Minimising Personal Information Held: Reducing the risk of privacy breaches
Today the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly tabled my report in Parliament following an audit conducted by the Office of the Information Commissioner into Urban Utilities’ privacy safeguards for the residential customer personal information it collects and holds.
The report found that Urban Utilities:
- manages its privacy risks by only collecting the personal information it requires to deliver services to its residential customers; and
- disposes of most of its residential customers’ personal information when it is no longer required.
While our report found that Urban Utilities manages privacy risks in relation to customer data well, it makes recommendations to further strengthen Urban Utilities’ disposal practices for the customer personal information it holds.
The report also recommends Queensland government agencies enhance their privacy practices and secure the personal information they hold through good information management and security practices. It recommends that agencies:
- identify and review all information holdings and systems that contain personal information
- assess the privacy risks of those holdings and systems
- collect the minimal amount of personal information required, and
- implement appropriate information disposal procedures.