SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Australian companies involved in serious or repeated breaches could face penalties of a minimum $50m under new proposed legislation intended to curb the current plethora of serious data breaches. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been quoted as stating that recent major data breaches at companies, including Optus and Medibank, had shown current measures to be insufficient, while commenting "When Australians are asked to hand over their personal data they have a right to expect it will be protected.". It is expected that these penalties defined in the Privacy Act 1988 will be introduced to parliament within the next month. The proposed changes will not be retrospective. The bill will also provide government entity, the Australian Information Commissioner, with greater information gathering and sharing powers to help resolve privacy breaches.

I trust every company who asks for my name, DOB, current address, previous address, place of birth, medicare number, passport number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, phone numbers, social media account names, email addresses, significant other's name (Neko Neko Floppy Ears btw), driver's licence, and of course a high resolution scan of the above for permanent safe keeping. Don't you?

Original Submission