Using DPUP benefits agencies and people

When an agency adopts DPUP, the people who use the agency’s services benefit by:

• knowing what they can expect from the agency
• knowing their information will be treated respectfully
• understanding and trusting why and how their information might be used
• being better placed to act on their rights to access and request changes to their information.

All agencies benefit from adopting DPUP by:

• developing a richer understanding of their obligations to the people who use their services
• supporting transparent and ethical use of data.

Public sector agencies benefit from adopting DPUP by:

• increasing public trust and confidence
• increasing their maturity level as measured by the Government Chief Privacy Officer’s (GCPO’s) Privacy and Maturity Assessment Framework
• aligning with the Public Service Code of Conduct.

Gaining buy-in for a privacy programme 

Public Service Code of Conduct — Public Service Commission

Creating a trust cycle

Agencies that collect, share and use information in a respectful and transparent manner create a cycle of trust between themselves and the people who use their services. By better understanding when and how people’s information might be used, agencies can:

• increase the accuracy, relevance and value of people’s information to communities
• build trust that the agency values respectful and transparent use of people’s information.

Using DPUP benefits specific roles

Ensuring good practice when collecting and using people’s information is not just for privacy officers, it’s a collective responsibility.

DPUP was developed for government agencies, non-governmental agencies and other service providers that collect people’s information, use it in their work, or define or design new services or contracts that rely on it to enhance people’s wellbeing.

It’s good practice to use DPUP if you:

• work in the front line — for example, case managers, call centre operators
• manage or lead frontline workers — for example, team leaders, people leaders
• work in funding, contracting and partnering — for example, business advisors, relationship managers
• develop policies, services and programmes — for example, solution architects, policy analysts, service designers
• work in analysis, research and evaluation — for example, data scientists, business analysts.

Use DPUP in your work

Agency responsibility

What role leadership plays

An agency’s leadership also has a crucial role in building and maintaining public trust. This depends in part on ensuring that people know their personal information is used in a respectful, transparent and trusted way.

Leadership’s role is to focus on the connection between a people-centred approach to privacy, and the positive effect on public trust and service quality.

If leadership champions the views of the people and communities they serve, this enables the teams working with people’s information to understand and to do the right thing when collecting or using it.

In its Privacy Maturity Assessment Framework (PMAF), the GCPO provided agencies with core expectations about good practice for privacy management and governance. This also describes the leadership contribution, the critical importance of collective responsibility, and other features of good privacy maturity.

Core expectations