Legal Obligations Of Australian Business Owners To Secure Data And Protect Privacy

Key legislations and regulations related to digital technology

The business owners in Australia have legal obligations to secure data and protect the privacy of the customers. The management of the business needs to safeguard their customers from different kinds of online problems and other issues (All Castellar and Van Looy 2016). The management of the companies in Australia must recognize and identify different kind of policies that have the capability to safeguard the customers and also comply with the different kind of rules and regulations on privacy accordingly. These kinds of policies must cover;

• The privacy and safety of the customer data- Alizadeh (2015)has highlighted that the privacy policy will help identify the different collections of the business and accordingly store data. The following policy will also determine on how the information retrieved can and cannot be used. It will also highlight the restrictions on sharing data with the third party.
• The code of conduct-The development of unsolicited commercial emails is termed as illegal, the development of a policy to ensure the necessary permission in order to send different kinds of messages.
• The different procedures and policies followed by the business organization-The staffs working in a business organization must be encouraged to read and understand the policies of the business and the code of conduct (All Castellar and Van Looy 2016). The proper and transparent understanding of the organizational conducts and business rules will help the employees to perfor4m in a much better manner.

Some of the major legislations ad rules that are related to the digital technology are as follows;

ACTS	DESCRIPTION	RESPONSIBLE AGENCIES Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper
Ø Electronic Transactions Act 1999	Ø The following act empowers a number of different requirements that needs to be met in electronic form like information on writing, requirement to provide a signature, requirement to record information and some other similar requirements (legislation.gov.au 2019)	Ø Commonwealth Organization
Ø Privacy Act 1988	Ø The following act regulates the handling of personal information about different individuals (legislation.gov.au 2019)	Ø Department of Attorney General
Ø Privacy Regulation 2013	Ø Under the act, agencies also need to take out the steps to destroy or de-identify personal information that they hold once it is no longer needed unless and until an exception applies (legislation.gov.au 2019)	Ø Office of the Australian Information Commissioner(OAIC)
Ø Electronic  Transactions Regulation 2000	Ø The act facilitates the use of electronic communications and describes the manner of providing or serving documents by means of electronic communication (legislation.gov.au 2019)	Ø Attorney General’s Department(AGD)
Ø SPAM Act 2003	Ø This particular act sets up the scheme for the regulation of different kinds of commercial e mail and other kinds of commercial e-messages (legislation.gov.au 2019)	Ø ACMA(Australian Communications and Media Authority))

A number of key elements are needed to consider for the evaluation of the digital technology. Some of them are as follows;

1. Access Devices-The employees of any commercial operations requires the flexibility to choose the most effective and proper manner in order to access the different kinds of business applications at the place they work (Wu and Rao K.R 2017). The necessity of Smartphone and tablets has been turning into important needs for the commercial operations of the business organizations. Therefore the enterprises are providing different kinds of such devices to their employees to develop networking and service alignment in a proper manner.
2. Communication infrastructure-According to, Moore (2017) the digital workplace requires the presence of a strong communication network. The digital technology provider will have to ensure the presence of the best communication network in order top ensure the success of the business accordingly. It is essential to incorporate simultaneous video, voice and data communication in order to ensure the presence of a great communication network.
3. Business Applications-The providence of easy access to different kinds of applications that are important for the business helps in the increase of productivity and supports a proper collaboration with the other employees of the business. Such applications also help the virtual teams in the business organization to work in a cohesive manner and interact properly. Knowledge management and collaboration platforms have turned more critical that have allowed the documents for a project to be stored in a central sever and also be accessed in a similar manner.
4. Tools for Communication workplace-As mentioned earlier, communication is one of the most important aspects for the application and smart integration of the digital technology (Cox 2016). Thus the implementation of the best workplace tools is equally necessary for the business as because such a move will have a very strong influence on the motivation, performance and productivity of the business organization.
5. Digital Security- The implementation of the digital applications in the business organization must be collaborated in a proper and efficient manner so that there is no security breach which can threaten the stored data (Laudon and Traver 2016). Therefore the organizations need to provide a proper digital strategy that can be beneficial for the business organization accordingly.

Intellectual Property refers to the ownership of the different kinds of tangible goods. The following includes the likes of the ideas, designs, symbols, writings and creations. Intellectual property can also refer to digital media which includes the likes of audio or video clips that can be easily downloaded from online comments. According to, Ellis and McGovern (2016) the intellectual property being totally intangible in nature will be generally quite difficult to recover if it is stolen at any point of time. Intellectual Property is divided into two different categories. They are as follows;

1. Industrial Property and
2. Copyright

Intellectual Property Rights can be categorized into seven different types. They are as follows;

1. Copyright and other related rights
2. Geographical and demographical indications
3. Patents
4. Industrial Logos
5. Trade Marks, Trade Names and Service Marks 

According to, (Laudon and Traver (2016) Technology has transformed itself into one of the most important and integral part of the business operations in the 21^st century and will continue to evolve itself to make business smarter and easier to operate. The absence of technology within any kind of business will mark the absence of sustainability for the company and will surely lead to its failure. The need to integrate the business with modern technologies has further escalated after the start of the globalization process and thus, the management of the business organizations has to take additional responsibilities in order to implement, integrate and monitor the use of the technological resources in the most proper and efficient manner. Some of the steps to ensure the best utilization of the digital technology in the workplace are as follows;

1. Bringing the teammates near and far closer together -The need for the presence of an effective tool for communication is crucial for the team productivity. At the same time, different organizations are often confused on making the necessary investments about the time and efforts into the software that can help in the improvement of communication. However, studies have shown that the absence of a proper communication process has led to the failure of the organizations just because of miscommunication among the employees of the business (Moore 2017). Therefore the management of the business organizations implements and integrates the most advanced set of business technologies to change the communication process especially between the higher management and the employees.
2. Ensuring Computational Accuracy- Being accurate in measuring and calculating a variety of different computational formulas is utmost necessary for the business organizations (Laudon and Traver 2016). Accounting Programs like that of QuickBooks allows the management to accurately keep a record of the inventory, performing and recording sales activities, management and payment of different bills and handling the payroll of the business. The use of such technologies helps in the accurate maintenance of data.
3. Being Chanty-Chanty is one of the most easy to use team chat application for the business. The software is based on the ramping up of the business processes for different kinds of small and medium teams with the use of artificial intelligence (Moore 2017). The chanty is considered productive due to a number of different reasons. These are as follows;

• Real time messaging
• Robust sharing of the files
• Plenty of storage space
• Audio as well as video calls

1. Being Competitive in the Marketplace- The globalized market is generally characterized by competition and thus the need for technology arises. The use of technologies, especially computer technology can help the organization in different ways, that includes digital marketing, online sales and other activities like e-commerce. The competitive nature of the business in the marketplace is important for the business to ensure success and sustainability. 

The above points have clearly explained the need for technology in the business and the importance it holds for the business organization. Technology can substantially improve the way the business operates and thus a successful implementation of the technological elements can be beneficial for the success of the business. However, Selwyn and Bulfin (2016) has said that the real challenge lies in the staff training activities during the installation or upgradation of the IT system. Apart from the staff training activities, encouraging and providing support to the employees is equally challenging for the management of the business organizations.

Understanding intellectual property rights

It is important for the business organizations to select and use easy technologies that can be easily understandable and can easily be conferred with the employees. Complex technologies with too many complications are not fit for day to day business operations. Apart from this another important step that must be followed by the business organization is the preparation of a proper training program and implementation of the training program before the installation of the technology in order to get the best possible results. On the other hand, Joyce and Dennis (2018) has explained that the management of the companies using technology must encourage and support the employees by providing them the required confidence, providing them chance to deliver their ideas and listening them carefully. These activities can make them confident enough to use the technologies in an easy manner. 

References

Alizadeh, T., 2015. A policy analysis of digital strategies: Brisbane vs. Vancouver. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 6(2), pp.85-103.

All, A., Castellar, E.P.N. and Van Looy, J., 2016. Assessing the effectiveness of digital game-based learning: Best practices. Computers & Education, 92, pp.90-103.

Butler, D.A. and Rodrick, S., 2015. Australian media law. Thomson Reuters (Professional) Australia Limited.

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.

Cox, K.L., 2016. Rigidity in Global Intellectual Property Norms. Colum. JL & Arts, 40, p.327.

Ellis, J. and McGovern, A., 2016. The end of symbiosis? Australia police–media relations in the digital age. Policing and society, 26(8), pp.944-962.

Joyce, A. and Dennis, M., 2018. Preparing faculty for utilization of innovative approaches in digitalized teaching and learning environments.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.

Legislation.gov.au. (2019). Federal Register of Legislation. [online] Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.au [Accessed 26 Feb. 2019].

Moore, A., 2017. Intellectual property and information control: philosophic foundations and contemporary issues. Routledge.

Selwyn, N. and Bulfin, S., 2016. Exploring school regulation of students’ technology use–rules that are made to be broken?. Educational Review, 68(3), pp.274-290.

Wu, H.R. and Rao, K.R. eds., 2017. Digital video image quality and perceptual coding. CRC press.

The management of The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is in search for new trends in application of the latest technologies to develop the banking services and please the customers (commbank.com.au 2019). The recent development have however gone against the bank as the bank has been involved in a number of different scandals and financial cases which has highly damaged its reputation. Therefore the management of the bank has decided to resort to Gamification to ensure both caution and skepticism. The development of multiple web applications along with the features of different video games started the particular term called Gamification. There is a difficulty in identifying the actual connection of the game features along with that of the non game features and thus the management of different kinds of organization finds it difficult to adapt to their systems (Baptista and Oliveira 2017). Like many other banks, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has adapted the use of gamification in e-banking to facilitate new trends in serving the customers of the bank.

Benefits and challenges of integrating digital technology in the workplace

Different studies by experts have well as the marketing team of the bank has shown the lack of confidence among the customers on the use of the e-banking services. The Game Theory developed by John Von Neumann in 1928, came to be called as the book of “Theory of Games and Economic Behavior” by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern in 1944. However, the theory was later amended and developed by John Forbes Nash with the concept of the modern Game theory. The theory which is called as the Nash Equilibrium is defined as the mixed strategies where players chose a probability distribution over the possible actions. This involves the analysis of the game theory in e-banking and also confirms that the theory has been applied in e-banking as e-business is used for stock-exchange and bonds trading between the customers and the brokers or in different types of financial online auctions.

Some of the major users of the gamification process are as follows;

1. PNC Bank’s “Punch the pig game”-PNC Bank is a US based bank with an overall asset amounting to more than $350 billion. The management of the bank, in order to instill the habit of savings among the customers of the bank created a Virtual Wallet to allow the customers of the bank to check and save amounts from their respective accounts. The wallet allowed the customers to easily pay different amounts on different purposes like bill payments, payments for food and many other such similar things.
2. Extraco Bank’s account conversion application-The management of Extraco Bank created an online gamified application to help its customers convert their checking accounts to different types of bonus accounts. This helped the customers to reduce the new fees easily by paying online bills.
3. BBVA Game-The Spanish bank BBVA with more than 66 million customers created the BBVA gaming application to promote the online banking services. The BBVA game contains web applications with various educational contents regarding transactions in banks. The educational videos helped the customers to get the idea of banking transactions and thus made it easier for them to pay the taxes and other bills via online web applications.

The integration of digital solutions in the workplace is necessary for the business to enhance its business operations capabilities. According to, Baptista and Oliveira (2017) the implementation of digital technology in the business helps to ensure and enhance employee productivity. On the other hand, it is quite inevitable that the business will encounter different kinds of factors that can weaken or extinguish employee motivation and dampen the productivity levels of the business organization. It is important to identify the strategies to ensure the implementation of a proper workplace operation in the business in order to ensure success (deCos 2015). The presence of a strategy is a scientific and well established manner to integrate the technological aspects in the business. Some of the major processes to develop strategies for digital integration are as follows;

• Definition of the overall transformation objective-The management of the business enterprises must ensure to define the overall purpose of the digital transformation in the business. The digital transformation can ensure the success of the business as because the operations of the business can be easily managed by the use of the digital technologies. The management of the business enterprises must define about what a successful transformation is and what can be the needs for the transformation of the organization to a digital set up. Joshi (2018) suggest that the setting up of the different kind of objectives can help to adapt to different types of technologies that will be having a clear focus on the improvement of the total business.  
• Designing the digital experience-The definition of the objectives for the transformation of the organization digitally will be further followed by the designing a digital technology for the customers of the business and the employees of the business organization. The overall transformational objectives are laid into a set of planned and detailed goals. The goals will be designed in such a manner that it can be made easier and simpler through the use of the new software or digital applications.
• Assessing the existing technologies of the business-Before the incorporation of the digital technologies, it is utmost important for the business organization to assess the present set of technologies that are currently being used in the operations of the business. The assessment of the business technologies used in the business operations can help the business to get an idea of the gaps in the current technologies (deCos 2015). The identification of the gaps in the business thus helps the organization to install the latest technology that can be used in the business to determine the business operations.
• Reviewing and assessment to select the suppliers and the vendors-The next step that is followed in the digital transformation technology is the assessment and the selection of the possible solutions in order to meet the different kinds of established objectives. The following step requires the business organization to ensure a careful and thorough review of the possible solutions and the things offered by the different kinds of vendors. The selection of the vendors will take place after the assessment of the track record and history of the vendors. Apart from this the vendors who will be assessed must promise to deliver the necessary after sales support to the business organization to ensure success for the business.
• Creation of a timeline or a Schedule-The creation of a timeline is essentially important for the business organization to effect a digital transformation. The selection of the timeline can ensure the proper management of the different steps easily and thus can ensure a successful implementation of the digital technologies accordingly. The implementation timeline will also help to divide the roles and responsibilities of the employees and the managers of a business organization which will further ease the process of digital transformation. 

The huge growth of social media has been because of the large scale process of globalization. Digital Media in workplace mainly refers to the use of the different social media applications like that of Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and many more as such (Lipton Shrier and Pentland 2016). The use of the following social media applications has change the way people in the organizations communicate with each other and other people with similar business interests in a professional manner. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has certain legal obligations to ensure the security of data of the customers and the different information. The Commonwealth Bank must take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the data. The safeguarding of the data of the online customers is a tricky and complex process in the era of superior digital technologies (commbank.com.au 2019). Therefore the management of Commonwealth Bank has established some policies and procedures to address such issues. These policies generally cover;

• Privacy and confidentiality of the data of the customers
• The code of conduct
• Business Procedures

Strategies to overcome challenges of integrating digital technology

The privacy policies have outlined on the process of how the business collects and stores the online data and how the information can be used. It also provides a number of restrictions on the access of the third party to the data of the customers. The management of the bank keeps a strict tab on different mails and unsolicited mails are strictly banned. Apart from this the management of the company has designed a training program in order to train the employees about the business code and conducts to make them comfortable with the policies.

The intellectual property can be assured safety by implementing a set of different steps. The steps are as follows;

1. Keeping the business ideas and trade secrets confidential-It is important for the management of Commonwealth Bank of Australia to keep the secrets of the trade and the details of the intellectual property confined before ensuring the total security of the intellectual property (Madon and Krishna 2018). The management of the bank must sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to hide the strategies and the tactics of the business from the other major competitors.
2. Application for the trademark- The application of a trademark is essential just after the Bank provides a brand name to any of its product and services. The presence of the logo and the brand name can ensure more sustainability to the business.
3. Documentation of the ideas and original content-The management of “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia” can easily document the ideas of the organization. The presence of detailed proof on the uniqueness of the organization can help gain the recognition for the creation of the particular idea.
4. Registration of the Intellectual Property and trade secrets-Apart from the registration of the trademarks it is essential to register the details of the intellectual property that is owned by the business organization. The registration of the intellectual property is essential for the business to identify and distinguish the original ideas from the fake ones.  The completion of an IP audit is essential for the bank to have a proper IP portfolio.
5. Investment on the property-The security of the intellectual rights owned by The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will require a proper investment (Mbama and Ezepue 2018). The presence of quality investment will help to build and secure the Intellectual Property portfolio.

The planning and the needs analysis is the most important task that will be assigned to the management of the organization for training the employees on the lines of the organizational needs in the Gamification process. Mbama and Ezepue (2018) has explained that Self Monitoring, personal goal setting and coaching along with proper educational and social support are the strategies that help the employees of the organizations to gain a stronghold on the gamification process. The designing of the coaching program for the Gamification process will consists of a number of steps. They are as follows;

1. Selection of the employees-The selection of the employees must be done according to the qualifications and performance in the bank.
2. Defining them the purpose- The purpose of the inclusion of the Gamification process must be explained to the selected employees. The additional features of the new system which makes the task of the employees easy will also be explained to them.
3. Providing the necessary theoretical resources-The theoretical resources must be provided along with the coaching on the theoretical perspectives of the gamification process.
4. Giving a practical example-The providence of a practical example is important as because the practical use of the gamification process must be displayed in original to the selected employees.
5. Providing a time span-A time span for the adaption of the process must be provided to the employees to help them get used to the new system and serve the customers in a better manner.
6. Testing the skills-The last step in the coaching process will involve a theoretical as well as a practical test which will be necessary to test the capability of the employees to perform with the digital solution of gamification. 

According to, Parise Guinan and Kafka (2016) the digital trend of Gamification that can be applied by the management of “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia” is important for the success of the business organization. Different kinds of the organizations especially the financial firms like banks and other financial institutions are looking forward to adding the Gamification process to their business structure. According to the information team of Commonwealth Bank, demographic data shows that more than 50% of the gamers are between the ages of 18 to 49 years and most of the people belonging to this particular category opt for playing games on their respective smart phones. The following trend is actually considered to be the future of the financial industry (commbank.com.au 2019). Hence, this represents an appreciable market opportunity for “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia” to offer enhanced customer engagement by educating them on banking, payments, investment planning, and insurance, among others. The gamification wave has given birth to different kinds of innovative products that have helped the business organizations to engage more with the users of the business applications related to the Gamification process. Commonwealth bank of Australia has introduced Investorville (commbank.com.au 2019). The following gamification application allows the business organization to provide the users with insights from simulations of their buying behavior for different kinds of real estate properties.

Importance of social media in the workplace

Gamification is the digital technology or mechanism that chooses to engage and motivate the customers to perform specified activities to change the behavior of the targeted group of individuals. The installation of the gamification technology within the system of the bank can ensure;

• Boost in the amount of deposits
• Installation of the saving habits among the customers and foster the habit of money savings
• Identification and gathering different insights of data about the current group of the customers
• Increase the awareness of the customers on different kinds of new products and services
• Simplify the perception of different kinds of complex products of banking
• Increase in the financial literacy among the customers

  The gamification is the best possible digital strategy to be implemented in the business as because it helps to keep updated and accurate customer profiles in banking. CRM is a dream for any marketing and sales manager as because the quality of data in a Customer Relationship Management system directly affects the quality of the work (Pick, J.B. and Nishida, T., 2015). On the other hand, the maintenance of a proper and effective CRM process is one of the most challenging tasks that requires the bank to revise and update the profiles of the bank regularly.  The example of US based PNC Bank can further help to identify the importance of the Gamification Process. The US-based PNC bank has a total asset of more than $350 million. The gamification software installed in the process was named Punch the Pig Game. With Virtual Wallet, customers are able to share funds between accounts depending on the purpose, be it a regular spending (for example, bill payments), short-term savings or long-term investments. The Wallet’s Money Bar feature allows tracking reserved and free to spend funds. To activate the money-saving mindset, the bank introduced a nifty gamified feature called “Punch the Pig”. When someone is banking online, a piggy bank appears on the screen, allowing customers to transfer a certain sum from their checking to savings account. 

References

Baptista, G. and Oliveira, T., 2017. Why so serious? Gamification impact in the acceptance of mobile banking services. Internet Research, 27(1), pp.118-139.

Commbank.com.au. (2019). Personal banking including accounts, credit cards and home loans – CommBank. [online] Available at: https://www.commbank.com.au/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019].

deCos, L., 2015. Opportunity for banks to utilize gamification as a tool to promote financial education to children.

Joshi, A., 2018. Digital technologies for enhancing Customer Experience. Sansmaran Research Journal, pp.1-8.

Lipton, A., Shrier, D. and Pentland, A., 2016. Digital banking manifesto: the end of banks?. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Madon, S. and Krishna, S., 2018. The Digital Challenge: Information Technology in the Development Context: Information Technology in the Development Context. Routledge.

Mbama, C.I. and Ezepue, P.O., 2018. Digital banking, customer experience and bank financial performance: UK customers’ perceptions. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 36(2), pp.230-255.

Parise, S., Guinan, P.J. and Kafka, R., 2016. Solving the crisis of immediacy: How digital technology can transform the customer experience. Business Horizons, 59(4), pp.411-420.

Pick, J.B. and Nishida, T., 2015. Digital divides in the world and its regions: A spatial and multivariate analysis of technological utilization. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 91, pp.1-17.

Sironi, P., 2016. FinTech innovation: from robo-advisors to goal based investing and gamification. John Wiley & Sons.

Williamson, B., 2016. Digital education governance: data visualization, predictive analytics, and ‘real-time’policy instruments. Journal of Education Policy, 31(2), pp.123-141.