The federal government has announced that, before the end of the year, we will have mandatory data breach notification. This means companies will be required to notify us whenever the information they hold about us gets hacked or otherwise inappropriately disclosed.

This will be a significant impost on companies in relation to compliance costs and potential adverse reputational impact. For us little people, it may be the only defence we have against the tidal wave of big data analytics ripping away the last vestiges of our privacy (or it may be just more annoying junk mail).