New laws requiring notification of data breaches are included in proposals by the Australian Law Reform Commission for sweeping reform of the national privacy regime.The commission, which wants to untangle the present jurisdictional tangle, also recommends bringing small businesses under the federal Privacy Act and tightening both private and public sector handling of personal data.In particular, organisations would be obliged to notify customers of security breaches involving their data, and the privacy commissioner would be given increased enforcement powers.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22435328-5013040,00.html