CBA named top bank for customer privacy

Deloitte made the announcement at a recent breakfast as part of its inaugural Deloitte Australia Privacy Index, which compared 104 of Australia’s leading consumer brands across 11 industries in terms of their performance against best privacy practice.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) was the other big winner as the highest-ranked government organisation in the index.

Deloitte’s privacy partner and co-author of the inaugural Privacy Index, Gavin Cartwright, said both winners are examples of organisations that have “gone beyond the compliance-only approach of just providing a privacy policy on their website for their customers to download”.

“They have moved toward better practice by offering education about privacy such as how to delete cookies and so be more in control of their data,” he said.

“In particular our two winners’ websites showed good evidence of one of the key themes of the Australian privacy principles – transparency – by providing easy-to-follow privacy material and good detail on how personal information is handled including the contacts to get more information.”

Tommy Viljoen, Deloitte’s lead partner of cyber risk services, said both CBA and the ATO received positive feedback from more than 1,000 Australian consumers who were surveyed about their views on how well Australia’s 104 leading consumer brands are doing when it comes to privacy.

Speaking at the time of the prime minister’s Cyber Security Summit in July, David Whiteing, CBA’s chief information officer, welcomed the collaborative approach on the issue.

“The prime minister’s attention to this issue highlights its national importance, and we welcome the commitment to strengthening the partnership between government and the private sector on cyber security,” he said.

“As more and more business is transacted online, cyber security will continue to be an issue of fundamental national importance. We look forward to continued progress and discussion on this vital issue across business, government, academia, and the broader population.”