Hi friend!
There’s never a dull moment in the fight for digital rights!
Here’s your (inaugural) monthly Digital Rights Watch update, with an overview of recent digital rights issues to make sure you’re the best informed for that fancy-dress dinner party (or zoom?) discussion, as well as some updates on what our team has been busy doing.
Facial recognition technology is being deployed across Australia. Local governments, corporations large and small, federal and state government departments and law enforcement agencies are rolling out these surveillance systems, all without you getting a say or perhaps even noticing. Numerous investigations have shown that the technology can be dangerously inaccurate, racially biased, and frequently misused. In at least one case, it has led to false accusation and imprisonment. Some of the biggest tech companies in the world have recognised the danger of this technology. In 2020, Google, Microsoft and IBM either withdrew their technologies from sale or ceased working on the technology altogether.
When you visit a campsite, we all know the right thing to do is to leave it better than we found it.
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE DIGITAL RIGHTS WATCH HUMAN RIGHTS LAW CENTRE CENTRE FOR RESPONSIBLE TECHNOLOGY
An alliance of digital rights groups urged the Morrison Government to fill in obvious gaps in the development of the tracing technology to give it its best chance of winning public trust.
Choosing Amazon Web Services to host the covid-19 contact tracing app data risks exposing private information about Australians to US law enforcement, Digital Rights Watch Chair Lizzie O’Shea.
last updated on May 10th prior to legislation being tabled previously updated on April 26th after the Government launched the app, and April 29th after comments from Stephen Conroy