New 'Privacy' Research
23 July 2001 at 1:07 pm
According to the Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, Australians care deeply about their privacy…but just how much concern there is will be revealed in the results of three new research projects aimed at community, business and Government.
The results will be published at the end of July and the Commissioner says they will provide the most comprehensive views yet complied of Australian understandings, expectations, behaviours and attitudes towards privacy.
Malcolm Crompton says initially, people appear to have a low level of knowledge about privacy rights and how they are protected. However, when discussing their personal information and what happens to it, the first qualitative reports show that Australians care deeply about control over their personal information.
He says it seems that the Privacy Act and recent changes to the law and the protections they provide are not well known in the community.
He says the research will be extremely valuable to his Office in building a communication and education strategy targeting the community, business and government, and help appreciate how people want their privacy issues solved. The research will be a ‘must read’ for any organisation interested in Customer/donor relations and e-transactions.
The three projects used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Focus groups and telephone interviews were used for the community research, in depth interviews and telephone interviews were used for the business research and focus groups and self-completion questionnaires for the government research.
About 250 people will attend the launch of the results in Sydney on July 31st. Any Not for Profits who are members of the Privacy Connections Network will have received an invitation to attend the event. The Guest speaker will be Susanna Lobez; the host of the ABC radio show “Law Matters”.
Other speakers include the Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, Brigid Larsen from the Australian Information Industry Association, Kate Jenkins from Freehills, Sandra Birkensleigh from Price Waterhouse Coopers and Luke Woolmer from Centrelink.
Pro Bono Australia will have full details of the results in the next edition and copies will be available to our readers via e-mail to probono@probonoaustralia.com.au.
