[LINK] Govt toughens access card privacy protections

[Roger Clarke]

At 9:25 +1000 22/6/07, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/22/1958716.htm?section=justin
>The Federal Government says it has toughened privacy protections in 
>the latest draft of legislation to introduce an access card for 
>health and welfare services.

For the record, the APF's first pass over this suggests that nothing 
of any consequence has been changed, that the Government has ignored 
the mass of material from many organisations (including Privacy 
Commissioners), that the Government is offering 'briefings', but not 
'consultations', and that the Government has no intention of 
listening to anyone or changing anything about the proposal.

In short, the Government is hell-bent on wasting vast sums of 
taxpayer's money on a scheme that will fail;  and that would be 
vastly and unjustifiably privacy-invasive if it worked.

(*Or* the Government doesn't want it to be seen that it's going to 
quietly slide away from this daft remnant of the Hockey era, and will 
revert to a more sensible Medicare-Card-replacement scheme if they 
win the election).


>The option to include medical history and other personal information 
>in the microchip has been scrapped, but the Government still wants a 
>photo and digital signature on the surface of the card.
>
>The introduction of the card has been delayed, with the Government 
>overhauling the legislation after a Senate inquiry.
>
>Human Services Minister Chris Ellison says many concerns raised 
>during consultation with industry and community groups have been 
>addressed in the new legislation.
>
>"Importantly, we've extended our offence provisions which cover a 
>range of offences ranging from infringements right through to 10 
>years maximum imprisonment for someone who steals a person's 
>identity using an access card, so what we have now is a 
>comprehensive package," Mr Ellison said.
>
>But the Federal Opposition says the latest draft does not address 
>key concerns about the smartcard.
>
>"We've said all along that the face of the card contains too much 
>information and because of the amount of information and the type of 
>information on the card that this is a defacto national ID card," 
>Labor's Tanya Plibersek said.
>
>"Those concerns haven't been addressed in this exposure draft."
>
>--
>Howard.
>LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannetlinux.com>
>When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
>When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
>--
>Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian states.
>
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW