Website privacy policy statements and the changing face of e-commerce

E-commerce and its challenge to privacy is hardly a decade old. Only during that period has cyberspace become generally navigable, through the introduction of hyperlinks and browser software. Before then, the documents stored on individual computers were not readily accessible from other devices by non-specialists. The development of the World Wide Web has been accompanied by ubiquitous and initially mysterious clickstream technologies deployed to collect personal data with unprecedented efficiency. As a result, the exponential growth in e-commerce has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the trade in the personal data of website visitors. But the element of surprise is almost spent. Regulators and the consumers they represent are regrouping. Websites are now accountable for their practices. In Australia no less than elsewhere in the global economy, creating and implementing a website privacy policy has become both a business and legal necessity. Factors include:

• Extensively documented consumer demand for credible assurances of the online protection of personal information. This demand is accompanied by a shift in the balance of power online from the merchant to the consumer.
• The incremental extension of the Privacy Act to Australian businesses from 21 December 2001. From that date large Australian businesses that have previously ignored the e-commerce imperative to adopt and implement privacy policies risk contravening the new law. Smaller businesses have an additional year to comply.
• The proactive approach adopted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in promoting website standards of fair conduct.
• Insistence by the European Union on adherence to its strict privacy standards by all businesses outside the EU that process the personal information of EU citizens.