Between the 12-18 May it is National Privacy Awareness Week and it is a good opportunity to reflect on your current business privacy policies and data security.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published their top 10 tips to protect your customers’ personal information.

1. Familiarise yourself with internal privacy policies, processes and procedure.
2. Know who is responsible for privacy
3. Consider privacy during project planning
4. Only collect the personal information you need
5. Use and disclosure – think about it!
6. Overseas disclosure – prepare for it!
7. Take care when handling sensitive information
8. Access personal information on a need to know basis
9. Keep personal information secure
10. Familiarise yourself with your data breach response plan

You can find a more detailed description of these top tips here.

Petr Adamek, chief executive of the Canberra Innovation Network, recently commented on an article by iT Wire that discusses the seriousness of earning customer’s trust.

“The best tech start-ups focus not only on attracting new customers and building amazing technology, but also on building trust of their customers,” he said.

“Being serious about privacy and data protection and demonstrating it is a key ingredient in building such trust and setting your startup for success”

If you would like to find out more about best practice and how you get involved in Privacy Awareness week visit their website.