Who would have thought, there is a data privacy day. It was 28th January, oops, I forgot to celebrate – I wonder if it’ll become a national holiday?

In Australia, we are governed by the Privacy Act of 1988. The Privacy Act regulates ‘information privacy’. Due to the many technological advances and general changes to the way we live, there have been dozens of amendments to the privacy act.

As a digital/ online marketing expert, privacy is always top of mind. Every action online can be tracked and reported (as a unique but anonymous number). While website analytics and tracking is the biggest benefit of digital marketing and advertising as you can measure your return on investment in exact terms, it is also the one thing that makes people nervous.

We hear and read the scare mongering in the media; identity theft, credit card fraud, customer database security breaches. While these things do happen and they are news worthy, they are usually blown out of all proportion and the actual risk is hugely exaggerated. If you hear about such a breach and you are a concerned customer of a bank, mobile phone carrier, newspaper subscriber – call or email and ask questions and wait for legitimate answers.