Australian banks' approaches to privacy in an online world: How well do their policies measure up to the national principles?

Abstract

Around the world, there have been many examples of individuals whose personal and financial information was disclosed to unauthorised individuals. In Australia, privacy legislation has been enacted with a view to preventing such abuses. In particular, the national privacy principles detail how private-sector organisations should handle and protect their clients' personal information. How well do financial institutions measure up to those principles? In this study, the privacy policies of 18 Australian banks are assessed against the national principles. In general, the results are fairly reassuring. Nevertheless, some areas of concern remain, particularly where trans-border outsourcing of some information processing tasks is involved.