The deadline to comply with Australia's new privacy legislation reported on previously by ZDNet is just months away, yet a ZDNet survey has found that a whopping 85 percent of businesses aren't even aware of the new laws -- a figure that doesn't surprise the Privacy Commissioner.

-We're not really surprised...but awareness is growing all the time," a spokesperson for the Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton's, Office told ZDNet. -Twelve months ago it [awareness] would have been virtually nil."

Whilst it said its business research findings were -reasonably similar" to those of ZDNet, the Commissioner's Office said it would have a better benchmark at the end of the month when its research is complete.

However, over the next few months Crompton's office claims it will be rolling out a communications strategy aimed at -getting the message out". The Privacy Commissioner declined to say how much of its overall AU$4million budget it would be dedicating to the venture.

However, Tim Dixon of the Australian Privacy Foundation said the Commissioner's Office only had about AU$200,000 out of -absurdly low funding" to play around with.

"At the end of the day, yes there is lack of awareness," Dixon said. But, -to be fair to them [Privacy Commission], they've made a decent shot of it."

According to Dixon the biggest reason for low-levels of awareness is that people are fatigued, first from Y2K, then GST, followed by the complete falling out of the venture capital market - all of which changed people's resources significantly.

Plus, "the legislation took so long to come in ... there's a point where people do switch off," he added.

Dixon stressed that it's -pretty pressing" for businesses to be looking at compliance now.

"You can't do privacy overnight," he said. -There's no doubt that businesses will be rushing this in November."

Of particular concern for IT players is making sure the business is not liable for something its outsourcer does - -that's a big risk considering the extent of outsourcing in the IT arena," Dixon said.

Another very practical issue would be for IT businesses to look carefully at how they lay out forms on their Web site, as companies must get individuals to -actively consent" to their registration or sales information being used for marketing purposes, he added.

The Privacy Commissioner declined to say what percentage of businesses were unlikely to comply with the Privacy Laws by the December 21 deadline, saying only: -we certainly hope a good number of businesses will are ready to meet the legislation".

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