Role of privacy officer

The first step for an organisation when undertaking privacy compliance measures should generally be to allocate a privacy officer. The role of a privacy officer should be to ensure that an organisation complies with its privacy obligations and to act as a point of contact, internally and externally, for all issues relating to privacy.

An important part of a privacy officer’s role is to communicate with other organisations, entities and persons in order to keep up to date with changing privacy requirements and to ensure that third parties (such as agents and contractors) comply with their contractual privacy obligations.

The tasks associated with the roll of privacy officer will depend largely on the particular circumstances of an organisation. In many cases, it will be sufficient for an organisation to add the task of privacy officer to an existing position. Large organisations may, however, make it a full time position.

Privacy Law Consulting Australia can assist clients establish the role of privacy officer by:

• defining the position’s functions and duties;

• determining the appropriate level of powers (eg. powers of internal investigation);

• drafting procedures to be observed when handling privacy requests and complaints;

• outlining reporting requirements;

• outlining training requirements; and

• providing relevant points of contact outside the organisation.

Out-sourcing role of Privacy Officer to PLCA

Out-sourcing the role of Privacy Officer is a viable option for many businesses. Some of the benefits in out-sourcing this role include:

• eliminating costs associated with establishing the role;

• eliminating privacy officer training costs (particularly beneficial where staff turnover is high);

• eliminating legal costs associated with obtaining advice on appropriate courses of action when privacy complaints and requests are received; and

• ensuring complaints and requests are handled in accordance with privacy laws.

Clients can outsource the role of Privacy Officer to Privacy Law Consulting Australia (“PLCA”), ensuring that all privacy matters are dealt with in an appropriate, effective and cost efficient manner. When acting in this capacity, PLCA confirms any course of action that it will take with a client beforehand.