The Private Practice Summer 2013/14 Page 26

theprivatepractice.com.au

The changes under the Privacy Amendment
(Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012
(Cth) will come into effect on 12 March
2014. That legislation has created complex
and considerable changes to the Privacy Act
1988 (Cth), being the first wave in the more
recent proposals for privacy reform, and will
affect Australian businesses and government
agencies across all sectors.

Most importantly, the legislation will

strongly impact on the health sector, and
practitioners are well advised to be finalising
their medical practice's due diligence and
compliance programs, and the testing of
those programs, to respond to the changes.

This article seeks to provide practitioners

with a straightforward overview of the
changes that are particularly relevant to
the health sector together with the
ultimate checklist.

AN OVERVIEW

Central to the changes is the new set of
harmonised privacy principles designed
to regulate the handling of personal
information. Known as the Australian
Privacy Principles (APPs), these new
principles will replace both the existing
National Privacy Principles (NPPs),
which apply to Australian businesses, and
Information Privacy Principles (IPPs), which
apply to Australian government agencies.

The key differences between the APPs and

the current principles they will replace are
summarised here:

· APP 1 Open and transparent
management of personal information
APP 1 introduces more prescriptive
requirements for privacy policies and
procedures, with a view to ensuring personal

A matter

of privacy

Are you across the forthcoming legislative changes to privacy laws?
Enore Panetta and Natasha Leedman provide some insight.