily available encryption software and the ongoing danger from cyber attack and its consequences not having encryption of personal information will become reckless practice.