In early September it was reported that a high school in Sydney was scanning kids’ fingerprints to access the bathroom.
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Digital Rights Watch is an Australian organisation that advocates for privacy, democracy, fairness and freedom in a digital age. We take a human rights approach to digital policy.
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Last week Optus announced what may be the largest data breach in Australian history, potentially exposing the personal information of almost 10 million people. Current and former Optus customers are at risk of their name, date of birth, phone number, email and physical address, passport number and drivers’ licence numbers becoming compromised.
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Concern about disinformation is higher than ever, especially as Australia faces an election. The allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election represented a watershed moment when it came to understanding the potential for disinformation campaigns to be waged on social media. COVID and vaccine disinformation has further increased attention on the issue and the pressure on the social media platforms to address it.
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It is no surprise that Big Tech has become deeply unpopular. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Facebook Papers to the dark side of TikTok and Google misleading people; the public is becoming increasingly aware of the invasive data collection, exploitative practices and harmful business models of the social media platforms that have come to dominate our lives.
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It is with great sadness that we hear of the closure of Switter – a sex work friendly social media platform – in response to an increasingly hostile regulatory environment that has eroded sex workers’ rights online over the last several years.
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