Smiler, you may be aware of the current major overhaul of the...

Smiler, you may be aware of the current major overhaul of the Privacy Act. The Australian Law Reform Commission have already flagged the gist of their recommendations to the Attorney-General (to be submitted end of May and tabled in Parlt. a few months later). There's a 1978-page Discussion Paper and there's a September 2007 media release ...

{START OF QUOTE}
".... the ALRC also is proposing a new system of data breach notification: “There is currently no requirement to notify individuals when there has been unauthorised access to their information, ... Where there is a real risk of serious harm to individuals, we say they must be notified.”

... Other key proposals include:
• introducing a new statutory cause of action where an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy has been breached; ...
•expanding the enforcement powers of the Privacy Commissioner;
• imposing civil penalties for serious breaches of the Act; {END OF QUOTE}

See http://www.alrc.gov.au/media/2007/mr1207_privacy.html

Disclaimer: for general discussion purposes only - draw your own conclusions!