Are you being private? Test yourself online

Stuart Corner
Monday, 03 May 2010 13:46

Your IT - Home IT

This week (May 2 to 8) is Privacy Awareness Week around the Asia Pacific and the region's privacy bodies have developed an online Q&A tool to help people assess how well they protect themselves against identity theft.

Launching the tool in Australia, the Victorian Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey, said: "Users can work through a series of questions on eleven different topics: for instance how well they protect information in their wallet, their mailbox or on their computer. The test takes just a few minutes'¦

"Users get a score indicating how open they are to the risk of identity theft and they can then check out the simple tips on each topic to help protect themselves better in the future."

The identity theft test was originally developed for the Norwegian data protection commissioner who shared it with the Asia Pacific privacy authorities (privacy commissioners from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea and New Zealand). The Asia-Pacific commissioners then worked together to adapt some of the questions for use in this region.

"International privacy commissioners are increasingly pooling their resources and expertise to develop information like this to assist the public," said Versey. "This excellent privacy tool is yet another example of how smart and effective it is to work collaboratively with international partners.

"While we live in different countries, in today's globalised economy and with online communication becoming increasingly part of our everyday lives, we all face the same issues, especially when it comes to the threat of identity theft and the need for all of us to take active steps to protect our personal information."