Privacy Awareness Week
NSW 2020

About Privacy Awareness Week NSW 2020

Privacy Awareness Week is a global campaign that highlights the importance of privacy and raises awareness for public sector agencies about how to protect the personal information of the people we serve.

This year, Privacy Awareness Week NSW takes place from 4 – 10 May 2020, involving both public sector agencies and citizens in improving understanding and awareness of NSW privacy legislation, and to raise awareness of a person’s privacy rights and agency obligations.

The theme for this year's campaign is Prevent, Detect, Protect. Learn more about the theme below.

The Privacy Commissioner's Welcome to PAW 2020

This Privacy Awareness Week (PAW), we look at ways in which both citizens and agencies Prevent, Detect and Protect privacy in NSW.

As NSW government agencies, we need to be open and upfront with how we collect and how we use people’s information. This is critical to building public trust. Having good privacy practices and taking a privacy-by-design approach to projects will also aid in creating this trust in digital service delivery.

It is also important for citizens to know they have a right to have their personal information protected.

The theme: Prevent, Detect and Protect this year highlights the importance of understanding and awareness of NSW privacy legislation and reiterates citizen privacy rights and agency obligations:

Prevent – we are responsible for making sure the right processes are followed and correct procedures are in place for managing people’s personal information.
Detect – government agencies are responsible for ensuring that security protections such as detecting intrusions are up-to-date and effective, and notifying the Privacy Commissioner of any breaches to citizens’ privacy.
Protect – we have an obligation to protect citizens’ privacy and help them be aware of and able to exercise their rights under NSW privacy legislation.

The IPC can assist citizens in understanding privacy laws in NSW and provide information on how to protect their rights. Should you require assistance with your obligations or in exercising your rights, we welcome you to get in contact with us at the IPC.

Samantha Gavel
NSW Privacy Commissioner

Privacy Resources for NSW Public Sector Agencies

Fact Sheet: Privacy by Design
Privacy by design ensures that good privacy practices are built into your organisation's decision-making, as well as the design and structure of your information systems, business processes, products and services.

A Guide to Privacy Impact Assessments
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) can help you to identify and minimise privacy risks when you are starting a new project or making changes to existing initiatives. A PIA is one way to implement ‘privacy by design’ in your organisation’s practices, and it can help you to build and demonstrate compliance with privacy laws.

Privacy Information & Resources for NSW Citizens

We have put together relevant privacy information & resources for members of the public to learn more about how you can prevent theft, stay safe online and protect your privacy.

Information & Privacy Commission NSW

A guide to privacy laws in NSW
Find out how the NSW privacy laws can protect your personal and health information. Also how to make a complaint.

Accessing your health information in NSW
Under the NSW HRIP Act you have a right to access health information about you from NSW heath service providers, public sector agencies and some private sector organisations that hold health information.

A guide to protecting your privacy in NSW
This fact sheet will assist NSW citizens to understand the role of the IPC, tips to protect their privacy and where to go if they feel their privacy has been breached.

How to make a complaint if you think your privacy has been breached
This page can assist you in making a complaint if you believe a NSW public sector agency or organisation has misused your personal (non-health) information.

Privacy complaints: Your review rights
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of an agency’s internal review into your privacy complaint, you can apply to an independent Tribunal for external review.

IDCARE

Understanding Identity Theft
Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves the compromise of identifying information that may or may not result in the misuse of such information by another person without authorisation.

Mobile Porting/Sim Swap
Criminals attempt to gain ownership of mobile numbers in order to access online accounts such banking, email, superannuation, and government portals such as MyGov etc.

Physical Theft of Credentials
Often in identity theft it’s the credentials that contain personal information that is of most value to criminals.

Employment Scams
Employment Scams are designed to recruit unsuspecting individuals to launder money for criminal organisations.

Telephone Scams
The most prolific form of identity compromise currently impacting the Australian and New Zealand communities are telephone scams.

Engaging Service Providers
Service providers can assist in understanding whether an error is actually identity misuse, how to protect your existing accounts, if and what information about you was misused.

Facebook Security
By reviewing your Facebook security settings and being conscious of how you use Facebook you can mitigate risks to your account and personal information.

Twitter Security
This social media platform is designed for users to be able to share and discuss opinions and events referred to as ‘tweets’.

LinkedIn Security
While LinkedIn facilitates great opportunities to connect it may also be used as a tool to facilitate social engineering by online criminals.

Data Breaches & You
A data breach is the unauthorised disclosure or loss of personally identifiable information or information that may lead to a person becoming identifiable that is inconsistent with what was agreed when first collected.

eSafety Commissioner

Privacy & your child
You can help your child to stay in control of their personal information, online photos and social media identity.

Keeping your online accounts secure
Keeping your online accounts secure and your privacy settings up to date might not be high on your list of priorities, but it should be.

Protecting your identity
Online services are learning more and more about us from our personal information and the data they collect from us online.

Social media & privacy
Social media sites like Facebook or Instagram are great for finding friends and tracking down family. But once you share something, it is out there for everyone to see.

Facebook Privacy Settings
Reviewing your Facebook security settings and being conscious of how you use Facebook you can mitigate risks to your account and personal information.

The eSafety Guide
Learn about the latest games, apps and social media, including how to protect your information and report inappropriate content.

Securing your accounts and devices
A critical part of a good safety plan is making sure that your devices and your email, social media and other online accounts are secure.

What's On

Privacy Awareness Week NSW 2020 Public Sector Forum

Date: Tuesday 5 May 2020

Time: 9.00am - 10:35am

Format: Livestream

Audience: Senior public sector leaders including Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries, CEOs, senior representatives from universities, local councils and ministerial offices; NSW public sector agency staff, management and NSW privacy officers and practitioners

As NSW public sector agencies, how we collect and what we do with people’s personal information is critical to building trust in government. We have a responsibility to Prevent, Detect & Protect privacy in NSW. This event will explore identity theft and cyber security initiatives within the NSW government.

This event is for NSW public sector agencies and is by invitation only. For enquiries please contact communications@ipc.nsw.gov.au.

2020 Champion Program

This year we will again be running the PAW Champion Program. NSW public sector agencies can join as Champions to help spread the PAW message as well as encourage their own agency and work colleagues to get involved and promote citizen rights.

Champions of the Program will receive a pack full of digital and printable resources, as well as written content such as newsletter articles, blog posts, social media posts and more to make promoting the campaign easy. They will also be sent a free PAW NSW 2020 t-shirt.

Agencies will also be acknowledged as a Champion here on the PAW NSW webpage and via the IPC's social media where possible.

Registrations for the PAW 2020 Champion Program have closed.

Promotional Resources for NSW Public Sector Agencies

Click to download the resources below and support Privacy Awareness Week NSW 2020.

To receive additional written communications material for your agency (newsletter articles, blog posts, social media posts, and more) and a free t-shirt, join our Champion Program.