How to opt-out of the federal medical database

By the end of 2018, a ‘My Health Record’ will be created for every Australian unless they choose not to have one. The three month opt-out period runs from 16 July (today) through to 15 October 2018.

A range of privacy concerns have been raised in relation to this system since it was first proposed years ago. Despite this, no guarantees have being given that individual citizen’s personal information will be kept safe and secure.

Health information is incredibly attractive to scammers and criminal groups. By creating such a massive database of Australian’s personal, private health information is highly likely to become a target in the future

From today, you can choose whether or not you will be included in the largest mandatory medical database in Australian history. Given this government’s track record on failing to protect privacy when in comes to personal information, we’re encouraging you to consider opting out.

Here’s how you can opt-out of this massive database:

  • Step 1 – get your Medicare and Drivers Licence numbers handy
  • Step 2 – go to the My Health Record Opt-Out website
  • Step 3 – fill out the details to ensure you are not part of the system when it goes nation-wide later this year

We should all be able to have faith in government agencies to properly protect our personal data, but unfortunately the track record doesn’t give us much faith. This ranges from the decision to retain identifiable data in the 2016 national census, the Centrelink robo-debt debacle and the mandatory metadata retention scheme. This government seems hell-bent on building a comprehensive, invasive digital profile of each and every citizen, despite repeated concerns around privacy protection.

Remember, you have until 15 October 2018 to opt-out, otherwise a record will be created for you.