Less than two weeks before Privacy Awareness Week, A Current Affair produces a damning report after finding shipping containers scattered in Victorian bushland. Sounds like ‘just another illegal dumping story’ however these containers contained personal information.
In these containers reporters found copies of passports, bank details, Medicare cards, driver’s licenses, home addresses and copies of credit cards. They also found furniture and promotional t-shirts which implies it might be the aftermath of a Telechoice store closing down.
Regardless of who, what, why, it is the mobile phone company’s responsibility to keep the information that they collect from customers safe … and if they’ve employed the services of a removalist, it’s their responsibility to ensure that they will destroy the sensitive information. It’s clear that they failed at this important task.
At Shred-X we cannot stress the importance of choosing a reputable service provider to destroy sensitive information. That’s why all our destruction facilities are NAID AAA Certification.
Unfortunately A Current Affair won’t be releasing the official video online however iTWire has summarised the story.
The Office of Australian Information Commission (OAIC) will investigate this data breach and no doubt hand down a stern warning to other businesses. The OAIC describes the collection, use, storage and destruction of personal information as an information lifecycle.
‘The information lifecycle illustrates the dynamic nature of personal information handling, and demonstrates why personal information security must be embedded in day-to-day processes, rather than only being considered in the context of specific projects or activities’, said Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim.
Personal information security throughout the lifecycle involves:
- considering whether it is actually necessary to collect and hold personal information in order to carry out your functions or activities
- planning how personal information will be handled by embedding privacy protectionsinto the design of information handling practices
- assessing the risks associated with the collection of the personal information due to a new act, practice, change to an existing project or as part of business as usual
- taking appropriate steps and putting into place strategies to protect personal information that you hold
- destruction or de-identification of the personal information when it is no longer needed.
Download the latest guides from the OAIC … the Australian Privacy Principle Guidelinesand the Guide to Securing Personal Information or learn more about Privacy Law on their website.
For nearly 15 years Shred-X Document Destruction has been the leader in secure destruction services. We assist organisations in complying with the Privacy Act 1988 and its Amendments providing tailored services to thousands of commercial sites and households across Australia.
Shred-X is very proud to be the ONLY Australian document destruction company with eight (8) NAID AAA certified sites across Australia: