Aust Web sites under privacy microscope - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Aust Web sites under privacy microscope

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
March 12, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Aust-Web-sites-under-privacy-microscope/0,139023166,120263974,00.htm

Government agencies have plans in the pipeline to conduct a sweep of Australian Web sites, checking for compliance with new privacy legislation.

David Cousins, Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner, said it was likely it would be conducting a sweep which would be looking at compliance with Australia's privacy legislation.

Although Cousins was unable to say exactly when this would be, he is anticipating it will be completed some time this year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has completed a number of sweeps of Web sites in the past, with the latest conducted earlier this year. This was carried out in conjunction with the International Marketing Supervisory Network, looking at health claims on Web sites.

-If statements are misleading or deceptive, for example if someone claimed to have a privacy policy when in fact they didn't...there may well be a breach of the Trade Practices Act," Cousins said.

The ACCC also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner today, which will allow the two government agencies to share information about areas under investigation.

-We agree where it's appropriate to share information to provide mutual assistance for each other," Cousins said. -We'll draw matters to each other's attention which might involve breaches of each other's legislation."

According to Cousins, the ACCC has MOUs with a number of organisations, with which it had ongoing cooperation. -From that point-of-view they are a useful document...but at the end of the day they are a piece of paper and it's more important there be established links going around that bit of paper."