Digital Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide comment to the committee’s inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres.
The exposure draft of the Code is an extremely welcome development, and Digital Rights Watch is broadly supportive of this initiative. The development of the Code represents an important step forward for Australia’s privacy landscape, which otherwise lags behind many comparable jurisdictions. With many Australians expressing concerns about the dangers and problems of online environments, especially for young people, the draft Code represents a rights-respecting approach to addressing a range of these concerns.
Digital Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to submit comments to the Standing Committee on Petitions regarding the inquiry into the standing orders relating to petitions. Petitions are a key way for individual Australians to participate in democratic processes. It is essential that they remain accessible to all and do not pose a threat to the privacy of signatories.
If you’re not familiar with the surveillance giant Palantir, you should - because they already know plenty about you.
Primarily a defence contractor, Palantir Technologies specialises in data integration and surveillance analytics.
The Internet Search Engine Services Online Safety Code is another tranche of policy that bars young people accessing ‘harmful content’, this time through search engines. It is unlikely to succeed in its stated ambition of protecting children, and will definitely cause harmful side-effects.
Australians’ right to protest is eroded daily. Behind the scenes, digital surveillance is assisting this erosion, and AI has the potential to accelerate the damage. This is made possible by Australia’s weak privacy laws.