Privacy and protecting client information

Protecting client information is now more important than ever before. The Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department’s recently released a report into proposed changes to the Privacy Act. These recommendations, if adopted, include the removal of the exemption for small businesses within the Privacy Act. What this will mean is that all Australian businesses, irrespective of size, will be required to comply with the Privacy Act. Read our submission on the report.

This is a timely reminder for brokers to continue to comply with best practice when collecting, using and storing your clients’ personal information. The MFAA have a range of resources to help our members to understand and comply with the Privacy Act.

These include:

1. A handy guide on complying with the Privacy Act
2. A template privacy compliance plan
3. A template privacy consent
4. A template privacy policy

MFAA members can access these resources and templates in the MFAA Learning Hub under Compliance Resources.

Top tips to comply with the Privacy Act

Our best practice tips are as follows:

• Develop and maintain a privacy policy and make it publicly available
• Obtain privacy consents from clients before collecting, using or disclosing their personal information
• Keep personal information secure to protect against unauthorised access, disclosure or loss
• Only collect information to help you with providing credit assistance to your customers
• Regularly review and update your privacy practices to ensure these comply with privacy laws and best practice
• Responding promptly and appropriately to any privacy breaches or complaints.