Sam is a dedicated digital rights activist, privacy advocate and writer who regularly contributes to public debate on technology, power and human rights. She is currently undertaking a PhD at Monash University, researching the impact of emerging technologies on housing justice in Australia.
Whether you’re stringing up Christmas lights, getting out the Menorah, or just enjoying the end of the rollercoaster of a year that was 2020, just about everyone will partake in a bit of capitalist indulgence in December—that’s right, the season of shopping!
Digital Rights Watch has provided a submission to the Attorney-General’s review of the Privacy Act 1988. To understand our stance on the Australian privacy landscape and the rationale behind our submission, check out this blog post.
When you look around the world, Australia stands out as somewhat unique when it comes to privacy. Why? Unlike most “western” democracies, it lacks a federal recognition of the right to privacy.
The introduction of the metadata retention regime way back in 2016 was one of the catalysts for creating Digital Rights Watch. Mandatory metadata retention, for access by a list of agencies that could grow at the whim of the Attorney General, seemed like a bad idea to a lot of people. Turns out now a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee has accepted that this needs to change.
As lockdown restrictions continue to ease, we are seeing increased use of technology with the goal of keeping track of who is coming and going from venues and small businesses.
At Digital Rights Watch we strongly believe that the first actionable outcome of the extensive ACCC Digital Platforms inquiry must focus on updating the Australian privacy (and data protection) framework.