It is also a key area of uncertainty for business and consumers. Online privacy is likely to be contentious for at least a generation. And we can expect to see successive legislative amendments and industry codes, punctuated by examples of bad practice in how information is collected, utilised and disseminated. Our advice to clients is to be aware of issues and act strategically. Government agencies sometimes have the legal boilerplate but don't practice what they preach.
Overseas studies demonstrate that privacy is one of the major potholes in the information highway.
That's a problem, because the competitor may be just a few clicks away. Others show that users respond by supplying false information. Others fuel a growing demand for more comprehensive and more effective regulation. That assertion's inconsistent with statements by industry leaders and with a history of government responses to bad practice. It is clear that new technology, such as automated collection of data about online activity, large-scale data profiling and data trading, offers significant opportunities for privacy abuses.