last updated Dec 21st 2011
Disclaimer
This is not a legal document. It is a set of recommended guidelines made available to organisations to assist them when collecting information from an individual covering sex, gender, title and name. It is up to the organisation to verify any legal interpretations when drawing conclusions within this document about dealing with this data.
Justification for some of the conclusions drawn come from reviewing the Australian Privacy Act (see http://www.privacy.gov.au/law/act) and the Australian Sex Discrimination Act of 1984.
Introduction
Organisations dealing with individuals (customers) frequently request information from that customer to assist with their business process. A bank requires information to establish the correct identity to prevent fraud. An on-line shop requires information to ship products to the correct location. A government department needs information to distribute welfare payments to the correct individuals. A publisher needs information to establish a legal contract with an author.
Over time, most organisations have accepted the need to store name, sex and address of any individual without considering the implications of storing that data. Like the year 2000 date issue, a number of computer systems are not designed to deal with data covering sex, gender and title, and this has resulted in rigid computer systems causing discrimination (which can be classed as procedural discrimination). This has become most noticeable for those who are SGD (see definition below). This issue is not just limited to this group, but impacts all individuals.
This paper provides technical guidelines for organisations to deal with data relating to the sex, gender and title of any individual.
Purpose
To clearly define technically (for computer systems) sex, gender and title. It is anticipated that any organisation can use this document to identify computer systems that do not conform to the guidelines and make corrective steps to adjust those computer systems. In most cases these guidelines simplify the management and will ultimately ensure the accuracy of the data collected. It will also result in cost savings as staff will not be required to deal with customers impacted by any discriminatory procedures.
History
Organisations because of historical cultural reasons might have unwittingly and unintentionally implemented within computer systems they control, procedural discrimination based on sex and gender. It is within any organisations best interest to do their best to remove such discrimination. Being able to conform to a set of internationally recognised standards, organisations will be in a better position to respectfully handle customer data.
Please email comments to : sgtn.datatypes@gmail.com